Country-wide policy
Honduran Migration Law Prices Everything in Dollars
The currency of Honduras is the lempira, and almost nothing in its migration law is stated in lempiras. The income thresholds are in United States dollars, the investment threshold is in dollars, the guarantee deposit is in dollars, and the whole fee schedule of the regulation - residences, naturalisations, permits, passports, extensions, the land entry fee - is in dollars with a single lempira line at the end for certificates. The law allows payment in the equivalent in national currency, so the dollar is the unit of account rather than the means of payment. The practical effect is that these figures do not quietly erode with the exchange rate, which is why thresholds set in 2003 are still the thresholds today.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
- Opening a bank account
- Access to healthcare
- Driving and licence exchange
- Bringing your belongings
What it requires
- Thresholds and fees in the migration law and its regulation are stated in United States dollars
- The law allows the equivalent in national currency, so the dollar fixes the amount rather than the payment
- Fines are the exception: they are set as multiples of the minimum wage, with the services sector as the reference
- A figure quoted to you in lempiras is a conversion, and it should be checked against the dollar figure in the instrument
At a glance
- Unit of account in the migration law
- United States dollar
- National currency
- Lempira
- Fee schedule
- Stated in dollars
- Only lempira line in the schedule
- Certificates and attestations
- Fines
- Multiples of the minimum wage
- Rentista threshold unchanged since
- 2003
What the law says
«no menores de DOS MIL QUINIENTOS DÓLARES (USD $ 2,500.00) mensuales, moneda de los Estados Unidos de América o su equivalente en moneda nacional.»Our translation - not official
of not less than TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS (USD $ 2,500.00) a month, currency of the United States of America, or its equivalent in national currency.
The formula is the same in every threshold article: a dollar amount, then permission to pay the equivalent.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«1. Residencias para rentistas, pensionados e inversionistas $ 300.00»Our translation - not official
1. Residences for rentistas, pensioners and investors USD 300.00
Sixteen lines follow the same pattern, through residences, naturalisations, dispensations and the examination fee.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«21. Certificaciones, constancias o atestados»Our translation - not official
21. Certifications, certificates or attestations
The one line in the schedule priced in lempiras: L. 150.00. Everything above it is in dollars.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«Los extranjeros o nacionales según sea el caso, serán sancionados con multa de medio salario mínimo a tres salarios mínimos tomando como referencia el establecido para el sector de servicios»Our translation - not official
Foreigners or nationals, as the case may be, shall be sanctioned with a fine of half a minimum wage to three minimum wages, taking as the reference the one established for the services sector
Penalties are the exception to the dollar rule, and they move with the Honduran minimum wage rather than with the exchange rate.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
We do not publish any lempira equivalent of these figures. A derived number needs a source for the rate as well as for the amount, and converting a dollar threshold into lempiras here would produce a number that goes stale without anyone noticing.
No lempira figure is published for a fine either, because that would need the services-sector minimum wage, which we have not read.