Country-wide policy
A tourism law repealed the residence law for retirees, and three instruments have not caught up
On 2 August 2024 the General Tourism Law repealed six instruments, and the fourth of them was Ley 694, the statute that created the pensioned-resident and income-resident categories and the tax concessions attached to them. Nothing replaced it. The migration law and its regulation still name the categories, because the migration law's consolidated text was closed in February 2023, and the National Assembly's own page still serves the full repealed text with the repeal noted only at the foot. The practical effect runs wider than two residence routes: it reaches the household-goods franchise, the vehicle tax exemption and the building-materials concession, all of which lived in the repealed law.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- Treat any figure quoted for the Nicaraguan pensionado or rentista route as a statement about a law that is no longer in force
- Read the National Assembly's page for Ley 694 as a historical text; the repeal note is at the foot, below the whole statute
- Expect the migration law and its regulation to continue naming the categories, and the regulation to continue requiring an INTUR committee resolution for them
At a glance
- Repealing instrument
- Ley 1210, Ley General de Turismo, art. 38
- In force from
- Its publication in La Gaceta, August 2024
- Replacement
- None in the tourism law or its regulation
- Instruments still naming the categories
- The migration law, its regulation, and the assembly's own page
What the law says
«La presente Ley deroga las siguientes disposiciones:»Our translation - not official
This Law repeals the following provisions:
Six numerals follow: the law creating INTUR, the tourism-industry incentives law, the former general tourism law, Ley 694, the sustainable rural tourism law and the marinas law.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's legal-information service. Under the Digesto Jurídico laws it publishes a consolidated text subject by subject, each approved on a date and gazetted afterwards, together with the integral texts of the Constitution and of the regional customs instruments as Nicaragua gazetted them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text's cut-off date is a hard edge and the page carries no warning that anything has happened since: the migration law's text was closed on 28 February 2023 and still defines a residence category by reference to a statute repealed in August 2024. It must never be cited as evidence that a statute is in force - it serves a repealed law in full with the repeal as a single line at the foot, which is why that route is still sold everywhere. It must not be cited for any amount set in a table, because those are published as images. And where one instrument has two addresses, as the Constitution does, the superseded consolidation stays live with different article numbers.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«La Ley N°. 1210, Ley General de Turismo, publicada en La Gaceta Diario Oficial N°. 141, del 2 de agosto del 2024, deja sin vigencia a la Ley Nº. 694, Ley de Promoción de Ingreso de Residentes Pensionados y Residentes Rentistas y su texto consolidado.»Our translation - not official
Law No. 1210, the General Tourism Law, published in La Gaceta, Diario Oficial No. 141 of 2 August 2024, deprives Law No. 694 and its consolidated text of force.
One line at the foot of a page that publishes the whole repealed statute above it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's legal-information service. Under the Digesto Jurídico laws it publishes a consolidated text subject by subject, each approved on a date and gazetted afterwards, together with the integral texts of the Constitution and of the regional customs instruments as Nicaragua gazetted them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text's cut-off date is a hard edge and the page carries no warning that anything has happened since: the migration law's text was closed on 28 February 2023 and still defines a residence category by reference to a statute repealed in August 2024. It must never be cited as evidence that a statute is in force - it serves a repealed law in full with the repeal as a single line at the foot, which is why that route is still sold everywhere. It must not be cited for any amount set in a table, because those are published as images. And where one instrument has two addresses, as the Constitution does, the superseded consolidation stays live with different article numbers.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«Residente pensionado o Residente rentista es aquella persona que demuestra un ingreso económico, estable y permanente proveniente del exterior conforme se establece en la Ley N°. 694, Ley de Promoción de Ingreso de Residentes Pensionados y Residentes Rentistas.»Our translation - not official
A pensioned resident or income resident is a person who demonstrates a stable and permanent economic income coming from abroad, as established in Law No. 694.
A definition by reference to a statute that no longer exists.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The legislature's legal-information service. Under the Digesto Jurídico laws it publishes a consolidated text subject by subject, each approved on a date and gazetted afterwards, together with the integral texts of the Constitution and of the regional customs instruments as Nicaragua gazetted them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text's cut-off date is a hard edge and the page carries no warning that anything has happened since: the migration law's text was closed on 28 February 2023 and still defines a residence category by reference to a statute repealed in August 2024. It must never be cited as evidence that a statute is in force - it serves a repealed law in full with the repeal as a single line at the foot, which is why that route is still sold everywhere. It must not be cited for any amount set in a table, because those are published as images. And where one instrument has two addresses, as the Constitution does, the superseded consolidation stays live with different article numbers.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The repeal was found on the National Assembly's own observation and confirmed against article 38 of the tourism law in the stored reading. The tourism law and its October 2024 regulation were both searched for pensionado and rentista: the only occurrence in either is the repeal line.
The position of anyone granted a pensionado or rentista residence before August 2024 was not researched. The repealing law contains no transitional provision naming Ley 694 beneficiaries; its only transitional clause preserves tourism-industry tax incentives granted under a different statute.