Country-wide policy
The current text of a Nicaraguan law is whatever the Digesto last consolidated, and the consolidation date is the cut-off
Since the Digesto Jurídico laws of 2017 onwards, Nicaragua republishes its statutes as consolidated texts, subject by subject, each approved on a date and published in La Gaceta later. The consolidation date is a hard edge: everything enacted after it is simply not in the text, and the page gives no sign of what has happened since. The migration law's consolidated text was closed on 28 February 2023 and published on 18 January 2024, which is why it still defines the pensioner category by reference to a law repealed in August 2024. The same service carries superseded consolidations alongside current ones - the Constitution has a March 2024 consolidation and a February 2025 integral text at different addresses, with different article numbers for nationality.
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
- Access to healthcare
- Driving and licence exchange
- Bringing your belongings
What it requires
- Read the consolidation date at the head of any Nicaraguan consolidated text before relying on it
- Check for a later integral text or a later law at a different address on the same service
- Expect a consolidated text to be months or years behind, and to carry no warning that it is
- Expect a repealed statute to remain published in full, with the repeal noted at the foot
At a glance
- Migration law, consolidated to
- The end of February 2023
- And published in La Gaceta on
- January 2024
- Constitution, consolidated text
- Approved March 2024; nationality at art. 15 to art. 22
- Constitution, integral text
- Published February 2025; nationality at art. 22 to art. 25
- Laws folded into the migration consolidation
- Ley 1021, Ley 1033 and Ley 1115
What the law says
«El presente texto contiene incorporadas todas sus modificaciones consolidadas al 28 de febrero de 2023»Our translation - not official
This text has incorporated into it all its amendments consolidated to 28 February 2023
The sentence that sets the cut-off. Anything after that date is outside the text, with nothing on the page to say so.
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
«Publicado en La Gaceta, Diario Oficial N°. 09 del 18 de enero de 2024»Our translation - not official
Published in La Gaceta, Diario Oficial No. 09 of 18 January 2024
Nearly eleven months between the consolidation date and publication, during which the text was already behind.
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
«Publicado en La Gaceta, Diario Oficial N°. 32 del 18 de febrero de 2025»Our translation - not official
Published in La Gaceta, Diario Oficial No. 32 of 18 February 2025
The current constitutional text. The consolidated text of March 2024 remains published at its own address and has different article numbers for nationality.
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
«Ningún nacional puede ser privado de su nacionalidad. La calidad de nacional nicaragüense no se pierde por el hecho de adquirir otra nacionalidad.»Our translation - not official
No national may be deprived of their nationality. The status of Nicaraguan national is not lost by the fact of acquiring another nationality.
Quoted as an example of why the distinction matters: this sentence is still served, in full, at the older address, and its first half is not in the current text.
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
This is a description of how the National Assembly's legal-information service publishes, made from readings taken on 5 October 2026.
Every Nicaraguan instrument cited on this site is cited to a specific address on that service, and the consolidation or publication date is recorded in the source excerpt where the page carries one.
A repealed statute stays published in full with the repeal noted at the foot. Ley 694 is the case in point and is the reason its figures are still in circulation.