Country-wide policy
How Long You Can Be Away Before Paraguay Takes the Residency Back
Two different clocks, one of them made by the migration directorate rather than by the law. Permanent residency is lost after more than three years of unjustified absence, which is in the migration law itself. Temporary residency is cancelled after more than one year of absence without authorisation, which is not in the law at all: it comes from a 2026 directorate resolution that also sets up a procedure for asking permission to be away for longer. Cancellation is checked twice a year against the entry and exit register, and the directorate notifies the police, the Supreme Court and the revenue authority when it happens.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency through work
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through marriage
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
What it requires
- Not being absent for more than one year while holding temporary residency, without an authorisation granted by resolution
- Not being absent for more than three years while holding permanent residency, without an authorisation
- Applying for an authorisation of absence before the legal period runs out, with proof of ties to the country
- Leaving within thirty days of cancellation, or applying for a residency again
At a glance
- Absence that cancels temporary residency
- More than 1 year
Set by Resolución DNM N° 376/2026; the migration law sets no absence rule for temporary residency
- Absence that cancels permanent residency
- More than 3 years
Article 54 of Ley 6984
- How often the register is checked
- Every six months
- Status after cancellation
- Visitor, with 30 days to leave or apply again
Article 4 of the annex to Resolución D.N.M. N° 376/2026, which gives a maximum of thirty days from cancellation and allows a fresh residency application instead of departure.
- Recovering permanent residency
- Within 3 years of cancellation
By applying for spontaneous residency, staying in the country for its duration, and then applying at the central office
- Who is told
- Police identification department, Supreme Court and the revenue authority
- Loss of naturalised nationality
- 3 years of unjustified absence, declared judicially
Continuous absence, not a presence quota
The rules here count an unbroken period out of the country, not the proportion of the year you spend in it. Someone who spends eleven months abroad every year for a decade never triggers either clock, provided they come back. Someone who leaves for thirteen months once, on temporary residency, does. That distinction is worth holding on to because several countries in the region do the opposite and require a minimum presence.
The one-year rule is administrative, and it is new
Ley 6984 says nothing about absence from temporary residency. Resolución DNM 376/2026 fills the gap with a one-year rule, a twice-yearly check against the movement register, and a procedure for asking permission to be away for longer, which requires proving ties to the country. Because it is a resolution rather than a law, it is the kind of rule that can change without anything happening in the gazette, and it is worth re-reading before relying on it.
Cancellation is a notified event
When the directorate cancels a residency it notifies the holder electronically and then tells the police identification department, the Supreme Court and the revenue authority. That last one matters for anyone whose tax position depends on holding permanent residency, since the tax definition of an individual resident is exactly that status.
What the law says
«Los admitidos con Residencia Permanente perderán esta calidad si se ausentaren del territorio nacional por más de 3 (tres) años sin justificar su ausencia ante la Dirección Nacional»Our translation - not official
Those admitted with Permanent Residency shall lose that status if they are absent from the national territory for more than 3 (three) years without justifying their absence before the National Directorate
The article continues that the period may be extended by resolution in cases determined by regulation, and that someone who loses the status this way may recover it by proving again that they meet the legal requirements. Note the shape of the rule: it is continuous absence, not a presence quota. Two separate absences of two years each do not trigger it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Administers residency under Ley 6984/2022 and issues its own resolutions under arts. 78, 79 and 82. Publishes the law as a PDF booklet, per-route requirement pages, the migration fee schedule and a resolutions index.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the gazette: it reproduces Ley 6984 but did not make it. Its requirement pages restate the law and sometimes diverge from it - art. 100's fee figures against the schedule in force is the live example, and the schedule wins. Cannot be cited for the SUACE investor threshold, which is the industry ministry's, nor for the tax consequences of a migration status. The law booklet is a justified-column PDF, so extracted text breaks words across lines.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«que el extranjero con residencia temporal haya salido del país y no haya reingresado por el periodo de tiempo de más de 1 (un) año, sin mediar autorización otorgada por Resolución, se procederá a la CANCELACIÓN DE SU RESIDENCIA VIGENTE»Our translation - not official
where the foreigner holding temporary residency has left the country and has not re-entered for a period of more than 1 (one) year, without an authorisation granted by Resolution, their current residency will be cancelled
There is no counterpart to this in Ley 6984, which addresses absence only for permanent residency. The one-year rule is the directorate's own and is enforced by a six-monthly review of the migration movement register.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Administers residency under Ley 6984/2022 and issues its own resolutions under arts. 78, 79 and 82. Publishes the law as a PDF booklet, per-route requirement pages, the migration fee schedule and a resolutions index.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the gazette: it reproduces Ley 6984 but did not make it. Its requirement pages restate the law and sometimes diverge from it - art. 100's fee figures against the schedule in force is the live example, and the schedule wins. Cannot be cited for the SUACE investor threshold, which is the industry ministry's, nor for the tax consequences of a migration status. The law booklet is a justified-column PDF, so extracted text breaks words across lines.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«Una vez cancelada la residencia del extranjero, se lo considera dentro del estatus de estadia transitoria - turista, por lo que deberá abandonar el país en el plazo máximo de 30 (treinta) días, o solicitar nuevamente algún tipo de residencia.»Our translation - not official
Once the foreigner's residency has been cancelled, they are regarded as being in transitory stay - tourist - status, and must therefore leave the country within a maximum of 30 (thirty) days, or apply again for some form of residency.
Cancellation does not make the person irregular on the spot; it drops them back to visitor status with a month to act.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Administers residency under Ley 6984/2022 and issues its own resolutions under arts. 78, 79 and 82. Publishes the law as a PDF booklet, per-route requirement pages, the migration fee schedule and a resolutions index.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the gazette: it reproduces Ley 6984 but did not make it. Its requirement pages restate the law and sometimes diverge from it - art. 100's fee figures against the schedule in force is the live example, and the schedule wins. Cannot be cited for the SUACE investor threshold, which is the industry ministry's, nor for the tax consequences of a migration status. The law booklet is a justified-column PDF, so extracted text breaks words across lines.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«podrá recuperarla si lo solicita dentro de los 3 (tres) años siguientes a su cancelación. Deberá solicitar Residencia espontánea u ocasional y permanecer en el país durante la vigencia de la misma.»Our translation - not official
may recover it if they apply within the 3 (three) years following its cancellation. They must apply for spontaneous or occasional residency and remain in the country for its duration.
The recovery route keeps the same identity number. Spontaneous residency runs up to ninety days, so recovering permanent residency means spending that period in the country before applying.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Administers residency under Ley 6984/2022 and issues its own resolutions under arts. 78, 79 and 82. Publishes the law as a PDF booklet, per-route requirement pages, the migration fee schedule and a resolutions index.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the gazette: it reproduces Ley 6984 but did not make it. Its requirement pages restate the law and sometimes diverge from it - art. 100's fee figures against the schedule in force is the live example, and the schedule wins. Cannot be cited for the SUACE investor threshold, which is the industry ministry's, nor for the tax consequences of a migration status. The law booklet is a justified-column PDF, so extracted text breaks words across lines.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«Los paraguayos naturalizados pierden la nacionalidad en virtud de ausencia injustificada de la República por más de tres años, declarada judicialmente, o por la adquisición voluntaria de otra nacionalidad.»Our translation - not official
Naturalised Paraguayans lose their nationality by reason of unjustified absence from the Republic for more than three years, declared judicially, or by the voluntary acquisition of another nationality.
The three-year absence rule follows you past naturalisation, with the difference that a court has to declare it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state's unified public information portal, which hosts scanned official publications including the Constitution.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A scan, and its OCR drops letters inside the naturalisation article itself - it renders 'mayoría' as 'mayorla'. Quote only lines that render cleanly and record that the source is an OCR scan. Not a consolidator of ordinary legislation.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
Practical notes
A temporary residency that has been cancelled cannot be extended: the directorate says the holder must start a fresh temporary residency application under article 50 of the law.
An application for an extension of the temporary residency filed within the regulatory period can take a case off the cancellation list, which is the directorate's own statement of how the review works.
An authorisation of absence has to be applied for before the legal absence period has run out. Applying afterwards is refused and the residency is cancelled.
Resolución DNM N° 376/2026 replaced Resolución DNM N° 018/2023 and its amendment, so guidance describing the earlier procedure is out of date.