Country-wide policy
How Leaving Peru Ends Your Residency
Every Peruvian residence status, including the indefinite ones, is lost by a long enough absence - and the test is continuous absence, not a quota of days you must spend here. More than 183 consecutive days out of the country in a 365-day period, counted from your first departure, ends the status. There is a permit that suspends the rule, and it has to be applied for before the 183 days are up, which is the part that is usually discovered too late.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency as a student
- Residency through investment
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- A resident loses the status by being absent more than 183 consecutive days in a 365-day period counted from the first departure
- A resident also loses it by being absent more than 365 consecutive days in a two-year period counted from the first departure
- An authorisation to stay abroad suspends the rule: 183 days for residents, 365 days for permanent residents, and 30 days for anyone with a change or extension of status in progress
- The authorisation must be applied for before the relevant period is up - before the 183 days for a resident, before the 365 days for a permanent resident, and before departure where a status change is pending
- Only emergency or force majeure grounds are accepted for the resident and permanent resident versions
- The fee is S/ 30.20 and Migraciones answers within 30 working days
- If your residence expires while you are abroad, you may still be admitted with the expired status provided the absence has not passed 183 calendar days or you hold the authorisation
At a glance
- Absence that ends a residence status
- More than 183 consecutive days in 365
Article 63 of the regulation, which writes the window as trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días counted from your first departure.
- Second limb
- More than 365 consecutive days in two years
Article 63 again: more than three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days within a two-year window, a separate test from the first.
- Counted from
- Your first departure from the territory
- Authorisation to stay abroad - resident
- 183 calendar days
- Authorisation to stay abroad - permanent resident
- 365 calendar days
Article 67.2.c of the regulation, which grants the permanent resident a year where an ordinary resident gets 183 days.
- Authorisation while a status change is pending
- 30 calendar days, applied for before leaving
- Fee
- S/ 30.20
Charged by Migraciones for the authorisation itself, under code 07562.
- Test type
- Continuous absence, not a presence quota
Continuous absence, not a residence quota
Two rules that sound alike behave completely differently. 'You must be in the country six months out of twelve' is a presence quota: two five-month trips away break it. 'The status is cancelled by six consecutive months away' is a continuous-absence rule: the same two trips are fine. Peru has the second kind, with a second limb catching cumulative patterns over two years. Read the wrong one and you will either cancel trips you did not need to cancel, or lose the status believing you were safely inside the rule.
It applies to the indefinite statuses too
The rentista status and the permanent status both carry an indefinite period of stay, which reads like something that cannot lapse. It can. Article 63 is written about residents generally, and the permit that suspends it is the same instrument with a longer allowance for permanent residents - 365 days instead of 183. Naturalisation depends on this too: Migraciones points applicants at article 63 when it says the two years of residence must be consecutive.
What the law says
«a) Por más de 183 días consecutivos en un plazo de trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días, contados desde la primera salida del territorio.»Our translation - not official
a) For more than 183 consecutive days within a period of three hundred and sixty-five (365) days, counted from the first departure from the territory.
'Consecutivos' decides the shape of the rule. Two separate five-month trips do not end the status; one six-month trip does. That is the opposite arithmetic from a rule requiring you to be present for half the year.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«b) Por más de trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días consecutivos en un plazo de dos (02) años, contados desde la primera salida del territorio.»Our translation - not official
b) For more than three hundred and sixty-five (365) consecutive days within a period of two (02) years, counted from the first departure from the territory.
The second limb catches a pattern the first misses: repeated absences that each stay under six months but add up over two years.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«A personas extranjeras con calidad migratoria de Residentes que por motivos de emergencia o de fuerza mayor, deben permanecer fuera del país por más de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días calendarios consecutivos. Esta autorización permitirá la estadía fuera del territorio por un plazo de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días calendario.»Our translation - not official
To foreign persons holding Resident migration status who, for reasons of emergency or force majeure, must remain outside the country for more than one hundred and eighty-three (183) consecutive calendar days. This authorisation permits a stay outside the territory for a period of one hundred and eighty-three (183) calendar days.
The grounds are narrow - emergency or force majeure - so this is not a travel permit for convenience. Permanent residents get a parallel 365-day version under the following sub-paragraph.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«en el supuesto b), hasta antes de cumplirse los ciento ochenta y tres (183) días; y, en el supuesto c), hasta antes de cumplirse los trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días de haber salido del país.»Our translation - not official
in case (b), up to before the one hundred and eighty-three (183) days are completed; and, in case (c), up to before the three hundred and sixty-five (365) days since leaving the country are completed.
The deadline is the same number as the limit, so the permit has to be obtained while you are still inside the allowance. Applying after the 183 days have run is applying after the status has gone.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«MIGRACIONES autoriza el ingreso con la calidad migratoria de residente vencida, siempre que no exceda de 183 días naturales fuera del territorio nacional o en su defecto cuente con la Autorización de estadía fuera del país.»Our translation - not official
MIGRACIONES authorises entry with an expired resident migration status, provided the absence does not exceed 183 calendar days outside the national territory or, failing that, the Authorisation to stay abroad is held.
A separate and more forgiving rule: an expired card is not by itself a bar to re-entry if you are inside the 183 days. Beyond that, the resident has to apply for the status again from scratch.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«a. A quienes se encuentren realizando un trámite de cambio o prórroga de calidad migratoria. Esta autorización permitirá la estadía fuera del territorio por un plazo de 30 días calendario.»Our translation - not official
a. To those who are in the middle of a change or extension of migration status. This authorisation permits a stay outside the territory for a period of 30 calendar days.
Thirty days, against the 183 and 365 of the other two limbs. Someone mid-application has far less room to leave than a settled resident.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«c. A personas extranjeras con calidad migratoria de Residentes Permanentes que por motivos de emergencia o de fuerza mayor, deben permanecer fuera del país por más de trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días calendarios consecutivos. Esta autorización permitirá la estadía fuera del territorio por un plazo de trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días calendarios.»Our translation - not official
c. To foreign persons with Permanent Resident status who, for reasons of emergency or force majeure, must remain outside the country for more than three hundred and sixty-five (365) consecutive calendar days. This authorisation permits a stay outside the territory for a period of three hundred and sixty-five (365) calendar days.
About this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Paga S/ 30.20 usando el **código 07562** a través de [Págalo.pe](https://pagalo.pe/) o en cualquier agencia del Banco de la Nación.»Our translation - not official
Pay S/ 30.20 using code 07562 through Págalo.pe or at any branch of the Banco de la Nación.
About this source
Grants and adjudicates migration status and naturalisation, and publishes the procedure pages with fees, channels and decision times.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the text of the law - its pages are the agency's restatement and routinely disagree with both the legislative decree and its regulation on tourist extensions and on family permit duration. It carries thresholds that exist nowhere else and therefore cannot be corroborated; treat those as claims by the agency. Its two pages on the same regional agreement give different nationality lists, so no single page is safe as the list.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The authorisation is applied for online through the Agencia Digital de Migraciones and requires a current carné de extranjería and a valid residence.
You must set out the emergency or force majeure grounds and attach documents supporting them; papers from abroad have to be authenticated by a Migraciones fedatario.
There is a third version of the same permit for people with a change or extension of status in progress, giving 30 days abroad and applied for before you leave.
Argentina and Uruguay both measure long absence differently, so a plan that works for one does not transfer - the comparison is worth making explicitly before booking a long trip.