CA-4
A movement bloc, and only that. Three agents read the instruments independently and all three landed on the same distinction, which is the one everything written about CA-4 gets wrong: there are **two** instruments and they are routinely conflated. Free movement of the four countries' own nationals rests on presidential agreements, incorporated into the Central American integration system in 1991 and extended from land to air travel by a vice-ministerial resolution in 1997. It lets a national of one member cross into another without a passport. It is not a ratified treaty and no single text states it in full. The **Visa Única Centroamericana**, the treaty of 30 June 2005 that most people mean when they say CA-4, is a different thing entirely: it harmonises how the four treat **third-country nationals**, and its own article VII says the single visa carries no implied residence. The regional manual implementing it is addressed to non-nationals throughout - searched for the words for identity card and for nationals of the member states, it contains neither. So membership of this group means a person may move. It does not mean they may stay, work or settle: the manual forbids paid work to a visitor, and forbids it even to a resident of one member visiting another. Everything beyond movement is each country's own law, and the per-country records are where it is written. One set that is often mistaken for this one: the republics of the former Central American Federation, which several constitutions privilege for nationality purposes, **include Costa Rica** and are therefore a wider set than these four. Guatemala's migration code reaches wider still, saying simply `centroamericanos` subject to reciprocity.
Where it actually bites
Membership is one thing and what a destination does with it is another. These are the countries covered here that treat these nationalities differently, and on which question.
El Salvador- Becoming a citizen · Central Americans Become Salvadoran by Birth, Not by Naturalisation
- Residency through work · Central Americans Skip the Labour-Market Test
- Visiting as a tourist · CA-4 Nationals: an Identity Card Instead of a Passport
Guatemala- Residency through work · The Ninety Per Cent Workforce Rule Can Be Relaxed for Central Americans
- Visiting as a tourist · No Passport Needed: the Identity Card Is Enough
Nicaragua- Opening a bank account · Opening an Account on a CA-4 Identity Card
- Residency under a regional treaty · Applying for Residence on a CA-4 Identity Card
- Visiting as a tourist · Arriving from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras
- consolidatesConvenio Centroamericano de Libre Movilidad (CA-4) - OCAM, Secretaría General del SICA
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesResolución CA-4 de los Viceministros de Gobernación o del Interior
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesConvenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana, art. VII - quoted for what the group does NOT confer
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source