Residency under a regional treaty, country by country

Moving to Antigua and Barbuda Under the OECS or CARICOM

Three regional regimes are routinely run together and Antiguan law treats them as three. The OECS Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union is the strong one: section 21(1)(b) of the Immigration and Passport Act 2014 entitles a citizen of a Protocol Member State to enter and remain without any restriction or limitation as to time, and Schedule 1 Part C names seven of them. Ordinary OECS membership gets six months as of right under section 21(1)(a). CARICOM gets six months under section 22, from a Schedule that omits The Bahamas and Montserrat, and the skills regime that CARICOM's treaty actually created lives in a separate statute, the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act 1997. And the one thing none of them does in Antiguan law is lift the work permit: the Labour Code's exemption list, as we read it, does not reach an ordinary OECS or CARICOM national.

OECS Protocol: right conferred

Enter and remain without any restriction or limitation as to time

OECS Protocol Member States in Schedule 1 Part C

7, including Antigua and Barbuda

OECS member states in Schedule 1 Part B

6, and Montserrat is not among them

Ordinary OECS entry

6 months as of right

CARICOM entry

6 months

CARICOM states in Schedule 1 Part A

13, omitting The Bahamas and Montserrat

Work permit for an OECS or CARICOM national

Still required, on the Labour Code we read

CARICOM free movement under the Treaty

A goal, not an obligation of result

EU service providers

90 days to 3 years, by category

Mercosur Citizenship-Based Residency

By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: it is open only to nationals of Mercosur member and associated states. If that is you, the conditions are set out below - and they are notably lighter than any other route into Argentina.

Duration

Up to 2 years, renewable

Entries and exits

Multiple, unrestricted

Income test

None

Also open to

Naturalised citizens of those countries, after five years

Legal basis

Ley 25.871 art. 23(l), Decreto 616/2010, Disposicion 1.637/2022

Different by nationality: Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

CARICOM Movement into Barbados: the Skills Certificate, and the Protocol That Has No Statute

Barbados runs two things at once, and only one of them is in an Act. The statute is the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) Act, Chapter 186A, rewritten by the amending Act of 2020 which commenced on the day it was assented. Under it a skilled community national who presents a qualifying certificate issued by a competent authority or Minister of any Member State is admitted for six months and may work in those six months without a work permit. For an indefinite stay the Barbados Accreditation Council verifies the certificate with the authority that issued it, tells the Chief Immigration Officer, and the Chief Immigration Officer stamps the words indefinite entry in the passport. The other thing is enhanced cooperation in free movement with Belize, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, running since 1 October 2025. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked on its own page what laws govern free movement, lists four existing Acts and no new one. There is no Barbadian equivalent of Belize's Caribbean Community (Free Movement and Contingent Rights) Act 2026.

Period granted on entry with a qualifying certificate

6 months

Work permit during those six months

Not required

Who issues the certificate you present at the border

A competent authority or a competent Minister of any Member State - including your own

What Barbados does before indefinite entry

The Barbados Accreditation Council verifies the certificate with the authority that issued it

What indefinite entry looks like

The Chief Immigration Officer stamps the words indefinite entry in the passport

Fee for a Certificate of Recognition issued by the Council

$100.00

Fee for an application for indefinite stay

$200.00, plus $100.00 for verification of the qualifying certificate

Qualifying occupations after 2020

Graduates, holders of an associate degree, nurses, teachers, agricultural workers, artisans, household domestics, security guards, sports persons, media workers, artistes and musicians

Member States in the Second Schedule

Thirteen, including Barbados itself and all three enhanced cooperation partners

Act implementing the 2025 enhanced cooperation protocol

None found

Different by nationality: Belize · Dominica · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

CARICOM Free Movement into Belize

Belize is a CARICOM member and gives CARICOM free movement domestic effect through two separate statutes, which is why the answer depends on which passport you hold. The older one, the Caribbean Community (Free Movement of Skilled Persons) Act, Chapter 17:02, is the Skills Certificate regime: a national of a qualifying member state is admitted for six months on arrival, and if they hold a Skills Certificate issued by their own state they may apply within that six months for indefinite stay to work or be self-employed, decided in thirty working days. Once granted, they may not be restricted in movement, in acquiring property, or in working, in any way a Belizean would not be. The newer one covers Barbados, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is not about skills at all - it is full free movement, recorded separately.

Provisional entry on arrival

a period of six months

Decision on an application for indefinite stay

within thirty working days of submission

Qualifying states in Schedule II

Thirteen, before the 2026 deletions

Skills Certificate application fee in Belize

$225.00

Work permit needed once the Certificate is recognised

No

Who may hold a Skills Certificate

Graduates, artistes, musicians, media persons, sportspersons, non-graduate teachers and nurses, and artisans and household domestics with a Caribbean Vocational Qualification

Spouse and dependants

Admitted on the same terms, on proof of the relationship and a copy of the national's qualifying certificate

Different by nationality: Barbados · Dominica · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

Residency Under a Regional Treaty

Bolivia is in both South American blocs at once - a full member of the Andean Community and, since 2024, a full member of Mercosur - and it runs a separate residence route for each. Both give two years of temporary residence converting into permanent residence, and both cost 450 UFV at each stage, against 2510 UFV for ordinary permanent residence after three years. Which one is open to you depends on your nationality, and the lists are narrower than the phrase "Mercosur associated state" suggests: the migration directorate publishes the Mercosur route for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay only.

Blocs Bolivia belongs to

Andean Community and Mercosur, both as a full member

Temporary stage, either route

2 years

Permanent stage

Indefinite, applied for in the 90 days before the temporary permit expires

Fee at each stage

450 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Compared with the ordinary route

3 years and 2510 UFV for permanent residence

Income test at the temporary stage

None on either route

Mercosur route published for

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Andean route published for

Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

Different by nationality: Andean Community · Argentina · Chile · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Residency Under the Mercosur Residence Agreement

Brazil is one of the six states that signed the Mercosur Residence Agreement in Brasilia in 2002, and the agreement has bound Brazil since 28 July 2009. It gives a national of a party a two-year residence on documents alone - identity, birth certificate, police certificates and a fee - with no income test at that stage, and it works from inside Brazil whatever migratory status you arrived in, waiving the fines that would otherwise apply. Proof of lawful means of subsistence is asked for only at the second stage, when the two years are converted into permanent residence, and that application has to be made in the ninety days before the temporary permit expires. The agreement's own definition of a party is broader than the trade bloc's: it says a party is a member state or an associated country of Mercosur, so full membership is not the test.

Temporary residence

Up to two years

Income test at the temporary stage

None

Conversion to permanent residence

Applied for in the 90 days before expiry

Income test at the permanent stage

Lawful means of subsistence for the applicant and household

Naturalised nationals of a party

Qualify five years after naturalisation

Applying from inside Brazil

Allowed whatever status you entered on, and fines are waived

Signatories of the text Brazil promulgated

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile

In force for Brazil since

28 July 2009

Processing fee

R$ 168,13

Residence card fee

R$ 204,77

Different by nationality: Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members · Venezuela Read them

Mercosur Reciprocity Residency in Chile

By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: Chile's migration service opens it to nationals of five countries only - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. If you hold one of those nationalities, see the origin-specific entry below; the requirements are the lightest of any Chilean residence permit. If you do not, the fact that your country is an associated state of Mercosur does not help here, which is where Chile parts company with Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia.

Open to

Nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay

Associated states

Not named by the Chilean migration service for this subcategory

Statutory hook

Ley 21.325 art. 70 N° 13, reciprocity and treaties

Different by nationality: Bolivia · Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Mercosur Residency in Colombia

By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: it is open only to nationals of the states party to the Mercosur Residence Agreement, plus Bolivia and Chile. If that is you, the requirements are among the lightest Colombia offers - but the visa is granted once and once only.

Different by nationality: Andean Community · Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

No Central American Free Movement, and the Numbers Prove It

Costa Rica is a member of the Central American Integration System but not of the CA-4 free-movement agreement that links Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. There is no regional residency route: nothing in the migration law's list of temporary-residency subcategories or special categories is opened by being Central American, and the migration directorate's visa directive treats Costa Rica's neighbours less generously than it treats most of Europe. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize sit in the second entry group with thirty days; Nicaragua sits in the third and needs a consular visa. The only regional preference in Costa Rican law is in the Constitution, and it is about nationality: five years of official residence instead of seven for Central Americans, Spaniards and Ibero-Americans by birth.

Regional residency route

None

Is Costa Rica in the CA-4 free movement area?

No

Entry group for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize

Second group - no visa, 30 days, extendable to 90

Entry group for Nicaragua

Third group - consular visa, with up to 90 days of stay

Regional preference that does exist

Naturalisation after 5 years, instead of the ordinary period, for Central Americans, Spaniards and Ibero-Americans by birth

No Treaty Route to Residence

Nothing in Cuban migration law gives a national of any country an easier residence on the strength of a treaty. The resident classifications are a closed list of five, and the subclassifications under them are occupational; none is a treaty category of the kind Mercosur, the Andean Community or CARICOM create elsewhere in the region. The only effect international agreements have on a foreigner's entry is the waiver of the visa, and the regulation is explicit that the waiver reaches the visa and nothing else: every other requirement for the classification still applies. Which countries hold such agreements is not published in any instrument we read.

Treaty-based residence category

None

Effect of a visa-waiver agreement

The visa requirement only

List of visa-waiver countries

Not published in any instrument read

Resident classifications

Five, none of them treaty-based

Moving to Dominica Under the OECS, CARICOM or Full Free Movement

Three regimes overlap here and they confer three different things. The CARICOM skills regime, enacted in 1995, gives a certificate holder from a qualifying member state entry for an indefinite period and the same freedom as a Dominican to move, work and buy property - but only if he holds one of the recognised qualifications, which in Dominica still means graduates, artistes, musicians, media workers and sports persons. The OECS Economic Union is different in kind: Dominica gave the Revised Treaty of Basseterre and its Protocol the force of law in 2013, so Article 12's freedom of movement for citizens of Protocol Member States is Dominican law directly, without being transposed into the Immigration Act. And since 1 October 2025 Dominica, Barbados, Belize and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have operated full free movement among themselves - a fourth thing again, which we can describe from CARICOM and from Belize's implementing Act but not from any Dominican instrument, because none has been published.

CARICOM skills certificate in Schedule II form

Entry for an indefinite period

CARICOM skills certificate in the home state's equivalent form

6 months

Qualifying CARICOM states in Schedule I

13, including Dominica itself

Skilled categories Dominica recognises

Graduates, artistes, media personnel, musicians, sports persons

What a certificate holder may do

Move, work, and buy property for home or business, as a Dominican would

Reciprocity cap

Rights may not exceed what the home state gives Dominicans

OECS Protocol: how it takes effect in Dominica

By direct incorporation of the Treaty and Protocol

OECS Protocol Member States

7, including Dominica

What Article 12 of the Protocol actually says

Freedom of movement "shall be secured"

Full free movement: since when

1 October 2025

Full free movement: Dominican implementing Act

None published

Right of establishment

In force since 2026

Different by nationality: Barbados · Belize · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

No Free Movement: the Caribbean Country Outside the Caribbean Scheme

The Dominican Republic is not in CARICOM, so none of the Caribbean free-movement arrangements reaches it: no skilled-national certificate, no six-month automatic stay for fellow nationals, no community right of establishment. Nor does any other arrangement substitute. The migration law's list of people exempt from its regime names diplomats, international organisations, technical experts on inter-governmental programmes and their families, and nobody else; the permanent and temporary residence lists are closed and contain no nationality-based category. The only movement arrangement in the law that singles out a neighbour is the border-habitant card, and that is unilateral, limited to Haitians living in the strip opposite five named provinces, confined to those provinces, and valid for a single day at a time.

CARICOM membership

Not a member

Treaty-based residence route

None found

Nationality-based residence category

None

Border-habitant card

Haitians only

Provinces it covers

Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña, Dajabón, Montecristi

Stay it allows

One day

Card validity

1 year, renewable

Leaving the named province

Makes the holder illegal

Treaty Routes: Ecuador Runs Three of Them

Ecuador is unusual in operating several parallel treaty routes at once. The migration law creates a general category, residente por convenio, for anyone entering under a visa set by an international instrument Ecuador is party to, and the ministry's catalogue then runs separate procedures for the Mercosur Residence Agreement, for the Andean Migration Statute, and for the bilateral migration statute with Venezuela. The Andean route is the cheapest of all: the grant itself is free. Whichever instrument applies, its own terms govern - including the proof of means, which the ministry's rules expressly hand back to the treaty.

Routes the ministry runs

Mercosur Residence Agreement, Andean Migration Statute, and the Ecuador-Venezuela migration statute

Statutory basis

Residente por convenio, a category of temporary residence in its own right

Means of support

Governed by the treaty, not by the ministry's general rules

Andean permanent residence

21 uninterrupted months, grant free of charge

Mercosur temporary residence

2 years with multiple renewals, no income test

Application fee

USD 50, payable even on the free Andean grant

Different by nationality: Andean Community · Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Central Americans: Free Movement on an Identity Card, and a Shorter Road to Everything Else

Two different things travel under the name CA-4 and only one of them is about residence. The older one is free movement for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, who cross between the four on an identity card rather than a passport; it was extended to air travel in 1997 and it is movement, not settlement. The newer one is the 2005 Convenio creating the Central American Single Visa, which is about third-country nationals and which says in terms that it does not carry residence. What actually gives a Central American a place in El Salvador is the country's own law, and it is generous at every step: the labour-market opinion is waived, temporary residence runs two years for any lawful activity, permanent residence is available directly on regular entry with no prior temporary residence at all, the permit fees are half the foreigner rate, and after a year of permanent residence a Central American can become Salvadoran by birth - not naturalised - without renouncing anything.

Countries in the group

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

Document needed to cross

Identity card, not a passport

Air travel inside the group

Also on an identity card, since 1 November 1997

Temporary residence for a Central American

Up to 2 years, any lawful activity

Labour-market opinion

Waived

Permanent residence

Direct, no prior temporary residence

Temporary residence fee, two years

USD 130

Permanent residence fee, first time

USD 135

Time to Salvadoran nationality

1 year of permanent residence

Kind of nationality obtained

By birth, not by naturalisation

Renunciation of the original nationality

Not required

Fee for that nationality

USD 150

What the single visa does not give

Residence, temporary or permanent

Moving to Grenada Under CARICOM or the OECS

Three regimes, and they confer three different things. A citizen of one of the six other Eastern Caribbean states party to the Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union gets a permit to enter and remain for a stay of indefinite duration, and is exempt from the work permit requirement outright - unless they bought that citizenship, which Grenada alone has written an exclusion for. A CARICOM national holding a Certificate of Recognition of Caribbean Community Skills Qualification gets indefinite entry, the right to work, and the right to buy property for a home or a business, which overrides the alien land-holding statute. And every CARICOM national has a right of establishment and a right to provide services written into Grenadian law since 2006. What nobody has is general free movement: Grenada is not among the four states in the 2026 full free movement arrangement.

OECS Protocol: period granted

Indefinite

OECS Protocol: work permit

Not required

OECS Protocol: economic citizens excluded

Yes, unless the Minister approves the programme

OECS entry without the Protocol

An entitlement to remain

OECS: identity card instead of a passport

Allowed by statute

CARICOM skills certificate: period granted

Indefinite

CARICOM skills certificate: what else it gives

Work, movement, and property for a home or a business

Qualifying CARICOM states

11

Who qualifies for a certificate

Degree holders and ten prescribed occupations

CARICOM right of establishment

In Grenadian law since 2006

2026 full free movement protocol

Grenada is not a participant

The Central American Route Into Guatemala

There is a regional residence route into Guatemala, but it is not the one people name. CA-4 is about movement: its convention says in terms that the single Central American visa does not carry residence with it, and its manual regulates the entry and stay of people who are not nationals of the four countries at all. What actually shortens a Central American's path to residence is Guatemalan domestic law. Someone born in another Central American country reaches permanent residence after one year of temporary residence instead of five, and pays two hundred dollars less for it. Entry is on a national identity card rather than a passport, on a reciprocity basis, and for CA-4 nationals the identity card has worked by air as well as by land since 1997.

Temporary residence needed first

1 year

Everyone else

5 years

The test is

Place of birth, not nationality

Permanent residence fee for Central Americans

USD 500.00

Entry document

National identity card, on reciprocity

Tourist stay

90 days, extendable once

What CA-4 itself gives

Movement, not residence and not work

Identity card by air

Since 1997

CARICOM Rights in Guyana: Two Acts, Both Commenced, Both Wired Into the Immigration Act

Guyana draws the Skills Certificate line by who issued the certificate and then provides a statutory bridge across it. A certificate issued by Guyana's own Minister - a Schedule II Certificate - gets indefinite entry. A certificate issued by another qualifying State in that State's equivalent form gets six months, and since 2014 the holder may apply to the Minister to have it verified; if it complies with the requirements of a Schedule II Certificate the Minister tells the Chief Immigration Officer and the holder may then ask for indefinite stay. Both grants carry the right to work from day one. Separately, and unusually, Guyana implemented the CARICOM right of establishment: the Movement of Factors Act 2006 bears 1 January 2006 on its face, treats a Community national exercising the right as if he were a national of Guyana for the purposes of ten named Acts, and gives a statutory appeal to the Minister against any functionary who obstructs it. Both Acts are plugged into section 12(7A) of the Immigration Act, which tells the officer to admit the holder without a permit at all.

Where the line falls

By who issued the certificate, with a statutory route across

Guyana's own certificate

Indefinite duration of entry

Another member state's certificate

Six months

Bridge from six months to indefinite

Verification of the foreign certificate by the Minister, added by Act 9 of 2014

Right to work

From day one on either grant

Right to acquire property

Only on the indefinite grant

Qualifying occupations

University graduate, media workers, musicians, artistes, sports persons, teachers, registered nurses, persons holding associate degrees, artisans with a Caribbean or approved national vocational qualification, domestics with a Caribbean vocational qualification, and any qualification certified by the Secretary-General

Qualifying States in Schedule I

Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago

Right of establishment

Implemented and commenced

Penalty for obstructing a Community right

A fine not exceeding one hundred and twenty thousand dollars or imprisonment up to three years, or both

Appeal

To the Minister, for a speedy review, where a functionary purports to restrict the exercise of a right

Different by nationality: Haiti Read them

CARICOM and Haiti: Three Member States Name It in Their Schedules, Four Do Not, and Haiti Names Nobody

Haiti signed the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas in 2002 and the question of what that is worth has to be asked twice, because the answer is different in each direction. Going out, it depends entirely on which member state you arrive in: the schedules of qualifying Caribbean Community states that carry the skills certificate regime do not agree. Barbados lists thirteen states and Haiti is the seventh. Trinidad and Tobago lists fourteen and Haiti is the seventh. Belize's schedule includes Haiti. The schedules of Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Dominica each list thirteen states, the same thirteen, and Haiti is in none of them; Guyana's lists twelve and Haiti is not there either. Coming in, we found nothing. No Haitian instrument we read gives a Community national anything: the Labour Code requires the work permit of every foreigner and its five exemptions do not mention CARICOM, and the immigration law's only nationality-based concession is for Americans, Canadians and nationals of states with a waiver agreement. Article 46 of the Revised Treaty requires member states to eliminate work permits for approved categories of Community nationals, and on the face of the Haitian statutes we could read, Haiti has not.

Member states whose skills certificate schedule names Haiti

Barbados, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago

Member states whose schedule does not name Haiti

Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia

What Haitian law gives a Community national

Nothing we found

Haiti in the printed membership article of the Revised Treaty

Absent

What the Treaty requires of a member state

Elimination of work permits for approved categories

CA-4 Moves You Around the Region; It Does Not Let You Settle

Honduras belongs to the CA-4, the single Central American visa shared with Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Read at the instrument rather than from the traveller folklore around it, CA-4 is a visa and mobility arrangement for people who are not nationals of those four states. It harmonises who needs a visa, lets a visitor's ninety days run across all four territories from the first outer border, and lets a resident of one of the four travel in the others on their passport and residence card. It does not grant residence, it does not grant work, and it says in terms that a resident of one state party may not do paid or commercial work in another. For nationals of the four countries the benefit Honduran law actually states is different and narrower: a shorter road to naturalisation, cheaper settled residence, and no land entry fee.

Member states

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua

Founding instrument

Convenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana, signed 30 June 2005, in force 31 August 2005

Who the manual regulates

People who are not nationals of the four states

Stay it carries

90 days across the region, one extension

Residence it carries

None

Work it carries

None

Visa categories

3

Countries in the annexed list

190^CALC (calculated by us, not published)

Transit visa

96 hours

Single-entry visa validity

60 days from issue

Multiple-entry visa validity

Up to 1 year

Naturalisation for a Central American by birth

1 year of residence

Settled residence fee

USD 300 for Central Americans

Land entry fee

Not charged to Central Americans

Moving to Jamaica from the Caribbean Community

Jamaica implemented both halves of the Caribbean Community's free movement scheme, and the skills half is drafted in a way no other member state's is. Section 3 of the Caribbean Community (Free Movement of Skilled Persons) Act obliges an immigration officer to admit a qualifying national indefinitely; section 4 obliges the same officer to admit a qualifying national for up to six months. The two sections then describe the same person in identical words - a valid Member State passport, an intention to work, and a valid qualifying certificate presented on entry - because an Act of 2013 deliberately substituted the same paragraph into both. Nothing in the Act says which limb an officer should use. The answer is in the Regulations that the same 2013 Act added as a Fourth Schedule: a person admitted under section 4 must present the certificate to the Minister for verification within six months. So the line is verification, as it is in Barbados - but Barbados draws it in its statute and Jamaica draws it in a regulation, having first removed the distinction from the statute. The right of establishment is implemented too, by an Act bearing 30 January 2006 on its face, and an Act of 2011 wrote the resulting work-permit exemption into the employment statute.

Entry under section 3

Indefinite period

Entry under section 4

Not exceeding six months

What distinguishes them in the Act

Nothing - the conditions are identical

What distinguishes them in practice

Verification of the certificate by the Minister responsible for labour

Deadline to present the certificate for verification

Six months from the date of entry

Cost of verification

Free of charge

Application fee for a Jamaican certificate

Two thousand dollars, non-refundable

Issue fee

Eight thousand dollars for the applicant, two thousand for each dependant

Right of establishment

In force from 30 January 2006

Work permit for a CARICOM national exercising establishment rights

Not required

Full free movement under the 2026 arrangement

Jamaica is not a partyas of 2026-10-06

Regional and Treaty Routes to Residence

Mexico has nothing resembling the Mercosur residence agreement or the Andean Migration Statute. No bloc Mexico belongs to confers a right to reside. What does exist is narrower and real: the visa guidelines recognise international mobility instruments as a ground for a temporary residence or student visa, and the Institute accepts permanent residence in Chile, Colombia or Peru as a substitute for a Mexican visitor visa. The first is a route to residence that depends entirely on a bilateral instrument being in force and not exhausted; the second is a visa waiver and nothing more.

A bloc-wide residence agreement

None

Mobility instruments

Recognised, and they lead to a temporary residence or student visa only

Quota

Each instrument carries its own, and the consulate must check it is not exhausted

Pacific Alliance

Permanent residence in Chile, Colombia or Peru substitutes for a Mexican visitor visa - no residence right

Guatemala and Belize

Border-region and border-worker statuses, which are entry permissions rather than residence

Work under cooperation agreements

Explicitly barred - no remuneration in Mexico

CA-4 and Central American Residence in Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the fourth member of CA-4, and its own law is unusually clear that the arrangement is two things rather than one. Article 14 of the migration law names the treaty of 2005 by its full title - the Convention Creating the Single Central American Visa for the free movement of foreigners - and uses it only to sort third-country nationals into three visa categories. Movement of the four countries' own nationals is handled in a different article, in the generic language of international free-movement instruments, without naming any. Neither gives anyone a right to stay. What does is article 30 of the same law: a foreigner of Central American origin may go directly to permanent residence, subject to reciprocity. That phrase is wider than CA-4 and the law does not define it, which is the hinge the whole topic turns on.

What the Single Central American Visa governs

Third-country nationals, not the four countries' own nationals

What it confers

Movement. Expressly not residence

Direct permanent residence for Central Americans

Available, subject to reciprocity

Who counts as Central American

Not defined in the law

Document accepted instead of a passport

National identity card

Naturalisation for Central Americans of origin

Two years, without renouncing the original nationality

Returnable deposit

Not required where an instrument and reciprocity apply

Ordinary route to permanent residence for everyone else

Three years of temporary residence

Different by nationality: CA-4 Read them

Panama Has No Bloc Residence Route

Nothing in Panamanian migration law grants residence because of membership of a regional bloc. Panama is an associated state of Mercosur and a member of the Central American Integration System, and neither fact appears anywhere in the decree-law, its regulation or the migration service's catalogue of permits. What Panama has instead are two routes that turn on nationality without turning on a bloc: a list of named countries, revised by decree, whose nationals may apply for permanent residence on economic or professional grounds, and a 1966 treaty of friendship with Italy under which Italian nationals get an indefinite permanent residence of their own. Both are recorded separately because they depend on where you are from.

Bloc residence route

None

Nationality-based routes that do exist

2

Mercosur Residence Agreement

Not applied by Panama

Countries on the Países Amigos list

51as of 2026-08-31

Mercosur Residency in Paraguay

Nationals of eight South American countries can use the Mercosur Residence Agreement, which Paraguay approved as Ley N° 3565/08, instead of the general route. It is a shorter list of documents - no consular visa, no Interpol certificate, no declaration of profession - and a lower fee. The trade-off is a deadline: the Mercosur temporary residency lasts two years and is expressly not renewable, and the application to convert it into permanent residency has to be filed in the ninety days before it expires, on pain of losing the right to continue under the Agreement at all. Economic solvency is tested at the permanent stage here exactly as it is on the general route.

Countries covered

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador

Term of the Mercosur temporary residency

Two years, not renewable

Window to convert to permanent

The 90 days before the temporary card expires

Fee, Mercosur temporary residency

20 jornales - Gs. 2.341.540as of 2026-07-01

Fee, Mercosur permanent residency

25 jornales - Gs. 2.926.925as of 2026-07-01

Consular visa

Not required

Economic solvency

Tested at the permanent stage, as on the general route

Different by nationality: Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Residency Under International Agreements

By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: it is open only to nationals of countries with which Peru has an agreement providing for residence. For South Americans that agreement is the Mercosur residence agreement, and it is by a distance the lightest way into Peru - identity, a clean record and, at the permanent stage, proof of lawful means. Two years of temporary residence come first, and the application for the indefinite stage has to be made in the ninety days before it expires. See the origin-specific entries below for who qualifies.

Temporary stage

2 years, not extendable

Application window for the indefinite stage

The 90 days before the temporary residence expires

Income test at the temporary stage

None

Income test at the indefinite stage

Proof of lawful means for you and the family living with you

Rights conferred

Work and study, public and private sectors

Fee

S/ 161.40as of 2024-06-26

Decision time

30 working days

Different by nationality: Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Moving to Saint Kitts and Nevis Under CARICOM or the OECS

Two blocs, two entirely different answers, and the Immigration Act names both. A citizen of one of the six other Eastern Caribbean states that are party to the Protocol of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union is granted, by statute, a permit to enter and remain for a stay of indefinite duration, needs no passport to prove who they are, and needs no work permit - and none of that depends on their qualifications. A citizen of the wider Caribbean Community gets much less: the Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals Act admits graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians, nurses and teachers from twelve named states, on a certificate, and gives them six months followed by an indefinite period. Everyone else from CARICOM is an ordinary visitor.

OECS Protocol: right conferred

Permit to enter and remain for indefinite duration

OECS Protocol Member States

7, including Saint Kitts and Nevis

OECS Protocol: work permit

Not required

OECS Protocol: driving licence

Mutually recognised

OECS entry without the Protocol

6 months as of right

CARICOM qualifying states under the Skilled Nationals Act

12, excluding Saint Kitts and Nevis itself

CARICOM skilled national: period granted

6 months, then indefinite

CARICOM skilled national: who qualifies

Graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians, nurses, teachers

CARICOM: ordinary nationals

No special entry right in the Act

Right of establishment

A treaty obligation, not a provision of local law we found

Eastern Caribbean and Caribbean Community rights in Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia has implemented more of the regional free movement architecture than any other country in this comparison, and it has dated every piece of it. The Economic Union Treaty and its Protocol have had the force of law here since 18 August 2014, and freedom of movement for citizens of Protocol member states is Article 12 of that Protocol. On the same day a Ministerial Order exempted them from the work permit requirement, and four months later Act 22 of 2014 exempted them from the visitor's driving permit. For the wider Caribbean Community, the Skilled Nationals Act admits a certificate holder for an indefinite period and the Movement of Factors Act of 2006 - in force on the day it was passed, with no commencement Order to wait for - gives a national of a member state the right of establishment, the right to provide services and the right to move capital. Grenada's equivalent Act was never brought into effect and Saint Vincent's has no proclamation on record. Saint Lucia's has a date printed on its face. What Saint Lucia has not done is join full free movement: a Caribbean Community national who is not a skilled national still holds an ordinary permit and still has to extend it, which is exactly what the September 2025 fee-waiver Order assumes.

Economic Union Treaty and Protocol in force

18 August 2014

Work permit exemption for Protocol citizens

Same day

Skills certificate in the Saint Lucian form

Indefinite entry

Skills certificate in another state's equivalent form

6 months

Who may apply to Saint Lucia for a certificate

A citizen of Saint Lucia or of a qualifying Caribbean Community State

Qualifying Caribbean Community States

13 listed

Right of establishment

In force 27 March 2006

Full Caribbean Community free movement

Not implemented

Economic citizens of other Protocol states

Excluded

Fee for a Caribbean Community skills certificate

EC$200

Different by nationality: Barbados · Belize Read them

Moving to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Under CARICOM, the OECS or Full Free Movement

Three regimes overlap, and Saint Vincent is the only country in the records here that has legislated for all three - a claim that rests on an absence in Dominica's record, which Dominica's own record marks as possibly the publisher's gap rather than Parliament's. The CARICOM skills regime came first, as Act No. 4 of 1997, and still works by category: hold a recognised qualification, hold a skills certificate, enter. The OECS Economic Union came next: Act No. 22 of 2011 gave the Revised Treaty of Basseterre and its Protocol the force of law and was brought into operation by proclamation on 10 August 2011, so a citizen of another Protocol state is given indefinite stay at the desk. And since 1 October 2025 Saint Vincent has been one of four CARICOM states - with Barbados, Belize and Dominica - operating full free movement, which drops the skills condition entirely. No Dominican instrument for it appears in the published law collection; Saint Vincent's is on the record. Parliament passed two Acts and two statutory orders on 29 September 2025 and the Governor-General assented to them the next day, the day before the regime began.

Full free movement: in force since

1 October 2025

Full free movement: what Parliament passed

Two Acts and two orders, all on 29 September 2025

Full free movement: entry status granted

Indefinite stay, stamped in the passport

Where the texts of those four instruments are

Not online

OECS Protocol: how it takes effect

By direct incorporation, in force by proclamation from 10 August 2011

CARICOM skills regime: enacted

1997, as Act No. 4 of 1997

Skills certificate: how the line is drawn

By who issued it - six months on a home state's certificate

Skills certificate: processing fee

EC$250.00

Right of establishment

Legislated in 2004

Social security across the region

Two agreements, one superseding the other in part

Different by nationality: Barbados · Belize · Dominica Read them

CARICOM Rights in Suriname: the Line Is Drawn at the Labour Market, Not at the Border

Suriname draws the skills certificate line in a place none of the other eight countries draws it. Its Wet Bekwame Burgers van de Caraibische Gemeenschap of 2006 says nothing at all about how long anyone may enter or stay. What it regulates is recognition of status and what recognition does to the labour market: a national of another member state whose status is recognised shall not, notwithstanding any other law, be subject to a restriction on the right to enter the labour market to which a Surinamese national is not subject. Recognition takes one of two forms depending on where the certificate came from - the Minister of Labour issues one where the applicant has none from another member state, and authenticates the applicant's existing certificate where he has. That is the issuer distinction, but it decides the paperwork rather than the period, and the holder of another state's certificate already has labour-market access during the short stay while recognition is pending. Entry, duration and settlement are left entirely to the ordinary aliens law, and the six-month short stay a CARICOM national actually receives at the border comes from the aliens department rather than from any instrument. There is no schedule of qualifying states: article 3 leaves it to the Minister to announce which member states count, and we did not find the announcement. On the right of establishment there is no implementing Act at all - and under articles 105 and 106 of the Constitution Suriname may not need one, because treaty provisions that can bind everyone have binding force once published and displace any inconsistent statute.

Where the line falls

At labour-market access, with the issuer deciding only whether the Minister issues a certificate or authenticates yours

Duration of entry conferred by the Act

None; the Act confers no entry right at all

Stay granted at the border in practice

Six months

What recognition gives

Labour-market access on the same footing as a Surinamese national

Labour-market access before recognition

Yes, during the short stay, for the holder of another member state's certificate

Charge

SRD 75as of 2006-02-06

Qualifying occupations

University graduates, media workers, sportspersons, musicians, artistes, nurses, carers and teachers

Schedule of qualifying states

None in the Act

Haiti

Not resolved by any instrument we read

Right of establishment

No implementing Act

Commencement

Retroactive to 1 January 2006

Penalty for a false declaration

Up to six months' detention or a fourth-category fine, separately per person and per dayas of 2023-09-12

Different by nationality: Haiti Read them

CARICOM and The Bahamas: a Member State With No Free Movement Law At All

The Bahamas is a member of the Caribbean Community and is outside its Single Market and Economy, and the proof is a three-section Act. The Caribbean Community Act, Chapter 17, is headed An Act to enable The Bahamas to fulfil certain obligations arising under the Treaty of Chaguaramas, and the obligations it fulfils are the juridical personality, immunities and privileges of the Community as an international organisation. It defines the Treaty as the one signed on 4 July 1973 at Chaguaramas, which The Bahamas acceded to in 1983 - not the Revised Treaty of 2001 that created the CSME and the skills certificate. There is no Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) Act in the Bahamian statute book: the published alphabetical list of principal legislation runs straight from Caribbean Community at Chapter 17 to Caribbean Development Bank at Chapter 266. Section 20 of the Immigration Act, which lists the people entitled to land, has no Caribbean category. And a citizen of Haiti, a CARICOM member state, needs a Bahamian visa to arrive at all. The Bahamas is not a party to the full free movement arrangement that opened on 1 October 2025 between Barbados, Belize, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Caribbean Community membership

Yes, by accession in 1983

CSME participation

No

Skills certificate regime

Not implemented in Bahamian law

Full free movement from 1 October 2025

Not a party

Treaty given effect in Bahamian law

The Treaty of Chaguaramas signed in 1973; for immunities and privileges only

CARICOM member states whose citizens need a Bahamian visa

Haiti

CARICOM Movement into Trinidad and Tobago: Who Issued the Certificate Decides

Trinidad and Tobago splits the skills certificate by who issued it, and since 2023 it has swapped which section does which. Under section 3 of the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act as it now stands, a national presenting a certificate issued by the Government of another qualifying Member State in a form equivalent to Part C of Schedule II is admitted for six months, stamped FREE MOVEMENT SIX MONTHS ENTRY RIGHT TO WORK VERIFICATION REQUIRED, and must apply within those six months to have the certificate verified. Under section 4, a national presenting a certificate issued by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in the Schedule II form is admitted for an indefinite duration and gets the freedoms of movement, employment and property that a citizen has. The verification route does not lead to indefinite entry: section 3(6) says the Chief Immigration Officer grants permission to remain for a period to be determined by the Chief Immigration Officer, which is a discretion and not a status. Anyone may apply to the Trinidadian Minister for the Schedule II certificate under section 6, so the shortest path to indefinite entry is to get Trinidad and Tobago's own certificate before travelling. The twelve occupations are the full CARICOM list. The right of establishment is enforceable, but through the Caribbean Community Act rather than through the hook the Immigration Act offers. Trinidad and Tobago is not one of the four states in the 2025 full free movement arrangement and has legislated nothing for it.

Certificate issued by another Member State

Six months

Certificate issued by Trinidad and Tobago

Indefinite duration

Where the line is drawn

By which government issued the certificate

What verification leads to

A period determined by the Chief Immigration Officer

Deadline to apply for verification

Six months from arrival

Time the Minister has to answer

14 days from receipt

Can a national of another Member State get Trinidad and Tobago's certificate

Yes

Qualifying occupations

Twelve

Member States in Schedule I

Fourteen, including Montserrat and Trinidad and Tobago itself

Skills certificate fees in Schedule V

Not in force

Spouse's right to work without a permit

Not in force

Act implementing the 2025 full free movement protocol

None - Trinidad and Tobago is not a party

Mercosur Residency in Uruguay

By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: it is open only to nationals of Mercosur member and associated states, as listed by Uruguay's own migration directorate. See the origin-specific entry below for what applies if you qualify.

Different by nationality: Mercosur Associated States · Mercosur Full Members Read them

Regional Agreements and Residence in Venezuela

Nothing in the Venezuelan instruments we could read gives a South American national a residence route of their own. Venezuela is a full member of Mercosur whose membership is suspended in all the rights and obligations of a member state, and it is not a member of the Andean Community, whose own migration statute lists its members as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The catalogue of visas names twelve classes and not one of them is defined by nationality. What the Venezuelan instruments do contain are saving clauses: the Act applies without prejudice to treaties and integration agreements, entry requirements give way to conventions the Republic has signed, and one visa - the entrepreneur's - excepts nationals of countries Venezuela has agreements with, without naming any.

Mercosur

Full member, suspended in all rights and obligations

Andean Community

Not a member

Residence route for Mercosur nationals under Venezuelan law

None found

Visa classes defined by nationality

None

Different by nationality: Andean Community · Mercosur Full Members Read them