Additional Questions on Residency and Citizenship

Hello and welcome to Expat.com, bajagringo!
Did you read the forum? I think there were already discussions on the subject?
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Arlette

Thanks for your reply.  I did read all the other topics relating to Residency and Citizenship and they helped a little.  They are mostly geared towards folks that already live in Paraguay and wishing to obtain residency instead of what I was asking.

bajagringo,

There are no "residency visa's" you can apply for outside of Paraguay.  The only visa you can obtain at the LA consulate (or any Paraguayan consulate/embassy) is the 90 day tourist visa.  You do have a choice though, and that is between a cheaper visa stamp that is good for one time entry or a slightly more expensive one that allows for any number of  entries and is good for as long as your passport is in effect.

To obtain residency status is to apply for a cedula, which as far as I can tell is simply a national ID card that allows foreigners full time residency status within Paraguay.  Upon submitting an application for a cedula (which many other posts here do a great job of describing the many documents and painful experiences one must go thru to get to that point), you get your receipt which acts as a temporary cedula but still allows permenant residence while you await award of your permanent cedula.  To get a permanent cedula can take from what I've heard up to 2 years from time of application. My wife and son are just about at the point we are ready to submit everything for their cedula's, so maybe within a few months or a few years I can better answer this portion of your question!

As to having to be in Paraguay to apply for a cedula, I don't see how else you can do it.  There are many "helpers", many of them expats themselves, who will guide you thru the process or even do most of it for you.  From recent experience the going rate for a full "turnkey" experience is around 1,000 Euros more or less per cedula.  But I believe there's enough documentation required that you would probably have to be around initially a few weeks while things get started.  If one knows spanish, can follow simple directions and put up with a nominal amount of frustration it's really not a complicated process so you could do it yourself.  From our recent experiences I would bet that if you arrive in country with all your prep work done (FBI background checks, etc.. - again, check out previous posts), and go to work full time on gathering the in country documentation you could probably have everything ready to turn in within a few weeks.

As to sticking around once you've applied, I don't believe you have to stay in country while your permanent cedula is being processed.  At least I don't think you do but in all honesty this is probably one of those questions that there are many different answers to dependant on whom one asks, the time of day, direction of the wind, phase of the moon, how much money is in your pocket,  etc.....You live in Mexico, I'm sure you "get it".

I'm not sure about the bank funds having to be either in a Paraguayan bank or outside the country, someone else will have to address that.  Same thing for the time in country for applying for citizenship.  I would recommend you contact the LA consulate though and I would bet they can easily answer those questions.  I do know though that Paraguay does not allow dual citizenship for it's citizens at this time.

Good luck!

Great Advice!  I plan to hire a lawyer but if a lawyer believes I may never come down to the Paraguay or only come down for a few weeks he is likely to tell me anything I want to hear and take my money while I wait for something that will never happen.

I applied for residency in April and had to deposit $5,000 US in Banco Fomento as part of the process.  Once my residency is granted, I can withdraw the money.

My understanding is that since Lugo became President, the law changed somewhat in that it is a special bank account created solely for the purpose of obtaining residency, i.e. not a normal savings account.

In the past, one could deposit the $5,000 in any Paraguayan bank, and some banks would even give a letter for a fee so that one could deposit and withdraw the money the same day.  I'm told that is not possible anymore.  I think Banco Vision used to do that.

I used an attorney for the process because I was in Paraguay for 4 weeks and didn't want to deal with "helpers" I didn't know.  When I return in the next month or so, I'll report more on how things go.  It seems that Paraguay is a country in flux, so information can change quickly.

-Tom