El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly passed a reform to the country’s Special Law on Migration and Foreigners (Ley Especial de Migración y de Extranjería) on March 17 with 57 votes.
President Nayib Bukele signed Decreto No. 531 three days later, and it was published in the Diario Oficial on March 23 (No. 57, Tomo 450). Because the decree specifies that it “shall enter into force eight days after its publication in the Diario Oficial,” it took effect on March 31.
The reform’s centerpiece is a dramatic reduction in physical presence obligations for temporary residents. Under the previous rules, temporary residents had to remain in El Salvador for nine months per year and could not be absent for more than 90 consecutive days.
Eleonora de Marroquín, the head of the foreigners division at El Salvador’s General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners, told legislators that residents who traveled frequently for work often returned to find their residency canceled, forcing them to restart the application process entirely.
90 Days, Consecutive or Accumulated
Decreto 531 replaces that nine-month obligation with a 90-day minimum. The new Article 119 stipulates that “every person with temporary residency must remain in Salvadoran territory for a minimum of ninety calendar days within each year, whether consecutive or accumulated.” Failure to meet this threshold triggers residency cancellation under the amended Article 49.
A caso fortuito or fuerza mayor exception exists, but the decree requires that it be “duly justified before the General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners.” Casual noncompliance will not qualify.
De Marroquín framed the change as a response to El Salvador’s evolving demographic of foreign residents, particularly “entrepreneurs, investors, and business professionals” whose transnational activities demand frequent cross-border travel.
Under the old rules, El Salvador’s presence threshold sat well above the regional norm. Uruguay, for comparison, requires just 60 days per year during its three-to-five-year naturalization track.
Alex Recouso, co-founder and CEO of CitizenX, sees the reform as part of a deliberate pattern. “It’s a great way to incentivize people to spend more time there,” Recouso said.
He says that the country is becoming more desirable because of “easier company incorporations, now with lower presence requirements to keep the temporary resident status. It’s the same playbook the UAE followed, so eventually people have time to decide whether they’re ready to move full-time there.”
Denaturalization Grounds Codified
The decree also rewrites Article 279 to spell out two grounds on which naturalized Salvadorans lose their citizenship.
First, a naturalized citizen forfeits nationality “by residing for more than two consecutive years in the country of origin or by absence from the territory of the Republic for more than five consecutive years,” unless the individual holds a permit under Article 280.
Second, citizenship is revoked upon “a final judgment, in cases where a conviction is obtained for the commission of serious intentional crimes.” Anyone who loses nationality through criminal conviction “shall not be able to recover it.”
These provisions mirror the text of Article 94 of El Salvador’s Constitution nearly verbatim. The constitutional clause has existed since 1983, but the implementing legislation had not previously codified the specific grounds with this level of procedural detail.
For holders of El Salvador’s Freedom Passport citizenship by investment (CBI) program, the five-year absence clause remains a live consideration. A US$1 million CBI citizenship is of limited value if maintaining it requires regular physical presence that the holder may not have planned for.
Nationality for Children Born Abroad
A third provision amends Article 164 to address a gap in El Salvador’s nationality framework. Under the new text, “children under eighteen years of age, born abroad before their parents obtained the status of Salvadoran by birth or by naturalization,” will be “considered Salvadoran upon request of their parents.” The General Directorate will develop a special procedure for these applications.
One condition attaches. Once these children reach adulthood, they “must declare before the competent authority their willingness to maintain Salvadoran nationality.” Without that affirmative declaration, the nationality lapses.
A Country Adjusting to Inbound Migration
The legislative preamble frames the reform as an effort “to provide legal certainty to migration processes and safeguard the constitutional order and the security of the State.” More candidly, the Commission on Salvadorans Abroad acknowledged that El Salvador’s migration law was built for a country accustomed to emigration, not immigration.
That has changed rapidly under Bukele. El Salvador’s transformation from the country with the world’s highest homicide rate to the safest in the Americas, combined with its territorial tax system and early adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, has drawn a growing population of foreign entrepreneurs and remote workers.
The country offers a digital nomad visa with a path to permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship; an independent means visa with a US$1,200 monthly income threshold; and a CBI program priced at US$1 million in Bitcoin or USDT.
Recouso’s UAE comparison has some substance. In December 2025, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly extended free registration for Simplified Joint-Stock Companies (S.A.S.) through 2026, and a March 2026 reform to the MYPE Law further simplified business formalization procedures.
Like the UAE’s sequenced approach of free zones, company formation incentives, and flexible visa rules, El Salvador has been layering commercial infrastructure to lower the friction of arrival before asking newcomers to commit.
Spanish and Latin American nationals can naturalize after just one year of residency. All other foreigners face a five-year track. With the 90-day annual presence requirement now in force, El Salvador has positioned its temporary residency as one of the lightest-touch in the hemisphere for those who want a legal base without spending most of the year on the ground.
