“When should you invest in Latin America in exchange for residency, given there are pathways that exist without investment?” Christian Henrik Nesheim put that question to the panel at IMI Connect in Barcelona, and it deserves a full answer now that things are moving so quickly.
Compared with Europe, Latin America is at an earlier stage of the investment migration cycle. Many European programs may now be in their final form before governments phase them out, as Spain already has.
The short answer is capital or time. Governments across the region, like European ones before them, increasingly want a foreign resident to invest one or the other. For anyone who wants residency without relocating, investing is now the way to stay flexible.
What has changed is value. Paraguay granted 29,765 residencies in the first half of 2026, up 81% year on year, and governments now understand what their permits and citizenships are worth.
Five years ago, Latin American golden visas were relatively niche, just another pathway. Now a clear line is emerging between time and capital.
Mikkel Thorup used Panama as a precedent in his recent piece on Paraguay’s Investor Pass. His point was that you can predict where a market is heading from what has already happened elsewhere.
I agree; I see the same pattern from the inside. Europe, the premium golden visa market for the past decade, set the precedent, and it would not surprise me to see Latin America follow it.
Capital or time
Capital means a defined investment: Property, a fund, or a business that creates jobs. In return, the state asks little of your calendar. Time means you actually live there: You spend money in the local economy and, in some cases, pay taxes, though many Latin American countries do not tax foreign income.
What is disappearing is the middle ground: A modest fee or small deposit that bought a residence card you could hold from anywhere. Panama created the Qualified Investor Visa in 2020. It then rewrote the Friendly Nations Visa, so a company, a bank account, and a small deposit no longer led straight to permanent residency.
Paraguay removed its deposit-based direct route in 2022 and launched the Investor Pass in 2026. Under Resolution 407, it now asks temporary residents to show real economic activity before they convert. Colombia reclassified its Rentista as a visitor visa in 2022, so time on it no longer counts towards residence.
Argentina is the most dramatic example. Until recently, its rentista route was among the most relaxed in the region. You could turn up, obtain residency, renew it with no physical residence requirement, and apply for citizenship through the courts after two years.
In May 2025, Decree 366/2025 changed that, and naturalization now requires two years of continuous legal residence with no departures from the country at all. At the same time, Argentina has moved to introduce a citizenship by investment (CBI) route. Live there, or invest.
So yes, you can still apply for temporary residency. But in a growing number of countries, you cannot maintain it from abroad, and you will not get permanent status without real presence or real economic activity. The days when you could turn up anywhere in Latin America, file for temporary residency, and expect it to carry you through are over.
Governments have realized that a residency card held from abroad delivers little. They want investment, jobs, and people who participate in the local economy, and they are designing their programs accordingly.
Europe’s precedent
Greece is the clearest example. For years, its Financially Independent Person permit was the quiet alternative to the Golden Visa.
You showed passive income, received your card, and in practice could hold it without living in the country. Plenty of people chose it over a property purchase.
In 2020, Greece introduced a physical presence requirement, and it later raised the income threshold from €2,000 to €3,500 a month. Holders now need to spend 183 days a year in the country to keep the permit. If you want Greek residency without moving, you invest and apply for the Golden Visa.
Portugal follows the same logic. Golden Visa holders there need only seven days in the first year, then 14 days in each two-year period after that. The alternative is to live there on a D7 passive income, start-up, or digital nomad visa and become a tax resident.
Spain has gone one step further. Its Golden Visa has closed, and alternatives for people of means, such as the non-lucrative or digital nomad visa, require that you live there.
The lifecycle
Most programs move through the same four stages, and Europe is already at stages three and four. Much of Latin America is far earlier in the cycle but likely to follow the same path as its value as a Plan B hub grows.
The four stages are a simplification. Some countries skip stages, and few follow the sequence exactly.
| Stage | How it works | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Permanent residency, no investment required | Show income or means, receive permanent status, visit occasionally | A shrinking handful, including the Dominican Republic |
| 2. Temporary first, convert to permanent with minimal presence | Permanent status after two to five years of periodic visits, without full-time residence | Costa Rica (Rentista), Colombia (M Pensionado), Peru (Rentista) |
| 3. Invest for permanent status, move for temporary status | Investors get permanent status directly; everyone else must live there first | Paraguay (Investor Pass vs. temporary residency), Panama (Qualified Investor Visa vs. Friendly Nations Visa), El Salvador (Freedom Visa vs. Rentista), Brazil (investor visa vs. Rentista), Argentina (planned CBI vs. Rentista) |
| 4. No investor route to permanent status; live there | Some countries never had one; others have closed theirs | Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia |
The lifecycle of a residency program. Most of Latin America is still at stages one to three; Europe is at three and four.
The framework
Latin American golden visas are becoming a real category. Investor routes have existed in the region for years, but there was little reason to choose them when other routes were just as flexible. As that flexibility disappears, five advantages stand out.
1. No temporary stage
On the standard routes, you start on temporary residency, wait two to five years, and hope the rules do not change before you convert. Recent changes in Paraguay and Panama show how often they do.
An investor route cuts that out. Paraguay’s Investor Pass grants permanent residency from day one, for example through US$70,000 in a business that creates five jobs or US$200,000 in real estate.
Panama’s Qualified Investor Visa does the same at the top end, and Brazil’s investor visa grants indefinite residency straight away to those who invest in a Brazilian company. Permanent status from the start means you are no longer exposed to every policy change between your first card and your last.
2. Minimal presence
Most Latin American investor routes ask little or nothing of your calendar. You visit, keep your ties, and keep your residency. The exceptions are Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador, which apply the same presence rules to investors and rentistas alike.
Minimum stay to keep your status: Investor routes versus economic means routes
| Country | Investor route | Economic means route |
|---|---|---|
| Paraguay | Investor Pass (one visit every three years) | One visit a year, plus local economic activity to go permanent |
| Dominican Republic | Investment through a local company (no minimum stay; citizenship application after six months) | Rentista or pensionado (no minimum stay; citizenship eligibility after two years) |
| Colombia | Migrant investor visa (one visit every six months; permanent residency after five years) | Rentista (a visitor visa since 2022, so time on it never counts towards permanent residency) |
| El Salvador | Freedom Visa (none, as it grants citizenship) | Three months a year, under Decree 531 since 31 March 2026 |
| Argentina | Planned CBI program (none, as it would grant citizenship) | Six months a year to renew; continuous residence for citizenship |
Tax residency
In Europe, most people try to avoid becoming tax resident, counting their days because 183 of them means paying tax on worldwide income. Outside Malta, Cyprus, and a handful of special regimes with narrow eligibility, there are few ways to live in Europe and keep your taxes down.
Latin America works the other way. Paraguay and all seven Central American countries (Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Belize) tax on a territorial basis and largely leave foreign income alone. Here, you often want to be a tax resident.
At the top end is Uruguay, which abolished its 60-day route to tax residency on 1 January 2026. That route paired a property purchase of roughly US$590,000 with 60 days a year in the country.
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals who invest around US$2 million in real estate need not spend any time there and still qualify for the 11-year holiday on foreign income. Living there for more than 183 days a year also qualifies.
Paraguay is the affordable option. Its tax residency carries less international weight, particularly under double taxation treaties, but it is easy to obtain with minimal time in the country and suits digital nomads.
Próspera, the special economic zone in Honduras, offers something similar, though Honduras’s position on the zone complicates the picture. Under its lump-sum tax program, residents pay a flat US$5,000 a year covering all income taxes, with a seven-day rule: One week in Próspera a year. That makes it a fit for perpetual travelers and crypto entrepreneurs who want to set up a company.
Where foreign income is taxable, newcomers often get a grace period. The Dominican Republic, which issues permanent residency straight away on approval, is largely territorial and taxes new residents’ foreign investment and financial income only from their third year.
Uruguay offers 11 years. Chile, despite sitting at stage four, taxes newly resident foreigners only on Chilean-source income for their first three years, a period its tax authority can extend.
One caveat: What counts as foreign income depends on the country. In Panama, for example, there is a grey area if you work while physically in the country, because the authorities could treat that income as local. Investment income from abroad, however, generally counts as foreign-source.
3. Faster naturalization
The Dominican Republic is the standout. Permanent residents can apply to naturalize after two years, and qualifying investors after just six months of uninterrupted residence.
Few people talk about this pathway, and many misunderstand it. It is not a CBI program; Dominican law simply provides for it.
Paraguay offers citizenship after three years, though only to those who genuinely make the country their home. Brazil takes four years, or as little as one with a Brazilian spouse or child. In Panama, the Qualified Investor Visa grants permanent residency from day one, which puts investors on track to apply for citizenship after five years.
4. Real estate
Real estate once bought residency in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and Latvia. Spain and Portugal have since dropped that option, and Latvia’s property route closed to new applicants in September 2026.
Greece now prices its program by location: €800,000 in Athens, Thessaloniki, and the popular islands, €400,000 elsewhere, and €250,000 for converting commercial property or restoring listed buildings. That last category has become very common. Investors also pay a premium for many golden visa properties, priced around the visa rather than the asset.
Latin America has few of these constraints yet. Property still qualifies for residency in Paraguay (US$200,000), the Dominican Republic (US$200,000), Panama (US$300,000 for new-build), and Costa Rica (US$150,000).
Brazil asks R$700,000 to R$1 million (approximately US$138,000 to US$197,000), Colombia 350 monthly minimum wages, and Ecuador around US$48,000. Golden visa demand has not yet repriced these markets.
5. Citizenship
Over the last few years, Latin America has entered the CBI arena, starting with El Salvador’s Freedom Visa in December 2023. Argentina’s program, the first in the Southern Cone, should launch at the end of November.
As I argued in April, it offers a G20 economy, a strong passport with deep ties to Europe, and a region far removed from active conflict. I believe it is the most consequential development in investment migration in a decade.
El Salvador’s Freedom Visa requires US$1 million in Bitcoin or Tether’s stablecoin for one of the fastest routes to citizenship anywhere. It is not for everyone, but it suits crypto investors who want to be part of El Salvador’s story or base themselves in Latin America’s crypto capital.
The exceptions
Investment migration in Latin America is still young. More programs will likely follow, especially if Argentina’s does well.
A handful of countries in the region still grant permanent residency without an investment, without requiring that you live there, and without a long temporary stage first. They are underrated and unlikely to last in their current form, because the same pressure that reshaped Paraguay will reach them in time.
