How to Obtain Residency in Uruguay
Uruguay is an often-overlooked residency option that may offer appeal versus the more popular Latin American residencies. It is important to note that this is not a Plan B residency like Paraguay or Panama, because you are required to spend significant periods of time in the country.
Uruguay
Uruguay Residency:
Easier than ever
Why get residency in Uruguay?
- Uruguay is a peaceful, neutral and reasonably developed country in the Southern Cone.
- Located between Argentina and Brazil offering easy access to the major cities of each country.
- Permanent residency can be obtained in a single trip
- Straightforward and easy process with low income requirement.
- You will be able to work in any capacity in Uruguay.
- You will have a clear and relatively quick path to citizenship if you continuously reside in Uruguay.
- Take advantage of Uruguayan health insurance.
Documents needed to apply for residency in Uruguay
All documents from overseas must be apostilled. If your country is not part of the apostille treaty, then you must get them stamped at a local Uruguayan consulate.
- Get an appointment at immigration
- Birth certificate
- Marriage certificate if applicable
- Clean criminal record from your country of birth and recent residence (no older than 6 months)
- Proof of income (pension, dividends, rental income, foreign job or local income), generally for OECD countries $1500 per month is sufficient. Proof of income documentation must be no older than 6 months.
- Open a Uruguayan bank account to prove that your income is being duly received in the country. This can be done easily in one day in the country.
- Medical exam from a registered provider in Uruguay. Easily accomplished with a quick appointment.
Does Uruguay require a Covid vaccination certificate for residency?
No, Covid vaccination certificate is not required fo residency. Applicants just need to submit proof of vaccination against tetanus. Any certificate from abroad is accepted. There is a lot of misinformation online implying that Covid and full vaccination certificates are required to obtain residency in Uruguay.
How to apply for residency in Uruguay
This process is easy for anyone that does not need a visa to travel to Uruguay, which includes most OECD countries. It is known to be very complicated for nationalities that need a visa to come to the country as a tourist.
The first step is to obtain an appointment with immigration. At this stage all you need is your passport, health card and passport photo. With just these items, you can apply for residency as a tourist in Uruguay, with the understanding that you will submit the rest of your documents within the next two years. Once you file your application, you will be given a temporary resident cedula which serves as your identity card and permits you to stay in the country during the two-year submission window.
After all of the above mentioned documents are submitted, the National Migration Office may inquire about your proof of income and ask other standard questions, and potentially request an in-person interview.
After they fully review and process your application (around 6-12 months), you are given a permanent resident cedula that is valid for 3 years. Historically the authorities crossed-checked the immigration database to ensure you stayed in Uruguay for at least 6-7 months. These checks were dropped mid-2026 without explanation. So as things stand it is possible to get permanent residency in a single trip.
How to get citizenship in Uruguay
After three years if you are married, or five years if you are single, you can apply for a Uruguayan passport. The clock starts the moment you first arrive in the country. But you are expected to live in the country consistently for 3 years – you cannot simply come for a few months a year to meet the stay requirement.
You are also required to learn Spanish to carry out an interview where you explain why you are in Uruguay, what you do for a living in the country and demonstrate proof of assets and income.
Once you have applied for citizenship in Uruguay, the process takes around 1 year.
Tax incentives in Uruguay
There are many tax incentives in Uruguay. First of all, Uruguay does not tax foreign income apart from dividend and interest income (flat 12%).
However even for these, it is possible to reduce them.
New tax residents can choose to either:
- Not pay any taxes on foreign income earned for 10 years.
- Pay 7% flat on foreign income earned for life.
To qualify for the “new tax resident” scheme you need one of these:
- Spend at least 183 days in Uruguay per year
OR
- Invest about $1.5 million in real estate and investment funds
If you invest $2.5 million in real estate you can obtain tax residency without spending time on the ground.
Video: How to get Permanent Residency in Uruguay
Video: Uruguay – a misunderstood liberal safe haven?
My immigration agent in Uruguay
Contact my immigration agent for more information.
Macarena can help you with the following:
- Ensuring all documents satisfy the requirements of the National Migration Office
- Determine the best source of income to use and create supporting documentation
- Translation and notarization of documents
- Registration of documents such as birth and marriage certificates with the Foreign Ministry
- Accompaniment to interviews, health checks and Interpol office to obtain criminal record
- Active monitoring of your application as it is processed
Contact Macarena to get Residency in Uruguay
Services in Uruguay:
Articles on Uruguay:
Transcript of How to get Permanent Residency in Uruguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello everyone, Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor. Big news with regards to Uruguay immigration matters. We’ll be discussing this together with Macarena. Macarena, how are you?
MACARENA: Hi, how are you? Good to see you.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Good. So, you’ve been in the game for how many decades with residency in Uruguay?
MACARENA: Almost 15 years.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, a decade and a half.
Recent changes in obtaining residency in Uruguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: So before, Uruguay residency was a plan A. It was really for people who wanted to move to Uruguay, because actually obtaining the permanent residency required you to spend six to seven months in the country. So, you could go to Uruguay very easily and get your temporary residency, which was valid for two years.
MACARENA: Two years, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But to be able to convert to permanent residency, you had to demonstrate real ties to Uruguay, which meant signing a lease agreement, and actually spending six to seven months of the year in the country, so that the authorities could see that you were really committing to Uruguay. So it meant that it could work as a plan B, but before it could work as a plan B, you needed to spend a lot of time in Uruguay. And then once you have permanent residency, you just need to set foot one day every three years to keep it active. And arguably, it’s one of the best plan B’s out there in Latin America, if you committed this much time.
How much time I need to spend in Uruguay to get the permanent residency?
LADISLAS MAURICE: But now, the immigration authorities have revised the way they grant permanent residency.
MACARENA: Yes, that’s the good news. Today the approach is different. The authorities are more flexible with the time spent in the country. In the past, immigration authorities placed a greater emphasis on the applicants spending significant time physically in Uruguay. So, if you want to get your permanent residency, you needed to spend six to eight months here in Uruguay. But now, the rule has changed. To be honest, immigration authorities are not, you know, saying this openly, but now they are not, you know, checking your migration movements. So, if you apply for temporary residency, you will get an Uruguayan ID card right away, and you don’t need to spend six to eight months during the process to get the permanent residency.
One of the best plan B residencies in the world
LADISLAS MAURICE: It means that you can get probably one of the, the world’s best plan B residencies for practically nothing.
What do I need to obtain residency in Uruguay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: You just show up with the right documents, you hire Macarena, and she’ll set up the appointments, make sure everything’s fine, make the link with the authorities. There’s a medical appointment, also one of the downsides for some people is you do need to come with some vaccination certificates that you can get from wherever you’re from, or get done in Uruguay. But then once you’re in, you get your permanent residency very easily, just like it was possible in Paraguay before, just like it was possible in Panama before. Now Uruguay is opening the gates. Why? I don’t know, I’m not going to speculate, but you know, the country does have a bit of a demographic issue.
Flexibility of travel while applying for residency in Uruguay
MACARENA: Yeah, the thing is that Uruguay is now on the map. People are very interested in applying for residency. In the past it was very hard because they are always clicking on the migration movement to see if you are here or not, and it delays the process. So now they want to approve the permanent residencies, they decided not to be strict on the time spent in the country. They are more flexible, and that’s the good news for everybody that is interested in applying for permanent residency in Uruguay, because they understand that people need to travel, a lot of businessman that are all traveling all around the world and they cannot remain here in Uruguay for six to eight months waiting for the permanent residency to be approved. It was like wasting time, wasting money, just there, you know, waiting for the permanent residency.
How to contact Macarena about residency in Uruguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so my take on this, it’s not going to last forever. At some point, you know, things will change and it will become harder again. Right now, I think there’s an interesting window for people to do the paperwork, get in and benefit from plan B residency in in Uruguay. So if you’ve been thinking about it, do it now. I know personally, I’ll be looking at flying to Uruguay in the near future, for sure. There’s a list of documents, there’s a link below with all the documents that you should bring, et cetera, to Uruguay. And there’s also a link to get in touch with Macarena who can help you with the whole process from A to Z. So if you’re interested, link below, that’s the next step forward for you. Macarena,
MACARENA: Yeah, I look forward to seeing, you know, a lot of people that can take advantage of this great news for everybody.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I do not doubt that your business will be doing well in the coming months.
MACARENA: Okay, hope so.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Make sure to download my free e-book, 12 Mistakes to Avoid When Investing in International Real Estate, which you can find on my website, link below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @TheWanderingInvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.