Any south American countries that grant Permanent residency for life?

Residencies & citizenships
1

Are there any South American countries that grant Permanent residency for life without restrictive requirements like once a year visit? (I’m fine with say once a five year visit)

2

Mexico’s PR (permanent residency) is for life. The PR card does not have an expiration date and will never need to be renewed. According to this source, “Mexican law does not have restrictions on the amount of time that Mexican permanent residents can stay outside Mexico”.

Other Latin American countries I looked into in the past (Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile and Peru) required either a renewal or visit every 1-5 years to maintain the PR status.

2 Likes
3

Thanks a lot, I will definitely look into Mexico’s PR. Which PRs require > 1-year visit? I’m fine visiting every 3 years or every 5 years to maintain my PR.

4

From the countries I mentioned, these are the ones that allow you to stay outside the country for up to 2 years or more:

Ecuador - 5 years
Dominican Republic - 4 years
Paraguay - 3 years
Uruguay - 3 years
Argentina - 2 years
Brazil - 2 years
Panama - 2 years
Colombia - 2 years

If you’re looking to visit every 3-5 years, Ecuador, DR, Uruguay, and Paraguay are possible options. There are other South American countries I missed but I haven’t bothered researching them (e.g. Honduras, Bolivia, Guyana, etc)

3 Likes
5

Thanks a lot. Last I checked, you can’t get a PR directly in Ecuador.

Panama is always raining, I can’t imagine living there.
Argentina is a communist shit hole, so, I’ll stay away.
Paraguay and Uruguay seems to have become difficult in practice due to a huge influx of PR chasers.
I will dig into DR, Brazil, and Colombia.

2 Likes
6

What isn’t often brought to people’s attention when speaking of Mexico is that for permanent residents and citizens that live in the country for more than 183 days/year, they are liable to be taxed on their worldwide income: interest from foreign bank accounts, gains from foreign stock transactions, pensions(?)… Mexico has signed tax treaties with many countries to avoid double taxation, but still.
Edit: As I understand it, Temporary Residents are exempt from this worldwide tax.