Any foreign national with a clean police record can apply for a temporary and then a permanent residence permit in Uruguay and work for money in the country. After some time a residence permit can turn into a passport of Uruguay.
You can visit Uruguay as a tourist and apply for changing your status to a legal resident: this is not prohibited in the country. Besides, most nationalities do not need visas to enter Uruguay as tourists and stay there for a couple of months.
You can qualify for legal residence in Uruguay by simply registering a company in the country. When you do, you will be issued a cedula, the Spanish name for a residence card.
The cedula will serve as your identification document in Uruguay. The cards come in several types. First, you will be issued a cedula carrying the words ‘Residencia en tramite’, which means that your application for legal residence in Uruguay is under consideration. This is a temporary residence card. After 2 or 2.5 years, you can obtain a cedula carrying the worlds ‘Residencia legal’. You don’t need translation to understand what it means. This is a permanent residence card. After living in Uruguay on a legal residence card for 3 or 5 years (count from the date of acquiring the first cedula, not the second one), you can apply for citizenship of the country. You will be issued an ID carrying the words ‘Ciudadano Legal’ – legal citizenship. The 3-year term applies to people with families and the 5-year term applies to single persons.
Legal grounds for applying for citizenship of Uruguay
Adult foreigners can acquire Uruguayan citizenship in the following cases:
- If they have made a significant contribution to the country’s economy, science, art, or industry having lived in Uruguay for three years;
- If they have been married to a citizen of the country for five years (for three years if they have children);
- Have done a special service to Uruguay.
You will have to submit the following documents to obtain a Uruguayan passport:
- An entry permit to Uruguay: you have to confirm that you have entered the country legally.
- Your cedula.
- Your home country’s passport translated into Spanish and legalized.
- A document confirming that a Uruguayan Government official has seen the original of your passport and has legalized its translation into Spanish (the translation has to be made by a local sworn translator).
- Two witnesses above 25 years of age have to confirm your identity in writing.
- If you are single, you have to confirm that you have been legally living in Uruguay for five years.
- If you have a family, you have to confirm that you have been legally living in Uruguay for three years. Besides, you have to provide your marriage certificate.
- If your marriage certificate has been issued abroad, it has to be translated into Spanish and legalized.
Once you become a citizen of Uruguay, you can bring your dependent family members over. In this case, their personal documents have to be submitted. All documents made in language other than Spanish need to be translated and legalized.
Some additional requirements also apply:
- If you are applying on the grounds of having made a significant contribution to the Uruguayan economy, science, art or industry, you have to supply some relevant documents. These can be university diplomas, professional certificates, industrial licenses, and so on.
- You have to confirm that you are a law-abiding person by supplying a clean police record.
- The Uruguayan authorities do not want new citizens to be members of any extremist organizations aiming to destroy Uruguay’s state system. Witnesses will have to confirm that you are not.
The Uruguayan passport allows visa-free travel to the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. With this document, it is possible to live and work throughout the entire territory of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay; associate members of the organization are Chile and Bolivia).
Acquiring residential accommodations in Uruguay
You have to live somewhere in Uruguay for at least 3 years before you can apply for citizenship of the country. And you will have to have a place to stay after you obtain an Uruguayan passport too. We would like to make a suggestion that can help you buy property in Uruguay at a lower price thus saving some money.
Since recently, Uruguayan developers have started selling apartments in buildings under construction on installment plans. If you sign a purchase agreement at the ‘excavation stage’ (when they have just started digging the construction site), you can pay 10% to 40% of the total value of the property and then you will have 3 to 5 years to pay the rest of the amount in installments. No interest is charged. If you do so, your apartment will cost you 25% less than an apartment in a completed building.
Besides, many development projects are covered by the Housing Act in Uruguay, which means that you will be exempted from the property tax for 10 years. Moreover, you will be tax-exempt if you let your apartment on a lease.
If you have a stable income in Uruguay, the deal looks attractive indeed: pay 10% at the excavation stage, move into your apartment after 12 to 15 months when the building is completed, and pay the rest of the price in small installments over 5 years.
Immigrants to Uruguay report
People who have recently relocated to Uruguay point out the following additional advantages that the country offers:
- It’s a piece of Europe in South America. People with European values feel comfortable in Uruguay.
- The country welcomes immigrants: opening a bank account, buying residential accommodations, and acquiring residence permits is not a problem for them.
- A cedula can be obtained within 1 to 4 months (depending on the season and the place of application). Besides, you can apply for a cedula online and arrive in Uruguay when it is ready to be issued.
- It’s warm and safe in Uruguay.
- There is no conscription in Uruguay.
- Immigrants from all countries are treated equally friendly.
- Uruguayans are extremely amicable and polite. You can hardly run into a rude or angry person wherever you go – a marketplace or a Government agency.
- State and private medical and educational institutions.
- The climate is similar to the climate in Barcelona.
- Plenty of beaches.
- No serious natural disasters such as earthquakes or hurricanes.
- A democratic country: elections matter in Uruguay!
- A stable economy and an advanced banking system.
- Because the temperature is comfortable in Uruguay, you don’t need any warm clothes. Cars don’t rust for decades in the country.
- The overall quality of food is good and local meat and wines are simply superb. Bananas are imported but citrus fruits, peaches, apricots, figs, and various vegetables are grown in Uruguay.
If you would like to live in a warm, safe, and prosperous country with friendly people, you should look no further. Uruguay welcomes you!
