- Routes
- Children of Paraguayans who take residence (Art. 146(3))
- Dual citizenship
- Not kept: the law expects you to give up your other citizenship
The stamps assume no one in the line became a citizen of another country before the next person in the line was born. What changes each answer is below.
On this page›
- 01Who qualifies
- 02Dates that matter
- 03Mothers’ lines
- 04Keeping your citizenship
- 05The routes and the law
- 06The documents
- 07What it takes
- 08Where the records live
- 09Law changes
- 10Other doors
- 11Sources
01Who qualifies
Who qualifies, generation by generation
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Paraguayan citizenship through a parent?
Children of Paraguayans who take residence (Art. 146(3))
A child of a Paraguayan born abroad becomes a natural Paraguayan by establishing permanent residence in Paraguay and declaring the option. Paraguay recognises dual nationality only by treaty, and it has none with your home country.
What would settle itWhether the family is prepared to establish residence in Paraguay, and how you weigh Paraguay’s position on holding your home citizenship alongside.
UNLIKELY
Can you claim Paraguayan citizenship through a grandparent?
One generation
Descent reaches children of Paraguayans who take residence; there is no grandparent route.
What would settle itWhether your parent can establish Paraguayan nationality first.
UNLIKELY
Can you claim Paraguayan citizenship through a great-grandparent?
One generation
Descent reaches children of Paraguayans who take residence; there is no grandparent route.
What would settle itWhether your parent can establish Paraguayan nationality first.
02Dates that matter
The dates that matter
No date named in Paraguay’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.
03Mothers’ lines
How mothers’ lines were treated
Paraguay’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father. Where its reasons speak of mothers or fathers, they say:
04Keeping your citizenship
Dual citizenship with your home country
Dual citizenship is not guaranteed.
On every open route, the rule expects a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa to give up their other citizenship, or to get permission to keep it.
05The routes
Every route, and the law behind it
Children of Paraguayans who take residence (Art. 146(3))
Open through a parent
The law
What would settle an unsure case
- Whether the family is prepared to establish residence in Paraguay, and how you weigh Paraguay’s position on holding your home citizenship alongside.
- UNLIKELY
Through a grandparentDescent reaches children of Paraguayans who take residence; there is no grandparent route.
The law
What would settle an unsure case
- Whether your parent can establish Paraguayan nationality first.
06The documents
The documents, as the rule lists them
Children of Paraguayans who take residence (Art. 146(3))
Through a parent
- Your parent’s Paraguayan birth certificate or cédula
- Your birth certificate, apostilled and translated
- Evidence of permanent residence in Paraguay
Most countries also want proof that no one in the line became a citizen elsewhere before the next birth: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter that none exists.
07What it takes
What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides
Children of Paraguayans who take residence (Art. 146(3))
- Time
- Several months once residence in Paraguay is established, then a further few months for the option declaration to be recorded.
- Cost
- About $500–1,500: travel and time to establish residence, registration fees, apostilles and certified translations.
- The hard part
- You must actually move to Paraguay and establish permanent residence before this citizenship attaches, and Paraguay recognizes dual nationality only with Spain and Italy, not the United States, so keeping U.S. citizenship alongside this one is not guaranteed.
- Who decides
- The Dirección General de Migraciones for residence, then the Registro del Estado Civil for the option declaration.
- The first record
- Your parent’s Paraguayan birth certificate or cédula, from The Dirección General del Registro del Estado Civil. Request the certificado de nacimiento with the parent’s name and place of birth, or bring their cédula when applying for residence in Paraguay. registrocivil.gov.py ↗
How it’s filed
- Where
- In Paraguay only: the Dirección General de Migraciones (Asunción) for residence, then the Juez de Primera Instancia en lo Civil y Comercial of the applicant's domicile (the Juez de la Niñez for a minor), then the Departamento de Identificaciones. office list ↗
- How
- In person; you appear in person
- Fee
- Not confirmed: no official fee was found
- Decision
- 4–18 months
What goes in the file (3)›
- Step 1 (Migraciones, permanent residence): the applicant's birth certificate, consular-visaed or apostilled and legalized, with translation; the Paraguayan parent's cédula and birth certificate; passport; police and background certificates (unverified: full list)
- Step 2 (court declaration, through a lawyer): the applicant's legalized birth certificate; the Paraguayan parent's birth certificate; proof of permanent residence in Paraguay (the residence card and evidence of actually living there)
- Step 3 (cédula, Identificaciones): authenticated copy of the applicant's birth certificate visaed and legalized by the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs; authenticated copy of the Paraguayan parent's cédula; the court's declaration
What goes wrong (6)›
- The residence must be real and permanent, and the judge wants evidence of it. This is a move to Paraguay, not a paperwork claim.
- Fee shown as 0 because government fees were not verified; budget for a Paraguayan lawyer, court tax, Migraciones and background-certificate fees. Children of repatriated Paraguayans with a Certificado de Repatriación get a free lawyer from the Secretaría de Repatriados and are exempt from the court tax and background-certificate fees.
- Dual nationality: Paraguay recognises multiple nationality under Art. 149 and Law 7052/2023; the rulebook reads this as treaty-based (Spain, Italy). unverified: how Law 7052 applies to a U.S.-born person keeping U.S. nationality; get a lawyer's opinion before moving.
- unverified: which instrument sets the court-declaration procedure; it is described on repatriados.gov.py (Inclusión a la identidad nacional), and Law 7052/2023 (bacn.gov.py) regulates Art. 146.
- migraciones.gov.py and repatriados.gov.py refused connections from this research environment; their content here is from search results on those domains.
- From AR, BR: the same in-country process; Argentina and Brazil border Paraguay, and Mercosur residence is an alternative first step (unverified whether it counts as 'permanent' for Art. 146(3)).
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
Estimates are honest ranges from official fee tables and what families report; where a fee or time could not be confirmed, it says so.
08Where the records live
Where each record lives, and how to ask for it
birth
Dirección General del Registro del Estado Civil (Ministerio de Justicia)
The Paraguayan parent's birth certificate, by name, date and the registry office (oficina) of birth; the parent's cédula number helps.
- Takes
- 1–9 weeks
Good to know (2)›
- The Registro offers electronic certificates (Certificado Electrónico) online (prior research, 2026). unverified: fee in guaraníes and whether a foreign requester can order a parent's certificate without a Paraguayan ID.
- The court declaration needs the parent's birth certificate 'legalizado'; the Paraguayan parent's cédula is also asked for by Identificaciones.
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
Translations
- Into
- Spanish
- Who may translate
- A sworn translator in the country
- About
- $20–$60 a page
The applicant's foreign birth certificate must be visaed by the Paraguayan consulate in the country of birth (or apostilled) and legalized by Paraguay's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Identificaciones asks for an authenticated copy so legalized. unverified: whether a translation must be by a Paraguayan sworn translator (traductor público matriculado); assume so for court filings.
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
The passport
- Where
- Policía Nacional, Departamento de Identificaciones (Asunción and regional offices), after the cédula. Fees were last reset by Resolution 689 of 2022; the current amount in guaraníes is unverified, so the 0 here is a placeholder.
- Fee
- Not confirmed
- Time
- 1–4 weeks
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
09Law changes
Recent and pending changes
The legislative watch has no pending bill or recent ruling recorded for Paraguay.
The watch re-reads the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person re-checks the rule before anything here moves.
10Other doors
If descent doesn’t reach you
2 residence programs lead to Paraguay without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.