How we got our permanent Paraguayan Residency & bought an SUV for our road trip! [AED-S01E07]

By Paul Trausner | 2022-01-03

Do you want to get your own #Residency in #Paraguay? Get your free #Expat Coaching now:

https://calendly.com/trausner/adventure-is-calling

Previously…

In the previous episodes of the “Adventure Escape Diaries” (https://youtu.be/doeGOVlzm8s) we waited in Mexico until the borders of Paraguay opened up for foreigners.

In this Episode:

Finally we were able to take a flight to #Asuncion and started our permanent residency process in Paraguay.

Paraguay offers one of the simplest permanent residencies in the whole world. It is easy to get but very valuable to have.

Learn in the video above what documents you need to start your residency process. Or keep reading.

After just a few months you will be able to hold your ID card in your hands, the #Cedula.

Once our work on the Cedula was done, we focused on making our life in #SouthAmerica work. First thing, buying a 4×4 #SUV! Be part of #Mercosur and travel all of South America with us.

With our residency and mobility sorted out we started into new adventures. Watch in the coming episode how we tried to make Paraguay our new home but which convenient surprise changed all of our plans.

My offer

If you want a 1:1 session, talk to me in your free coaching call to get more information about the residency process.

Or ask us your questions about Paraguay and the residency process in the comments!

Now it continues…

We were planning on getting a residency in Paraguay. To start the residency process one needs to personally bring a whole list of documents to Paraguay. Some of these documents cannot be older than 6 months at the time of application. Paraguay had been on lockdown and it just had opened its borders to foreigners again. It’s been now well over 5 months since we got our documents in Austria. We escaped for the last months to Mexico and waited for that opening. Now we were finally on our way to Paraguay.

Our rocky arrival

After two comfortable flights with nice view and a stopover in Panama City we arrived in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. The immigration process at the airport was surprisingly easy and fast. Though the first big surprise that day was that my suitcase was ripped open. I had just gotten a new one in Mexico, coz my old suitcase had its wheels completely destroyed by the rocky Mexican streets.

This one was supposed to be the lightest Samsonite Suitcase in its size. Unfortunately seemingly also the most fragile. The zipper was ripped open and the rest pretty scuffed up. My Our flight was with Copa Airlines and so I took up the case to their airport personnel. I took photos and they filled out a damaged suitcase form. I asked them about the procedure here and the lady form Copa Airlines promised me that someone will email or call me and I will be compensated for my damage. She gave me a print through form and I was confident that this issue will be dealt with quickly. Little did I know about the incompetency of the Copa Airline staff… Spoiler Alert, months of frustrating conversations later, my luggage is still suffering from the damage of that flight.

Our first police stop

The next surprise came on our Uber ride to our Airbnb. We arrived after midnight in Paraguay and because their politicians want to be funny, they had a nationwide curfew starting at midnight. The Police stopped us at a checkpoint. They asked our young Uber driver all kinds of intimidating sounding questions, but he was pretty smooth, let his music videos run loud during the conversation. When they clearly asked him to shut it off, he just lowered the volume a bit. The police ended up checking out passports and were satisfied with us just arriving in the country. So all good.

The residency process

Well, we became aware that we had a whole bunch of tasks to complete and not a lot of time left before our documents would expire. We needed to go to Interpol, to a local medical doctor, to translation services and a notary that would set up our vows to respect Paraguayan laws and become good residents. Way too much to do in too little time. So we ended up getting an Immigration helper instead.

It would not have been a big deal doing the immigration process ourselves arriving in Paraguay with lots of time, but in our case now every day counted. The Immigration helper seemed to know what he was talking about. He and his colleague guided us through the residency application process in just one day. In fact we then finally realized that most of our document preparation was useless. To obtain the residency, all one needs from their home country is really just 2 documents.

Necessary documents

Your birth certificate, notarized
Valid criminal record, notarized

Then your passport – that’s really it. If you are married, your notarized marital certificate and then you need to temporarily deposit an equivalent of 5000USD into a local bank account but if you happen to have a university degree you can bring that too, notarized, and use it instead of the deposit.

We actually obtained a whole lot of other documents and notarizations that ended up not being necessary. Remember, not even the Paraguayan embassy had a clue on what is needed. Their advice ended up costing us more time and money than we actually had to invest in this project.

Now the rest of the residency process was handled by our immigration helper. Once that day was over, the big waiting started. Our immigration helper cost 1200 Euros per person and in addition both of us opted for the 700 EURO more expensive VIP package with him. That way we were gonna expect having our Residency Documents and ID card, the cedula, within 6 weeks instead of waiting for them between 8 and 12 months.

Paraguayan customs

The extra money is supposed to motivate his “friends” at the immigration office to be much faster at processing documents. We liked that idea, coz that way we were set for having our new documents for this years tax season and before we were gonna leave Paraguay to discover more of South America.

Another Spoiler Alert… things did not work as planned. Our VIP guarantee didn’t hold up and 6 weeks turned into 4 months till we finally had confirmation that our ID card arrived. By that time our lives looked a lot different already, so those ID cards we were still not able to pick up. How so… ? Well lets continue the Adventure Escape Diaries and learn more about life in South America.

So the waiting started

While waiting for the residency process to complete we found a bit of a routine in Asuncion. We resided in a nice apartment building with a pool, a gym and a sauna. For the first time in months, our daily routine aligned with what we were used to in Austria. I restarted my 5×5 Stronglifts training with the weights in the gym and in the evenings I could cook my regular dose of ribeye steak. The internet in the apartment was sufficiently fast to help us catch up on some of the administrative work we just couldn’t get to during our Mexican Adventures.

How to get around?

With the seeming confidence of having our Paraguayan residency sorted out, it was time to tackle our mobility problem. What a better way to discover South America than with a 4×4 Overlander truck. Without having planned any of this, it just seemed like a great idea to off-road all throughout South America. Flying was off limits due to lockdowns but the border crossings should be open, right? Or so we thought.

Connections

Our car requirements, an automatic 4×4 with AC and ideally enough space to sleep in it. Seemingly lots of cars like that on Paraguayan streets. But how to start looking for cars when one doesn’t speak the language so well. My Spanish improved over the time in Mexico but suddenly in Paraguay I felt like I started everything from new. People in Paraguay speak a mix of their native language Guarani and Spanish. Apparently one of the hardest Spanish dialects to understand even when one speaks Spanish natively.

So we reached out to some people we met in the expats communities and in facebook groups. Some nice people with lots of advice. Everyone seems to know about useful things. Especially the Hungarian couple Zoltan and Renata will stay in good memory. They were the only expats we met in Paraguay who also just came here to get the residency but weren’t necessarily planning to stay for a long time. Unfortunately though, they were already on their way out, when we just arrived. Now being Paraguayan residency buddies, we are confident we will meet up again sometime in the near future.

However we weren’t always that lucky with our contacts. We were warned about how some people will try to scam us… ironically we were warned by some people, who then eventually tried to scam us themselves. Oh this is just how it goes.

How we found our car

We ended up moving from the capital Asuncion to a small town called Villarrica. From there we looked at some cars in the area. After weeks of hoarding through online ads and going to all dealers in the area we ended up buying a Toyota Prado. Of all the cars we saw it was in its best shape. We were hesitant at first coz we weren’t sure if we can actually sleep in that car but due to the foldable rear bench and the 3rd row bench, we actually found a good solution with an air mattress. So at this point we had the car but it would still take us many weeks to finalize the car documents.

If you want some deeper insight in how we ended up finding our dear Toyota Prado, check out Alexandra Allover’s great video on Purchasing a car in Paraguay. She goes into all the details, it is quite a process and took us over a month to complete. She gives you a step by step guide in her native tongue German with English subtitles. (How to buy a car in Paraguay (Toyota) – https://youtu.be/tnP-XQ7gk6s)

With the car we found ourselves a moving home. Finally we were able to get to places without relying on public transport, other people or taxis and Uber. This car was my most expensive purchase to date. even my 33 foot sailboat was cheaper, but the money was well spent. To date our dear Prado is getting us places that very few people have ever seen. With this newly found foundation we continue our journey in Latin America, thinking we would stay in Paraguay for at least 3 months a big pleasant surprise was waiting for us in the next episode.

MENTIONS:

Alexandra’s Blog:
- Was musst du beim Gebrauchtwagenkauf in Paraguay beachten? (Toyota)🚗💨 (German only) – https://alexandraallover.com/was-musst-du-beim-gebrauchtwagenkauf-in-paraguay-beachten-toyota/
Alexandra’s YouTube Channel
- How to buy a car in Paraguay (Toyota) – https://youtu.be/tnP-XQ7gk6s

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Zoltan & Renata @VeganLuggage
- https://hunthentic.com

Hey fellow Adventurers,

I’m on a quest to get #PermanentResidency in #SouthAmerica and in my Travel Documentary I show you how to do it yourself. Experience through me the ups and downs of finding a new life #abroad and make your own life into your greatest #HeroesJourney!

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