Paraguay Visa and Entry Requirements

Paraguay is straightforward to enter and there is one procedural trap that is worth more of your attention than everything else on this page combined. Take it in order.

Your passport

The cited advice records that a passport should be valid for the duration of the stay. That is a lighter requirement than the six months many countries impose, and it is worth noticing rather than assuming the stricter rule applies. A travel document that has been reported lost or stolen will be refused, and the advice is explicit that entry is denied in that case.

How long you can stay

Permission to stay for 90 days is normally granted on arrival. A further 90 days can be applied for, and the cited advice directs that request to the Paraguayan Immigration Department. Work and study are different categories and are handled by the embassy or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than at the border.

The advice this cluster cites is written for holders of a full British citizen passport, and the authorities in Paraguay set and enforce the rules. Check your own nationality's position with a Paraguayan consulate before you travel. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that.

⚠ The entry stamp, which is the reason this page exists

Make sure an immigration official stamps, dates and signs your passport when you arrive. Without an entry stamp you will be fined when you leave the country.

This matters most at a land border, and the cited advice names the crossing where it happens: Ciudad del Este to Foz do Iguacu, on the Brazilian side. It records that long distance bus drivers sometimes tell foreign nationals they can complete immigration formalities in Asuncion. That is not true. If you are crossing by bus, it is on you to get off at the border post, present your passport and see the stamp go in, even when the bus appears to be leaving and even when somebody in a uniform waves you on.

The same applies leaving. An exit stamp is the record that your 90 days ended when you say they did.

Yellow fever, which depends on where you have been

There are two separate things here and confusing them is the most common error in writing about Paraguay. They come from the same cited page and they do not overlap.

• The requirement. Proof of vaccination is required for travelers aged one year and over arriving from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru or Venezuela. An airport transit or layover of more than 24 hours in one of those four counts as arriving from it. For direct travel from the United States the vaccine is not required.
• The recommendation. Separately, the vaccine is recommended for all travelers aged nine months and over, except where travel is limited to the city of Asuncion.

So a visitor flying direct to Asuncion and staying in the city is outside both. The same visitor adding Iguazu Falls with a long connection in Brazil crosses into the requirement, and a visitor going out to the Chaco or the mission country is inside the recommendation whichever way they flew in. Decide your route before you decide your vaccinations, and talk to a travel health clinic well ahead of departure rather than in the last fortnight.

Traveling with children

Children under 18 who are resident in Paraguay need written permission, the Permiso del Menor, from any parent who is not traveling with them in order to leave the country. It is granted by a Justice of the Peace Court where the applicant lives. Read the qualifier carefully: this attaches to residence in Paraguay, not to nationality and not to visitors.

Money across the border

Cash or traveler's checks worth 10,000 US dollars or more must be declared. The declaration can be made online in advance or at terminals at the airport or point of arrival, and you are given a certified copy showing you brought it in. The money guide covers what to do with it once you are inside.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay entry requirements: a passport valid for the duration of the stay, 90 days of permission granted on arrival with a further 90 available from the Paraguayan Immigration Department, the instruction to make sure an immigration official stamps, dates and signs the passport on arrival, the fine levied on departure where there is no entry stamp, the note that long-distance bus drivers sometimes tell foreign nationals they can complete immigration formalities in Asuncion and that this is not true, the Permiso del Menor required of under 18s resident in Paraguay, the declaration required for cash or traveler's checks worth 10,000 US dollars or more, and the warning that false banknotes are common when changing money with people on the street or on arrival at the airport. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Paraguay traveler health: a yellow fever vaccine recommended for all travelers aged nine months and over except where travel is limited to the city of Asuncion, and separately a country entry requirement under which the vaccine is not required for direct travel from the United States but is required for travelers aged one year and over arriving from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru or Venezuela, counting airport transits and layovers of more than 24 hours in those countries; malaria recorded as a risk in some parts of Paraguay with no area named. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay travel advice: the index to the entry, safety, regional and health pages this cluster draws on, and the standing guidance that no travel can be guaranteed safe. Accessed 17 September 2026.