- Panama runs two different programs: Qualified Investor (immediate permanent residence) and Friendly Nations (restricted to 50+ nationalities).
- Panama's reduced $300,000 threshold ends 15 October 2026; Costa Rica's reduced $150,000 threshold had a sunset of 14 July 2026. Verify current status.
- Paraguay's $70,000 is capital committed over ten years, tied to creating at least five formal jobs.
- Argentina and Mexico are solvency tests, not investments; Uruguay's legal residency is separate from its far costlier tax-residency route.
- Eligibility by nationality and threshold dates come first; price comes second.
Latin America offers the lowest entry prices of any region and the widest variety of mechanisms: a property purchase here, a business plan that must create jobs there, a monthly income test in one country, a nationality-restricted deposit in another. Because several of the headline thresholds carry deadlines or caveats, this is the region where reading the fine print saves the most money.
The map at a glance
| Country and program | Mechanism | Indicative minimum | Outcome | Key caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panama: Qualified Investor | Unencumbered real estate, held 5 years | $300,000 (reduced), otherwise $500,000 | Immediate permanent residence | Reduced threshold scheduled to end 15 Oct 2026 |
| Panama: Friendly Nations | Fixed-term bank deposit (3 years), or other routes | $200,000 | Temporary, then permanent after two years | Only for nationals of 50+ designated countries |
| Paraguay: Investor Pass | Business investment creating formal jobs | $70,000 committed over 10 years | Immediate permanent residence | Newest program: effective 28 April 2026 |
| Uruguay: Legal Residency | Real estate and stable income | About $100,000 (no statutory minimum) | Legal residence | Separate from the far higher tax-residency route |
| Costa Rica: Inversionista | Real estate, business, shares or approved project | $150,000 (reduced), otherwise $200,000 | Investor residence | Reduced threshold had a sunset date of 14 July 2026 |
| Argentina: Rentista | Documented passive income | About $2,000 a month (recurring) | Residence | An income test, not an investment |
| Mexico: Temporary Residency | Financial-solvency test | $90,000 to $292,000, indexed to UMA | Temporary residence | No investor-visa statute; property alone does not qualify |
| Dominican Republic: Investor Residency | Real estate or direct business investment | $200,000 | Residency card in about 45 business days | Law 285-04 and Decree 950-01 |
Panama: two programs, very different logic
Panama runs two programs that are easy to confuse. The Qualified Investor Visa (Executive Decree 722 of 2020, updated by Decree 193 of 2024) grants immediate permanent residence with no temporary phase, for an unencumbered real-estate purchase held at least five years. Decree 193 reduced the threshold from the standard $500,000 to $300,000 only until 15 October 2026. Anyone planning to rely on the lower figure should treat that date as a hard deadline and confirm the live threshold before committing.
The Friendly Nations Visa (Executive Decree 226 of 2021) is reserved for citizens of more than fifty countries with close ties to Panama, a list that includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Spain and most EU members. It follows a two-year path from temporary to permanent residence, and the tracked route is a $200,000 fixed-term deposit with a Panamanian general-license bank for at least three years. Eligibility depends on nationality before anything else, so a Friendly Nations passport is the first thing to check.
Paraguay and Uruguay: the low-entry-cost pair
Paraguay's Investor Pass, in force from 28 April 2026 under Resolution 0283/2026, grants immediate permanent residence for a qualifying investment in a Paraguayan business. The headline $70,000 is committed capital over ten years, not a lump sum on day one: a first-year transfer with a clear deployment plan is generally acceptable, but the full commitment is legally enforceable. The business must create at least five formal jobs for Paraguayan nationals, and personal or family-use property is explicitly excluded. It is a business route in practice, not a passive purchase.
Uruguay's legal residency has no fixed statutory property minimum: a purchase of around $100,000 has historically sufficed, alongside a stable income of roughly $1,500 a month, but each case is judged on its facts. Do not confuse it with Uruguay's tax-residency route under Law 20.446, effective 1 January 2026, which carries a far higher threshold (about $2 million in real estate or $100,000 a year into an innovation fund) in exchange for a ten-year foreign-income tax holiday. They are different instruments with different purposes.
Costa Rica: a sunset that has passed
Costa Rica's Inversionista category, under the Law of Migration and Foreigners, cut the minimum from $200,000 to $150,000 under Law 9996, but only until 14 July 2026, after which the threshold was expected to revert unless the National Assembly renewed it. That date has now passed, so confirm the current rule before relying on the lower figure. Real estate must be held in the applicant's personal name rather than through a company, and accepted investment types include a registered business, shares and an approved project.
Argentina and Mexico: solvency, not investment
These two are not investment programs, and the Global Matrix labels them accordingly. Argentina's Rentista visa (Law 25.871, Article 6) is a recurring passive-income test: about five times the national minimum wage, commonly cited as roughly $2,000 a month from foreign passive sources such as dividends, rent or pensions. Mexico has no dedicated residency-by-investment law at all: the National Migration Institute grants temporary residence to applicants who document financial solvency, using thresholds indexed to the UMA unit, and property ownership alone does not qualify. Both can be genuine routes for people who will live there, but neither should be compared with a lump-sum program on a single "minimum investment" line.
The Dominican Republic: a Caribbean-Latin hybrid
The Dominican Republic's investor residency (Law 285-04, Decree 631-11 and Decree 950-01) requires $200,000 in real estate or a direct business investment and promises a residency card within an expedited 45-business-day window. A separate Law 171-07 covers a pensioner-and-rentista category for passive income. It sits geographically in the Caribbean but behaves like the Latin American residence routes in this guide.
How to choose
- Check eligibility by nationality first. Panama's Friendly Nations route is closed to most of the world.
- Read every threshold against its date. Panama and Costa Rica both had reduced figures with end dates. See Program Watch.
- Separate investment, business and solvency routes. They have different risks and different exit paths. See choosing the investment route.
- Apply real-estate discipline where property is involved: title, developer standing, exit costs and currency. See due diligence for residency routes.
- Do not mistake residence for tax residence. A permit and a tax status are different things; see the fundamentals.
See all eight on the Atlas, or talk to us about a shortlist.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice, and programme rules change, sometimes at short notice. Confirm current terms with Indohill and your own qualified advisers before acting. See our Disclosures.