Guatemala Government Services

The main portal is igm.gob.gt. IGM (Guatemala Migration Institute) is the national migration authority attached to MINGOB. It handles: residency for foreigners (temporary/permanent/investor/retiree/digital nomad), passport issuance (Código de Migración Art. 90), the rules for minors leaving the country, and migration control at La Aurora and Mundo Maya airports and land borders. Phone 2411-2411. Address 6a Av 3-11 Zona 4, Guatemala City. Hours Mon-Fri 8:00-16:30.

IGM. The Código de Migración (Decreto 44-2016, Art. 90) defines Guatemalan travel documents as those issued by the Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración. Inside Guatemala you apply at an IGM passport centre; if you live in the US or abroad, you apply at the nearest Guatemalan consulate, which works with IGM. Cost in Guatemala: US$50 (5 years) or US$85 (10 years); at a consulate: US$65 or US$100 (IGM tariff, pasaportes.igm.gob.gt). See: Guatemala Passport and consulates guide.

There are 5 main categories, and every figure here comes from the residency regulation in force, Acuerdo IGM-016-2025, and the fee schedule, Acuerdo IGM-029-2023. 1) Temporary Residency (study, work, religious) — granted “por un periodo de uno a cinco años” (IGM-016-2025 Art. 7). 2) Permanent Residency — on any of the grounds in Art. 78 of the Código de Migración (Decreto 44-2016), of which five years or more as a temporary resident is only the first. 3) Investor Residency — temporary residency for a foreigner who documents an investment “por un monto de cien mil dólares” (IGM-016-2025 Art. 17). 4) Rentista / Pensionado Residency — a permanent residency in its own right (Código Art. 78 literal e), requiring “ingreso mensual individual mínimo de un mil doscientos cincuenta dólares” plus USD 300 per dependent (IGM-016-2025 Art. 33). 5) Digital nomad, i.e. migrant worker with a foreign employer — bank statements for “un monto mínimo de dos mil dólares estadounidenses mensuales (US$ 2,000.00)”, or US$3,000 with dependents (IGM-016-2025 Art. 11 numeral 2). Published fees: US$25 to file (Tarifario numeral 3.1), then US$200 / US$300 / US$500 for a 1-, 2- or 3-to-5-year temporary residence (3.3.1 to 3.3.3), US$700 for a permanent residence (3.6), or US$400 for a permanent residence as rentista or pensionado (3.8). Corrected 20 September 2026: earlier versions of this answer gave a USD 1,000/month rentista floor, a USD 3,500/month remote-income floor, and a one-to-two-year cap on temporary residency. None of the three appears in the reglamento. See: Guatemala Residency, Investor, Retiree, Digital Nomad.

Yes. Every Guatemalan minor under 18 leaving the country without one or both parents needs a Minor Travel Authorization (exit permit). Filed at IGM (free if both parents sign before notary, up to Q500-1,500 if judicial intervention required for absent or unknown parent). Time 5-15 days. Validity 6 months. Without this permit airlines will NOT let the minor board and migration retains them at the border. See: Minor Travel Authorization.

Basic requirements: 1) Continuous legal residency in Guatemala for at least 5 years (2 years if you are Central American, Spanish or Filipino), 2) Good conduct with no criminal record, 3) Verifiable lawful means of living, 4) Exam on Guatemalan culture and constitution, 5) Renounce other citizenship (except if your country has a dual nationality treaty — e.g., Spain, Argentina, other Central Americans). Time 1-3 years. Cost Q1,000-3,000. See: Guatemala Citizenship Naturalization.

The Special Travel Pass is a temporary document for legal residents in Guatemala who need to travel abroad when their original passport is expired, lost, or being renewed. Cost Q500-1,000. Time 5-15 business days. It allows entry to a single specific country (usually the country of origin). It does NOT replace a permanent passport — only for one-off trips. See: IGM Special Travel Pass.

Yes in several cases: 1) If you return with foreign minor children and want to regularize their residency, 2) If you marry a foreigner and want to bring them to Guatemala as a resident, 3) If your foreign parent comes to live with you and needs retiree residency, 4) To authorize foreign travel for your Guatemalan children when you are in the US (signed before the Guatemalan consulate). For passport and birth registration abroad that is MINEX/RENAP, not IGM.

Tourists can stay 90 days in Guatemala (extendable 90 more days with IGM extension, total 180 days per entry). If you stay longer: 1) The Codigo de Migracion sets the fine at “quince Quetzales por dia de exceso de permanencia” — Q15 per day — for staying past the authorised period without a pending extension request (Decreto 44-2016, Art. 194 numeral 2), and the same article allows any fine to be paid in US dollars at the Banco de Guatemala reference rate on the day of payment. 2) In addition to fines, IGM may order you to leave the country “en un plazo no mayor de diez dias” (Art. 195), a sanction only IGM may impose (Art. 192). A re-entry prohibition is published, but it attaches to an expulsion, not to the overstay itself: the Reglamento General del Código de Migración sets “un plazo de dos años contados a partir de la fecha de expulsión” where the expulsion followed a suspension of stay or a breach of the Code and Reglamento, and “un plazo de cinco años contados a partir de la fecha de expulsión” where a Guatemalan court imposed expulsion as a pena accesoria (Acuerdo IGM-017-2023, Art. 24). An overstay on its own is sanctioned under Art. 194 numeral 2 and can lead to expulsion (Acuerdo IGM-015-2025, Art. 15) — the two-year and five-year clocks start only if an expulsion is actually imposed. See re-entry after deportation or refused entry for the full text. 3) You CANNOT access permanent residency without first paying all fines and sometimes leaving and re-entering. Extensions are processed at igm.gob.gt or regional offices before your tourist status expires.