In short: The prórroga costs US$25.00, adds up to 90 days to a 180-day ceiling from your entry, and is filed in person at 6 Avenida 3-11, zona 4, Guatemala City, Nivel 2, Monday to Friday 07:00–15:00. The current form is PVT-IGM-01-2026 — if your guide says 2024 or 2025, it is out of date, and an English version exists. Acuerdo IGM-015-2025 Article 15 sets exactly four requirements, and the third is a choice of three: a departure ticket, an international credit card, or a Guatemalan guarantor. Apply before your current period expires; after that the overstay fine is Q15.00 per day. This page reports published requirements; it is not legal advice.
Most write-ups of the Guatemalan tourist extension tell you it exists and what it costs. That is not what you need at 07:00 on the morning you go. What you need is the list of what to put in the folder, in the order the regulation asks for it, with the alternatives spelled out — because the one requirement that trips people up has three different ways to satisfy it and nobody writes them all down.
This page is that list, taken from the regulation and the current form, not from a summary.
If you have not decided between extending, running the border and filing for residency, start with do you actually need a border run — the current residency regulation (Acuerdo IGM-016-2025, Art. 4) changed the answer for a lot of people. If you are weighing the cost, what a border run actually costs prices both options against each other.
The checklist
Print this, or work down it the night before.
| # | Item | Detail from the regulation and the form |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The form: SOLICITUD DE PRÓRROGA DE VISA DE TURISTA O VIAJERO, PVT-IGM-01-2026 | Download it fresh from igm.gob.gt. IGM publishes it under a /wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ path and also publishes an English version at the same path with -INGLES on the filename. The form number changes with the year — a saved 2024 or 2025 PDF is superseded |
| 2 | Valid passport with the stamp of your last entry | Art. 15 numeral 2: “Pasaporte válido y vigente donde conste el sello del último ingreso a Guatemala.” If the passport was lost in Guatemala, a valid travel document is accepted instead. The form adds that the visa is only issued in a passport with not less than 6 months of validity |
| 3 | ONE of these three | Art. 15 numeral 3 — see the section below. A departure ticket or an international credit card or a Guatemalan guarantor |
| 4 | Proof of payment | Art. 15 numeral 4: “Comprobante de pago.” The fee is US$25.00, charged in quetzales |
| 5 | For a minor, one extra item | Art. 15, final paragraph: the parents exercising patria potestad or the legal representative must additionally present a plain photocopy of the ID of one or both parents, or of the legal representative |
| 6 | Photocopies of everything | Not a published requirement — a practical one. Every Guatemalan office runs faster when you hand over a copy set instead of queuing for one |
Requirement 3 in full, because this is the one people get wrong
Article 15 numeral 3 of Acuerdo IGM-015-2025 is a single sentence offering three alternatives. Any one of them satisfies it:
“Boleto de viaje de salida del país o tarjeta de crédito internacional o constitución de garante guatemalteco presentando para el efecto acta notarial de constitución de garante guatemalteco bajo declaración jurada y constancia actualizada de registro de garante guatemalteco”
| Alternative | What it actually means |
|---|---|
| A departure ticket | A travel ticket out of the country. The simplest option if you already have a flight |
| An international credit card | On its own. You do not need a ticket if you present this |
| A Guatemalan guarantor | The heaviest of the three: a notarial deed constituting the guarantor under sworn declaration, plus a current constancia de registro de garante guatemalteco. Two documents, one of them from a notary, and the registration certificate must be current |
Most people walk in with option two and are done. The guarantor route exists for someone with neither an onward ticket nor an international card — it is not the default, and treating it as one is what makes this trámite sound harder than it is.
Where, when, and whether to book
| Detail | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 6 Avenida 3-11, zona 4, Ciudad de Guatemala — Nivel 2, Subdirección de Extranjería | IGM, “Atención extranjeros, ¿Sabe cómo ampliar su estadía en Guatemala?”, dated 12 February 2025 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 07:00–15:00 | IGM announcement, 19 February 2026 |
| Appointment | Not mandatory. IGM: “Puede programar su cita y descargar el formulario en el sitio web igm.gob.gt.” For residency filings it says the same thing more explicitly: “Agendar Cita (Recomendado)… Si no agenda una cita, puede presentarse directamente a las instalaciones.” | IGM |
| Online filing | No. “El ingreso del expediente es de forma personal en las oficinas que ocupa la Subdirección de Extranjería.” IGM’s online services cover data updates, payment orders and certificates | Form IGM 02-2025; IGM announcement, 19 February 2026 |
| Time at the window | Not published. One traveller report from a Guatemala expat group in 2026: “I did it 2 weeks ago and I was in and out in 15 minutes.” One person, one day — not a service standard | Traveller report, Facebook expat group, 2026 |
Our IGM office overview covers the building’s other services.
Why your quetzal total will not match your friend’s
This is small, unwritten anywhere else, and it explains a recurring confusion. The fee is published in dollars and collected in quetzales, and the conversion is not the day’s rate.
Acuerdo IGM-029-2023, Article 6, gives IGM the power to fix a reference price valid for each quarter, calculated from the “tipo de cambio para la venta que resulte del promedio simple correspondiente a los primeros veinte días del último mes de cada trimestre” — the simple average of the sell rate over the first twenty days of the last month of the quarter, using the Banco de Guatemala daily reference rate. IGM must issue a resolution setting it and communicate it to every collecting office at least five days before it takes effect, so that it can be posted “en lugares visibles para conocimiento de los usuarios”
So: the quetzal amount is a quarterly fixed figure posted at the office, not today’s exchange rate. Two people paying in the same quarter pay the same quetzales; two people paying three months apart may not. If the posted figure surprises you, it is on a sign in the room.
The deadline, and what happens if you miss it
Article 15’s closing paragraph is the operative one:
“La solicitud podrá hacerse antes de expirar el plazo otorgado para no incurrir en multa por estadía irregular o causa justificada de expulsión. Al expirar el plazo de permanencia otorgado con su respectiva prórroga, el Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración podrá imponer la sanción justificada de expulsión del territorio nacional y cancelar la Visa otorgada, esto sin perjuicio de la aplicación de la multa por exceso en permanencia.”
Two separate consequences sit in that sentence. Filing late exposes you to the overstay fine — Q15.00 per day, under Article 194 numeral 2 of the Código de Migración (Decreto 44-2016). Overstaying the extension itself exposes you to expulsion and cancellation of the visa, on top of the fine.
The pay-it-at-the-airport strategy circulates widely, and it prices only the first of those. Q15 a day for a fortnight is Q210; the same fortnight past the end of an extension is a different category of problem.
One clause worth reading closely: Article 194 numeral 2 fines someone for staying longer than authorised “sin tener pendiente gestión de ampliación” — without a pending extension application. The fine attaches to people with nothing filed. But a filed residency application does not shield you indefinitely: Acuerdo IGM-016-2025 Art. 35 gives you thirty days from notification to satisfy a previo, and Art. 58 archives a file you stop acting on for six months or more — in both cases the applicant “incurrirá en multa por permanecer por más tiempo del que ha sido autorizado”. What that means for anyone who has instead filed for residency is covered in do you actually need a border run.
How many days you actually get
Article 14 of Acuerdo IGM-015-2025 is precise, and the precision matters:
“el plazo de permanencia para un turista o viajero en territorio guatemalteco, según lo establecido en el primer párrafo del artículo 74 del Código de Migración, no podrá exceder de 90 días, el cual podrá ser prorrogable por una sola vez por un plazo igual al otorgado, que no podrá exceder de 180 días a su ingreso al territorio.”
Three things follow:
- The extension is for a period equal to the one you were granted — “por un plazo igual al otorgado”. If the officer at the border wrote 50 days rather than 90, that is the number the extension matches. Travellers do get less than 90: one report from an El Carmen day trip describes being re-admitted for exactly 50 days.
- The ceiling is 180 days from your entry, not 180 days from the extension.
- Once, and only once. Article 74 of the Código de Migración says “prorrogable por una sola vez”. There is no second prórroga. Past 180 days the instrument is residency, not another extension.
Which stamp starts your clock
The 2026 form settles a question that trips up anyone who has been moving around Central America:
“deberá contener el sello de ingreso al territorio nacional o al de los demás Estados parte (El Salvador, Honduras y Nicaragua). De la fecha de dicho sello se determinará la permanencia en el territorio CA-4.”
Your 90 days run from your first entry into the CA-4 zone, not from the day you crossed into Guatemala. If you entered Honduras three weeks before arriving here, you have three fewer weeks than you think.
The same clause is why one popular plan does not work as advertised. Costa Rica is not a CA-4 party, so leaving to Costa Rica does break the zone — but it is a flight, not a cheap land hop, and people conflate “leave CA-4” with “cross a land border”. Honduras and El Salvador are land borders that reset nothing.
If you are travelling with a pet
Do not skip this line. An extension keeps the animal at home; a border run does not. Guatemala requires an export certificate for a pet leaving by land, obtained in person in zona 13 before you travel, and charges $14.00 per pet for the inspection when you come back — MAGA writes both figures with a bare dollar sign and names no currency. The full three-country picture is in doing a border run with a dog or cat.
What we could not verify
- Any published processing time for the prórroga. IGM publishes 30 días hábiles for residency applications and nothing for this one. The 15-minute figure on this page is a single traveller report and is labelled as one.
- The current quarter’s quetzal figure. IGM sets it by resolution and posts it at the office; it is not published as a standing number on the website.
- Whether the appointment system covers the prórroga specifically or only residency filings. IGM’s wording about booking a cita appears alongside the form download link, and the explicit “puede presentarse directamente a las instalaciones” language appears in the residency instructions.
- Whether IGM’s stated hours vary by window. The 07:00–15:00 figure is the announced office schedule.
Related
- Do you actually need a border run? — whether the trip is necessary at all, and the filing route that ends the 90-day clock.
- Border runs by nationality — fees and documents by passport, in both directions.
- What a border run actually costs in 2026 — the fee ledger, fares and lodging, with a source and date on every figure.
- Doing a border run with a dog or cat — the animal-health layer MAGA, SENASICA and BAHA add to the trip.
- Guatemala residency with no waiting period — the family door with no clock, compared with the marriage route.
Sources
IGM, Reglamento de Visas Guatemaltecas, Acuerdo IGM-015-2025, Art. 14 (validity and the 180-day ceiling) and Art. 15 (the four requirements, the minor’s extra document, and the deadline clause) — primary text read 2026-09-16.
IGM, Reglamento de Tarifas por Servicios Migratorios, Acuerdo IGM-029-2023, Art. 3 numeral 2.2 (the US$25.00 fee, verbatim) and Art. 6 (the quarterly conversion rule) — primary text read 2026-09-17.
Congreso de la República, Código de Migración, Decreto 44-2016, Art. 74 (90 days, extendable once) and Art. 194 numeral 2 (Q15.00 per day, and the “sin tener pendiente gestión de ampliación” condition) — primary text read 2026-09-16.
IGM, form PVT-IGM-01-2026, Solicitud de prórroga de visa de turista o viajero, published at igm.gob.gt under /wp-content/uploads/2026/01/, with an English version at the same path — verified 2026-09-16.
IGM, “Atención extranjeros, ¿Sabe cómo ampliar su estadía en Guatemala?”, igm.gob.gt, dated 12 February 2025 (address); IGM announcement of 19 February 2026 (hours, in-person filing); IGM form IGM 02-2025 (in-person filing) — all retrieved 2026-09-16.
Traveller reports are from a Guatemala expat group, harvested 2026-09-16, and are labelled as anecdote wherever they appear.
This page reports published requirements as of the dates above. It is not legal advice. Forms and fees change — download the form on the day and check the posted quetzal figure at the office.