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Flag of Guatemala

Guatemala

Digital Nomad Temporary Residence (Residencia Temporal de Nómada Digital)

PR: YesUTC−6

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
No fixed amount
Required savings
None
Annual total
No fixed amount
Initial duration
1 year, renewed annually
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
Not stated

IGM is reported to apply US$2,000/month, US$3,000 with dependents; the acuerdo itself has not been read.

How this figure is set: The law asks for "sufficient means" and sets no figure. Formula: Reported as US$2,000/month of verified remote income from a foreign employer, rising to US$3,000 where dependents are included, with no fixed figure on the self-employed route beyond registration with the SAT. That is IMI Daily citing Acuerdo IGM-016-2025; VisaAtlas, reading the same instrument, records only 'sufficient foreign-source income to support the stay' and names no figure at all. Two readings of one text disagree on whether a threshold exists, so data rule 1 governs and the figure is reported here rather than stored as the threshold.

Income confidence: low · checked 2026-09-21
Legal basis: Acuerdo IGM-016-2025, Reglamento de Residencias Guatemaltecas, together with Acuerdo IGM-017-2025, in force 8 October 2025. The date and the instrument numbers are confirmed independently by EY's tax alert, by LexLatin and by Consortium Legal. The acuerdo is published as a PDF on igm.gob.gt, which sits behind Cloudflare bot protection and answered 403 to every attempt on 21 September 2026 — direct, through a text proxy and with a browser user agent — so nothing on this row has been checked against the text. LexLatin also records that 'no existe aún un criterio uniforme entre los oficiales y analistas' on how the category is applied in practice.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

Direct pathway. Five years of temporary residence qualifies for residencia permanente, and the nomad permit is temporary residence, so its years count.

Reported consistently by Consortium Legal (January 2026) and by IMI Daily as five years of temporary residence in good standing leading to residencia permanente, with naturalisation at ten years. The rule is the ordinary Guatemalan one rather than anything written for nomads, which is exactly what makes it a Yes under the narrow grading: the permit is temporary residence, and its years are temporary-residence years. It has not been read against the Ley de Migración or the acuerdo, so it is graded medium rather than high.

Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-21

Where it is

Guatemala City sits at 14.63° N, 90.51° W.

Guatemala picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Guatemala City. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC−6 Guatemala (America/Guatemala)

The country

Region
Americas · Central America
Capital
Guatemala City
Currency
GTQ

Next door

Guatemala shares a land border with these.

What it costs to live there

$479 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Guatemala spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Guatemala City
$1,156 / month incl. rent
of which rent $571

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • Spanish official
  • Kaqchikel common in cities
  • Qʼeqchiʼ common in cities
  • Kʼicheʼ common in cities
  • Mam limited

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
  3. Apply through the route the official page names.
  4. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  5. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

IGM residencies page ↗

Live since 8 October 2025 and the newest programme in Central America. The same reform dropped the garante requirement, which until then meant a Guatemalan citizen had to co-sign for every foreign resident.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .