Guatemala Visas, Taxes and Money for Digital Nomads

Citizens of the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries don’t need a visa to visit Guatemala. You get up to 90 days on arrival. Some nationalities need a visa in advance; check before you travel.

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua share one 90-day period under the CA-4 agreement. It starts on your first entry into any of the four and doesn’t restart when you cross between them, so a week in El Salvador comes out of the same 90 days. Visa rules for the other three countries differ by passport, so check each one separately.

Your passport needs at least six months’ validity on arrival. Make sure it’s stamped on entry: without a stamp, you can be fined and delayed when you leave. The UK government also advises completing Guatemala’s online immigration declaration before arriving and leaving.

You can extend a visitor stay once, by up to the same period you were given on arrival (usually another 90 days), for a total of about 180 days. The extension (prórroga) is handled in person by the IGM’s foreigners’ office (Subdirección de Extranjería) at 6a Avenida 3-11, Zona 4, Guatemala City, and you must apply before your current stay runs out.

• Fee: US$25, paid in quetzales at the bank counter in the IGM building.
• Documents: the extension form, your passport with your latest Guatemalan entry stamp, proof of payment, and one of the following: an onward ticket, an international credit card, or a Guatemalan guarantor.

You have to file in person, so bring photocopies of everything.

Once your 90 days and extension are used up, the usual way to start again is to leave the CA-4 area. Mexico and Belize are the closest options by land; Costa Rica, Panama and the US work by air. There is no published minimum time you must spend outside, and the immigration officer decides how many days you get when you return. Long-stayers who come back repeatedly sometimes get fewer than 90 days, so carry an onward ticket and proof of funds. If you plan to stay most of the year, residence is the safer route.

Overstaying costs Q15 a day, paid before you leave at the IGM office in Guatemala City, at the airport or at a land border. Overstaying an extension can lead to expulsion, and someone expelled from one CA-4 country is also barred from the others. Apply for an extension or residence before your stay ends: filing a residence application while you are still legal lets you stay while it is processed.

Guatemala doesn’t call it a nomad visa, but its residence regulations (Acuerdo IGM-016-2025, in force since October 2025) let migrant workers with a foreign employer live in Guatemala for one to five years. The IGM’s requirements sheet for migrant workers sets out the rules.

• Who: people working remotely in Guatemala for an employer outside the country. Staff of international NGOs and organisations follow a separate path with a contract and health insurance instead of the income test.
• Income: bank statements showing at least US$2,000 a month received from abroad over the last year, or US$3,000 a month if dependants come with you. A certificate from an accountant in your home country, legalised or apostilled, can be used instead of statements.
• Length: one, two or three to five years, at your request and IGM’s discretion. It can be renewed (apply 30 days before it ends), and after five years you can move to permanent residence.
• Family: a spouse or partner and children can apply at the same time, with documents proving the relationship.
• Self-employed: freelancers fall under a separate “own account” category, which needs a notarised sworn statement of your activities and projected income, registration with the tax authority (SAT) and authorisation to trade in Guatemala. In practice, that means registering a business in Guatemala.

Documents

• The application form, in a red folder, without corrections.
• Your passport and a complete notarised copy, with your latest entry stamp.
• A criminal record certificate from your country of origin, or from where you lived for the two years before arriving, apostilled or legalised.
• An IGM certificate of your migration movements showing your latest entry.
• Proof of income as above, and proof of payment.

Foreign documents must be apostilled or legalised, issued within the last six months, and translated into Spanish by your embassy or a sworn translator recognised in Guatemala.

How to Apply

Applications are filed in person at the IGM foreigners’ office in Guatemala City; an agent or lawyer can follow the file for you. Fees are paid in quetzales at the in-building bank, and the total, including apostilles and translations, typically comes to a few hundred US dollars for a short permit. Processing usually takes a few months and can include an interview and biometrics. Once it’s approved, you get a Guatemalan identity document (DPI) for foreigners from RENAP, which you need for bank accounts and contracts.

• Rentista or pensionado: permanent residence for people who don’t work and have a stable income from abroad of at least US$1,250 a month, plus US$300 for each dependant. Rentistas show income from investments or deposits; pensionados show a pension.
• Student: temporary residence for the length of a course at an officially recognised school or university, with proof you can support yourself.
• Guatemalan employer: temporary residence with a job offer and a Guatemalan guarantor, plus a work permit from the Ministry of Labour.
• Investor: temporary residence for investing at least US$100,000 in a Guatemalan business or property.

Guatemala’s migration code doesn’t mention remote work for foreign employers on a visitor stay, and nobody is checked for it in practice. Working for Guatemalan employers or clients is a different matter: it needs residence and, for employees, a work permit. If you want legal certainty for a long stay, the remote-worker residence above is the clear route.

Guatemala’s income tax (ISR) is territorial: it applies to income from Guatemalan sources, not to worldwide income.

• Tax residence: you are generally a tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Guatemala in a calendar year, or have a fixed place of business there.
• Employees of Guatemalan employers pay 5% on taxable income up to Q300,000 a year and 7% above that.
• Self-employed people registered in Guatemala choose between a simplified regime of about 5% to 7% of gross income and a profits regime at 25%.
• Remote income from abroad: salary or fees from a foreign employer or clients are generally treated as foreign-source and not taxed in Guatemala, though the law doesn’t spell out how it applies to work physically done in the country. Income from Guatemalan clients is taxable.
• No special regime: the remote-worker residence has no tax exemption, but because the system is territorial, most remote workers paid from abroad owe no Guatemalan income tax.

If you register with the SAT (needed for the self-employed residence route), you have filing obligations even if you owe little. This is a general guide, not tax advice; check with a Guatemalan accountant, and read our digital nomad taxes guide for how your home country may still tax you.

Guatemala’s currency is the quetzal (GTQ), at about 7.7 quetzales to the US dollar. Rent, food and transport are priced in quetzales. Some tourist businesses, shuttles and landlords in Antigua quote in dollars and take clean US notes, but you’ll usually get a worse rate. Other currencies, including pounds and euros, are hard to exchange, so bring a card or US dollars.

ATMs from banks such as Banco Industrial, Banrural and BAM take foreign cards, with limits of a few hundred dollars per withdrawal and a fee from the bank. Use ATMs inside banks or shopping centres, and always decline the machine’s own currency conversion. Cards work in supermarkets, chain restaurants and better hotels; markets, tuk-tuks, lanchas and small shops are cash only, and smaller lake villages may have one ATM or none, so carry enough cash.

Opening a bank account usually needs a residence permit and DPI, so most visitors live on foreign cards and cash. Wise and similar services are useful for paying rent in quetzales.