Living in Peru long term

Tourist entry (US passport holders are visa exempt): US passport holders do not need a tourist visa in advance; the United States is not on the visa required list of the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. The tourist quality bars any paid or lucrative activity (Reglamento Art. 77.1), and temporary qualities in general do not allow the holder to generate Peruvian source income (Art. 68.1). Entry and exit are recorded digitally (Tarjeta Andina de Migración virtual). Keep the passport valid for at least six months beyond entry.

Digital nomad visa (Peru does not have one): Decreto Legislativo 1350 and its Reglamento list every migratory quality (Reglamento Arts. 69 and 80), and none of them is a digital nomad or remote work visa. Remote workers in practice enter as tourists and work online for foreign employers or clients. Two limits frame that practice: temporary qualities do not allow the holder to generate Peruvian source income (Art. 68.1), and the Rentista residence quality is not a workaround for a foreign salary, because it requires a lifetime pension or permanent rent (pensión vitalicia o renta permanente). A salary from remote work is not a pension or permanent rent.

Rentista resident (permanent income from abroad or from Peru): This is the quality pensioners use as well; Decreto Legislativo 1350 has no separate pensioner quality. Work is not part of this quality: it is granted on proof of a pension or permanent rent, and paid work in Peru belongs to the Trabajador quality. Applications are filed in the Agencia Digital de Migraciones with a clean criminal, court, and police record certificate covering the country of origin and any country of residence in the last 5 years.

Pensioner resident (jubilado, granted under the Rentista quality): Peru has no separate jubilado or pensionado quality under Decreto Legislativo 1350, and there is no retirement visa with its own income scale. Pensioners qualify inside the Rentista quality (Reglamento Art. 92.1), which covers anyone living on a retirement pension or permanent rent of Peruvian or foreign source. Work is not part of this quality; paid work in Peru belongs to the Trabajador quality.

Investor resident (inversionista): The consular visa route requires the applicant to be outside Peru when the quality is granted. Migraciones checks that the business is real: the public deed of incorporation or capital increase (no older than 3 months), the company municipal operating license, and, for an existing company, its latest annual income tax filing. The investor position does not count against the Decreto Legislativo 689 foreign staff quotas (Art. 86.1).

Employee resident (trabajador dependiente): One Trabajador quality covers dependent and independent work (Reglamento Art. 88.1). Staff of transnational companies moved to a Peruvian affiliate as senior management, trusted personnel, or specialists are expressly included (Art. 88.2). Short assignments of up to 183 days in a year, extendable once, sit in the separate Trabajador/Designado temporary quality (Art. 75).

Self employed and independent professional (trabajador independiente): Peru has no separate freelancer or independent professional quality. Independent work sits inside the single Trabajador quality (Reglamento Art. 88), which runs two evidentiary tracks: an employment contract for employees, a RUC for independents. This is the quality a remote worker with Peruvian clients, or a professional building a local practice, actually qualifies under.

Designated assignee resident (designado): For highly specialized staff commissioned by an international corporation, typically to repair or maintain technically complex machinery or systems, or to run corporate audits and international certifications (Reglamento Art. 82.1). It is not a general intra company transfer route; ordinary transferees use the Trabajador quality, which expressly covers transnational company staff (Art. 88.2). The holder may not do paid work on their own account in Peru (Art. 82.2).

Researcher resident (investigación): This quality expressly authorizes dependent or independent income earning activity in the public or private sector (Reglamento Art. 87.2). Short research stays sit in the temporary Formación/Investigación quality instead: 90 days, extendable once for the same term (Art. 73).

Family resident (familiar residente): This quality carries full work rights: dependent or independent lucrative activity is allowed (Reglamento Art. 89.5). The marriage naturalization track fee is S/ 204.40 (code 07564, reported).

Student resident (formación): The Formación quality is for studies and does not carry a general work permit; paid employment in Peru belongs to the Trabajador quality. Short courses sit in the temporary Formación/Investigación quality instead: 90 days, extendable once (Reglamento Art. 73).

Religious resident (religioso): Work rights are limited to the religious or pastoral activity of the sponsoring congregation or organization.

Permanent resident (permanente residente): Family members of a permanent resident can access the Permanente quality directly under the family unity principle (Reglamento Art. 93.4). The 3 year count is of residence: time spent on temporary qualities does not count toward it.

Naturalization (nacionalidad por naturalización): Operative rules are Ley 26574 and its Reglamento DS 004-97-IN, with fees in the Migraciones TUPA (DS 008-2023-IN): adult applicant, 2 consecutive years of legal residence with no absence over 183 days in either of the last two years unless authorized, an evaluation exam, an INTERPOL international exchange record, clean police, court, and prison records, and the 10 UIT solvency file. The grant is delivered at a swearing ceremony and the title is then registered at Reniec to obtain a DNI. Peru allows dual nationality and does not require renouncing the US passport. Ley 32421, published in El Peruano in August 2025, raises the residence term to 5 years, keeps the 10 UIT test with formal tax compliance, and adds language and civics evaluation; Migraciones has published the changes, but the law takes effect only when its implementing regulation is published, and that regulation was still pending at the last verification, so the 2 year rule still governs filings.

Peruvian nationality by birth (child of a Peruvian born abroad): Article 52 of the Constitution, as reformed in 2018: a person born abroad to a father or mother who is Peruvian by birth is Peruvian by birth when registered in the corresponding registry, and the 2018 reform removed the old requirement to register during minority, so adults can register. The right extends to descendants up to the third generation (Ley de Nacionalidad). Registration is made at the Peruvian consulate where the birth occurred, with the local birth certificate, proof that the parent is Peruvian by birth, and identity documents (gob.pe). Children of naturalized Peruvians do not qualify for this registry; the parent must be Peruvian by birth.