Guide

Uruguay Digital Nomad Permit and the Path to Residency

Uruguay's Decreto 238/022 remote worker permit covers up to 12 months and does not turn into residence on its own. This guide covers how to switch to temporary or permanent residence, the income proof each step needs, and the 183 day tax line.

Published: 2026-10-16 · Last verified: 2026-10-16 · Numbers apply to US passport holders

The short version

Uruguay's remote worker permit under Decreto 238/022 lasts 6 months and can be renewed once for 6 more. That makes 12 months in total. The permit does not convert into residence by itself. To stay past month 12, you file a separate residence application with the Dirección Nacional de Migración. You can apply for permanent residence directly, at any time. You do not need temporary residence first, and there is no minimum time in the country. The full route data is on the Uruguay country page.

What Decreto 238/022 grants

• Length: 6 months per grant, renewable once for 6 more months, for a maximum stay of 12 months.
• Permitted work: only for employers or clients outside Uruguay. You qualify if you work for an employer abroad, or if you are self employed and serve clients abroad.
• Document: a Hoja de Identidad Provisoria, which is a provisional identity document. After the permit is granted, you book an appointment at the Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil to collect it.
• Cost: about UYU 312. You pay it inside Uruguay at Abitab, RedPagos or Correo Uruguayo.
• Processing: there is no published deadline for a decision.

How the application works

You must be in Uruguay to apply. US citizens with an ordinary passport enter visa free and get 90 days at the port of entry. The Dirección Nacional de Migración can extend that once by 90 days, so the most you can stay as a non resident is 180 days. Paid work is not allowed in the non resident category. Once inside the country, you apply for the permit online through gub.uy.

Keep the identity document safe. You need it to renew the permit, and you need it to leave Uruguay after the first three months of your stay. Questions about the procedure go to the Dirección Nacional de Migración at dnm-hip@minterior.gub.uy.

Income documentation for the permit

The decree sets no minimum income. You must show that you work for an employer abroad or serve clients abroad, and you sign a sworn declaration that you can support yourself during the stay. Relocation sites often quote USD 1,500 a month. That figure does not appear in the official texts.

Renewal at month 6

The renewal adds 6 months and needs two documents you did not need for the first grant:

• A Uruguayan vaccination record.
• Clean criminal records from your country of origin and from every country where you lived more than 6 months in the last 5 years. A US citizen who spent 2 years in Mexico and 1 year in Portugal within that 5 year window needs three records: US, Mexico and Portugal.

After 12 months, you must either leave or switch to temporary or permanent residence. Start the residence file well before month 12.

The tax residency math

You become a Uruguayan tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Uruguay in a calendar year. You also become one if the core of your activities, or your economic or vital interests, is in Uruguay. That applies whatever your day count (Ley 18.083). Vital interests are presumed when your spouse and minor children live in Uruguay. Absences of up to 30 consecutive days still count as days in Uruguay. A two week trip home does not stop the count.

Twelve months is about 365 days. Split across two calendar years, one year must hold at least 183 of those days. In practice, a full 12 month stay on this permit crosses the 183 day line in one calendar year. Uruguay taxes Uruguayan source income. Individuals' foreign source income mostly falls outside the personal income tax, with some exceptions. Check how your own income is treated before you cross the line.

Moving to residence

Both residence routes are filed with the Dirección Nacional de Migración. Once you file, you have residente en trámite status and a provisional identity document while the agency decides. No deadline for that decision is published. While the file is pending, every trip out of Uruguay requires a reentry permit.

• Temporary residence: granted for the period you request, from 6 months to 2 years per grant. It can be renewed while your grounds continue, up to 4 years of temporary residence in total (Decreto 394/009, Article 11). File each renewal within the 90 days before expiry.
• Permanent residence: it never expires. You lose it if the conditions you were admitted on no longer hold, or if you are away from Uruguay for more than 3 years (Decreto 394/009, Article 10). Only the identity card, the cédula, is renewed. If you spend more than 6 months in another country while the file is pending, you must add a criminal record from that country.

For a remote worker who plans to stay, the temporary step is optional. You can go straight from the permit to a permanent residence application.

Income documentation for residence

Permanent residence has no fixed minimum income. You must show enough means to support yourself, using one of the options published by the Dirección Nacional de Migración:

• Employment by a foreign company with no Uruguayan branch. This is the option that matches most permit holders.
• Self employment or business income.
• Uruguayan employment income.
• Retiree, pensioner or rentier income from abroad. This is documented with a notarial certificate stating your status, the type of income, the nominal monthly amount and how you receive it in Uruguay (Decreto 394/009, Article 4).

Temporary residence for work works differently. The employer's letter must state monthly pay of at least one national minimum wage. The minimum wage is reported at UYU 25,383 a month from July 2026, up from UYU 24,572 in January 2026. At the July rate, that is UYU 304,596 a year. The employer registers the worker with the Banco de Previsión Social (BPS). Self employed applicants file a sworn declaration and register with BPS, and with the tax authority (DGI) where that applies.

All residence applicants need a criminal record certificate and a Uruguayan health card (carné de salud). Applicants born in the United States can ask Interpol in Montevideo to request the FBI record directly. For the temporary residence procedure, applicants who do not speak Spanish must bring an interpreter to the appointment.

Residence fees

Residence fees are set in Unidades Indexadas (UI) and readjusted every six months. Each applicant pays a 557.30 UI residence fee, plus 55.70 UI for the migration certificate used to get the cédula once residence is granted. That is 613 UI in total. Each departure while the file is pending adds 225.60 UI. With two trips out during processing, the total is 613 + 451.20 = 1,064.20 UI. US citizens are not exempt; only Brazilian and Paraguayan nationals are, under reciprocity. The peso value of a UI moves with inflation, so check it on the day you pay.

The clock to citizenship

Under Article 75 of the Constitution, legal citizenship requires 3 years of habitual residence in Uruguay if you have family constituted there, or 5 years if you do not. You also need good conduct and a capital, property, or a science, art or industry. The rights of legal citizenship can be exercised 3 years after the citizenship charter is granted.

Before you apply

Permit terms, fees in UI, the minimum wage and the residence document lists all change. Before you book travel or file, confirm each requirement with the Dirección Nacional de Migración on gub.uy and with the Live in Uruguay portal run by Uruguay XXI. Use the sources below and the Uruguay country page as your starting checklist.

Country pages

Uruguay: every long stay route with the current math on the Uruguay country page.

Official sources

• Uruguay XXI, Live in Uruguay portal: entry procedures and digital nomad permit (Decreto 238/022)
• gub.uy, Dirección Nacional de Migración: Residencia legal temporaria
• gub.uy, Dirección Nacional de Migración: Residencia legal permanente
• Embassy of Uruguay in the United States: Visas y migración

Facts in this guide last verified against the sources: 2026-10-16