Moving to Uruguay: residency, without the made-up numbers
The two questions that are repeated are "How much income do they require?" and "Will it be enough to live on?". The first has an answer that dismantles the expectation: There is no published minimum amount.The second one depends on your numbers and is calculated.
Legal residency and tax residency are two different things, granted by two different agencies and serving different purposes. You can be a tax resident in Uruguay without having legal residency, and you can have legal residency without being a tax resident. Confusing them leads to completing the wrong procedure.
Legal and tax: two bodies, two effects
Legal residence
The permit to live in the country legally.
This is what allows you to reside and work legally. You apply for it with personal documents, background check, and proof of sufficient means of support. The ID card doesn't wait until the end: you can get it with the certificate of residency being processed by Immigration.
Tax residence
Where do you pay taxes? That's a completely different question.
It is determined by presence (more than 183 days in the calendar year), by having the main center of your interests here, or by investment. None of that gives you permission to live in the country.
View tax residency in detail"What income are they asking for?"
There is no figure.
There is no published minimum income amount. What is required is proof of sufficient means of support through one of the established categories—employment, self-employment, business ownership—not a specific figure. Any number circulating as "the required income" will not be considered outside of the official application process.
The three ways
Which route you get depends on your nationality. The MERCOSUR route is significantly easier: there's no proof of sufficient means of support, and only the temporary visa requires a health certificate. If you're Argentinian, look... How to obtain an ID card with Mercosur residency.
Temporary MERCOSUR
Nationals of MERCOSUR and associated countries.
- Identity document.
- Criminal record certificate from the country of origin and from any country where you have resided for 6 months or more in the last 5 years, apostilled and translated.
- Apostilled and translated birth certificate.
- Vaccination certificate.
- Valid Occupational Health Card, from a provider authorized by the MSP.
Permanent MERCOSUR
Nationals of MERCOSUR and associated countries, and foreign relatives of Uruguayans.
- Identity document, criminal record and vaccination certificate: the basis of the temporary permit, without the health card.
- Document proving the relationship, when the route is through a Uruguayan relative.
Permanent non-MERCOSUR
Nationals from the rest of the world.
- Valid identity document.
- Criminal record certificate from the country of origin and where you have resided for 6 months or more in the last 5 years, apostilled and translated.
- Uruguayan health card and vaccination certificate from authorized providers.
- Accreditation of means of subsistence.
- Marriage certificate or birth certificate when proof of a relationship is required.
All three lists require the documents to be "apostilled and translated," and there's a point of divergence there that the form doesn't explain: if the document comes from a country that hasn't ratified the Apostille Convention, there's no need to request an apostille. That document is certified by the Uruguayan consulate in the country where it was signed and then legalized here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is Another procedure, with a different fee and its own schedule.
How much does it cost and where is it done?
Exempt: Brazil and Paraguay. As it is in Indexed Units, the amount in pesos changes with the value of the UI.
The process begins online and is completed with an in-person appearance and the original documentation, at Mercedes 1004 (Montevideo) or at the offices of the National Directorate of Migration in the interior of the country. In other words: it is done in Uruguay.
Frequently Asked Questions
And can I afford to live here?
The other half of the question, with numbers instead of impressions.
Sources
Requirements and costs verified on August 10, 2026. This is reference information: what the National Directorate of Migration requests and resolves is what matters.
- gub.uy — Permanent Legal Residency
- gub.uy — Temporary Legal Residence Mercosur
- gub.uy — Mercosur Permanent Legal Residence
- gub.uy — National Identity Document, first time (residence in process)
- gub.uy — National Identity Document, renewal (residence in process)
- IMPO — Decree 501/978, art. 15 (provisional resident ID card in process)
- IMPO — Decree 208/013, art. 1 (initial validity of two years)
- National Directorate of Migration
- gub.uy — Temporary legal residence (means of subsistence from abroad)
- gub.uy — Application for recognition and validation of tertiary degrees
- MEC — Frequently asked questions about Higher Education (revalidations)