Establish Residence and Citizenship

There are three possible statuses you can attain:

• Temporary resident--You get a cédula but it must be renewed every year. I believe (but am not sure) that you must show your status has not changed to renew it.
• Premanent resident--You get a cédula for five years which can be renewed with virtually no work.
• Citizen--Cédula and passport.

There are an assortment of "reasons" for residency, each with different requirements. For example:

• Volunteer work
• Investor
• Retiree (Must have a pension. Saying "I have the money" doesn't work.)
• Married to a Nicaraguan

While ultimately, your status is determined by Immigration (Migración), for Investor and Retiree you can apply through INTUR (Tourism). One advantage of working with INTUR is that they will then lean on Immigration to get the paperwork done. There are a lot of knows here. I am adding the following two sections that I received from Augusta Arguello who works for Dr. Modesto E. Barrios. He is with the law firm BARRIOS & ASOCIADOS. Here is their contact information.
Los Robles Segunda Etapa No. 120
Calle El Seductor
Managua, Nicaragua
Phone 505-278-0019
Email barrios@ibw.com.ni

These answers were sent to me in email. I have no connection with them (actually never met anyone there). I am just very pleased that they took the time to answer the questions I posed.

Aside from the two documents (included below) they sent me about what is needed and what it costs, I asked about how long it took. Her answer was "The government gives residency for one year renewable after the 3rd year one has renewed its residency they can start legal steps for obtaining permanent residency." She also said "[Once you have permanent residency] you can be naturalized and obtain Nicaraguan passport. Also you can apply for Nicaraguan passport by marriage to a Nicaraguan. (Now that I am married to a Nicaraguan and have read the law, this is an interesting comment. It appears that getting citizenship is easier if you are married to a Nicaraguan but what is said is somewhat ambiguous. My interpretation of the difference is that if you are married to a Nicaraguan you only need a permanent resident cédula and three years of living here full-time. If not, you need to have had the permanent resident cédula for three years. I will know for sure soon.)

Tramite de Residente

1. Tasas Gubernamentales Government Fees
   1. Certificación de domicilio Certification of domicile -- US$ 9.00
   2. Cambio de situación Migratoria Change of Inmigrations Status -- US$ 20.00
   3. Tramitación de Residencia Residence expedition -- US$ 40.00
   4. Derecho de Emisión de Carnet Residence Card emision -- US$ 18.00
   5. Agilización Expeditor Fee -- US$ 18.00
   6. Visa de Residencia Resident Visa -- US$ 25.00
   7. Depósito de boleto aéreo Deposit of bond -- This varies depending on the country of origin of the application. (Centa Banpro 10025611277779- Fondo Especial de Migración)
2. Honorarios Legales por tramite Legal Attorney Fees -- U$ 600.00
3. Documentos necesarios Required documents
   1. Carta de Solicitud solicitando residencia Letter requestiong residency
   2. Formulario Firmado Signed Application
   3. Certificado de Nacimiento (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Birth Certificate (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan consulate)
   4. Certificado de Policía del país de residencia (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Police record of country of residence (legalized and notarized before Nicaragua consulate)
   5. Certificado de Salud (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Health certificate (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan Consulate)
   6. Constancia de Ingresos (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Income Certification or letter (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan Consulate)
   7. Pasaporte (copia de todas las páginas usadas) Copy of all used pages of the passport
   8. 2 Fotos tamaños carnet 2 photographs

Tramite de Pensionado Residente

1. Tasas Gubernamentales Government Fees
   1. Certificación de domicilio Certification of domicile -- US$ 9.00
   2. Cambio de situación Migratoria Change of Inmigrations Status -- US$ 20.00
   3. Tramitación de Residencia Residence expedition -- US$ 40.00
   4. Derecho de Emisión de Carnet Residence Card emision -- US$ 18.00
   5. Agilización Expeditor Fee -- US$ 18.00
   6. Visa de Residencia Resident Visa -- US$ 25.00
   7. Depósito de boleto aéreo Deposit of bond -- This varies depending on the country of origin of the application. (Centa Banpro 10025611277779- Fondo Especial de Migración)
2. Honorarios Legales por tramite Legal Attorney Fees -- U$ 600.00
3. Documentos necesarios Required documents
   1. Carta de Solicitud solicitando residencia Letter requestiong pensionado residency
   2. Formulario Firmado Signed Application
   3. Certificado de Nacimiento (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Birth Certificate (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan consulate)
   4. Certificado de Policía del país de residencia (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Police record of country of residence (legalized and notarized before Nicaragua consulate)
   5. Certificado de Salud (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Health certificate (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan Consulate)
   6. Constancia de Ingresos por pension (Legalizado y autenticado ante cónsul Nicaragüense) Certification or letter certifying that you receive pension (legalized and notarized before Nicaraguan Consulate)
   7. Pasaporte (copia de todas las páginas usadas) Copy of all used pages of the passport
   8. 2 Fotos tamaños carnet 2 photographs

The legal fees for obtaining exoneration process (process is made before customs government offices) for import taxes on the household goods (US$10,000.00) and car (US$10,000.00) is not included in the legal fees.

Citizenship

If you wish to obtain citizenship, you must first become a permanent resident. The law regarding citizenship is Ley No. 149, Ley de Nationalidad. If can be found on the Legislature web site. Articles 7 & 8 deal with the specifics. Article 7 is for those not married to Nicaraguans, Article 8 if you are. Aside from the usual stuff (good guy, not a criminal, ...) you have to pass a test on the Spanish language, geography, history and the political and social organization of the country given. (Anyone know the details of this?) If you are married to a Nicaraguan, you can apply after two years of having your permanent resident cédula. If not, you have to wait four years. While the law seems a bit indefinite on this--that is, it definitely says four years for those not married to Nicaraguans, it could be interpreted such that your "clock" for the two years starts when you permanently move here, not when you obtain permanent residency. I asked this question of Barrios and Associates (see above) and was told it was two years after you got your permanent resident cédula.

Old Stuff

This information was here before and augments what I have included above.

There are some typical requirements of everyone and then specifics depending on what type of residency you want. If you want to skip ahead here, just take a look at http://nicaliving.com/node/view/335 which is the current form from the Ministerio de Governacion, Direccion General de Migracion y Extranjeria--the people you work with to establish your residence. This form includes all the possible things they could ask for and the fees associated with your residence.

Do you need a lawyer? No. But, unless you have a lot of free time, you want someone to help. That is, to run around with paperwork. A lawyer could do that. If you are not familiar with who lawyers are and what lawyers do in Nicaragua (and Costa Rica), erase your US knowledge of lawyers and get ready for a very different picture.

A lawyer is someone who has been to school to deal with legal matters. A notary is a lawyer who has practiced law (been a lawyer) for some amount of time (someone told me five years) and had then progressed to being a notary as well. A notary can write (and notarize) legal documents. Or, as some people say, "he has the stamp". The best parallel in the US judicial system is that what is a lawyer here is much more like a court clerk in the US. So, lawyers don't charge you $200/hour. So, while a lawyer is not required to get your residency, one that knows the procedures and possibly has friends in immigration may be the cheapest as well as fastest form of help. Note that an English-speaking lawyer is going to cost more than one who only knows Spanish.

The first step, that is what you need to do to figure out what you need to do, is to have a personal interview with the migration folks. I haven't done this myself yet but from everyone I talk to it is easy. That is, there are not there to play red tape with you, they just want to know who you are and what you want to do. Thus, if you like the weather, have a pension and want to retire, you say that. If you want to start a business exporting Nicaraguan crafts, open a B&B or whatever, say that. In my particular case, I an doing volunteer work for a foundation here and have a 2-year contract.

Once you complete that step you will have a list to work from. It seems like everyone will need at least the residence form (C$3 at immigration, a personal letter saying why you want residence, photocopy of all the pages of your passport, police report, medical certificate and two passport-sized photos. So, you can work on that in advance. You will also end up having to pay C$940 plus $10 in fees (that's about $70 total) for your residence. Each subsequent year you will have to pay a C$500 tariff to keep your residency. One catchy provision is that you will likely have to deposit the cost of a return trip to your country of origin. I have heard $500 is fairly common here.