Moving to Paraguay from Poland

Step 1

The documents a Polish citizen assembles

Paraguay's Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) expects a specific, modest set of documents under Ley 6984/2022. As a Pole you gather these at home, before you fly:

• A Polish passport (paszport) valid well beyond your planned travel — check the expiry date now, not at the airport. Your dowód osobisty is fine inside the EU, but Paraguay wants the passport.
• Your birth certificate — a current odpis aktu urodzenia from any Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (USC), not an old copy from a drawer. Request the full copy (odpis zupełny) if asked, and a recent issue date.
• A zaświadczenie o niekaralności — the certificate of no criminal record from the Krajowy Rejestr Karny (KRK). Crucial detail: order the paper version issued by a court (KRK punkt informacyjny), with a wet-ink stamp and signature. The electronic e-KRK file cannot be apostilled, so the convenient online version is the wrong one for Paraguay.
• Your marriage certificate (odpis aktu małżeństwa) from the USC, if you are married and applying as a couple.
• Every one of these documents must then be apostilled — see Step 2 — and translated into Spanish by a translator matriculated with Paraguay's Supreme Court.

Step 2

Apostilles — one ministry, but the right document version

Poland belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention, so Paraguay accepts an apostille and you skip consular legalization entirely. Unlike federal Germany, Poland has a single apostille authority — which makes this step simpler, with one important catch about document form.

• The apostille for civil-registry documents (odpis aktu urodzenia, odpis aktu małżeństwa) and your KRK criminal-record certificate is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (MSZ) — in Warsaw, at ul. Krucza 38/42. The official MSZ fee is 60 PLN per document; confirm the current figure for your year, and note that agencies charge more for handling it for you.
• The catch is the document itself: the MSZ apostilles only paper originals carrying a wet-ink court seal and signature. The electronic e-KRK printout and electronically-issued odpisy cannot be apostilled — even a printout bearing an electronic seal is refused. Order the paper court version of your zaświadczenie o niekaralności from the start, or you will queue at the MSZ only to be turned away.
• Booking is by appointment — through the MSZ's online system or its apostille registration channel — and you must present the original document in person, by an agent, or by mail. The MSZ's own apostille turnaround is short (often a few business days), but build in extra time for ordering the paper originals, appointments, and courier — realistically a couple of weeks per document.
• Sworn translation into Spanish happens after the apostille, by a translator matriculated with Paraguay's Supreme Court. It is normally done in Asunción, and getting it right the first time matters — a Polish sworn translation (tłumacz przysięgły) done before you leave will usually be redone there.

Be honest with yourself

Leaving Poland's tax system is a task, not a flight

Poland taxes on residence, not citizenship — so unlike a US citizen, you can genuinely end your Polish tax liability by leaving. But it is something you do deliberately, not something that happens when you land in Asunción. Two things matter. First, residency itself: Poland treats you as a tax resident — taxed on your worldwide income — if you spend more than 183 days a year in Poland or keep your centrum interesów życiowych (centre of vital interests) there. Either test alone is enough, and the centre-of-life test is the one that catches people: family, a main home, your main source of income, bank accounts and investments left behind in Poland can keep you tax-resident even after you fly. Genuinely move your life, do the wymeldowanie (de-registering your address at the urząd — the notification itself is free; only an official certificate of deregistration carries a small 17 PLN stamp duty), and be ready to evidence that your centre of life is now in Paraguay. Second, the exit tax (podatek od niezrealizowanych zysków, in force since 2019 under the EU ATAD directive): when you move your tax residence abroad it can treat certain assets — shares, securities, business holdings — as deemed-sold and tax the unrealised gain, but for individuals it applies only once the total value of the relevant assets exceeds 4 million PLN. Most ordinary movers are well under that threshold; if you hold a substantial company stake or portfolio, you are not. The honest summary: Paraguay can genuinely lower both your cost of living and, done correctly, your tax — but the Polish exit needs to be planned. Speak to a Polish doradca podatkowy before any tax-driven decision, and read the tax section and tax residency pages.

Getting there

Flights, timeline, and your first weeks

A realistic picture of the move itself:

• There are no direct flights from Poland to Asunción. Common routings connect through Madrid (Air Europa) or São Paulo (LATAM, Gol), with other one-stop options via Panama City (Copa) or other European and South American hubs — budget a full travel day, typically 18 to 22 hours door-to-door, each way.
• Document preparation — ordering the paper KRK and USC odpisy, the MSZ apostilles, courier time, and sworn translation in Asunción — typically runs 6 to 12 weeks from Poland, paced by your slowest step.
• As a Polish (EU) citizen you do not need a visa to enter Paraguay as a tourist — you are granted a 90-day stay on arrival. You begin the residency process in person, after you arrive, at the DNM.
• Paraguay's embassy in Berlin is its accredited mission for Poland (and for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), so that is where you turn from Poland if you need a document checked or a question answered before you fly.

FAQ

Moving to Paraguay from Poland — FAQ