Uruguay

It was substantially rewritten by Ley 20.446 (the 2025–2029 national budget), with effect from 1 January 2026, and the reform cuts both ways. The holiday was lengthened to 11 years, the year of arrival plus ten. But the real estate investment gateway was repriced from roughly USD 590,000 to UI 12.5 million, about USD 2 million, and the old 60-day presence route was eliminated. At the same time, foreign immovable-capital income and capital gains on assets producing movable-capital yields became taxable at 12% for residents who are not inside a holiday. If you were planning against the old numbers, that plan is now void.

Eleven years of effectively nil tax on foreign passive income for those becoming resident from 1 January 2026. That is longer than Italy's regime. When it expires, the choice is a roughly 6% rate for five years, subject to its own investment conditions, around USD 1m of real estate or USD 100k/year, or a fixed annual IRPF sum reported at roughly USD 300,000, about USD 200,000 with 183+ days' presence, for twenty years. You should model the exit before the entry. For very large portfolios, the fixed-sum option may be the entire point of the exercise.

Only if you qualify through the presence gateway. That route now requires more than 183 days a year, and it is the only presence-based option since the 60-day rule was removed. The investment gateways work differently. Put UI 12.5m (~USD 2m) into real estate, or UI 625,000 (~USD 100k) a year into qualifying funds, and you do not need to hit 183 days to qualify for the holiday. Even so, you still need to be a genuine Uruguayan tax resident for the holiday to mean anything. And legal residency itself is a separate track from the tax election.

No. Uruguay's Impuesto al Patrimonio applies only to assets located in Uruguay, and there is a meaningful exempt minimum before it even applies. Foreign assets sit outside its scope entirely. There is also no true inheritance tax, just a small transfer tax, the ITP, on Uruguayan real estate. This is a large part of why people call Uruguay the Switzerland of the Southern Cone. One caveat: the 2026 reform did bring some foreign capital income and gains into charge at 12% for residents outside a holiday.

Uruguay allows dual citizenship, so you keep the passport you already have. Naturalisation grants what the law calls ciudadanía legal after three years of habitual residence if you have family established in Uruguay, or five years without. But there is a further wait after the carta de ciudadanía before you actually receive the Credencial Cívica and full civic rights. In practice, the full effect lands closer to six to eight years from arrival. There is no formal language exam, though the Corte Electoral does assess your Spanish and your integration in person.

Yes, largely. Between 2015 and April 2025 the passport showed the holder's country of birth in the nationality field. That caused refusals and visa demands at Argentine and Chilean borders for legal citizens. From 23 April 2025 the field was renamed Nationality/Citizenship and now shows URY for natural and legal citizens alike. The Place of Birth field was removed, in line with ICAO standards. If you hold a pre-2025 booklet, replace it.

There is no hard statutory figure. The Dirección Nacional de Migración assesses sufficiency case by case, and the commonly cited working figures are USD 1,500–2,500 a month of stable, lawful income. That discretion sounds permissive, but it means files are judged on the whole picture, and refusals are not always well-reasoned. Processing is thorough and slow. Plan on a year or more to final resolution, though the cédula is usually issued early.

Only partly. Uruguay has no double-tax treaty with the United States, so US citizens get the benefit of the holiday only to the extent US tax does not simply claw it back. You should also know about a sleeper provision in the 2026 reform. A new transparency rule attributes the income and gains of foreign non-resident entities directly to Uruguayan beneficial owners holding 5% or more, regardless of distribution. That means offshore holding structures no longer defer anything. The mechanics of the credit for foreign taxes paid were still awaiting implementing regulations as of mid-2026.