Trends in residency grants in Uruguay

Passports and ciudadanía legal

Open passport statistics do not equal residency statistics

Obtaining a passport requires a separate process involving ciudadanía legal and subsequent documents. Open reports show the total number of cartas de ciudadanía for 2018–2023 and the top countries of origin, but Russia and CIS countries are not included in the published ranking of countries with more than 100 cases. Therefore, passport data are not replaced by residence statistics.

5,015

Cartas de ciudadanía in 2018–2023

• 5,015 cartas de ciudadanía were granted in 2018–2023, according to Corte Electoral data in the INDDHH report.
• A carta de ciudadanía officially requires habitual residence: three years with a family in Uruguay or five years without a family.
• For children of citizens with ciudadanía legal, Russia and Armenia appear separately in the DNIC report, but this is not a complete country-by-country passport series.

This is not the number of people who have moved permanently.

1. 01

   Residencias concedidas is the number of officially granted residences, not the exact number of people who have moved to Uruguay permanently.

2. 02

   The statistics do not show whether recipients continue to live in the country, whether they left after receiving the documents, or whether the residence is permanent or temporary without more detailed data.

3. 03

   On February 17, 2023, some permanent residence cases were transferred under the authority of the National Migration Administration. From October 2024, the summary includes additional grounds, including employment integration, family reunification, and education.