El Salvador digital nomad visa: requirements (2026)

Legislative Decree No. 531, passed by the Assembly on 17 March, signed by President Bukele on 20 March, and published in the Diario Oficial on 23 March 2026, amended Article 49 of the Special Law on Migration and Foreigners to require temporary residents to spend only 90 calendar days per year in El Salvador (consecutive or cumulative), down from approximately nine months. The change makes long-stay residency viable for globally mobile investors, retirees, and digital nomads who cannot or do not wish to live in-country full-time.

El Salvador launched a dedicated Digital Nomad Visa granting a 12-month renewable residence permit (extendable up to four years) to remote workers earning at least ~$1,460/month (later revised to ~$1,635/month) exclusively from clients or employers outside El Salvador. Applications are accepted online through the eVisaElSalvador portal or in person at consulates; foreign-source income is exempt from Salvadoran income tax.

The IMF Executive Board approved a 40-month $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility for El Salvador, unlocking an immediate disbursement of approximately $113 million. Board approval followed El Salvador's January 2025 Bitcoin Law amendment making BTC acceptance voluntary — a key IMF conditionality that tempered the country's earlier crypto-residency pitch.

El Salvador's Legislative Assembly voted 55-2 to make Bitcoin acceptance fully optional for private-sector businesses, removing the mandatory-acceptance clause enacted in 2021. The government additionally agreed to phase out the state-owned Chivo crypto wallet and to stop accepting tax payments in Bitcoin, fulfilling IMF loan preconditions.

The IMF announced a staff-level agreement with El Salvador for a $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility contingent on making Bitcoin acceptance voluntary, confining public-sector BTC activity, and winding down the Chivo wallet. The deal signalled a significant retreat from El Salvador's crypto-residency identity and set the stage for the January 2025 legislative amendment.

Legislative Decree No. 918 and related constitutional amendments authorized the 'Adopting El Salvador' program: a non-refundable $1 million contribution in Bitcoin or USDT yields direct Salvadoran citizenship and a passport in approximately six weeks, with no residency requirement, no language test, and no in-person interview. The program is capped at 1,000 applicants per year and positions El Salvador as the world's only CBI program accepting crypto payments.

El Salvador became the first sovereign nation to make Bitcoin legal tender alongside the US dollar, 90 days after the law's publication. All businesses were required to accept BTC on demand; the government simultaneously rolled out the Chivo digital wallet with a $30 BTC welcome bonus. The law became the cornerstone of El Salvador's strategy to attract crypto investors, entrepreneurs, and remote workers.

El Salvador's Legislative Assembly voted 62-22 on 8 June to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender; the law was published in the Diario Oficial on 9 June 2021, starting the 90-day countdown to its effective date. President Bukele simultaneously floated plans for a Bitcoin-linked permanent residency offer, drawing global attention from crypto-oriented remote workers and investors.

Alongside the Bitcoin Law campaign, President Bukele announced a plan to grant permanent residency to any foreigner investing a minimum of 3 BTC in qualifying Salvadoran assets (real estate or business capitalization). The plan attracted significant international media coverage but was never codified as a standalone decree; interested investors continued using the existing investor and rentista categories under the 2019 Special Law.

Legislative Decree No. 286-2019 consolidated four prior immigration laws into a single framework, creating 16 residency categories — including Rentista (minimum $1,000/month passive income), Investor, Retiree, and Employee residencies — and imposed a roughly nine-month annual in-country presence requirement for temporary residents. This law became the foundational framework that all subsequent digital nomad, crypto-investor, and remote-worker residency pathways were built upon or amended.