Uruguay Digital Nomad Visa
A step-by-step guide of how I got it
Uruguay is chill as fuck.
After living all over Latin America, I can honestly say no other country comes close as far as relaxation. I thought I was chill being from California but Uruguayans take it to another level.
It’s the quietest place I’ve ever been and has great beaches. The people are laid back and friendly.
I’ve been looking for a base I can spend time in for part of the year to focus on work and live a comfortable lifestyle, while being close to other countries I love to visit.
Seeing that Uruguay released a Digital Nomad visa in the past couple of years, I applied for the visa and spent 6 months in the country, to see if I would like it.
I will explain the step-by-step process of how I got the Uruguay Digital Nomad Visa and the cedula.
Everything here at Latam Spots comes directly from personal experience. You always get the real insights. No generic copy/paste or AI bullshit.
What is the Uruguay Digital Nomad Visa
It is a visa specifically created to allow remote workers to work legally inside the country.
The initial visa lasts 6 months and can be extended to 12 months.
It’s essentially a test drive that allows you to legally live in Uruguay for an extended period of time and see if it’s a place you want to live long-term.
Getting the nomad visa allows you to get a cedula and start getting integrated into the country. Permanent residency is an option after the nomad visa expires.
The visa application has no online payment options that work for foreigners outside of Uruguay. You will need to enter the country on a tourist visa to pay for the application in person. (unless you know an Uruguayan who can pay for you)
Learn more about the visa from the Live in Uruguay site, which is affiliated with the government.
Eligibility Requirements
To be honest, there are no difficult requirements. You just need to fill out the application and pay.
No income requirements. I did not need to prove my income to receive the visa.
No restriction for any country to apply, as far as I can see. However, because the application needs to be done inside of the country, you do need to be able to enter the country. These are the entry requirements for each country
No criminal record or birth certificate required. These were not necessary to get the visa.
Costs
The costs were very reasonable.
The application cost was about $8 USD
The cost for the cedula was about $13 USD
How to apply for the nomad visa
Visit the application page for the digital nomad visa. It will look like this. Once you have looked over the page, click the button that says “Iniciar trámite en línea”.
Before you can apply for the visa, you need to create an account for the government website. Click the button that says “Usario Gub.uy”. On the next page, click the button that says “Crear mi identificación digital”. Fill out a simple form to create your account.
Follow the login process
Go back to the application page and click “Iniciar trámite en línea”
Click “Usario Gub.uy”
Click the link that says “No tengo documento uruguayo” and start logging in by selecting your country, passport, and passport number
Enter the password for the account you just created and you will enter the digital nomad application
Fill out the different sections of the application form
Tipo de trámite - ND (Nómadas digitales)
Datos personales - Date of birth, country of birth, and the office in Uruguay where you want to submit the visa application to. I stayed in the capital of Montevideo so I picked that.
Domicilio - Whatever address you will be staying at in Uruguay
Datos de contacto - Phone number and email. For the phone, you can’t use the + country code. But you can use 00. My number is from the USA so I used this format (001xxxxxxx)
Adjuntos solicitados - This is the most important section. The dates you put here will be the dates you receive for the visa. So make sure you think about this carefully. The maximum period is 180 days. Dates can be in the future.
Firmar Declaración Jurada - You need to download the affidavit, print it, sign it, and upload it. I recommend using the document scanner on your phone so the upload quality looks good. By signing the document, you are saying you won’t stay in Uruguay longer than 180 days, you have a clean criminal record, and you have sufficient funds to live in Uruguay.
Continue to the next page with payment options
You will see a bunch of banks as payment options. None of these work for foreigners, which is strange for a visa focused on foreigners. This is the reason you can’t apply for the digital nomad visa outside of Uruguay unless you know an Uruguayan that can pay for you.
There are some other options below that say “Pagar en redes de cobranza”. Each of these is a place you can go to pay in person for the application. I personally used Abitab and I consider it the best place to go for government payments in Uruguay. It is in cities all over the country.
Select Abitab and you will be given a PDF slip to download with a barcode. The slip expires after 12 hours, so you should download the slip in the morning, so you have time to go pay at Abitab. The first time I tried this, I downloaded it the night before and the slip was already expired by the time I went to pay the next morning. It was very frustrating and I could not generate a new slip without creating an entirely new visa application.
Print the slip and bring it to the Abitab to pay in person. The machine cannot scan the PDF from the phone, you need to print it out. I found out the hard way when I went without printing it out.
After you pay at Abitab, the application will say that the payment went through. Do whatever else is required and you will be able to complete the application.
You will receive an email from Ministerio del Interior after submitting the application. The subject of the email will say “Confirmación de inicio del trámite Solicitud de Hoja de Identidad Provisoria”. This email will include the ID number and tracking number of your application so you should save this.
Wait for the visa approval
On average, it takes about 30 days for the Uruguay Digital Nomad visa to be approved.
I had no idea how long the process was supposed to take when I applied. So I waited for about 60 days, maybe a little less. And I never heard anything. The tracking number I had received in the confirmation email did not work.
Feeling like it was taking too long, I sent a chat here to the guys on the Live in Uruguay website. I explained the issue and they asked me for the ID number of my visa application. They told me they would speak with migration and within 24 hours I received my approved digital nomad visa in my email.
If you have already waited 30 days, I recommend reaching out to the Live in Uruguay team. They were responsive and helpful.
How to get the cedula
From the day the Digital Nomad visa is approved, you have 30 days to make an appointment at migration to get your cedula. These places are all over the country but I did mine in Montevideo. This is where I went for my appointment.
As a foreigner, you cannot make the appointment online, because of the payment issue. To make the appointment, you can either go to the office directly or visit any Abitab. I personally went to Abitab as they have locations everywhere and it was much more convenient.
Tell them it is your first time getting the cedula and they will tell you the appointment options. Once you select a date and time, you will need to pay about $13 USD (in Uruguayan pesos). They will give you a slip for your appointment that says you paid.
On the date of your appointment, bring your passport, the appointment slip, and a printed copy of your visa approval.
You will need those 3 things to check-in to the appointment.
Once it is your turn, you will need to present the documents again and answer some questions. Then they will fingerprint you into the system. And finally take the ID photo.
You will be told to go to the other side of migration and will be given a slip that says when your ID will be ready. In my case, the date was for the next week.
The next week I brought the slip and my passport back to the same office. And I received my ID.
How to extend the nomad visa
I personally did not stay past 6 months, as I had other places I wanted to visit for the rest of the year.
From my understanding, you need the following things in order to extend the visa:
Uruguayan Cedula (you get this in the initial 6 month visa)
Clean criminal record from your home country and any other country you lived for more than 6 months
Vaccination certificate issued in Uruguay
Like I said, I did not personally extend my visa so I will not pretend that I know more. But it should be a fairly straightforward process. I would talk with the Live in Uruguay team and they should have the answer.
Things I learned during the process
Whatever dates you put on the application will be the dates your visa is approved for. It’s not just automatically 6 months that can be used at any time. So think carefully about the dates you put on the application. You can select dates that are in the future.
You cannot apply outside of the country due to fact there is no way for foreigners to pay for the application online. You need to apply inside the country and pay for the application in person.
The Abitab payment slip only lasts for 12 hours, so you should do the payment portion of the application early in the day, so you will have time to go pay at Abitab. If you do this part at night, the slip will already be expired by the next morning. You will need to create a new application in order to generate another payment slip if you mess this up (it happened to me)
You need to print the Abitab payment slip for the application. If you try to show the payment slip on your phone, the machine will not be able to scan the code (it happened to me)
If your visa is not approved within 30 days, message the Live in Uruguay team for an update
Once your visa is approved, you will receive a certificate. You need to schedule your cedula appointment within the 30 days before the certificate expires. There were appointments available within a week when I got mine.
The easiest way for a foreigner to schedule the cedula appointment is at Abitab
For the cedula appointment, bring your passport, appointment slip, and printed digital nomad certificate. You don’t need any other documents.
Going through the process was interesting for me.
The costs were minimal and there wasn’t a large barrier to entry as far as applying for the application. I didn’t need to show any proof of income or my criminal record.
For the most part, the application was short and straightforward. It wasn’t confusing and didn’t require a large time commitment.
I would say the biggest obstacle was not being able to pay for the application online with credit card. Needing to physically come to the country to pay for the application is something most people do not have time for.
If I had to guess, Uruguay only accepts payments from inside of Uruguay to filter for applicants who are serious about getting the visa.
The payment issues with Abitab were frustrating. You don’t know when the payment slip expires until you have already generated it and you have to physically print the slip instead of scanning off your phone. If you are a foreigner with no experience using Abitab, these issues can be irritating.
I had to make the application multiple times before I understood the correct way to make the payment at Abitab because of these unexpected problems.
As far as actually waiting for the confirmation, the fact that I waited about 60 days with no answer wasn’t great. The tracking number also did not work, so there was no way to check my application status.
After I talked to Live in Uruguay, I got an answer within 24 hours. So it seems like I could have received an answer much earlier.
But I give the team credit for being so helpful and good with communication. They helped me resolve the situation quickly.
Finally, getting the cedula was actually the easiest part of the process. Making the appointment at Abitab was easy and nothing unexpected happened when I went to get my ID.
Overall, I think the process of getting the digital nomad visa is pretty easy if you know what steps to follow.
Uruguayans are nice and helpful people and the migration process is not too bad. It’s much easier than the majority of Latin America.
If you want to spend an extended amount of time in Uruguay, it’s worth getting the visa.
I’m still considering Uruguay as a long-term place to live and it’s cool the government created this visa to allow foreigners to get a taste of what living in Uruguay feels like.
Leave a comment if you have questions. I’m here for you.
This is a very good review of the whole process. Pay in cash at Abitab, would be my advice. They accept dollars.