Changes for those who want to Immigrate to Peru

I found a link to a blog post on the changes that Immigrations has put into place starting in January of this year. It looks as though mostly prices have gone up. Apparently there is a test in order to get citizenship as well. Peru is modeling after the States huh? This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since Peru's economy is growing steadily and the government is trying it's darnedest to "improve" it's immigration system I am sure. I was on the Metropolitano today and I saw this sign:




I looked it up and it seems to be used for various things in the public sector like hospitals and education as well as in the embassy and government. They want to be better and they want to improve. More power to Peru! This also means that they will be cracking down on book, music, and movie piracy right?

Anyway, the information about the changes for applicants who want to change their migratory status is located here. Click on TUPA. It is in Spanish and a bit difficult to understand but on the right hand side it gives you the class of immigrant one is. Moving to the right from there includes the requirements, form code, the amount of money it costs, testing required, time for resolving any issues, where to start and where to finish the process.

So what would have applied to me? The costs for the forms have gone up a bit but not too much. I paid 14 soles more when I got to migraciones last week because I paid in December originally. There is also an x under the need for testing on page 24 under residency. It looks like it applies to everyone applying for residency but it is not clear. What is weird is that I see that there is an x under the word negative for testing to obtain double citizenship. It would make sense that there was a test for citizenship and not for residency. I also notice that it is 1,900 soles for the form for citizenship. I don't know what the price was before but woah! It costs less to get US citizenship at $680 or 1700 soles roughly. That's a nice chunk of change but once one has a Peruvian passport, traveling around South America is a breeze.

As the Sabor a Selva blog post explains, "the changes are live and confusion reigns". For now, I can sit tight. Next year is when I have to go back and renew my carnet. A simple letter of financial responsibility that is notarized will suffice at the time of renewal...for now.