Honduras Investor Visa | A Complete Guide

Visa Overview:

The Honduras Investor Visa is a residency visa program issued by the local government to overseas investors, allowing them to obtain long-term residency in exchange for an investment. To apply for this visa, you currently need to meet the following conditions:

1. Be at least 18 years old, in good health, and have no criminal record.

2. Deposit $50,000 USD in the Central Bank of Honduras; OR, invest $50,000 USD in other sectors within Honduras.

Your investment can be used to purchase real estate or company securities. However, if you’re investing in the business sector, your funds must be allocated to government-designated areas such as tourism, agriculture, or manufacturing.

3. In addition to the investment, you must also deposit a certain amount of funds in the Central Bank of Honduras to demonstrate that you can support yourself and your family locally. While the local government doesn’t have a strict requirement for the exact amount, in practice, to successfully obtain this investor visa, the main applicant typically needs to deposit approximately $5,000 to $8,000 USD in the Central Bank of Honduras.

Application Process:

According to the Department of Immigration, all long-term residency visas in Honduras, including investor visa, cannot be applied for independently (DIY): You must have a lawyer registered with the Honduran government submit your documents, complete the investment, and facilitate the visa process on your behalf.

The entire investor visa application process generally involves the following three steps:

1. Registration:

If you’re opting for the company operation model, you first need to register your investor qualifications with the Honduran Ministry of Industry and Commerce. At this stage, you’ll submit a series of personal information documents, including a health certificate and a police clearance certificate.

If you’re choosing the deposit model, you can skip directly to step two, open an account at the Central Bank of Honduras, complete the deposit, and then submit your application.

Required Documents for this program include:

• Applicant Identification Documents: This includes valid passports (with at least one year of validity remaining) for all main and dependent applicants, recent passport-sized color photos, and relationship proof documents such as birth certificates and marriage certificates for main and dependent applicants.

• Health Certificates: All main and dependent applicants must provide valid health certificates.

• Police Clearance Certificates: All adult main and dependent applicants must provide police clearance certificates issued within the last six months.

Documents not in Spanish must be translated into Spanish, and all documents originating outside Honduras must be notarized.

2. Investment:

Once you’ve obtained investor qualifications, you can either travel to Honduras or authorize an intermediary agency to complete your investment and obtain proof of investment.

You don’t necessarily have to complete the entire investment when submitting your visa application. However, in such cases, you’ll need to transfer at least $25,000 USD into Honduras and provide a detailed plan and timeline indicating when all required investment funds will be transferred.

3. Visa Issuance:

Once the local government confirms your investment is complete, they will issue the residency card, and the intermediary will forward it to you.

The entire processing time for the Honduras Investor Visa is approximately three weeks. This includes about two weeks for background checks and one week for the residency card production.