1/10: Latin American residency as my Plan B out of the EUSSR
Welcome to my 10 blog post series about my 3-month adventure to diversify my life options, learn Spanish, salsa dancing, and making ceviche :)!
Highlights:
1/10: πͺͺ Why I wanted a residency in Paraguay?
2/10: πͺπΈ How I learned Spanish in 5 months?
3/10: 𧳠Preparing the docs & my 40L backapack
4/10: π₯© Paraguay and world's best waterfalls
5/10: π Bolivia: the underrated low-cost gem
6/10: π« Buenos Aires: the world's the best city
7/10: β°οΈ Swimming in the world's highest lake
8/10: π¦ Peru's llamas, Inca mysteries & the good Lima life
9/10: π Colombia: hot, gorgeous, and a bit dangerous
10/10: β¨ Closing thoughts and recommendations
The 1984 Trigger ποΈ πΊ βοΈβπ₯
Ever since the COVID19 plandemic, I have seen Europe and its "leaders" (I call them "wanna-be-leeders") become ever more corrupt, anti-European, and unreasonable.
From 2020 onwards, most of Europe has faced higher taxes, persitent inflation, higher energy costs, higher immigration of rapists, higher surveillance prospects with digital IDs, the digital euro, etc. We have been living through the errection of a 1984-type of distopian EUSSR state (more on that in my post [[The EUSSR'S digital gulag of the EUSSR or start building your exit now]]). Fortunately, things in my homeland Bulgaria are not as grim as in the UK, France, and the Netherlands (yet). But still the trends has been worriesome enough for me to start building alternatives for my independence in Bulgaria as well as for living abroad if things get really bad at home.
In this travel blog series I will share my experiences while building an alternative in Latin America. You can read more on my efforts to building my personal independence inside Bulgaria here.
Paraguay - the safe heaven for freedom lovers
I kept hearing of ever more Europeans going to Paraguay, Panama, Uruguay to get a residency permit as a Plan B country where they can move to in case life, taxes, surveillance, and wars keep going worse in Europe. Liberation Travel provides a good overview for why these three countries are attractive Plan B options.
Paraguay has been particularly popular as in many aspects it is the complete opposite of Europe:
| EUSSR | Paraguay | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes | 40-70% effective tax rate (income tax, VAT, social security, etc) |
0% tax on foreign income 10% tax on local income 5-10% VAT |
| Food | Increasingly dependent on corporations & imports | Pretty independent - producing amazing beef |
| Energy | Ever more dependent on the USA | Independent thanks to its huge hydro production and Brazilian oil |
| Population | Aging and shrinking (despite immigration) | Young and growing at 1% annually thanks to births |
| Government | Corrupt with growing beaurocracies and regulations strifling business | Corrupt, but small government |
| Cost of living | Costantly growing | 20-50% cheaper than EU depending on your lifestyle |
Of course, not everything is better in Paraguay. Paraguay has neither the culture nor the natural and cultural diversity of Europe. But economic-wise it is undoubtedly in a way better spot for the forseeable future than the EU.
Based on my research, Paraguay was (and still is) the country where it is easiest and cheapest to get a residency. Back in 2022, one could get a residency for literally one visit, a few hundred bucks, and a couple of days in Asuncion :) As the word spread, ever more folks got the PY residency. Gradually the government has been adding more steps to getting a residency. And yet, it still offers by far the cheapest way to get a residency in South America. Currently, to get residency you need to:
- prepare relevant documents in your home country;
- visit Paraguay three times over 1 to 3 years;
- spend anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 on fees.
In 2025 I finally decided it was time to take this step in my journey as a sovereign individual. I started looking at my citizenship more and more as a concentration risk. I didn't want to be:
- Forced to go to the army for a wars I did not support;
- Limited to travel because of whatever agenda.
I am a 100% Bulgarian by nationality and heart, but at the same time I strive to become an ever more sovereign individual - as independent as possible from the whims of any particular jurisdiction (and its governors).
Hence, it was time to make the first major step in my jurisdictional sovereignty by applying for a Paraguayan residency. What was even cooler, is that I my good friend Diego shared much of my thoughts and enthusiasm for getting a residency in Paraguay. So off we were to booking flights :)
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