Peru's Five-Year Naturalization Rule Is Waiting for Its Regulation
Briefing summary
- Peru enacted a new Nationality Law, Law 32421, in August 2025.
- The ordinary naturalization residence requirement would increase from two years to five years.
- The new law also adds income, examination and screening requirements.
- The law takes effect only on the day after its implementing regulation is published.
- Migraciones' current application service still applies the existing two-year rule.
Peru is in an unusual transition: the text of the replacement nationality law is public, but the law deliberately postpones its own operation until implementing regulations are published. A person should therefore not apply the five-year rule early or assume the two-year rule will remain available indefinitely.
The current route
Migraciones' live citizenship-by-naturalization service currently allows an adult to apply after at least two consecutive years of legal residence immediately before filing. The applicant must keep valid resident status and provide the required identity, background, examination and lawful-income evidence.
That is the operating procedure until Law 32421 takes effect. An enacted but uncommenced law does not by itself replace the application requirements shown on the current government service.
What Law 32421 would change
Migraciones' official summary identifies several material changes to ordinary naturalization, including:
- increasing the minimum residence period from two years to five continuous years immediately before applying;
- requiring lawful annual income equal to at least ten tax units, with formal tax treatment;
- adding or revising examinations concerning Spanish, Peruvian history, geography, culture and constitutional matters; and
- strengthening background, document and national-security review.
The regulation is important because it will supply procedures, evidence rules and operational details. It may also determine how transition cases and applications prepared under the former law are handled.
The regulation remains the trigger
Law 32421 states that it begins on the day after publication of its regulation. Migraciones completed a public consultation on a proposed regulation and published its final consultation report in December 2025.
That consultation report is not the regulation itself. The operative trigger is publication of the final decree in the official gazette. Migraciones' current service page, last updated in 2026, continues to show the two-year route.
Planning around the transition
Someone approaching two years of residence should check the live legal position immediately before filing. An application should not be rushed while incomplete, but waiting can expose the applicant to a new five-year threshold if the regulation takes effect first.
Residence continuity, valid immigration status and the correct supporting records remain important under either framework. Applicants should preserve entry and exit records, resident-card history, tax filings and income evidence rather than assuming the new regulation will accept a simpler substitute.
No one should describe a prepared form, paid fee or scheduled appointment as protection under the former law unless the final transition provisions actually say so. The decisive facts may include when a complete application is legally filed and accepted.
What Citizeo is watching
Citizeo will monitor:
- publication of the implementing regulation;
- the resulting effective date;
- transition rules for pending and prepared applications;
- new forms, examinations, income evidence and fees; and
- corresponding changes to Migraciones' online service.
Related Citizeo resource
Sources
- Peruvian Migraciones — principal changes in Law 32421 — official explanation of the future requirements and commencement rule.
- Peruvian Migraciones — final consultation report — status of the proposed regulation.
- Peruvian Migraciones — current naturalization service — operating two-year procedure.
- El Peruano — Law 32421 — enacted legal text.