Opening your book…
Reaches a great-grandparent.
Each answer assumes none of your ancestors became a citizen of another country before their child was born. Below is what changes each answer.
Citizen by descent
A child of a Salvadoran parent is Salvadoran by birth and is registered at the consulate.
Citizen by descent, generation by generation
Nationality passes from parent to child; each generation registers in turn, so your parent establishes their Salvadoran nationality first, then you.
What would settle itWhether your parent can be registered as a Salvadoran national first.
Citizen by descent, generation by generation
Nationality passes from parent to child; each generation registers in turn, so your parent establishes their Salvadoran nationality first, then you.
What would settle itWhether your parent can be registered as a Salvadoran national first.
No date named in El Salvador’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.
El Salvador’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father.
You keep your citizenship.
On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.
Open to you through a parent
Open to you through a grandparent or a great-grandparent
Through a parent
Through a grandparent or great-grandparent
Most countries also want proof that your ancestor didn’t become a citizen somewhere else before their child was born: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter saying there isn’t one.
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Los Angeles
Serves California, Hawaii
San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, plus Hawaii.
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Silver Spring, Maryland
Serves District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
The consulate for the Washington area, on +1 202 337 4032; it also serves Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other Midwest states since the Chicago consulate’s permanent closure.
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Woodbridge, Virginia
Serves Virginia
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Los Angeles
Serves California, Hawaii
San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, plus Hawaii.
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Silver Spring, Maryland
Serves District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
The consulate for the Washington area, on +1 202 337 4032; it also serves Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other Midwest states since the Chicago consulate’s permanent closure.
Consulate-General of El Salvador in Woodbridge, Virginia
Serves Virginia
Fees are each office’s published fee, converted to U.S. dollars.
The Registro Nacional de las Personas Naturales (RNPN), which issues certified partidas from the municipal Registros del Estado Familiar; the original books stay with each alcaldía’s Registro del Estado Familiar.
Name, date and place of birth and the parents’ names are enough for the RNPN. If the RNPN cannot find an older entry, the alcaldía of the town of birth holds the book.
A certificate in another language, English included, is registered with ‘diligencias de traducción’ before a Salvadoran notary: the notary appoints a translator, who swears to the Spanish translation. Abroad the consul acts as notary, at $20 under the Consular Tariff (a notarial act that is not a public deed); a certified translation to work from costs about $25 a page.
We know of no pending bill or recent court ruling for El Salvador.
We re-read the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person checks the rule before we update anything here.
2 residence programs lead to El Salvador without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.
A non-refundable $1,000,000 contribution in Bitcoin or USDT to a state development fund; promoters describe it as citizenship, but the law we could find gives definitive (permanent) residence, with citizenship only after the usual years.
Residence for people living on foreign income or a pension. The old Rentista law was repealed in 2019; today it is a one-year renewable permit under the migration law, with definitive residence possible after a year.
1 laws and official pages behind the answers, then the offices and pages behind the records and filing.
Not legal advice. Every answer comes from the country’s own laws and is tested against real cases. Where the law isn’t clear, we say “possible” rather than guess.
Tell us about one parent or grandparent. We’ll answer in about a minute, and show you the law behind it.
Check your family