Entering Peru as a Tourist
Peru's migration law allows a tourist up to 183 calendar days, and the number is cumulative rather than per trip: the 365-day window inside which those days are counted starts at your first regular entry, so leaving and coming back does not reset it. Two things are widely misreported. The 183 days are a ceiling, not an entitlement - the officer grants a period set by your nationality, commonly 90 days. And since 2023 a shorter grant is extendable up to the 183-day ceiling, reversing the old rule that tourist stays could not be extended at all.
At a glance
- Maximum tourist stay under the law
- 183 calendar days
- Counting window
- 365 days from your first regular entry
Cumulative across separate trips, so two visits add together
- Common period granted at the border
- 90 days
Set by the visa-exemption agreement with your country, not by the officer's discretion
- Brazil and Chile
- Up to 180 days in a year
- Mexico and El Salvador
- Up to 183 days
- Extension
- Available up to 183 days when a shorter period was grantedas of 2023-11-14
Introduced by Decreto Legislativo 1582; before that the tourist period was not extendable at all
- Work
- Not permitted
Requirements
- A valid travel document, checked at the border for validity through the whole period of stay being granted
- A tourist migration status, granted at the border by Migraciones for nationals of countries with a visa-exemption agreement, and by a Peruvian consulate as a visa for everyone else
- Tourism, leisure, health or similar activity only - the status does not permit work or any paid or profit-making activity
- The 183-day ceiling is cumulative within 365 days counted from your first regular entry, not per visit
- Where less than 183 days is granted, an extension up to that ceiling is available unless the applicable international agreement sets a shorter period or bars extension
- Nationals of countries whose agreement with Peru sets a shorter maximum - 90 days for most of the Americas and Europe - get that period instead
In detail
Two numbers, and the smaller one is usually yours
The migration law sets 183 calendar days as the tourist ceiling. The consular table of visa requirements sets what each nationality actually gets, and for most of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand that is 90 days. Brazil and Chile are at 180 days in a year, Mexico and El Salvador at 183, and the Dominican Republic at 60. Planning around 183 because the statute says 183 is the most common way to overstay in Peru.
The window does not reset when you leave
Peru counts tourist days cumulatively inside a 365-day period that begins at your first regular entry, so the days from separate visits add up against the same allowance. A border run does not buy a fresh allocation; it only starts the clock on a return trip that is still being counted against the original window. Colombia does the same arithmetic with different numbers - 180 days in any 365 - while Uruguay works in renewable 90-day permissions rather than an annual pool.
Extension became possible in 2023
Until Decreto Legislativo 1582 the tourist period was flatly not extendable, and a great deal of published guidance still says so. The amended article now provides that where less than 183 days was granted, an extension is given up to that ceiling - unless the agreement covering your nationality sets a shorter maximum or rules extension out. That carve-out matters: if your agreement caps you at 90 days, the extension has nothing to extend into.
Exceptions by origin
Mexican Nationals Get the Full 183 Days
Most visa-exempt nationalities are capped at 90 days by the agreement covering them, well short of the 183 days the migration law allows. Mexico is one of the few given the full statutory period for both tourist and business entry, which removes the extension question entirely.
- No visa for tourist or business entry
- Up to 183 days for either status
Venezuelan Nationals Need a Tourist Visa
Peru's consular table of visa requirements marks Venezuela as requiring a visa for both tourist and business entry. That puts Venezuelans outside the visa-exemption decree that covers the rest of South America, and means the 183-day tourist allowance is reached through a consulate rather than at the border.
- A tourist visa obtained from a Peruvian consulate before travelling
- A business visa is likewise required for business entry
What the law says
«Permite al extranjero realizar únicamente actividades turísticas, de ocio, de salud o similares. No permite trabajar ni realizar actividades remuneradas ni lucrativas.»Our translation - not official
Allows the foreigner to carry out only tourist, leisure, health or similar activities. It does not permit working or carrying out paid or profit-making activities.
Read the whole article rather than the decree's own numbering: Decreto Legislativo 1582 replaces article 29 of Decreto Legislativo 1350, and the article number that matters is 29 of the migration law, not 2 of the amending decree.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Peru's official gazette. An act takes effect on publication here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Never consolidated law. It publishes acts as enacted and never merges them, so an article number in an amending decree is an instruction and not the article to cite. Its viewer also paginates long documents and a capture can return page one only - check the page-count marker before believing you hold the full text.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«El plazo de permanencia es de hasta ciento ochenta y tres (183) días calendario, acumulables durante un período de trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días, este periodo se computa desde su primer ingreso regular al territorio peruano, o el plazo que se haya determinado en los acuerdos o convenios internacionales de exoneración de visa de turismo.»Our translation - not official
The period of stay is up to one hundred and eighty-three (183) calendar days, cumulative over a period of three hundred and sixty-five (365) days; this period is counted from the first regular entry into Peruvian territory, or the period determined in the international agreements or conventions exempting tourist visas.
Two conditions sit in one sentence. The 183 days are a maximum ('hasta'), and the closing clause hands the real number to whatever agreement covers your nationality - which is why the table at a Peruvian consulate says 90 for most passports.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Peru's official gazette. An act takes effect on publication here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Never consolidated law. It publishes acts as enacted and never merges them, so an article number in an amending decree is an instruction and not the article to cite. Its viewer also paginates long documents and a capture can return page one only - check the page-count marker before believing you hold the full text.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«En caso de otorgarse un plazo de permanencia menor a los ciento ochenta y tres (183) días calendario, se otorga prórroga hasta completar dicho plazo, salvo que el acuerdo o convenio internacional haya determinado un plazo menor o no permita realizar prórroga.»Our translation - not official
Where a period of stay shorter than one hundred and eighty-three (183) calendar days is granted, an extension is granted up to that period, unless the international agreement or convention has set a shorter period or does not allow an extension.
This paragraph is new in 2023 and reverses the position most guidance still repeats. The original 2017 text of the same sub-paragraph ended 'No es prorrogable'.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Peru's official gazette. An act takes effect on publication here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Never consolidated law. It publishes acts as enacted and never merges them, so an article number in an amending decree is an instruction and not the article to cite. Its viewer also paginates long documents and a capture can return page one only - check the page-count marker before believing you hold the full text.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«El plazo de otorgamiento y de permanencia es de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días consecutivos o de periodos de días que sumados den un resultado de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días dentro de un año, contado desde su primer ingreso al territorio peruano. Estos plazos no son prorrogables.»Our translation - not official
The period granted and the period of stay is one hundred and eighty-three (183) consecutive days, or periods of days which added together come to one hundred and eighty-three (183) days within a year, counted from the first entry into Peruvian territory. These periods are not extendable.
The regulation still carries the pre-2023 'not extendable' rule, because it has not been rewritten since the law above was amended. Where the two disagree, the law prevails; the disagreement itself is worth knowing, because a counter clerk may be working from the regulation.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Exonérese del requisito de visa temporal en la calidad migratoria de turista a los ciudadanos de terceros países a los que el Estado Peruano les exija visa de turismo y creden contar con residencia permanente en los territorios de la Alianza del Pacífico.»Our translation - not official
Nationals of third countries to whom the Peruvian State requires a tourist visa, and who hold permanent residence in the territories of the Pacific Alliance, are exempted from the temporary visa requirement for tourist migration status.
'creden' is the publisher's own spelling and is kept as printed. The rule is easy to miss and does real work: permanent residence in Chile, Colombia or Mexico substitutes for a Peruvian tourist visa. Its source is Decreto Supremo 061-2016-RE, cited in the same table.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consular network, which applies the visa exemption decrees and publishes the per-nationality entry requirement table.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its currency cannot be established: the table carries no publication or revision date at all, which is the most dangerous property a source can have for a fact that changes by decree and takes effect on publication. It is a consular summary of a stack of decrees and the decree wins where they differ. Entry only, never residence, and silent on what a consulate requires to issue a visa.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«| República Federativa del Brasil | NO | 180/365 | NO | 180/365 |
| República de Colombia | NO | 90 | NO | 183 |
| República de Chile | NO | 180/365 | NO | |»The columns are tourist and business; NO means no visa is required, and the figure beside it is the permitted stay in the notation the footnotes define.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consular network, which applies the visa exemption decrees and publishes the per-nationality entry requirement table.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its currency cannot be established: the table carries no publication or revision date at all, which is the most dangerous property a source can have for a fact that changes by decree and takes effect on publication. It is a consular summary of a stack of decrees and the decree wins where they differ. Entry only, never residence, and silent on what a consulate requires to issue a visa.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(180/365)El plazo máximo de estadía será de 180 días calendarios en un periodo de un año.»Our translation - not official
(180/365) The maximum period of stay will be 180 calendar days in a period of one year.
This is what the 180/365 entries against Brazil and Chile mean: 180 days counted across a year, not 180 days per entry.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consular network, which applies the visa exemption decrees and publishes the per-nationality entry requirement table.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its currency cannot be established: the table carries no publication or revision date at all, which is the most dangerous property a source can have for a fact that changes by decree and takes effect on publication. It is a consular summary of a stack of decrees and the decree wins where they differ. Entry only, never residence, and silent on what a consulate requires to issue a visa.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The consular table is organised by nationality and lists tourist and business status separately; business entry is a different status with its own 183-day cumulative allowance.
We have not read a Migraciones page describing how an extension is applied for in practice, and Migraciones' own procedure catalogue on gob.pe did not show one when we looked, so we state the entitlement and not the procedure.
Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan nationals appear in the consular table as requiring a tourist visa; most African and much of Asian passports do too.
Nothing we read at Migraciones or the consular network requires a tourist to hold health insurance or show a return ticket, which is a real difference from Argentina and Colombia. That is an absence in the pages named here, not an exhaustive review of Peruvian entry practice.
- issuesDecreto Legislativo que modifica el Decreto Legislativo Nº 1350, Decreto Legislativo de Migraciones (Decreto Legislativo 1582)
Diario Oficial El Peruano
About this source
Peru's official gazette. An act takes effect on publication here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Never consolidated law. It publishes acts as enacted and never merges them, so an article number in an amending decree is an instruction and not the article to cite. Its viewer also paginates long documents and a capture can return page one only - check the page-count marker before believing you hold the full text.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
- administersRequerimientos y exoneración de visas para ciudadanos extranjeros en pasaportes ordinarios
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú - red consular
About this source
The consular network, which applies the visa exemption decrees and publishes the per-nationality entry requirement table.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its currency cannot be established: the table carries no publication or revision date at all, which is the most dangerous property a source can have for a fact that changes by decree and takes effect on publication. It is a consular summary of a stack of decrees and the decree wins where they differ. Entry only, never residence, and silent on what a consulate requires to issue a visa.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- reportsReglamento del Decreto Legislativo N° 1350, Decreto Legislativo de Migraciones - Anexo del Decreto Supremo 007-2017-IN
Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción del Empleo (document library, gob.pe)
About this source
Labour ministry, cited here only as the host of a document library containing a full-text copy of the migration regulation.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Not a consolidating service and not the author of what it hosts. The regulation copy it holds is the original as first published and has since been amended by instruments that insert articles absent from that file, so it is the base text and not the current text. Its own listing mislabels the file.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source