The following visas are available to foreign nationals in Uruguay.
Tourism visas are valid for 90 days and enable multiple entries.
Business visas with a validity period of 90 days and multiple entries.
Student visas with a single entry and a 30-day validity period.
Visas for family reunion that allow for a single entrance and are good for 30 days.
Work visas with a 30-day validity period and a single entry.
Humanitarian and emergency visas with a single entry and a 30-day validity period.
To enter Uruguay, foreign workers will need to secure a work visa.
A residence visa will be necessary to stay in the country beyond the first 30-day term.
To apply for residence, the foreigner must first visit Uruguay as a tourist and then apply in person at the country's national immigration office, the Dirección Nacional de Migración (DNM). For each nation you've resided in during the previous five years, you'll need a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, and a police certificate. If you are a US citizen, you will need an FBI report rather than a police report, as well as verifiable evidence of income.
Birth certificates, marriage certificates, and non-Interpol (non-US) police records must be validated by an apostille (an official pre-printed form) attached to the document by the competent authority in the appropriate jurisdiction and translated into Spanish by an official public translator.
The legalized translated birth certificate must also be registered with the Registro de Extranjeros, which will provide the paperwork needed to get the Uruguayan resident ID card.
Aside from these papers, a carné de Salud (Uruguay health card) and a medios de vida are also required (an income certificate). The health card requires a medical examination at an approved facility in Uruguay, and the income certification must demonstrate adequate earnings. An escribano, a Uruguayan legal specialist authorized to issue an income verification certificate, must verify the source and quantity of your income. (Any source of income from overseas, such as a pension, social security, leasing income, or company revenue, is permitted.)
Once the application is submitted and the necessary documents is presented, the foreigner will be designated as a residente en trámite (temporary resident of Uruguay) (a resident in the process). The next step is to travel to the immigration department to get the paperwork needed to obtain the temporary cédula from the Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil (DNIC). It is common for the full residence application to take roughly a year to be processed.