I thought that it would be useful for me to write a post about extending the CA-4 visa, necessary if staying in Central America for over 3 months.
As a recap, once you enter one of the CA-4 Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or Nicaragua, you will receive a stamp on your passport, and a visa that is valid for a total of 3 months. While we have been moving around these 4 countries, we noticed that only Guatemala and Honduras actually stamp your passport (Honduras immigration officials claimed that their country was no longer part of the CA-4 group), so it is quite confusing to really know what the actual situation is. It is therefore useful to note down entry/exit dates, especially if there is no stamp in your passport.

Stamp for our arrival in Guatemala, and our first point of entry into the CA-4 group of Central American countries. The initial 3 months ran from this date.
Before the expiration of the 3 months, you can apply for an extension (if i am not mistaken this can only be done once), or you need to cross out of the group of countries to either Mexico, Belize or Costa Rica and reenter. In our case, we had only 3 days left on our CA-4 visa once we had crossed over to Nicaragua, and as a Malaysian passport holder, i needed a visa before arrival to enter Costa Rica – the closest border to do a visa run (this was also unclear as i also hold a residency card for Spain, so we were unsure if i actually did need the visa). We eventually decided that the best option for us was to get the visa extension done in Leon, as we did not like the prospect of entering into Managua.
The process was simple. We filled in the necessary forms at the immigration office and paid a total of 1050 Cordobas (over USD $40) for 2 months extension (the maximum extension is for 3 months). Our passports were then sent to Managua for processing and we were told we had to wait a total of 8 days then return to pick them up. In our case, we arrived at the immigration office in Leon at the appointed date, only to find that our passports were still in Managua. In the end, we decided to make our way to the main immigration office in Managua and pick up our passports ourselves since we were traveling southwards anyway.
The immigration officials in Nicaragua were fairly efficient and although our visas were not in Leon at the time they should have been, they did not lose any of our paperwork, and could tell us exactly where our passports were at any given time. We met an American girl in Matagalpa who had gone directly to Managua to get her visa extension and she told us that she managed to get it done within an hour! So our advice would be to do just what she did, and save yourself the hassle, time and worry.



June 4th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Hi Anita, i came across to your blog while googling about CA-4 visa . I’m an Indonesian but holding Singapore residency . Our itinerary is supposed to start in Guatemala , however due to the visa issue I could not go there first. We’ve been thinking for the best way to get the visa upon arrival however it doesn’t seem to be easy since there isn’t any Guatemalan consulate in Singapore. So we came across with an idea to fly to Nicaragua first since I can just enter there by using tourist card which can be purchased upon arrival .
My question will be ,can I use that to enter Guatemala ? Do you know ?
Thank you very much in advance .
Best regards
Erl
June 4th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
Hi Erl,
As far as i know (and from my experience), once you enter any of the CA-4 countries, you have a total of 3 months to travel around these countries. That was my experience as a Malaysian passport holder, and i also met a Singaporean in Honduras who also had no problems in the area. Saying that, i think the situation may be different for Indonesians as after a quick wiki check, it looks like restrictions apply for you in some of the countries. We also had the tourist card that you mentioned upon arrival in Nicaragua but that was only for Nicaragua. The situation is not clear, and there was conflicting information from border officials but bottom line is, you still need to cross borders, and each is different, so it would probably be a good idea to get a clearer picture from your own Indonesian embassy while in Singapore. There is absolutely no diplomatic representation from our part of the world here (many people have never heard of our countries), so better be sure before you get here. How’s your spoken Spanish? A basic level will go a long way here, especially when you have to cross borders by land. Hope this helps and all the best for your trip!
September 27th, 2013 at 9:16 pm
Hi Anita, I’m an Indonesian.
My question, what requirements for Indonesia to get Nicaragua visa?
Thank you very much.
October 8th, 2013 at 11:46 pm
I am not sure on requirements for Indonesians. Your best bet would be to contact your consulate.
June 12th, 2014 at 1:11 am
Hi Anita. I am currently in Leon and need to get my visa extended. Can you tell me where to go in Leon to accomplish that? Thanks!
June 20th, 2014 at 4:00 pm
I remember it was pretty easy for us to find the immigration office, just by asking people. However, I would advise you to go straight to Managua and get it done there instead as it is faster (one day, we heard from other travelers). In the end, we had to go and collect our passports ourselves from the main immigration office in Managua as it took longer than we expected/were told.