Guides · Without travelling

Residency Without Travelling

Last updated 5 August 2026
A man in a dark suit adjusting his tie over a chessboard

One of the three routes compared here can be obtained without boarding a plane. The other two cannot.

Armenian permanent residency is the remote one. Their page's own words are “100% Remotely in 30 days” and “zero travel required”, and it lists coming to Yerevan in person as optional, for people who also want to see the capital.

Paraguay asks for one to three days on the ground in Asunción, and then a separate one day visit later to collect the RUC, the local tax number. Dubai asks for less time but is no more avoidable: the medical test, the fingerprints and the bank appointment all happen with you in the room.

What follows is the travel, the time and the published cost of each, in that order. That much a page can settle. What a residency does to your tax position it cannot, and their own material is unusually direct about why.

The remote one

The route that needs no flight

Armenia is the only lane on their site marketed on the absence of a trip rather than the shortness of one.

The published sequence starts with a form. “Complete a simple online form in under 5 minutes”, then “Get your Armenian PR approved within 30 days after documents are submitted”, then “Enjoy full residency benefits with zero travel required”. The requirements block asks two things of you, a passport scan and a profile picture, which they validate before anything is mailed.

There is one decision to make. Their third step puts it as a choice of route, either a government donation of 6,000 dollars or an investment of 10,000 dollars which the page describes as returning 70 percent within twelve months. What that investment goes into, and on what terms the 70 percent comes back, is not stated anywhere on the page.

After that, in their words, “the rest is on us”. The deliverable is a printed permanent residency card valid for five years, alongside a legal proof of address, a social security number and a certificate of permanent residency.

Travel is not excluded. It is simply not required. The closing line of the requirements block reads: “Optional: You can come to Armenia and do some of the steps in person if you also want to explore the capital.”

On volume, the page publishes more than 180 Armenian residencies over the last six years and a physical office in the capital. On the outcome, the same page is careful, and the care is worth repeating: “The final decision regarding the acceptance of any residency application rests with the Armenian immigration authorities.”

One of the three needs no flight. Which one fits is a conversation, not a page.

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The mechanism

How a file is submitted without you in the country

A residency application still needs a body standing in a government office. Their page explains whose.

It also names, plainly, the four things that normally force the trip: passing the mandatory health exam, having the profile picture taken, signing legal documents, and making the donation or investment in local currency. That list is the useful part, because it says exactly what has to be solved for a remote file to work at all.

Their answer is a power of attorney and the post. They describe working with local partners to prepare the documents, make the official translations, apply the official stamps, do the currency exchange, and present the documents on your behalf under power of attorney, with some of those documents posted by you.

Two things follow that the page does not address. A power of attorney has a round trip of its own, drafting, signing, legalisation and international mail, and whether that sits inside the thirty days or in front of them is not stated. And of the four items above, the mandatory health exam is the one the remote description does not account for. How it is satisfied for someone who never lands in Yerevan is a question for the call, because the page does not answer it.

One more thing before anyone counts days. The thirty day clock has two different published start points on the same page, “within 30 days after documents are submitted” in one block and “30 days after the application is submitted” in another. Those are not the same moment, and the gap between them is yours.

The trip

What Paraguay asks you to be there for

Paraguay is the opposite shape. The paperwork is long, the trip is short, and the trip is not optional.

Before you fly there are thirty to sixty days of document preparation, validated by them before the visit. Their FAQ also sets a floor on notice: a minimum of one week from the moment you place the order to your travel date, so the documents can be requested and the immigration appointment scheduled.

Then one to three days in Asunción, with the appointments pre-booked across consecutive days. Their FAQ puts a three business day turnaround on the process per visit and adds that it can often be completed in a single day. You leave with a residencia precaria that is already valid.

The rest happens without you. On their Fast Track plan the temporary residency follows in thirty to forty five days and the cédula fifteen days after that. On the Standard plan it is three to four months, then about sixty days more. Their own surfaces carry further versions of the same clock, in the five step block and in the FAQ, and they do not all agree, so the window that binds a given file is the one their team quotes for it.

Then you come back. The RUC, the Paraguayan tax number, needs a separate one day visit to collect, and the sales page says so directly. Their FAQ, written earlier, describes the travel differently: two visits to Asunción during the immigration process, once for the temporary residence and again for the ID card. Their pages do not agree on the total number of trips, and that is worth settling before anyone books a flight.

One more trip sits in their FAQ and deserves its own line, because a buyer planning flights off the sales page alone would miss it: the conversion of temporary residency into permanent residency is done on a return visit, inside a window their answer states in months after the grant. And the ongoing rule after that is now stated directly on their Paraguay page: one day in the country per year keeps the residency.

So the flight math has three parts on their own material. The application visit or visits, the conversion trip, and one day a year after that.

On what the trip costs you rather than them, their published inclusions cover a professional to collect you at the airport or bus station and to walk you through immigration and the collection of the ID card. Travel costs to Paraguay and lodging in Asunción are both listed as not included. Running the process in Ciudad del Este rather than Asunción carries an additional charge, because their people are in Asunción.

The page publishes more than 200 Paraguayan residencies over the last seven years.

The third route

Dubai is short, not remote

The UAE route belongs here precisely because it looks remote at the start and is not.

It runs through a company. A six minute application forms a free zone company, described on their page as done in three days and entirely online, and you are made its manager. The same page states the company must be owned by you for the residency to be granted.

Everything after that needs you in Dubai. The medical test and the fingerprints are completed in under ninety minutes. The Emirates ID follows in three to five business days. The bank appointment is attended, meaning they go with you and the account is opened in the room, and three to five business days later the account is live and the card arrives. Their own FAQ closes the door on reordering any of it, answering the question of whether an account can be opened without an Emirates ID with a flat “No that I am aware of.”

The headline sixteen days belongs to one specific package. Their page names three plans: a company-only free zone option at three days, a Premium plan at twenty five days, and the Elite package at sixteen. Whether the company-only option delivers any residency at all is not stated on the page, which makes it a question rather than an assumption.

The travel column is published. What it means for your situation is not.

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Time and cost

The columns, side by side

Two tables, built only from what their own pages publish. Where a figure is not published anywhere on their site, that is what the cell says, because the alternative is a number nobody can stand behind.

RouteOn the groundPublished timeline
ArmeniaNone required, travel optional30 days from submission
Paraguay1 to 3 days in Asunción, plus a 1 day return visit for the RUC30 to 60 days of prep, then 30 to 45 days on Fast Track or 3 to 4 months on Standard
UAE, via a Dubai companyIn person for the medical, the fingerprints and the bank16 days on the Elite package, 25 days on Premium, company alone in 3 days

The cost side is thinner than the time side, and the gaps are the honest part of it.

RouteGovernment or route amountService price published
Armenia6,000 USD donation, or a 10,000 USD investment stated as returning 70 percent in 12 monthsNot published
ParaguayNot publishedNot published, on either plan
UAE, Elite packageNot published separately25,000 USD, described as a one time set-up fee

Read those blanks literally. The Armenia page names the donation and the investment, then says “Pay the Package” without ever naming a package price, and there is no Armenia product page on the site to carry one. The Paraguay page shows two plans, lists what each includes, and puts a button under both that opens a chat with the team rather than a price. The 25,000 dollars on the Dubai page, described there as a one time set-up fee for the Elite package, is the only service price published across all three routes.

There is one further cost that appears on neither table and belongs to two of the three routes. Flights and hotels. The Paraguay page lists travel and lodging as not included, and the Dubai sequence needs you in the country across a chain of appointments separated by several business days each. However that works out, it is a real number and it is yours.

The boundaries

What the travel column does not tell you

A route that needs no flight is not the same thing as a route that changes what you pay, and the clearest statement of that anywhere on their site is on the Armenia page itself.

Their FAQ answers it head on. Whether Armenian residency reduces your tax burden “depends on your tax residency status and your home country's tax laws. Residency and tax residency are two different things.” The same answer goes further and says the vast majority of their clients obtain residency in Armenia while enjoying more favourable zero percent tax advantages in other countries, through non-dom status in Cyprus or Malta, or a territorial system such as Paraguay.

The other two routes publish thresholds of their own, and Paraguay's are worth reading twice. Their published test for tax residency there is either holding a temporary or permanent residence in the country, or spending at least 120 days there within a twelve month period. Becoming a tax resident and keeping the residency itself are two separate questions, and the second one is worth putting to First Class Citizen directly for your own case. On the UAE, their published answer has two steps and the first is not about the UAE at all: becoming a non-tax-resident in your country of origin, then spending more than ninety days a year in the Emirates.

Which splits the travel question in two. Getting the residency may need no trip. Changing a tax position, on their own published thresholds, can need a great deal of time in a country. Those are two separate claims on your calendar, and nobody should meet the second one after paying for the first.

The split holds at the far end too. Neither route is remote all the way to a passport. Asked directly whether citizenship can be gained without residing in the country, their Paraguay FAQ answers that ties to the country must have been created during the three years of permanent residency, and that the country must be visited and certain steps completed in person during the passport application. Their Armenia page describes the certificate of permanent residency as needed later to increase the chances of citizenship approval. Chances, not entitlement, and their word rather than ours.

What none of it can tell you is which route applies to you, because that turns on your nationality, where you are resident now, and what your current country does when you leave. That part is the call, and it is worth having before the money moves.

The proof

Wins clients sent in

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Client reports five of five credit limit increases approved through the card apps, the largest two at 9,000 dollars eachChase approval email for an Ink Business Preferred card at a 5,000 dollar limit, opened on a fresh ITINClient tells the team the Chase bank account is open and the card received, shown in the Chase appClient opens Capital One and Bank of America on day one; the team confirms both and lines up Chase nextClient's written testimonial: six personal and business bank accounts opened with Chase, Bank of America and Citibank in one weekClient reports an American Express Platinum approval in Germany within two days, using a US address and Global Card TransferClient thanks the team after the Miami trip for the help with the US bank cardsClient reports after the Miami trip: the Atmos card arrived, new bank accounts for the corporation, and a Florida driving licenceClient opens a Bank of America account while resident in Greece, then moves on to Citibank for the second accountClient's Chase appointment done: account, debit card and credit card all approved, heading to the second appointmentClient confirms the Bank of America travel rewards credit card came through

Real client wins, straight from the Hall of Wins.

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Read next
Tools
  1. Find your routeTell it what you are trying to do and it maps the guides to read in order.
  2. ITIN document checklistPick your situation, get the exact list the IRS accepts.
  3. What it costsPublished prices and timelines, service by service.
  4. US credit calculatorWhat your spend returns at the rates issuers publish today.

FAQ

Can I get a residency without travelling?
Armenian permanent residency is the route First Class Citizen publishes as remote. Their page states 100% remotely in 30 days, zero travel required, and lists coming to Armenia in person as optional. Paraguay and the UAE both require you in the country.
How does a remote application get filed at all?
Their Armenia page describes local partners preparing the documents, making the official translations, applying the official stamps, doing the currency exchange, and presenting the documents on your behalf under power of attorney, with some documents posted by you. How the mandatory health exam they name elsewhere on the page is satisfied remotely is not stated, which makes it a question for the call.
Do I have to travel to Paraguay?
Yes. Their sales page states one to three days in person in Asunción, and a separate one day visit later to collect the RUC. Their FAQ describes it differently again, as two visits to Asunción, once for the temporary residence and once for the ID card. Their pages do not agree on the total, so confirm it before booking flights.
How long does each route take?
Armenia publishes 30 days from submission. Paraguay publishes 30 to 60 days of document preparation before the trip, then 30 to 45 days to temporary residency on Fast Track or 3 to 4 months on Standard, with the cédula 15 or 60 days after that. The UAE publishes 16 days on the Elite package and 25 days on Premium, with the company alone in 3 days.
What does the Armenia route cost?
Two amounts are published: a government donation of 6,000 dollars, or an investment of 10,000 dollars which their page describes as returning 70 percent within twelve months. First Class Citizen's own service fee for Armenia is not published anywhere on their site, so it is a question for the call rather than something this page can answer.
What does the Paraguay residency cost?
Their live Paraguay page publishes no price for either the Standard or the Fast Track plan. Both plans list what they include and then open a chat with the team. Travel costs to Paraguay and lodging in Asunción are listed separately as not included.
Is the Dubai route remote?
Only the first step. The free zone company is formed online in about three days, but the medical test, the fingerprints and the bank appointment are all in person, and their own FAQ says an account cannot be opened without an Emirates ID first.
If I never travel for it, does the residency change my tax position?
Their own Armenia FAQ answers this: it depends on your tax residency status and your home country's tax laws, and residency and tax residency are two different things. Their Paraguay FAQ publishes two different answers on tax residency there, one saying it follows from either holding a residence in the country or spending at least 120 days there in a twelve month period, the other saying it follows only from staying more than 120 days a year. Their UAE answer starts with becoming a non-tax-resident in your country of origin before the 90 days in the Emirates count for anything. What applies to you depends on facts about you.

Get the routes matched to your situation

The assessment call covers which route fits, what the trip actually involves, and the parts no page publishes: the service fee, the full document list, and what leaving your current tax system genuinely takes. Free, direct, and honest about what does not apply to you.

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Miquel Gironès, Founder and CEO of The First Class Citizen
Expert review: Miquel Gironès
Founder & CEO, The First Class Citizen