CA-4 agreement: how the shared 90 days work in Central America

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua run a shared border arrangement called the Central America-4 Border Control Agreement, or CA-4. For a visitor it means that one allowance of up to 90 days covers all four countries together. A week at Lake Atitlán and a month on Roatán come out of the same count. If your route starts in Guatemala and runs south, this is the rule that decides how long the whole trip can last.

It matters most to anyone traveling overland for more than a few weeks, and to anyone who planned to restart a stay by crossing a nearby border. Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and Mexico sit outside the agreement and count their own days. This guide to one of the region's entry rules covers how the count starts, what restarts it, how extensions work in each country and what to expect at the crossings. Every figure comes from a government page read on October 12, 2026.

The four governments treat a tourist's time in the region as a single stay. The count begins on the day you first enter any one of the four, and it keeps running when you move to the next. The immigration officer at that first entry point decides how many days you receive, and 90 is the usual ceiling, not a guarantee.

The clearest official descriptions are in Canada's travel advice for Guatemala, last updated on October 9, 2026, and in the UK government's Guatemala entry requirements. Australia's Smartraveller page for Guatemala describes the same arrangement as a tourist card dated from your first entry into any member country.

The name is misleading on one point. Canada's page speaks of travel without entry and exit formalities, then adds that you must still check in at the immigration counters at each crossing. The UK page says plainly that you go through immigration checks at the borders. Expect a passport check every time, and treat the agreement as a shared day count, not as open borders.

Only four countries are members: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Their neighbors are not, which is why a route that mixes Belize or Costa Rica into the loop is counted in separate pieces.

The four do not apply the agreement in the same way. Canada's pages say so directly: each CA-4 country interprets and enforces the agreement differently, and travelers should read the advice for every country on the route. The table below sets out what those pages give for a Canadian tourist, with El Salvador's extension taken from its own migration directorate. Other passports may be treated differently, so use it as a map of how the system works and confirm the numbers for your own nationality.

El Salvador is the outlier. Both the UK and Canadian pages say its officers may grant up to 180 days, and Canada warns that the other three countries may recognize only the first 90. A long stamp from El Salvador therefore does not buy extra time in Guatemala or Honduras. If you plan to continue after a long Salvadoran stay, count 90 days from your first entry into the region and ask at the next border how your time is being read.

The agreement does not replace each country's visa list

The shared count applies to travelers who are allowed to enter in the first place. The UK government's pages state that British nationals must have a visa to visit Honduras, even though they can travel between Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua for up to 90 days without one. Canada's page for Honduras lists no tourist visa requirement for stays of up to 90 days, and Australia's says Australian passport holders with more than 6 months of validity do not need one.

The lesson is to check each of the four countries for your own passport before you fix a route. A visa requirement in one country can break an overland plan that looks simple on a map, and the CA-4 will not solve it at the border.

Think of the allowance as one meter for the whole region. Suppose the first officer writes 90 days. Forty days in Guatemala, 20 in El Salvador and 14 in Honduras use 74 of them, which leaves 16 for Nicaragua, not a fresh 90. The UK page puts it in one line: the period does not restart when you cross borders.

Three things do not reset the count. Crossing between member countries is the first. Getting a new passport is the second: Canada's pages say that if you replace your passport in Guatemala or El Salvador you must obtain a new entry stamp before you leave the country and travel within the region. Flying is the third. Australia's advice describes the free movement as travel by land between member countries, and nothing in the official pages says that a flight from one member to another starts a new period.

What can reset it is leaving the region altogether. Canada's pages for El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua say you may attempt to return and restart the process without delay, and its Guatemala page sets the 72-hour wait. In practice that means a trip to Mexico, Belize or Costa Rica can restart the allowance, but only if the officer on your return agrees.

Do not build a long stay on that. The decision belongs to the officer, the pages say outright that re-entry can be refused, and a refusal at a land border leaves you on the wrong side of it with your plans and your luggage. If you need more than 90 days, an extension applied for on time is the route the authorities themselves describe.

An extension is requested in the country you are in, at its immigration authority, and always before the current stay runs out. The UK page for Guatemala gives the general position: you can extend by up to 30 days by paying a fee before the 90 days expire. Canada's country pages go into more detail, and the detail differs from one country to the next.

In Guatemala, the Guatemalan Migration Institute handles it. Its visa services page lists the tourist extension with a filing cost of US$25, and the institute's fee schedule shows the same amount. The requirements are a completed and signed form, your original passport with the stamp from your last entry into Guatemala, proof of payment, and one proof of means: a ticket out of the country, a valid international credit card or a letter from a Guatemalan guarantor. The passport must have at least 6 months of validity when you apply. Apply late and you pay a fine for irregular stay.

In El Salvador, the migration directorate's tourist extension page describes a process by email. You download form F44, which covers an extension of 1 to 90 days, send it with the documents it asks for, pay online through the link the office sends back, and then attend an appointment with your passport to have the extension stamped.

For Honduras, Canada's page gives an extension of up to 30 days from the National Migration Institute and a ceiling of 120 days in total. For Nicaragua it gives an extension of up to 90 days and a ceiling of 180, while the UK page for Nicaragua says up to 30 days. The two governments do not agree, so ask Nicaragua's migration directorate what applies to your passport before you count on the longer figure.

When the extension runs out

Canada's pages list three choices once your total authorized stay has expired: change your migratory status, leave the CA-4 region, or travel to El Salvador, where you may be granted a stay of up to 180 days. If you do none of these, you are fined and given 5 days to leave.

An extension granted in one country also carries limits in the others. Guatemala and Nicaragua recognize at most 180 days in total and Honduras at most 120, whatever another member granted. Keep every receipt and stamp, because the next officer reads your passport, not your intentions.

Get a stamp at every crossing. Canada's pages tell travelers to make sure they receive an entry or exit stamp each time, and the UK page for Guatemala says a missing entry stamp means a fine and a delay when you leave. If an officer hands your passport back unstamped, go back to the desk before you walk away.

Several crossings now come with an online form. Guatemala requires an electronic immigration declaration before you arrive and again before you leave, and you keep the QR code it produces. Honduras requires an online customs declaration with a QR code of its own. Complete them the day before on a good connection, because doing it at a terminal on arrival slows you down. The connectivity guides cover ways to have mobile data working when you reach a land border.

Carry small US dollar bills. The UK page says Honduras may charge US$3 in cash at a land border and advises keeping the receipt until you leave. It says Nicaragua charges an arrival tax of US$10 in cash and may refuse entry to travelers without an onward ticket. At Guatemalan land borders it warns that officials sometimes ask for an entry fee that is illegal, and suggests asking for an official receipt, after which the request may be dropped.

Passport validity is stricter here than in much of the Americas. The UK pages ask for a passport that expires at least 6 months after you arrive in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, with at least 2 blank pages for Guatemala and Honduras. The six-month passport rule guide explains how airlines enforce limits like these at check-in.

Families need extra paperwork. Guatemala asks children aged 17 and under who travel alone or with one parent to carry a notarized letter in Spanish from the absent parent or parents, and Honduras applies a similar rule to travelers aged 20 and under. The children's travel documents guide covers consent letters in general. One more consequence is worth knowing: the UK pages say that a traveler expelled from one CA-4 country is excluded from the others too.

Step across the southern border of Nicaragua and the CA-4 count stops. Costa Rica sets its own stay, which the UK and Canadian governments give as up to 180 days for their citizens, decided by the officer on arrival. Costa Rica also asks for a return or onward ticket, so have one ready when you cross from Nicaragua.

Panama is separate again, and the figure depends on your passport: the UK page gives British visitors up to 3 months by land or air, while Canada's gives Canadians up to 180 days. The UK page adds that Panamanian officers may ask for a return or onward ticket, particularly from travelers arriving by land from Costa Rica.

Belize gives 30 days on arrival to British and Canadian visitors. The UK page says each additional 30 days costs 200 Belize dollars at an immigration office, and that leaving Belize by land or by water to Guatemala or Mexico carries a departure tax of 40 Belize dollars or US$20. Mexico runs its own system, explained in the Mexico tourist card guide. For a side-by-side view of other destinations, see visa-free stay limits compared.

The first mistake is counting per country. Travelers who assume 90 days in each of the four arrive in Nicaragua with a few days left and no time to apply for more. Write the date of your first entry into the region on the first page of your notes and count from there.

The second is treating a border run as a right. The rule on leaving and returning exists, but it is an attempt that an officer can refuse, and Guatemala adds its 72-hour condition. The third is applying for an extension after the stay has expired, which turns a US$25 filing into a fine and a delay on the day you try to leave.

The last is reading only one country's rules. The agreement is enforced four ways, the limits differ, and the visa lists differ by passport. Check the advice for each country you will enter, in the order you will enter it.

If your trip through the four countries is under two months, the rule needs little thought beyond collecting stamps. Between two and three months, keep a running count and place your slowest stop, such as a language course in Guatemala or a long island stay, early in the trip, so that any extension is filed with time to spare.

Over three months, decide in advance which tool you will use. An extension keeps you inside the rules and costs US$25 to file in Guatemala. A loop out to Belize, Mexico or Costa Rica adds countries with their own allowances and can restart the count if the officer allows it. A long stay in El Salvador is possible on its own terms but does not carry over to its neighbors.

The travel insurance guides explain what to look for in medical and evacuation cover on a multi-country trip. For the place where many routes begin, the Guatemala City airport to Antigua guide covers the first transfer.