What fines and sanctions can Migraciones impose on me in Peru?

The three sanctions (article 54)

The Immigration Act does not leave the sanction to an official’s discretion. Article 54 sets three, and only three:

All three are imposed by a Migraciones resolution at the end of a sanctioning procedure, and are executed immediately (article 64). In that procedure you must be notified that it has started, and you have five business days from the day after that notice to file a written defence (article 209.1 of the regulation, as worded by Decreto Supremo 011-2024-IN). If that did not happen, it is an argument for your lawyer.

Who cannot be sanctioned

Article 53.3, as worded by DL 1582, says it in one sentence worth memorising: «En ningún caso MIGRACIONES aplica sanciones a niñas, niños y adolescentes» (in no case does MIGRACIONES apply sanctions to children and adolescents). Article 66 adds persons with absolute incapacity. Anyone threatening to fine or expel a minor is outside the law.

Grounds for a fine (article 56, DL 1582 text)

DL 1582 split article 56 in two:

Automatic fines (imposed when you leave the country): overstaying; leaving under a different nationality from the one you entered with.

Calculated fines: not updating the information on your carné de extranjería; overstaying when you apply to regularise; carrying out activities your migration status does not allow.

Grounds for compulsory departure (article 57)

Being in irregular status through overstay without having applied to regularise, and environmental-conduct sanctions imposed by the competent authority.

Grounds for expulsion (article 58.1)

a) False documents or false information in an immigration procedure. b) Reoffending on the compulsory-departure grounds. c) Not complying with a compulsory departure. d) Irregular status through entry without immigration control. e) Acts against cultural heritage. f) Activities against public order, internal order, national security or citizen security. g) Court order. h) Release after serving a sentence or on a prison benefit. j) Failing to identify yourself to the competent authority — added by Ley 32192 in December 2024.

Article 58.2 refers to the asylum and refugee rules. If you are an asylum seeker or a refugee, that reference matters.

The amounts, article by article

For years the received wisdom was that the amount is written down nowhere. It is. Article 190 of the regulation (DS 007-2017-IN) sets five grounds and their percentage of the UIT, and the Seventh Final Complementary Provision explains what that much-cited “Tabla de Infracciones y Sanciones” actually is: Migraciones approves it by resolution to publicise the infractions and sanctions already contained in the regulation. The table creates no new amounts. These are the amounts:

This is where the forum confusion comes from: the “1%” is monthly, and it is about an out-of-date carné, not daily and about expired residence. Expired residence is sub-paragraph (d), and it works differently: a fixed 0.67% base plus a per-day aggravating factor Migraciones sets separately. They are different infractions, not two versions of one rule.

Three details that change the arithmetic:

• The UIT that counts is the one in force on the day of the infraction, not the day you pay (article 188.2). If you overstayed in 2024, the 2024 UIT applies.
• The daily aggravating factor in (d) is not in the regulation. Migraciones sets it by Superintendencia resolution. That is why we can give you the base and not the total.
• Paying the fine unlocks regularisation. Article 188.3 says so: once it is paid, you can start the procedure to put your migration status in order.

Peruvians can be fined too

Article 189 is rarely discussed and applies to nationals: leaving the country on a document different from the one you entered on costs 5% of the UIT. The exception is where an international treaty recognises the other document as a valid travel document proving the same nationality.

Sometimes the fine is the hotel’s, not yours

Article 192 of the regulation, as worded by Decreto Supremo 011-2024-IN (October 2024), fines legal entities that provide lodging services: 1 UIT for not asking you for your travel or identity documents, 1 UIT for lodging you without recording your nationality, date of birth, full name and document number, and 2 UIT for not sending that record or information to Migraciones. The same decree also requires the lodging to transmit your details to Migraciones at check-in (article 182.1, letter d). If a hotel insists on photocopying your carné, this is why — though what the rule requires of them is to ask and record, not to keep your document.

What changed in 2023 and 2024

DL 1582 added duties that touch your daily life even if you are never sanctioned: every public or private entity must verify that you are in regular migration status (article 10-A); a Código Único de Extranjero was created (article 11-A); interprovincial transport companies must check your documents (article 60-A); and a police administrative detention of up to 12 hours, extendable to 24, was regulated to determine migration status (Fifteenth Final Complementary Provision). That detention has been contested; we do not know whether it is applied today as published.

Ley 32192 added article 73.4 (the police may verify your identity without a court order), article 15-A (a procedure to identify someone without a document) and the expulsion ground for failing to identify yourself.

What to do

Know the rule, use the official channel, and get a lawyer if the sanction is compulsory departure or expulsion. Do not sign or declare anything you do not understand. If the problem is Migraciones’ treatment or delay — not the sanction itself — Migraciones’ libro de reclamaciones and the Defensoría del Pueblo are the channels. We say no more than that because in immigration matters a wrong piece of general advice costs years of re-entry ban.

What if you simply don’t pay the fine?

This page covers the amounts and violations. What happens afterward — whether the fine expires, or blocks your exit from the country or renewal of your migratory status — is covered separately in what happens if you don’t pay a Migraciones fine?.