Everything you gather, before the file is submitted.
A clean file is the whole game. El Salvador grants citizenship in 6 to 8 weeks once a complete file is in, but the clock only starts when the documents are gathered, apostilled, and right. This page lays out the 21 documents each applicant assembles, grouped by category: identity, finances, compliance, the application itself, and family. Eleven of them, marked below, are items 21 CBI prepares, translates, and apostilles for you. This is general information, not legal advice; your licensed agent confirms the binding list for your nationality.
Gather once, gather right.
El Salvador citizenship is filed through a licensed agent of The Bitcoin Office and the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, screened, and granted under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286. None of that begins until your file is complete. The five groups below are stable and the descriptions accurate, but exact quantities and formats move with your nationality and your circumstances, so treat this as the map, not the signed instruction. Your agent gives you the binding, line-by-line list once your situation is known.
One principle runs through all of it. A document that is missing, expired, or unapostilled does not slow the file down a little; it stops the clock entirely. The work is front-loaded on purpose, and 21 CBI carries the heaviest part of it. Get the gathering right, and the 6-8 week remote timeline is government processing, not a scramble on your end. The program timeline shows where this sits in the full sequence, and the process page walks the steps in order.
Twenty-one documents, five groups.
Read it straight down. Each line is a document, grouped by what it proves. Items marked 21 CBI handles are the ones we prepare, translate, and apostille on your behalf, so the burden on you is lighter than the list looks.
Identity & personal
Financial
Legal & compliance
Application-specific
Family
Every document on this page is apostilled, and 21 CBI coordinates preparation, translation, and apostille for the eleven items marked above. A document in another language is accompanied by a certified translation. The binding list is always the one your licensed agent confirms for your nationality and circumstances. General information, not legal advice.
Eleven of the twenty-one, on us.
The list looks long because it is honest. But of the 21 documents, eleven are items 21 CBI prepares, translates, apostilles, or lodges for you. Here is how the load actually splits.
Civil documents, handled
Birth and marriage certificates, and children’s birth certificates, are prepared, translated, and apostilled by 21 CBI. You supply the source document; we make it acceptable to a Salvadoran authority.
The on-chain reconstruction
The proof of Bitcoin or digital-asset source is the work 21 CBI runs as standard. A screenshot of a balance is not a source of funds; a clean chain of custody is, and assembling it is the most valuable thing done before the file goes in.
Application and logistics
The completed Freedom Passport form and the biometric data at an approved location are prepared and scheduled by 21 CBI, coordinated to fit the single in-country visit required every five years.
What remains on your side is the gathering of originals, your passport, national ID, bank statements, police clearance, medical certificate, references, and CV, current and to spec. The fuller institutional picture sits on the Freedom Passport program page.
Where most files are won or lost.
A screenshot of a balance is not a source of funds. A clean chain of custody is.
Three of the financial lines above, the source-of-funds declaration, the on-chain transaction history with KYC records, and the proof of Bitcoin source, are the same exercise viewed from three angles: reconstructing where the coins came from, what you paid, and the records that tie the Bitcoin to a lawful origin. Self-custodied coins with a clean trail are exactly what the screen rewards; an unexplained balance is what fails it.
This is the single most exacting part of the file, and it is the part 21 CBI does up front rather than leaving you to improvise at the worst moment. The full method, step by step, is on the source-of-funds page. Where this sits in the wider sequence is on the process page, and the program itself, contribution, timeline, and rights, is set out on the Freedom Passport page.
As Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of 21 CBI, puts it: a complete, apostilled file with a documented source of funds is what turns the 6 to 8 week timeline into government processing rather than a scramble, which is why we carry that work up front.
A clean file moves fast.
Book a confidential file-read with Adam. The first call goes straight to your documents and your source of funds, not a sales script, and you leave knowing precisely what to gather and which eleven items 21 CBI carries for you.