Do Germany passport holders need a visa to visit SV?

German ordinary passport holders do NOT need a visa to visit El Salvador for tourism. You may stay up to 90 days. A tourist card (around USD 12) may be purchased on arrival, and your passport must be valid for at least 6 months when arriving by air. Germany is on El Salvador's visa-exemption list, so German citizens travel visa-free for tourism and short visits. The German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) confirms no visa is required for stays of up to 90 days. Importantly, this 90-day allowance is a regional limit: El Salvador is part of the Central America-4 (CA-4) Border Control Agreement together with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and the 90 days counts as a combined total across all four countries within any 180-day period, not 90 days per country. On arrival by air or sea many travelers obtain a tourist card for roughly USD 12; the card is typically valid for 90 days. Passports must be valid for at least 6 months on entry by air (for land entries the passport need only be valid on the day of entry). Provisional passports are accepted, but German national ID cards are not. There is no eVisa, ETA or visa-on-arrival process to complete in advance for short tourist stays. To stay beyond 90 days in the CA-4 region, you must request a one-time extension from immigration authorities or exit the CA-4 zone. The visa-free channel covers tourism and family/friend visits only; work or long-term residence requires a separate visa/permit. El Salvador is not in the Schengen area, so Schengen 90/180 and ETIAS rules do not apply to this route.