Five months after coming into force, the National Unified Registry (RUN) has yet to deliver the operational efficiency promised to notaries and citizens, according to representative bodies of Paraguayan notaries. Created by Law 7424/25 and regulated in January 2026 by President Santiago Peña, the RUN merged the General Directorate of Public Registries, the National Cadastre Service, and the Surveying and Geodesy Department of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) into a single structure under the Supreme Court of Justice.
Ana María Niella, president of the Council of Public Notaries of Paraguay, stated that, in practice, there is no real integration between the processes or the databases of the three institutions. "There is not the slightest information about this full integration, let alone any sign of it in practice," she said. For Niella, the true benefit of the reform would be a single, efficient, and streamlined process capable of providing faster and more secure responses, but the dynamics of the previous structures still persist.
Katia Ayala Ratti, vice president of the Paraguayan Association of Notaries, highlighted that many procedures still depend on separate processes. One of the most emblematic examples is the cadastral-registry certification: although it begins at a single counter, the file goes through multiple physical stages — from the Km 5 headquarters to Asunción, where it is processed by the cadastre sector, and then returns for registry review. "This procedure not only extends deadlines but also entails risks associated with the physical transfer of files," she warned.
The situation is repeated in the interior of the country, where documents must be sent between different regional offices, causing additional delays. Added to this are systems and procedures inherited from the previous institutions, resulting in duplicate records and difficulty tracking procedures.
According to the organizations, the main impact of the RUN so far has not been an operational improvement but the persistence of uncertainties in internal procedures. Administrative steps that previously operated simultaneously and digitally now require consecutive interventions, in some cases in person. "What was unified was the application form and the place to submit it," Niella summarized.
This arrangement directly affects processing times. While certificates were previously issued in about 10 calendar days, the current deadline has risen to 15 business days, potentially exceeding three weeks in real terms. The Council of Notaries insists that modernization cannot be measured solely by institutional restructuring but by concrete results in efficiency. "Technology must adapt to the system and the needs of its users, not the other way around," Niella emphasized.
The professional associations acknowledge that the reform is still going through a transition phase, in which interoperability coexists with legacy systems, and full integration has not yet been achieved.