How to get residency in Argentina

Argentina is growing as an investment and Plan B destination as it attempts to turn the page on decades of socialism and fraught economic policy under the new Milei administration. There are a handful of viable paths to obtaining residency in Argentina, which can lead to citizenship after a short period provided certain conditions are met and that you have the right partners assisting you through the bureaucratic tangles.

Video: How to get residency in Argentina in 2025

Why get residency in Argentina

• Live in an energy and agriculture independent and bountiful nation
• Enjoy a relaxed pace of life with lower crime and higher development than most Latin American countries
• Reside in a country that is undergoing potentially transformative economic reform, offering an opportunity to be a part of the story
• Apply for citizenship after 2 years living in the country as a genuine resident and enjoy visa-free travel to over 130 countries

Documents needed to apply for residency in Argentina

The following documents are required for all types of residency:

1. Passport
2. Argentine Criminal Background Check
3. Apostilled Criminal Background Check from any country where you have resided for more than one year in the past three years (translated and certified by a public translator in Argentina if not in Spanish)
4. Address Certificate in Argentina

The following may be required depending on which residency you pursue:

1. Proof of valid health insurance
2. Proof of passive, pension or regular income
3. Birth and marriage certificates, if applicable
4. Proof of funds entering Argentina (for rentista visa)

How to apply for residency in Argentina

Argentina offers three categories of residency: permanent, temporary and transitory. Time spent in the country using any of these residency options allows you to apply for citizenship after two years provided other requirements are met. Get in touch with my immigration lawyer in Argentina.

How to apply for citizenship in Argentina

The law requires two years of uninterrupted presence in Argentina. The jury is still out as to whether they will show leniency towards people who leave Argentina for a few weeks or months. These reforms are still being implemented and there is uncertainty.

Once you apply there is a three-part process that begins with a formal review of your documents to verify that you meet the basic requirements.

In the following phases, the Argentine state will request information from various agencies such as the police and immigration to shed light on your activities and time in Argentina. 

From the time of application to receiving the citizenship can be between 12-24 months, and you are expected to remain in Argentina while it is being processed. You can however still leave for holidays and take vacations as long as you are not out of the country for an unreasonably long time. Even these timelines are questionable as the reforms have changed how people can apply for citizenship. Candidates previously had to go through the court system, but there will now be a citizenship unit within the government that will process the applications.

The government is also working on a $500,000 citizenship by investment scheme but details are scarce for now.

Renouncing citizenship in Argentina

As a general rule, renouncing citizenship in Argentina is not possible. It is among the very few countries in the world where there is no legal mechanism for renunciation.

Articles on Argentina:

• Buenos Aires real estate market analysis: full investor guide

Other services in Argentina:

• My realtor in Buenos Aires

Transcript of “How to get Residency in Argentina”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, with my immigration lawyer, Martin, and we’ll be discussing how to obtain residency in Argentina. Martin, how are you?

MARTIN: Hey, Ladislas. Thank you for having me. I’m all good and looking forward to sharing some information with everyone.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. What are the different ways to obtain residency in Argentina? Because when you look online, there’s so much information on Argentina, so much of it is contradictory, it’s all over the show. So what’s really the case, how to obtain residency here?

MARTIN: Well, my first advice for everyone is to ignore everything that you’re reading online, you go to a trusted source. I mean, we’re going to be online, of course, but we are qualified to do so. Now, we have three types of residency. We have permanent residency, temporary residency, and transitory residency. That being said, if you are looking for citizenship down the road, it doesn’t matter which residency you choose, you just will need two years in a row to apply for citizenship, unless, of course, you have a child or an Argentinian spouse. But let’s just dive into each kind of residency and how we can break it down to make it easier for people, right?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, perfect. We were talking a bit earlier, and you said there are four main ways to obtain residency here in Argentina.

MARTIN: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the first one?

MARTIN: There are more than four, actually, but they are not really used. You can be a cleric, you can be a medical patient, but we are going to dive into the four main types. Yes, if there’s a specific case, of course, everyone’s free to ask.

Permanent residency in Argentina

MARTIN: We have having a relative, like, you have an Argentinian child, you’re married to an Argentinian citizenship, maybe you’re married to an Argentinian permanent resident. If that’s the case, you can apply for permanent residency. The main thing here is to prepare properly every single document that you will need to show your bond, your family bond, to the Immigration Department. We are speaking maybe of a birth certificate or a marriage certificate from Argentina or from abroad.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so get married here to an Argentine or Argentine permanent resident, or have a kid here.

MARTIN: Maybe you can get married abroad, it also works, to an Argentine. If you live in the US, you meet the Argentine love of your life, you marry in New York, you bring the apostilled birth certificate and show it to the Immigration Department. Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So can you then apply for citizenship from New York without living here, or do they want you to be living here?

MARTIN: One of the requirements for citizenship is to live here. Even if you’ve been married or have a child, you cannot apply for naturalization from abroad.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Let’s say, I have a child here. After how long can I apply for citizenship?

MARTIN: You will need probably three to six months to get everything in order. We just need to remind everyone that requirements for citizenship are being free of criminal records, mostly, having the two years of residency, unless you have a kid or an Argentinian spouse, and having verifiable income. We usually take some time to prepare paperwork. It’s not just submitting application from scratch. It’s probably going to make the application slower, messier. We prefer to do it neatly.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s not an administrative process, right, you go through the court for citizenship?

MARTIN: Exactly. It’s important for people to know that we have two different branches in our immigration law. We have residency administered by the Immigration Department, which depends on the executive power, and we have citizenship, which comes directly from the Constitution and is handled by the federal court.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. So having a kid or being married, after a few months, you can apply. We’ll go into the timelines a bit later.

MARTIN: Yeah.

Argentina passive income residency

LADISLAS MAURICE: Tell us about the next way to obtain residency here.

MARTIN: We just discussed permanent residency, and then we have the rentista residency. It roughly translates to a passive income holder. Careful with passive income. You cannot be a digital nomad working from home and apply for this. This is a common misconception. Now, the Argentine legislation considers passive income financial instruments, maybe a house, or stock, a portfolio. And there are more ways. And even the law allows for more creative ways of proving that you’re the owner of passive income. But you also need the actual benefit of the passive income.

If you, let’s just say, you have portfolio. You keep investing, investing, and you do not withdraw money from this portfolio, well, you will have to, and to transfer this money into Argentina to apply for a rentista, passive income holder residency.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And what’s the threshold?

MARTIN: Well, you need to prove $1,500 per month per person. And you have to transfer all this money into Argentina. Like, if you’re going to apply for one year, for example, you have to apply, times 12, $1,500 per month per person. So it’s, you know–

LADISLAS MAURICE: It can add up.

MARTIN: It can add up if we are speaking for a big family, yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. So $1,500 per person, including children?

MARTIN: Yes, including children. We do not get discounts for children.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can the parents also be included?

MARTIN: Well, in fact, the parents, we don’t have that many cases, it’s mostly being sought for kids, but we could try. It’s not against the law, definitely.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. All right, interesting. Let’s go into the next one.

Argentina pensioner residency

MARTIN: Yeah, we have a residency, it’s very similar, but for pensionists. Instead of transferring and bringing all your money here before applying, you will show that you have, in a private or public fund, a monthly stable pension, monthly source of income that will be above $1,500 per month per person. It’s important to say that this amount is in our law, and it’s expressed in minimum salaries. It’s five minimum salaries per month per person. We live with the Argentine peso here, so the amount, $1,500, is an estimate. It can change, always taking into consideration the fluctuation of the exchange rate against the dollar.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, things change a lot in Argentina.

MARTIN: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And the last one?

Argentina student residency

MARTIN: And then we have student residencies. We have two kinds of student residency. We have the transitory student residency or the temporary student residency. If you enroll in a university for a degree or masters, of course, you have to go to class more, right? But you will get a temporary residency with a DNI, an ID card. If you go to some Spanish school, an art school, something which is not under the scope of what we call official education, you will probably get a transitory residency. So you will not get an ID card, but you will have virtually all the same rights.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And you can still apply for citizenship?

MARTIN: You can still apply for citizenship, yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Are you expected to actually attend classes?

MARTIN: You are expected to attend class.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Is it enforced?

MARTIN: In fact, this is enforced very easily because, you know, student visas are approved pretty fast in comparison to maybe rentista or pensionist, because these institutions work as agents of control of the Immigration Department. They will give you an enrollment certificate. It’s a digital enrollment certificate. Not all institutions can do it. They have to be previously registered within the scope of the Immigration Department. And you know, if you fail to attend class, they will report you to the Immigration Department. They have the obligation to do so. And the Immigration Department will probably just not renew your residency, and you need it to apply for citizenship down the road.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so if you’re a bit lost in life, you don’t know what you’re doing, you can just come here and study Spanish. And you were telling me about this really cool wine course as well?

MARTIN: Yeah. I mean, we are currently mapping the education system for cool courses for experts and nomads. We have tango, we have Spanish, we have wine, we have photography. And it’s all been designed for people to work first. So you can go at night or in the afternoon. It’s not every day.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So you could just come here and take one year of Spanish–

MARTIN: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: actually attend classes–

MARTIN: Yes, of course.

LADISLAS MAURICE: then one semester of wine, actually attend classes, then one semester of tango, and then–

MARTIN: Well, it’s not that easy. You cannot just take one semester of each thing. Every school will probably try to take you in for a full degree. We recommend taking one-year courses, at least, not six months things.

Applying for citizenship in Argentina

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] All right, cool. So for people who are looking for something new in life, this is an option. Okay, this is clear. Those are the four options with a clear path to citizenship. Now, what are the minimum physical presence requirements to be able to apply for citizenship? How long should you have actually stayed in Argentina?

MARTIN: Well, that’s an interesting question. Our citizenship law goes back to 1864. And we don’t have a 90-day rule like we have with the tourist visas and everything. The law requires for uninterrupted residency, but that’s a subjective approach. If you’re living in Argentina, you have the house, you have the dog, someone’s watering your plants and taking care of your goldfish, then you can leave for holidays and get citizenship anyway. That’s not a problem. And if you’re under a student visa, you’re probably going to comply with the holidays that the institutions give you, and you can maybe take a trip or two, but you have attendance quotas, you know.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s nine, ten months. I mean, it’s not fixed, but nine, ten months, so really living here.

MARTIN: Yeah, you have to live here. There’s a common misconception online, you can read that you can spend seven months here per year. That’s true, and you probably get money-based residencies do not impose a minimum time, but that’s just for residency. If you’re looking to get citizenship, you may have your rentista residency, the passive income one, renewed and renewed forever. You can even maybe apply for permanent, but when the time comes to apply for citizenship, Immigration Department will show the amount of time that you were actually living here, and you probably have a problem or a discussion with the judge. We do not advise them.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Because we were discussing, essentially, there’s a very big difference between immigration, right, and residencies, and then the court process to obtain citizenship. The two are not very much linked, and the requirements for the two are often quite different.

MARTIN: Yes, indeed. The Immigration Department depends on the executive power. They will take care of the residency process. It’s an administrative process. It’s done online. It looks easier and faster. It actually isn’t. It’s definitely shorter, though. Now, when we’re talking about citizenship–

LADISLAS MAURICE: Nothing’s easy in Argentina.

MARTIN: No, no, definitely not. Now, when we’re talking about citizenship, we are looking at a federal court lawsuit. It’s not a lawsuit against anyone. It’s not even against the state. It’s like a voluntary proceeding, but there is a control of the state. It’s a three-part proceeding. You apply, there’s a formal control of your documents to see if you meet the requirements. We are going there just in a second. But then you have two more stages. In the second stage, very important one, the court will request many different offices of the state, like, the Federal Police, Interpol, the Immigration Department, to issue information about you. They will see how much time you actually spent in the country, if there’s a red alert upon your head, and if you have criminal records in Argentina before granting you citizenship.

Once all of these offices have given the response, the judge will send the application to the district attorney, the lawyer of all of us, to put it somehow. And only after the district attorney has given the green light, then the judge will declare us citizens.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so let’s say, I move here and I apply for citizenship, whether after a few months, if I have a kid or married, or two years through the other ways, how long does it take to actually obtain the citizenship from the application time, roughly?

MARTIN: From the application time, we are speaking of a 12 to 24-month process. It’s a huge variation, it’s a huge gap. Why would you have 100% difference? It’s because courts are randomly assigned, and some courts were just slower than others.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can I be out of the country, just do my two years, properly live here, do my 10 months a year here, have a life, I apply, leave?

MARTIN: No, the Immigration Department response to the judge will show that you are not here, and the requirement for citizenship is that you live here. You have to live here. In fact, you have to go get fingerprinted, you have to go say, “Hey, it’s me. I am the holder of this identity document.” I mean, you have to go four to five times to court in-between the process. And we really advise clients. And they can travel. And even after the Immigration Department responds, they could even travel a little more without so much risk. But yeah, it’s you have to live here.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Essentially, the true timeline to obtain citizenship in Argentina is more like three to four years of actually living here.

MARTIN: Exactly.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And if you have a kid or you’re married, it’s actually around two years.

MARTIN: Yes, exactly, the whole time. And there’s something important we should say. It’s not getting residency for two years and then applying straight for citizenship. As we just discussed, the immigration branch goes one way, and the citizenship branch goes the other way. To the eyes of the Immigration Department, if you do not keep renewing your residency, either a student or a passive income holder, you will probably be illegal to the eyes of the Immigration Department. We always advise our clients that, simultaneously, when applying for citizenship, they renew at least one more year within the scope of the Immigration Department.

Renouncing citizenship in Argentina

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Clear. Let’s discuss renouncing citizenship in Argentina. Is it possible?

MARTIN: That’s a tricky question. As a general rule, it’s not possible. Everything’s becoming a bit more flexible. It’s been a precedent from a local court in 2019, that a guy had a criminal record here. He wanted to be expelled of the country so not to pay the price off of his crime. And the court here in the Buenos Aires province allowed him to renounce citizenship. But this is very fresh, and we have to be looking for the changes in this matter.

Get in touch with Martin

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Thank you, Martin. If you’re interested in obtaining residency or citizenship here in Argentina, there’s a link below with more information, and you can also get in touch with Martin this way.

MARTIN: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Martin, thank you.

Transcript of “Changes to Argentina residency rules and citizenship by investment update“

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor. Today, we’ll be discussing some of the recent immigration changes in Argentina, together with my immigration lawyer, Martin, because there’s a lot of speculation online, and there’s a lot of nonsense being told, and a lot of people talking with authority, saying that certain things are going to happen but, in reality, no one really knows. Martin, let’s set the record straight here.

MARTIN: Great. Thanks for having me, Ladislas. And yes, it’s true, clients from all over the world are super concerned, because internet is full of misconceptions, mistakes. People go on about AI. Let’s go straight to the point. What has changed? What has not changed? In general, everything has become more strict. That’s the truth. No more permanent tourists. There is a common misconception. It used to be this way, Argentina used to be very relaxed, but people coming to Argentina and constantly renewing their tourist visa, doing visa runs to Uruguay or Brazil, we have now specific provisions against this in the new immigration law. The decree has stated very strict, dangerous sanctions, including deportation and a minimum of five years of a reentry ban. If you were thinking of coming to Argentina and not becoming legal straight away, that’s a bad choice.

There’s also a new change. We used to have direct permanent residency for those who married an Argentine citizen or those who have a child, an Argentine child. Now it’s not a permanent residency, but a temporary residency. In practice, it’s not a big deal, but you just have to go and apply for permanent residency when the time comes. Permanent residency has also becoming a little stricter, too.

Changes to birth tourism in Argentina

LADISLAS MAURICE: Before, essentially, you could have a child, and then build a bit of substance in Argentina, and then apply for citizenship, like, a year later or so, or a few months later. Can you still do this?

MARTIN: This is a common misconception. Citizenship versus residency, they are not the same. It’s not clear if, with a child, you can still apply for citizenship. The new decree has repealed some articles of the old citizenship law that has left, with full force, the regulation decree of the citizenship law, which has the title exception, so it’s still legally valid. They intended to finish this practice but, technically, it’s valid. We’ll need to see what happens with the current data.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so essentially, people who want to have a kid and they want to do some birth tourism, Argentina right now is a bit of a risky proposition, because there’s a bit of uncertainty. Is this the message?

MARTIN: That’s absolutely the message, yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Good to know. Thank you.

Impact of criminal records on residency eligibility in Argentina

MARTIN: There’s also a very interesting kind of non-reasonable change, if you want to say. Criminal records, if you have any kind of conviction, any kind of record, even if it’s a fine, even if it’s community service, or three days of prison time, you are no longer eligible for residency in Argentina. Does it make sense? Definitely, no. There is a rule in Argentina that criminal records expire after 10 years, but some countries leave the stain, they force you to have that for the rest of your life, and some records cannot be expunged. We don’t know what the Immigration Department is going to do with records that are more than 10 years old or if they are really going to import this provision by the book.

LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s a little bit of a contradiction between a libertarian system and then saying that someone that was jailed by another government for something very small, or just had a fine, just can’t enter the country anymore. [laughs] There’s a bit of a tension between practice and theory, I find. Okay, so there’s the criminal record thing. Any other changes?

MARTIN: No more relevant changes, I think. Well, there is a very interesting change, very dangerous. They changed one word in Article 61 of the immigration law. Before, when they find you as an illegal alien, or they find you lying at the border, the Immigration Department had the obligation to give you a certain reasonable time to become legal. They used to have the obligation, now it’s at their discretion. They changed, shall or may. That changes everything. They enabled direct red cards, like in football, they enabled direct deportations at the border, which is going to bring many cases, and it’s definitely going to raise concern about all that are uncertain of their future, or they haven’t made the right decision yet.

Changes to physical stay requirement for citizenship in Argentina

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. And there’s a lot of things going online with people saying that now to apply for citizenship in Argentina, you need to stay two years in a row in Argentina without leaving the country for even one day, as a resident. Is this really the case, or is it ambiguous? Do we really know where we stand here?

MARTIN: It is the case. The text of the decree is extremely clear. It’s two years without exit. Is this constitutional? I think not. I know for a fact that many of my immigration lawyer colleagues, constitutional lawyer colleagues think it’s not legal nor constitutional. Even if some law is out there, it can be challenged, and this one will probably be challenged. Challenging one, small provision of the decree doesn’t make it all fall, so like more trip conditions for residency may prevail, while this particular provision of staying put in Argentina for two years may probably be disregarded at some level.

We don’t know if we’re going to need a full constitutional challenge for this, or if the Immigration Department will just realize this was probably a strategic mistake, and enforcement will be, well, lighter than expected. I think this will probably be the case, if you left the country for holidays, it’s hard to think that they’re going to enforce this strictly.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And I think what you meant, what you raised is interesting, because now you’re talking about the immigration department making the decision. Before, it was judges that were making naturalization decisions. Correct?

MARTIN: Absolutely, that’s another one of the changes regarding citizenship. We have one big change to discuss also. But it used to be the courts that handled citizenship, courts, and now we’re going to see the Immigration Department handling cases. At the moment, I think it’s important, at the moment, the Immigration Department is not taking cases. They said they need more time, more personnel, offices, whatever, we expect that it may take couple of months for them to be fully functional regarding the assessment, and to have more information.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Any other changes?

Argentina citizenship by investment program

MARTIN: Yes. Argentina has launched a CBI program, Citizenship by Investment program. I think this is worth noting. There is so much mistaken information, there’s so much speculation, rumors online, but let’s get the record straight. As you said before, there is an agency for the Citizenship by Investment program, and we are waiting for the regulation. There’s no number yet. The news have said half a million, but it’s still not official, and we have to wait, and follow The Wandering Investor, of course, for the proper information, so when it comes and when we know the full requirements, we can act on it.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you, Martin, for the clarification, because there are already all these people that are just running with assumptions and saying, “This is what the program will be,” etc. No one really knows. In the meantime, they’re getting views. But the reality is no one knows. People should just sit on the sidelines, be patient, and wait for the official regulations.

MARTIN: That is true. And I think that the main thing here is that the core ground for residency haven’t changed. You can still get residency by getting married or having a child, by using your pension or your passive income, or by some activity like working or studying. These core components haven’t changed, the procedures stay the same. The Immigration Department will still take care of this. And who knows, we may even get, with all these citizenship by investment revolution, we may even get residency by investment, maybe buying property. We don’t know. It is expected, it is in the agenda, but the main core components haven’t changed.

If you are thinking of being a part of history, you’re going to Argentina, living here in the city and experiencing it, get in touch. I think, get in touch, explore the best option for you. Just do not become illegal, the stakes have gone crazy higher, and probably there’s something to do to get a solid status.

How to contact Martin

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, fantastic. If you want to find out the different ways to obtain residency in Argentina, there’s a link below with all of the information, and then you can use this link as well to get in touch directly with Martin, who is based in Buenos Aires, and his core specialty is immigration to Argentina. Martin, thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate it.

MARTIN: Thank you for having me.