Advice for extending daughter's visa. A visa run or a student visa?

[lbooker]

Steve...You are so in the know.....I hope that you can answer this for me!

My daughter is currently an exchange student for the summer in San Rafael, Argentina. She is wanting to extend her stay until December or early January. She arrived in Argentina on June 22nd. She does not have a visa. The exchange program is talking about her flying back to the US and then back to Argentina. I know that there are other better and more efficient ways to accomplish this. Since she is living in San Rafael, can she do a visa run to Chile? I have friends there that she could stay with if she had to stay for a certain amount of time. Her host family also has friends in Chile. Just trying to figure out the easiest way to accomplish this without experiencing all of the beauacracy. She wants to stay until December. Thank you.

 

[steveinbsas]

As indicated in the title of your post, your daughter already has a 90 day tourist visa and it can easily be extended for 90 days at the nearest office of migraciones (Mendoza?) for $2700 pesos. That has to be cheaper and faster than making a "visa run" to Chile.

If she does not get the extension or overstays the extension she will have to pay $4500 when she leaves the country. Some might advise her to just overstay and pay the fine when she leaves, but I think getting the extension is a good idea (to avoid the possibility of any hassles after her 90 day visa expires, especially if she is traveling by bus).

She can get the extension up to ten days prior to the expiration date of her present visa, but that will only add 90 days from the date she gets the extension, not the original expiration date (something to keep in mind when planning her return trip to the USA).