Almost Denied Entry Into Argentina

[islandemoji]

Hey guys!

TLDR: As a tourist I had two overstays (habilitación de salida) and one visa extension (prórroga) and migration was going to use that as grounds to not let me into the country. I ended up getting in because of an administrative error migraciones made when doing my tourist visa extension. There appears to be a three strikes policy.

Not TLDR: I'm from the US and I've been living in Argentina on and off as a tourist for a few years now. With Milei's recent announcement on being tougher on migration I started the process of getting a visa transitoria como estudiante.

In September I started my Radex application two weeks before my tourist visa was set to expire. I uploaded the documents a few days after my tourist visa expired only to learn that I would also need a background check from my home country. I was unable to submit the application without the background check. My application remains open but unsubmitted.

A few days later I had a previously scheduled business trip to Colombia. I paid my habilitación de salida at Ezeiza and left the country. I returned to Argentina ten days later. My hope was that because I had started a Radex application they would let me in.

At migraciones I was initially told I would not be able to enter the country because I had done a visa extension/prórroga and had two overstays (the one from before this trip and another from years ago). The migrations guy put me in a room and went back to the computer. In the end I got lucky because when I did my visa extension a few months ago, they accidentally changed my status from tourist to transitoria. The migrations guy said that because of this mistake I would be allowed to enter on a 90 day tourist visa. I don't know exactly why this changed anything in terms of me being permitted entry, but I'm not complaining

I'm still waiting on my background check, as the US FBI background check process is quite slow and cumbersome. Once it gets here hopefully my visa will go through and everything will turn out chill.

Conclusions

• There seems to be a sort of three strikes policy regarding overstaying and extending your tourist visa.
• Overstays are equivalent in weight - my first overstay was two years and my second was like 10 days.
• If you're a tourist and staying in this country is important to you, start a visa application ASAP.
• The visa transitoria como estudiante is probably the easiest way to get a non-tourist visa here. Just be aware that you'll need a background check from your home country even if your course is less than six months (contrary to what the website says).

 

[Bajo_cero2]

This is why I always advice to do not do prórrogas. Go for LR or citizenship at Federal Courts.

 

[islandemoji]

This is why I always advice to do not do prórrogas. Go for LR or citizenship at Federal Courts.

Yeah in my case I would have been better off overstaying like 100 days instead of overstaying 10 days with the prórroga. It would have been one strike instead of two and I might not have had any issues getting into the country

 

[sllvn]

Good advice to start the process ASAP. Things are slower than gov websites claim.

E.g. USA background check process, I did mine while in the states (in April) and received my results in less than an hour after taking fingerprints at USPS. The mail-in apostillization, however, took seven weeks (exceeding their “within five weeks” guidance). In-person apostillization is allegedly faster (“seven business days”) but you’ll need to go to their office in D.C. or use a paid service to do this on your behalf.

I’d imagine current processing times are even worse with ongoing gov shutdown.

 

[Sparta]

Good advice to start the process ASAP. Things are slower than gov websites claim.

E.g. USA background check process, I did mine while in the states (in April) and received my results in less than an hour after taking fingerprints at USPS. The mail-in apostillization, however, took seven weeks (exceeding their “within five weeks” guidance). In-person apostillization is allegedly faster (“seven business days”) but you’ll need to go to their office in D.C. or use a paid service to do this on your behalf.

I’d imagine current processing times are even worse with ongoing gov shutdown.

I used a 3rd party service (Monument) for an FBI apostille this month. The shutdown didn't affect the timeline. They even added a pop-up on their site saying it doesn't affect the timeline. I'm sure they were getting swamped with inquiries about that.