Chris_Porto said:
How does one go about living (and working, freelance in my personal case) in Argentina for two years (in terms of rights, paying taxes, having ID, arranging contracts/services and so on) i.e.
1. Rights: you have full civil rights just for being living here, sometimes is easier, some times is more difficult to enforce them.
2. You don´t pay taxes meanwhile you are not regular.
3. Your passport is enough.
4. You can do contracts with your passport.
Chris_Porto said:
"Tener dos años de residencia ininterrumpida y documentada en el país, certificada por la Dirección Nacional de Migraciones"
Somebody invented this requirement. I searched on the internet and seems that there is a genious advicing people at Yahoo...
The uninterruptus residence is a requirement abolished related to the decrete of the 19th of december of 1931.
The residency certified by Migraciones is related to law 21.795 abolished in 1983.
Chris_Porto said:
... without having a visa, which I understand it would be impossible to obtain without a work contract with an employer in the country...?
The immigration law has a bad legal technique because it confuses visas with residency permision. In the US this is clearer, you have your visa and the green card.
Just a few countries needs Visa, i.e. China.
Once you are in Argentinian Territory you can work under the table.
Chris_Porto said:
Is it possible to stay (and work!) two years on a tourist visa, paying for the extensions and then apply for citizenship...? Is this process very costly?
You need only one year before to apply for citizenship. You need the two years for being granted with citizenship (the process take between 1 up to 2 years). Once you apply for citizenship, you can apply for legal residency (precaria) based on your regularization through the citizenship process.
The procedure is for free, you don´t need to pay any fee to the Justice or the State, you have to pay only the edicts that costs from 180 up to 2000 pesos.
However, the description I made is related to the way I litigate citizenship cases. If you do it without my legal advice the requirements are the ones you can see at arca´s website.
Regarding costs, depends on the facts of the case (difficulty).
Regards