Argentine citizenship for foreigners?

[el_expatriado]

I applied for citizenship in 2006 without a lawyer and from 2006-2011 I got nowhere. There's even a sign at the office where you start the trámite that says "No se necesita gestores ni abogados" (No lawyers are needed.)

I put an ordinary lawyer on the case in 2011 (not a citizenship lawyer) and by the end of 2012 I got my carta de ciudadania.

Mine was a pretty simple case and I fulfilled all the requirements (legal income in white, I speak fluent spanish, plenty of years of residency, no criminal record, I have a permanent DNI, etc.) So once the lawyer started dealing with all the bureaucracy, things started moving. Basically you need a lawyer to just go to the office every once in a while, speak with the different legal secretaries, pressure them to send out the oficios (official requests from the court to the different government agencies), etc.

The Federal Courts here don't have an IT system, so the lawyers here know they need to get all the papers they submit stamped just in case they lose the originals, etc. I had a lot of delays just due to missing papers in my case. So the lawyer had to reconstruct my file. Add to this the fact that the secretaries at the court are not helpful (neither are any of the government agencies) and it is worth it to have someone helping you through this.

If I was to do this all over again, I would go with a lawyer from the very beginning instead of attempting to do it on my own. But I'm the kind of person who hates paperwork and bureaucracy. I would much prefer to pay someone else a little something to deal with all of that for me and help me through the process.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

I applied for citizenship in 2006 without a lawyer and from 2006-2011 I got nowhere. There's even a sign at the office where you start the trámite that says "No se necesita gestores ni abogados" (No lawyers are needed.)

I put an ordinary lawyer on the case in 2011 (not a citizenship lawyer) and by the end of 2012 I got my carta de ciudadania.

Mine was a pretty simple case and I fulfilled all the requirements (legal income in white, I speak fluent spanish, plenty of years of residency, no criminal record, I have a permanent DNI, etc.) So once the lawyer started dealing with all the bureaucracy, things started moving. Basically you need a lawyer to just go to the office every once in a while, speak with the different legal secretaries, pressure them to send out the oficios (official requests from the court to the different government agencies), etc.

The Federal Courts here don't have an IT system, so the lawyers here know they need to get all the papers they submit stamped just in case they lose the originals, etc. I had a lot of delays just due to missing papers in my case. So the lawyer had to reconstruct my file. Add to this the fact that the secretaries at the court are not helpful (neither are any of the government agencies) and it is worth it to have someone helping you through this.

If I was to do this all over again, I would go with a lawyer from the very beginning instead of attempting to do it on my own. But I'm the kind of person who hates paperwork and bureaucracy. I would much prefer to pay someone else a little something to deal with all of that for me and help me through the process.

el_expatriado-san, I always enjoy your straight writing and you post directly to the fact.
My case back in the 70's N.Y.C. as student( foreign )I did get my Green Card then without necessitating the help of any attorney. But concur that then US was in the rank of civilised country of the world genre thus getting the same now will be impossible,me thinking! So in your case, speaking el castellano competentemente, como fuese un oriundo del lugar..You still needed to hire an attorney for the last touch..? Do I need to hire an attorney for the purpose of attaining a legal residency there? I was going to go on my own but reading matter related to its obtention, it seems things take a long time ?

 

[sleazemerchant]

One final update to my citizenship case and experience with Dr. Rubilar; yesterday OCA finally delivered my Argentine citizen DNI after a wait of exactly four weeks; I went to Ezeiza at about 2:30am to take advantage of the "en instantes" passport (ten year validity) available 24 hours per day with a supposed waiting time of 45 minutes. Upon presenting my DNI and paying 1660 pesos (credit card only) I drove away from Ezeiza less than an hour later with my very own Argentine passport.

 

[brandwach]

I don't currently live in Argentina and I would prefer not to live there full time as I am a business owner and have a lot going on here in Miami, FL.
I would however like to get Arg citizenship. I would be willing to make frequent trips to AR and there is money available to pay for investments there and the air travel etc. So, the point is. What is the minimum time that one would have to be physically present in AR in order to start the citizenship solicidud?
Thanks

 

[brandwach]

I the first and only time I have ever been to argentina was in 2005 just for a visa run from Chile. I speak fluent spanish etc.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I don't currently live in Argentina and I would prefer not to live there full time as I am a business owner and have a lot going on here in Miami, FL.
I would however like to get Arg citizenship. I would be willing to make frequent trips to AR and there is money available to pay for investments there and the air travel etc. So, the point is. What is the minimum time that one would have to be physically present in AR in order to start the citizenship solicidud?
Thanks

2 years. To live here is a requirement you cannot by pass. There aren't rules, the judge and the prosecutor are going to analize your in/out récord and they are going to say yes or no.

 

[brandwach]

Ok, that makes sense.

 

[brandwach]

Ok, drilling down on this a little more. I travel a lot for business. What would be the estimate minimum time amount of days to be in the country per annum to satisfy this substantial presence requirement? like 100 days, 183 days? 250 days per year? Thanks

 

[Bajo_cero2]

2 years. To live here is a requirement you cannot by pass. There aren't rules, the judge and the prosecutor are going to analize your in/out récord and they are going to say yes or no.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

So you would have to be physically present in the country for 730 consecutive days? No out of country vacations, family emergencies, etc.?