Continuos and/or uninterrpted residency in Argentina regarding citizenship: What's the difference?

[steveinbsas]

There appears to be some confusion about these expressions regarding the new decree, particularly regarding the use of expressions such as "continuous," "uninterrpted," and "residency."

As a native English speaker who had great English teachers in hivh school (all hired by my dad), I'll take a stab at providing an explaination.

When used in the context of discussing a foreigner's Argentine immigration status over a given period of time, continuous residency means the same as unterrupted residency when applied to the conditions of the temporary residency.
.
The residency status is continuous and not interrupted if a foreigner who has temporary residency leaves the country for less than six months during a rolling year. If the foreigner returns within the alloted time frame, the residency can correctly be called continuous.

If the foreigner with temporary residency remains outside of Argentina for more than 183 day of a rolling year, the temporary resident status has been voided interrupted and the foreigner must reapply for temporary residency from scratch. A "renewal" will not be possible.

Before the new decree, it was possible for a foreigner to apply for citizenship without a lawyer if they had.two years of continuous or interrupted legal resident status in Argentina. Anyone who had temporary residency for two years prior to the decree (and still might be able to) could apply for citizenship, even if they had spent a number of months of each of the two years out of the country.

Apparently, the new decree will require a foreigner who applies for citizenship, not just to have two years of continuous "legal residency" in Argentina, but now to actually have two years of continuous (aka uninterrpted) physical presence in the country, without setting foot elsewhere.

In English, the words "continuous" and/or "uninterrpted" have the same meaning when applied to the immigration status of a foreigner in Argentina

In English, the words "continuous and/or "uninterrupted" have the same meaning when applied to the geographical.(aka physical) location of a foreigner in Argentina.

As always, others are welcome to add to or correct anything I've written here. I hope I expressed everything clearly. It's been a little over 57 years since my last English class.

 

[daveholman]

There appears to be some confusion about these expressions regarding the new decree, particularly regarding the use of expressions such as "continuous," "uninterrpted," and "residency."

As a native English speaker who had great English teachers in hivh school (all hired by my dad), I'll take a stab at providing an explaination.

When used in the context of discussing a foreigner's Argentine immigration status over a given period of time, continuous residency means the same as unterrupted residency when applied to the conditions of the temporary residency.
.
The residency status is continuous and not interrupted if a foreigner who has temporary residency leaves the country for less than six months during a rolling year. If the foreigner returns within the alloted time frame, the residency can correctly be called continuous.

If the foreigner with temporary residency remains outside of Argentina for more than 183 day of a rolling year, the temporary resident status has been voided interrupted and the foreigner must reapply for temporary residency from scratch. A "renewal" will not be possible.

Before the new decree, it was possible for a foreigner to apply for citizenship without a lawyer if they had.two years of continuous or interrupted legal resident status in Argentina. Anyone who had temporary residency for two years prior to the decree (and still might be able to) could apply for citizenship, even if they had spent a number of months of each of the two years out of the country.

Apparently, the new decree will require a foreigner who applies for citizenship, not just to have two years of continuous "legal residency" in Argentina, but now to actually have two years of continuous (aka uninterrpted) physical presence in the country, without setting foot elsewhere.

In English, the words "continuous" and/or "uninterrpted" have the same meaning when applied to the immigration status of a foreigner in Argentina

In English, the words "continuous and/or "uninterrupted" have the same meaning when applied to the geographical.(aka physical) location of a foreigner in Argentina.

As always, others are welcome to add to or correct anything I've written here. I hope I expressed everything clearly. It's been a little over 57 years since my last English class.

I still think "residency" has more to do with an address than corporeal presence. IOW if you keep owning or renting a domicile, you are still "residing" there, even if you fly home for a funeral or a vacation. Besides having no address, other things that would break "residency" would be getting a passport or ID somewhere else, registering to vote in another jurisdiction, etc...That's been the definition of residency in every state and country I'm aware of since forever.
But, I guess we'll see where it goes.

 

[MarshallE]

The definition cannot be more clear

1°. Los extranjeros mayores de DIECIOCHO (18) años que acrediten haber residido en la REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA en forma continua y legal durante los DOS (2) años anteriores a la solicitud y manifiesten su voluntad de serlo ante la DIRECCIÓN NACIONAL DE MIGRACIONES organismo descentralizado actuante en el ámbito de la VICEJEFATURA DE GABINETE DEL INTERIOR de la JEFATURA DE GABINETE DE MINISTROS.

Se entenderá que un extranjero residió continuamente en el país cuando hubiere permanecido en el territorio durante todo el plazo al que hace referencia el párrafo anterior, sin haber realizado ninguna salida al exterior.

It means exactly what it says, if you want to naturalize no trips outside Argentina at all for 2 years, period

 

[argeiCanuck]

There are many many different types of residencies.

Tax residency.
Immigration status residency.
Physical domicilio residency.
.........
Etc etc

They are all totally independent of each other and each serve a different purpose. Not to be confused.

 

[Alby]

There appears to be some confusion about these expressions regarding the new decree, particularly regarding the use of expressions such as "continuous," "uninterrpted," and "residency."

Does a Spanish word equivalent to 'uninterrupted' appear in the DNU or elsewhere, either in relation to residency or citizenship? If not, do we need to include it in this discussion or are we just making things unnecessarily worse?

If we are trying to understand what Migraciones terminology means, we probably ought to start with the Spanish words. And we ought to include all the words that could cause confusion; for example, 'residencia' is one thing (a noun describing a legal status granted by Migraciones either for one year (residencia termporaria) or for good (residencia permanente)) while 'residir' is a verb that, as per Marshall's comment, the government is defining in this particular case as not setting foot outside the country.

It seems the only thing to clarify is whether the two Spanish words together ("residió continuamente") in the clause in the DNU about citizenship mean what we don't want them to mean. As Marshall points out, they do mean what we don't want them to mean.

Unless there is a need to define 'uninterrupted', I would sum things up as follows:

• continuo (which we might translate as 'continuously') relates to citizenship and, in the context of the DNU, refers to 'having not set foot outside the country '.
• residir (which we might translate as 'to reside') has a meaning in taxation similar to what Dave is referring to, but in our Migraciones context probably only appears in the DNU (and even then, only in the context of citizenship, not residency) and has the definition the DNU gives it: not set foot outside the country.
• residencia (which we might translate as 'residency') also has a meaning in taxation similar to what Dave is referring to, but in our Migraciones context appears everywhere (including the DNU) and but seems to refer only to residency rather than citizenship and means, as above, the legal status granted by Migraciones either for one year or for good.

Regarding the following comment

"If the foreigner with temporary residency remains outside of Argentina for more than 183 day of a rolling year, the temporary resident status has been voided interrupted and the foreigner must reapply for temporary residency from scratch. A "renewal" will not be possible."

My experience has been that there really is no such thing as a renewal. We might call it that, but Migraciones treats each subsequent year after the first as if it were a new application. Effectively, we apply for temporary residency from scratch every year (until we have accumulated three years (if we are non-Mercosur), at which time we can apply, for permanent residency). At least in the two categories I've been granted, they really give you almost no credit for having previously submitted a mountain of documents.

So that above statement is probably not quite right. I would think it is more likely that if the foreigner with temporary residency remains outside of Argentina for more than 183 days, he or she will be admitted as a tourist for 90 days rather than as a temporary resident still with time (perhaps in excess of 90 days) left on the 365 day limit. If he or she subsequently wants to be a temporary resident again, yes, a new application will be necessary, but, as I say, that process would be little different from the one the person would have had to go through at the end of their 365 days in any case had they not stayed outside the country too long during that period.

The real problem the person creates for themselves by failing to finish the 365 days as a temporary resident in the given year is not that they have to reapply from scratch for a temporary residency but that they have reset the clock to zero if their ultimate ambition is to do three years as a temporary resident on the road to permanent residency.

 

[steveinbsas]

Anyone who had temporary residency for two years prior to the decree (and still might be able to) could apply for citizenship, even if they had spent a number of months of each of the two years out of the country.

When I added "and still might be able to" to this sentence I was thinking about Bajo_cero2's post about having a lawyer file a case in the courts if it wasn't already too late.

If it is already too late to file a new citizenship case in the courts now and migraciones has control of the process unless the new decree is voted down, then the requirement for two years of physical presence in Argentina will most likely become the greatest obstacle to citizenship for most of those who desire it.

 

[steveinbsas]

Does a Spanish word equivalent to 'uninterrupted' appear in the DNU or elsewhere, either in relation to residency or citizenship? If not, do we need to include it in this discussion or are we just making things unnecessarily worse?

I had a post by Bajo_cero2 in mind when I started this thread. That post (#60) included;

Decree 366/2025 establishes that to apply for citizenship it is necessary to have 2 years of continuous legal residence. Continuity is defined as the absence of leaving the country (THIS IS UNINTERRUPTED, CONTINUOUS MEANS YOU CAN TRAVEL). In effect, this means that you are under a kind of house arrest and therefore this decree regulates medieval slavery.

Immigration changes: Health, Education, Deportation

On the Health issue, one consideration many CABA Public hospitals require now DNI and residence in CABA. they all do

baexpats.org

 

[Alby]

I still think "residency" has more to do with an address than corporeal presence. IOW if you keep owning or renting a domicile, you are still "residing" there, even if you fly home for a funeral or a vacation. Besides having no address, other things that would break "residency" would be getting a passport or ID somewhere else, registering to vote in another jurisdiction, etc...That's been the definition of residency in every state and country I'm aware of since forever.
But, I guess we'll see where it goes.

It's very important to clarify this, as Canuck says. Dave's understanding of 'residency' as outlined here is quite different to anything Migraciones are interested in, but much closer to the matters ACRA would look at when determining a foreigner's 'tax' residency.

In Argentina, we have 'residencia' (which the English speakers amongst us might translate to 'residency'), which Migraciones uses to refer to the legal status they grant us to remain in the country, based on us having satisfied their criteria.

In Argentina, we also have 'residencia fiscal'/'residente fiscal'(which in most English-speaking jurisdictions we would translate as 'tax residency'/'resident for tax purposes'), which ACRA uses to refer to whether a person has met the criteria to pay tax in Argentina. Those criteria, in the case of foreigners, include, but are not limited to, how long the foreigner has held a 'residencia' issued by Migraciones. But that doesn't mean the two 'residencias' are the same. They are different, but the one (the Migraciones 'residencia') can form part of the definition of the other (ACRA's 'residente fiscal').

Where it can get particularly confusing is in the media, where the ACRA concept of 'residente fiscal' is almost always abbreviated to 'residente'. Today's article in La Nacion about the blanqueo colchon commits this sin, and leads to confusion. When reading any article about taxation in Argentina, understand that when it talks about a 'residente', it really means 'residente fiscal' and is talking about a 'resident for tax purposes'. Such a person is not, necessarily, you, just for holding a Migraciones-issued residencia. But it might be you if you've been granted sufficient Migraciones-issued residencias to have qualified under the ACRA concept of 'residente fiscal'.

 

[LuckyLuke]

The definition cannot be more clear



It means exactly what it says, if you want to naturalize no trips outside Argentina at all for 2 years, period

I find that hard to believe. There are countless residents that have likely recently made a short trip to Chile for purchases or crossed into Brazil for a visit to the beach. You are telling me they have all voided their right to citizenship?

 

[ArgentinaVet]

I find that hard to believe. There are countless residents that have likely recently made a short trip to Chile for purchases or crossed into Brazil for a visit to the beach. You are telling me they have all voided their right to citizenship?

Foreigner born residents residing in Argentina have no rights to citizenship. Only people born on Argentine soil OR to at least one native born Argentine parent abroad have a right to citizenship. Foreign born residents in Argentina may be granted citizenship at the discretion of the judge (pre Milei decree) and now at the discretion of Migraciones (post Milei decree).