Denied Exit?

[ajoknoblauch]

If you "aren't here on tourist visas" it simply isn't possible to pay an overstay fine so that was never really a possibility.

This is the first time you brought up the fact that you were traveling with children and there was a problem with the computer or that anyone "lied" about not having access to the records in the computer to see that (y)our children were (y)ours.

If that is why you were denied boarding it had nothing to do with an overstay. I can understand why the girl at migraciones wouldn't let you pay an overstay fee and I wonder how you can be so sure "they" were lying about not having computer access at the moment they tried to access your information.

Did you have the "appropriate documents" for the children with you? If so, wouldn't they have been sufficient to allow boarding? As syngirl noted, it's really difficult for those of us reading your story to understand what happened unless you explain it without omitting important details.

I find it very frightening that a $100 bribe would allow anyone to leave the country with children...without the proper documentation or verification of their data. If you are sure a bribe would have allowed it to happen I think your story should be told on Argentina media, but since you didn't pay there isn't a story worthy of national attention...this time.

Two decades ago, I entered Argentina with my two-year-old daughter, with my wife arriving later. I left for the States alone, while she returned some months later - having had to get an extension for our daughter in the interim - and had no problem whatsoever returning to the US.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

It might be enough with passports in the US but you were not boarding there.

Argentina signed an international treaty for avoiding international children kiddnaping. That s why you have to evidence they are yours.

Regards

 

[la_guachita]

They are strict about the kids because of the Hague Convention, but I agree they want bribes. I know some folks who work at the airport (which saved me in one ramble with migraciones) and have heard some stories. There are some real shady types working there. Think about all the drugs that go through there for one thing, only once in a while a token Brit or Colombian is busted in Ezeiza, but rarely an Argentinean.

 

[WorkingClassHero]

What I meant was why on earth would they have left Ezeiza, missed their flights, and gone all the way to Colonia to get a new visa when they could have paid the fine in the moment -- read the OP -- he says that the people he heard were denied exit CHOSE to go to Colonia.

They probably were given the option to pay the fine on the spot, I've been here for 6 years, gone through that airport I don't know how many times, and everyone who works at the ticketing counters has always had a good enough grasp of english that even when my Spanish sucked I could understand that they were telling me to go to Immigrations down the hall to sort things out.

Nowhere in the post does it say that they were told they have to go to Colonia, they chose to go. In fact I don't think a single Argentine official at Ezeiza would ever consider telling someone to leave the airport and take a boat to Colonia so that they can get a new visa -- the only thing that an official would have possibly told them is "you need to go to migraciones" and they heard "migraciones" and thought the one on Antartida Argentina rather than the one at the airport. Migraciones is always open at Ezeiza. Perhaps they understood it was closed and thought they had to go back to the center, and then DECIDED of their own accord to go to Colonia instead of migraciones, but seriously, no Argentine official at Ezeiza would ever think to tell someone to get on the buquebus to Colonia and renew their visa.

You got quite an imagination. I love the way you filled the missing pieces of information in order to make sense and support your original theory (that they were idiots).
You should consider a career in writing (movie script / novel) or even better in politics

 

[WorkingClassHero]

I overstayed my visa and want to renew it now. If I go over to colonia for the day and pay the overstay fee will I have any problems coming back into argentina if i do it all same day or within two days?

No, problems at all, you can go out of the boat, enter Uruguay and then turn around and go back on the same boat. You pay 300 pesos and nobody cares how long you overstayed.

If you haven't renewed it too many times you should be able to do it at Migraciones near Retiro, you just pay 300 pesos and they put a stamp in your passport. Saves you the trip to Uruguay.

 

[French jurist]

If you haven't renewed it too many times you should be able to do it at Migraciones near Retiro, you just pay 300 pesos and they put a stamp in your passport. Saves you the trip to Uruguay.

Except that by doing this, you get the "ultima proroga" thing (many threads about that). Better take the boat to Uruguay.