Denied Exit?

[Nicole_Ramirez]

I don't know. We were running back and forth for 2 hours between the immigration desk and United counter. We saw ta least 5 people who were paying because of staying here too long. United even suggested we go to the immigration office and try to leave by paying the fine, but that made the girl really mad. lol. I don't know where they actually paid at I was dealing with my own nightmare.

 

[steveinbsas]

They definitly want bribes. Now if only we were thinking like them at the time we wouldn't have lost 2 days of our vacation. Lesson learned. I did see lots of people paying at the immigration office. So it seems to be quite common.

I now realize you were referring to the caja at the airport, not the "office of immigrations" (in Retiro). The fact that others were paying the overstay fine at the airport doesn't mean that anyone wanted bribes.

Who was the girl who got really mad...and do you know why?

 

[MasChicoTenes]

Something weird/annoying happened to me leaving the airport last week. When I went to get my boarding pass this kid who looked about 18 saw my passport full of uruguay stamps. He made a stupid face and said there was a problem because I had so many stamps, and especially most of them were entering/exiting on the same day, and I had to go see the immigration people.

So I walked all the way down there, the guy shrugged and said there was no problem. I asked him if maybe there was a new rule against leaving and entering on the same day, and he said it makes no difference so long as the last entry was within 90 days.

I walked all the way back to the check-in line and gave the kid a semi hysterical porteño style lecture that there was no problem with my passport, he was wasting everybodys time and if he still had a problem he should come with me to the immigration office. Then he mumbled something and let me through

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

I now realize you were referring to the caja at the airport, not the "office of immigrations" (in Retiro). The fact that others were paying the overstay fine at the airport doesn't mean that anyone wanted bribes.

Who was the girl who got really mad...and do you know why?

Our situation was different than everyone elses. We spent 3 hours runiing back and forth and my husband realises after we get home that if had offered a bribe we would have gotten through immigration with no problem. The girl at the immigration desk got mad when we went back after United suggested we try to pay for the over stay than leave as Argentine residents. She was yelling at my husband.

 

[Crema Americana]

Yes it's technically true but not quite the way it's been told -- and they're idiots for having done it via Colonia instead of at the moment in the airport.

Why are they idiots for doing it the way they were told? Yes, it's ridiculous and they should have asked someone else, but you usually trust airport officials to give you accurate information.

The problem with Argentina is that they are so fickle in their policies and the agents often have no idea what they're doing or just wish to make life more difficult for you that you often don't know what to do or what's acceptable tomorrow.

Why weren't they given the option to pay the fine on the spot? The idiots are the stupid people checking passports and giving bad advice.

 

[steveinbsas]

The girl at the immigration desk got mad when we went back after United suggested we try to pay for the over stay than leave as Argentine residents. She was yelling at my husband.

How could you possibly leave as Argentine residents if you had tourist visas?

Even if one "girl" got mad I still don't understand why you couldn't pay the overstay fine and leave on you scheduled flight.

Do I understand correctly that you went to Colonia and got new 90 day visas the following day and then left Argentina from EZE the day after?

 

[French jurist]

We saw ta least 5 people who were paying because of staying here too long. United even suggested we go to the immigration office and try to leave by paying the fine, but that made the girl really mad. lol.

And instead of paying the fine, you went to Colonia?

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

no, my situation is completely different. I am married to an Argentine. We aren't on tourist visas and we were going to Houston. It got too complicated. MY original comment was basically saying that if we handed him a $100 he would of stopped being an ass up in immigration and we would have been on our flight. They lied about not having access to the records in the computer to see that our children were ours because the next morning he went and tralked to the next person on shift and they went right to the computer and looked it up and no problem at all.
The girl at the immigration desk got mad because who the hell knows. I don't always understand the people here. They seem to do as they please instead of having everyone follow the same rules. Oh well.

 

[syngirl]

Why are they idiots for doing it the way they were told? Yes, it's ridiculous and they should have asked someone else, but you usually trust airport officials to give you accurate information.

The problem with Argentina is that they are so fickle in their policies and the agents often have no idea what they're doing or just wish to make life more difficult for you that you often don't know what to do or what's acceptable tomorrow.

Why weren't they given the option to pay the fine on the spot? The idiots are the stupid people checking passports and giving bad advice.

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.

 

[syngirl]

BTW, is it just me, or is this thread full of confusing, half-told experiences of problems at migraciones? It's like people are only writing down half the story and assuming we're figuring out the rest on our own.... or maybe the people who had problems at migraciones had their problems for exactly the same reason -- that they just had communication problems and if they could have clearly defined what the situation was to migraciones they would have cleared everything up and been on their way in a matter of moments?