Dhl And Ezeiza

[trace]

I went back to Ezieza today with enough money to buy my package. If you have ever been to exieza's cargo terminal you see just how ridiculous the whole process is. You have to go to a little booth and sign in and they print you out a security pass. Then you go through security and eventually find an old building or maybe it's new for them, anyways you make your way down a dingy hall where Fedex and other companies have their offices full of smoking argentines. You get to the office of particulares and you hand them your paper work and they say, you know there is a charge with this, YES I KNOW, take a seat.

So I wait for an hour because that's how long it takes them to eat their churripan and take a siesta. Then I go back into another room the guys says Si? I say I'm here to pick up a package, I give him the paperwork. He says no, he can't give it to me because I need this and this. He shows me a long list of rules. I said DHL sent me here and I was here yesterday and they said all I need I money. I offered the guy 1000 just give me my package, he said it doesn't work that way and I said it basically does work that way. He said I need to go talk to DHL. I then spent five minutes lecturing him on argentine society and their culture of it's never their fault, it's always someone's else's fault. He eventually said all I need is my passport, so he took my passport and saw that my tourist visa expired last year and tells me I have to go to retiro to get it renewed. And that's that. I'm not a swearing man but I was really close to cussing him out. This is probably one of the only things ever in my life to lead me to the brink of a total meltdown, I'm I'm the calmest person in the world.

Anyways, I guess I'll go to retiro to renew my tourist visa and then back to ezeizA. When I do get my package I want to open it and show them all it was was one shirt for my future baby, baby clothes, I hope I don't call them chorros de m....

The rules will change again when you arrive next time.

 

[Gringoboy]

On what grounds are they extorting this money out of you?
Have they itemised what these charges represent?
What's the timescale for when the parcel was sent and when it arrived?
Ask for an official invoice and make sure you keep it.
I ask these hair-brained questions because I paid $40 at the aircraft hangar which was just about palatable.

 

[steveinbsas]

If I go to retiro tomorrow at 7:30 am, pay 600 pesos to renew my tourist visa, take the two hour bus ride, for the third day in a row, go through security, wait an hour for aduana to see me, only for them to tell me I can't get my package, oooh boy. I'm going to be nice, I'm going to be nice, I'm going to be nice, smile and wave, get my package and leave

I posted the following in the other thread before reading this post (as well as the one in which you indicated that your 90 day visa expired last year).

If your tourist visa has already expired, I believe there is a 50% penalty that will be charged to extend it at migraciones and I believe there is a limited amount of time after the expiration to get the extension there (possibly 30 days).

They can also refuse to extend it if giving the extension would mean you would be in Argentina more than 180 days in the past year (hopefully, excluding the days since your 90 day visa expired) or you got your last 90 day visa by going to Uruguay. Even if neither of these reasons apply, they will probably tell you to just regularize your status after you tell them you're married to an Argentine.

They might also tell you to go to Uruguay to get a new visa (which would mean paying the $600 peso overstay fee as well as the cost of the trip)...just to be able to pay the $700 pesos to get your package.

If you got an extension of your expired tourist visa this morning, you will have been very, very lucky.

It will not be surprising if they gave you 30 days to regularize your immigration status (apply for permanent residency) instead.

 

[andesmandes]

Which is totally besides the f**king point! Wake up will you!
Quite how John kep his cool is beyond me.
A license to steal money.

Buddy, I have gone through the bureaucracy here (and also in other latin american countries) a lot of times. No need to tell me to wake up. It is a pain in the a**. But so far I have always gotten what I needed including with customs/afip. You often need a lot of patience. My experience is that if you are polite, and talk to them then you can almost always resolve the issue.

Lecturing them will just pi** them off and get you nowhere. And just offering to pay a bribe is not going to help either.

 

[John1017]

To give an update, I went down to migraciones at Retiro this morning at 7:30 and told the doorman I was there to extend my tourist visa, but it expired last year. They gave me a turno M003 which is the building in the back. I went back there and they told me that they can only give me a ten day visa. I asked if there was anything I could do and the immigration lady told me to leave the country and come back. I asked if she would recommend Uruguay and she said yes, the Uruguay run.

So I walked to buquebus and the next boat would be 150 dollars.

So long story short I cannot get my package because aduana at ezeizA want a good tourist visa in my passport which I can't get. Maybe I should have just said I was leaving in ten days and ask for the stamp, but I wanted to be honest and I don't plan on leaving Argentina until November.

Anyways I walked to DHL on Belgrano AV. And let them know of the situation. They told me that this is happening a lot. Recently aduana implemented new laws and a lot,of people are having their packages kidnapped by aduana. 700 pesos is about the average price of payment. DHL told me that the DHLs in the USA and other countries should tell the person shipping they shouldn't send anything except documents.

So let me just say, DHL told me don't ship anything but documents with DHL.

I asked what I could do and they said go deal with aduana. And since I know they won't give me my package I asked what else, and DHL told me they can ship the package back, but it takes 1-4 months. I ended up telling DHL to ship the package back. And that's that, never again am I going to deal with aduana in Argentina. I'm telling my family don't send me anything.

That's that, in general the lesson is don't send anything except documents with DHL.

 

[steveinbsas]

I went down to migraciones at Retiro this morning...to extend my tourist visa, but it expired last year. They... told me that they can only give me a ten day visa.

One question: You would have been required to pay the $600 overstay fee to get the ten day visa?

 

[John1017]

Yes the cost of the ten day get out of our country visa is 600 pesos. I actually think it's called habilitación de salida. http://www.migraciones.gov.ar/accesible/indexN.php?habilitacion_salida

They said that was my only option, they did not offer me any type of tourist visa extension, maybe because it's been more than a year and a half since I entered Argentina.

I really don't understand why this was the only thing offered. I guess they are really trying to crack down on illegals and overstayed tourist visas.

 

[scotttswan]

I know this topic has been discussed but I wanted to see if anyone had any recent updates.

My parents sent me a package from Oregon, which contained documentation for my wife's visa, little did I know my mom, as nice as she is, innocently included baby clothes for my future baby. Now it appears the package is stuck in Ezieza.

I've never had to pick up a package in Ezieza. I've been to retiro several times to pick things up. Now I'm trying not to lose my head and curse to high heavens this country, but come on.

Does anyone have any tricks or tips to getting a DHL package stuck in customs at Ezeiza. I don't have a lot of money and really can't afford any fees. Can I tell them to return to sender and have my parents just send me the documentation I need and not the baby clothes?

Thanks

tbh i would just ask DHL to send it back, get your mum to take the clothes out and send just the documents to your wife. It'll be a lot faster.

 

[sleslie23]

This thread is a good example of life in Argentina.

It is correct that in most countries, your postal packages are not held for ransom and do not require reams of paperwork, multiple long trips to Ezeiza, and uncaring bureaucrats.

But, at the same time, in most countries, if you went to the immigration officials and declared that you had overstayed your tourist visa by over a year, you would be arrested and deported immediately.

 

[mikic007]

This thread is a good example of life in Argentina.

It is correct that in most countries, your postal packages are not held for ransom and do not require reams of paperwork, multiple long trips to Ezeiza, and uncaring bureaucrats.

But, at the same time, in most countries, if you went to the immigration officials and declared that you had overstayed your tourist visa by over a year, you would be arrested and deported immediately.

Yes, but what this helps to Argentines? The worst about this country is, that is more hostile to natives, than foreigners and very discriminating in many things. I agree, that OP should obtain papers, which he could easily get, since he is married here, but he would still have to pay a lot of money for something, that is his ... He couldn't even choose to throw things away and just collect the papers, which should be an option.