General Advice Solicitation For A First-Timer

[tivlaski]

Hey folks

I'm a 27-year-old U.S. citizen with a bachelor degree in Spanish who has for many years sought to make his way to Argentina.

The years had gone by and I still hadn't made the voyage, so I recently purchased a ticket and thus gave myself a deadline to get my whatnots in gear and my butt in coach. I'll be arriving in January of 2016.

Good, great. Now, with six months to get organized, I seek advice from those who would give it. My main concerns lie in legalities involved in my upcoming relocation. I have not purchased a return ticket, nor do I know how long I wish to stay except that I suspect it should be at least six months, possibly up to several years. I will have a modest savings account at my disposal and by January should have an online income secured to provide supplement to the savings.

If I were to pose a specific question, I would ask: What would you recommend I do in the way of visa considerations? I at first considered opting for the tourist visa waiver and then making a "run" here and there to Uruguay. Looking over some forum posts, I see that this isn't uncommon, but that it carries with it some risk with immigration.

Am I going to have to get creative here? Any wise words from the expat crowd?

I'm glad to have discovered this site. Many thanks in advance for any guidance.

Saludos,

T

 

[lucha54]

If you aren't planning to travel outside the country much, just overstay and pay the fine. No biggie the first and second times.

 

[thorsten]

If you aren't planning to travel outside the country much, just overstay and pay the fine. No biggie the first and second times.

This. Alternatively, you might want to make some trips to other South American countries and schedule them that your tourist visa gets extended. Other people make visa runs to Uruguay, but if you are going just there for the new visa, it's imo a waste of time (and money-wise it's also not better). Regarding your return ticket: I never had one when entering Argentina and never got asked for it. Sometimes airlines ask and you can just say that you are travelling to Uruguay by ferry after. At immigration, you likely will get asked how long/where you stay - just don't say that you are planning to overstay
One other note: think about how to get access to your savings. If you bring US$ cash, you can easily exchange it, but if you have all the money in your US account, it gets more tricky...

 

[mikic007]

I don't know how is with your airline, but once I had to buy flight to Montevideo (couldn't buy ferry with mobile Internet...). They didn't allow me to board until I showed them purchased ticket. 130 dollars wasted. Later I just forged this ticket over and over again, but had to use it only once and went through.

Check with your airline, but I warn you, that that might not be enough. Safest way is to purchase ticket somewhere you want to go and rest in peace.

 

[Ceviche]

I agree forged boarding passes or old tickets can easily be used to show exit from the country.

Just take a old boarding pass and use a PDF edit software, put in new dates and bingo!!

Just use boarding pass/ticket of another airline which the agent can not check on his own computer.

No agent has time to call another airline to confirm if the ticket is valid with a long queue behind you.

 

[Joe]

Don't forget to research "ArBound's" story. He came with romantic visions of teaching English to trendy Portenos in the Paris of the South. He ended up working in a sweat-shop call-center, battling an abusive boss and surviving on Chori-pan, Fugazzeta and day-old MIlanesa sandwiches...

 

[sesamosinsal]

Don't forget to research "ArBound's" story. He came with romantic visions of teaching English to trendy Portenos in the Paris of the South. He ended up working in a sweat-shop call-center, with an abusive boss and surviving on Chori-pan, Fugazzeta and day-old MIlanesa sandwiches...

Sounds like this story could become a best seller on Amazon, Joe...

 

[mmoon]

Definitely come with some connections (this site is a good start) and a back-up plan to teaching English, if that is your plan. If you throw out some ideas here, you will get plenty of lively feedback!
I've done the visa run and the trip to migraciones and the Uruguay option is far more savory. Still, you never know when you will get a vigilant immigration officer, so if you are planning to stay longer than a year, you might want to get some different stamps in your passport.
Check out places to live (again, lots of suggestions here) and maybe start with an Airbnb place, because getting a semi-permanent place to live in BA is a whole other ball of wax and almost impossible to accomplish until you are actually here.
Bring cash, as much as you feel comfortable with, and then maybe a bit more.

 

[ElQueso]

And know that whatever you do, you don't want to use the ATM machines here to get your money down. Currency restrictions and manipulations have caused the official rate to be a joke to the tune of whatever you bring down here in that manner will cost you around 35% or of the value of your money. Look at Xoom or something similar depending on your country of origin, but know that even that accounts for good-sized losses also.

You won't ever get a visa without qualifying for any of the programs that immigrations offers (basically married to citizen or Mercosur resident, have Argentine kids, investments that qualify, a retirement fund or being a student) and the "perma-tourist" option you describe of leaving and coming back into the country every 90 days is indeed problematic nowadays. What was said above is good advice on that.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I agree forged boarding passes or old tickets can easily be used to show exit from the country.

Just take a old boarding pass and use a PDF edit software, put in new dates and bingo!!

Just use boarding pass/ticket of another airline which the agent can not check on his own computer.

No agent has time to call another airline to confirm if the ticket is valid with a long queue behind you.

Sure, bingo, 8 years in jail.
But there are good news, you can ask for depirtation after you spent half of the time in jail.