Getting cash USD out of Argentina

[Patagone]

Just google search, the rules are on the US CBP website. If I recall correctly, it's 10k per "family" traveling together. The CBP also has a newsletter where they brag about taking people's life savings who failed to declare it. I remember a story in this newsletter about an old eastern european guy bringing his life's savings of about US $80,000 to buy a house in the US. The gov't took it all and were proud.

First note that there are different rules for getting cash out of AR and getting cash in US/ EU etc.
Out of AR, from: https://www.afip.gob.ar/viajeros/20161222ingresosEgresosValores.asp

Egreso de billetes, monedas y metales amonedados del territorio argentino
Los viajeros que retiren del territorio argentino metales preciosos, en efectivo, cheques y/u otras divisas, deberán hacerlo de acuerdo con las siguientes limitaciones:

• Mayores de 16 años o emancipados: U$S10.000.
• Menores de 16 años no emancipados: U$S 5.000.

Estos límites se computarán por cada viajero o tripulante.

La moneda nacional de curso legal queda exceptuada de esta limitación, sin perjuicio de tener que efectuarse la declaración ante la Delegación Aduanera mediante el formulario OM-2250-A, cuando el importe total a egresar sea igual o superior al equivalente a U$S 10.000.

Importante: Para la conversión de monedas deberá tenerse en cuenta el tipo de cambio comprador correspondiente al cierre del día hábil inmediato anterior al del ingreso, comunicado por el Banco de la Nación Argentina.

Referencia normativa: RG 2705/09.

The interesting bits are that apparently the limit for a family of 4 is $30k USD you can bring out, BUT anything over that amount must not only be declared, but also be in 'la moneda nacional', which I assume for now still means AR$. So according to this, you should not take/declare extra USD cash, even if you had any confidence in the Ar border people.

 

[pjniki]

Thanks all. I was just thinking: it is legal nowadays to actually sell a property in USD? So that the value is stated in USD in the contract? Else it will be impossible to show where the USD came from, as if we would be paid in AR$ (whether on paper or in reality), we can only buy USD 200/month (for now) with it. Can you just show up at the bank with cash USD and tell them you got it by selling a property, even if the deed is in AR$?

It was legal a month ago, so it would all depend on whether the rules changed in the last month. In the document of sale from the escribano (not sure whether this document is the "escritura" or "escritura" is the actual act of completing the sale), there is a value assigned in pesos - Valuacion Fiscal, which was listed in the document. Then later in the document was the price in US dollars and the stipulation that it would be paid in cash. This is the document you would show your bank when you deposit it. In addition, when the real estate agent was setting up the final details of the closing, her communications stipulated payment in cash. I can't remember whether you've listed the property or not yet, but I'm sure you could direct your real estate agent to look for buyers who can pay with money from outside of the country directly, which would be the ideal way to sort this out. If we had known before what we know now, we would have made that a condition for the buyer: don't bother offering unless you can pay us from the States or Europe.

When I was depositing the cash here in Canada in our USD account and then again setting up an account at a currency exchange house (much better rates than Canadian banks will offer), they each took a copy of this document to show the provenance of the money.