Getting dollars into Argentina to purchase real estate

[joelie]

I know someone who brought in around US$40-50k in cash and they simply declared it on arrival at Ezeiza. They had the papers to show how they had acquired that money - it was from the sale of a property overseas - and aduanas hardly asked anything and waived them through. This was about seven years ago though.

I know someone else who brought in around $20k, and on their arrival card they had ticked that they had more than US$10k and they weren't asked anything at all by anyone! This was also several years ago.

Both were coming on tourist visas.

 

[earlyretirement]

I know someone who brought in around US$40-50k in cash and they simply declared it on arrival at Ezeiza. They had the papers to show how they had acquired that money - it was from the sale of a property overseas - and aduanas hardly asked anything and waived them through. This was about seven years ago though.

I know someone else who brought in around $20k, and on their arrival card they had ticked that they had more than US$10k and they weren't asked anything at all by anyone! This was also several years ago.

Both were coming on tourist visas.

The flip side of this is you can easily get robbed on your way from the airport. I've seen first hand people getting robbed immediately after leaving the bank. Thieves get a tip that you're withdrawing large amounts.

Also, a TRUE story is many years ago I had a friend that sold an apartment and she refused to pay a % fee to get the funds wired to her. So she traveled to EZE with about $175,000 US dollars. She planned to declare it and bring it with her to her home country. (She is VERY stubborn).

Well, she had the airport employees swap out some bills and then they tried to accuse her of transporting counterfeit bills. They swapped out $40,000 US dollars! She showed them the escritura and closing documents and they contacted the escribano to confirm she got paid with real US dollars but obviously someone in the airport swapped out the bills.

There is a BIG risk of traveling with cash inside Argentina. Especially the airports so be careful. Argentina is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet.

 

[Ries]

I know someone who brought in around US$40-50k in cash and they simply declared it on arrival at Ezeiza. They had the papers to show how they had acquired that money - it was from the sale of a property overseas - and aduanas hardly asked anything and waived them through. This was about seven years ago though.

I know someone else who brought in around $20k, and on their arrival card they had ticked that they had more than US$10k and they weren't asked anything at all by anyone! This was also several years ago.

Both were coming on tourist visas.

there havent been "arrival cards" for at least 3 years now.