Here's the medium-length version of what happened. This is based on my 9 pages of notes from my first meeting with bajo_cero in September 2013, through 2017 when I just stopped taking notes, and from memory after that. I moved to Argentina in late 2013 with my girlfriend, and we both requested citizenship in late 2014. Her case was straightforward, and we decided to get temporary residency for her. My case was not straightforward. I had a non-violent but serious criminal conviction from the late 1990s, which was more than 15 years old at the time I requested citizenship. I asked bajo_cero if I should get residency and he said no, because I will be denied (due to my criminal history) and possibly deported. Following his advice, I decided to not try to get residency. I even asked about it on the forum here:
https://baexpats.org/threads/citizenship-options-overstay-tourist-visa-or-legit-route.28786/ . I'll get back to my residency below.
I had all my paperwork in order (birth certificate, FBI report, all apostilled, translated, etc). I went through the normal citizenship process of giving my fingerprints a few places (Federal police, Reincidencia). While I was giving fingerprints at the Federal police, I noticed that both of my parents' names were misspelled on my court paperwork. I mentioned this to bajo_cero, and he said he would file something to correct my parents' names. This is the first big snafu. The judge ordered my case to completely restart, due to correcting my parents' names. bajo_cero told me he knew this would happen, but he failed to mention this risk when we were deciding whether or not to correct the parents' names then, or wait until I have a sentence (which we could have done). This miscommunication may have cost 4 years of progress, if I had won my case on the first round.
In early 2015, I had to decide whether to go to the US for a good friend's wedding. This would be my first time leaving Argentina, and I didn't yet have 2 years continuous in Argentina. I could have easily just stayed in Argentina, but I asked bajo_cero and he said it was ok to visit the US, so I did. Later, when my case would be rejected in 2016, this would be the reason (not having 2 years continuous in Argentina, because of this visit to the US). Very frustrating, since I again followed bajo's advice and was denied because of it. But back to 2015 for now.
After 6-9 more months, now in mid- to late-2015, bajo_cero said my case was "stuck" in the reports phase, so he filed a motion to recuse the judge (that is, to get a new judge). We ended up with a worse judge, so he managed to get it back to the previous one.
2016 rolls around, bajo_cero says he is working on a case to win all cases, having something to do with nazis and some guy named Ramella. Meanwhile my girlfriend's case is proceeding mostly normally (she had temporary residency this whole time). In these citizenship cases, the "fiscal" is like a prosecutor, who recommends for or against granting citizenship. My fiscal recommended against giving my citizenship, because he incorrectly said my criminal history disqualifies me. In fact the law requires 5 years good conduct, and I had over 15 years good conduct. The fiscal in my case was now saying he wanted proof that I don't have any outstanding cases anywhere in the world. There is no document that states "you have no outstanding cases". In addition, theoretically I would have to get this document from every jurisdiction in the world, and every state, county, and city in the USA. I went to the US Embassy, asking for a document simply stating that there is no warrant for my arrest. At one point, bajo_cero said I should go back to the US Embassy and ask to be arrested, and try to get a statement that they declined to arrest me. I did it, but they wouldn't give me such a statement. They also looked at me like I was crazy.
In the 2nd half of 2016, my case was denied, and according to the court, the reason was because I didn't have "2 years continuous" in Argentina, because I had visited the US in March 2015 for my friend's wedding. (As I mentioned above). I wasn't even denied because of my criminal history. It was late 2016 and we had half way given up on citizenship. Then on Thanksgiving 2016, while we were in the US, we found out my girlfriend had won her citizenship. So we went back to Argentina and she did her oath and got her DNI and passport. This opened some doors. So in 2017 I decided to pursue residency again, and I hired a residency lawyer to help me. We also got married, and I was now married to an Argentine citizen.
The residency took a while. Nothing happened for 6-12 months, and my residency lawyer finally had to file an "amparo por mora", which is what you file to force a government agency to act. I think it's like a
mandamus in the US. Finally Migraciones came and did an in-person interview in our home, which lasted about 45 minutes. In February 2019 I finally won my permanent residency. I think this was key. I was legal again, and we notified the court on my citizenship case that I had permanent residency.
And a year and a half later, in August 2020, I got my Argentine citizenship.
I have to thank bajo_cero, since in the end, we did win the case. However, at times I felt he was more concerned with setting precedent that would help all his cases, than my own case. I believe the ethical obligation of a lawyer is to the individual client's case, otherwise it becomes a conflict of interest. Sometimes he would file motions saying the judge was a nazi or apartheid or something, and I'm not sure that helped at all.
In the end, I firmly believe that getting residency is the best thing you can do to get citizenship. Sure, it was (and maybe still is) possible to get citizenship without residency. If you absolutely cannot get residency, well then you don't really have a choice. But if you can get residency, it will go much smoother.
Over the years, I would end up getting 8 or 9 FBI reports, each time paying about US $80, then getting it apostilled, then translated here in Argentina. The FBI report never changed, it just "expired", so the court or Migraciones would request an updated one. Over the 6 years, my case was denied at least once, and "restarted" 2 or 3 times.
