I Was Denied Entry At Ezeiza

[Girino]

It was a very strange exchange with a young, pierced, punk-rockin' civil servant.

Let me tell you something about Latin countries: civil officers like the one you met today are underpaid, don't care about the job, cannot be fired, etc.
Most of them a) don't know B) don't care, so they will tell you anything to sail smoothly through their day. It is your ass, nor theirs.

It happened to me a lot of times back home, keeping going back and forth from an office to another, and each officer contradicted the other one, but you can never bring both in the same room to argue, so....
Even walking in with laws in-hand could alter their judgment on the matter, most of the times they don't even't want to read the official source they might not know, simply because it would mean that they have to verify them, and then report to their supervisor that they have been doing wrong, or - WORSE! - that the supervisor is an incompetent because he/she didn't know about it. Bottom line, thing would have to change, and they hate changes. It means using your brain, editing procedures, etc.

So take their answers with a pinch of salt.

There is a very un-polite way to put this in Italian: sono tutti froci con il culo degli altri (lit. everybody is a fairy when it is someone else's ass at stake - it means people makes no fuss in fucking you up)

 

[Girino]

Because I just want to get in, collect my stuff, and leave. I don't want to get residency for that.

Sorry, but in your first post you wrote: I am in the process of putting together my residency, so I assumed you wanted to live here.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I think that is correct.

Many (if not almost all) "tourists" can overstay, pay the fee when leaving, and get a new 90 days visa when they return.

If they don't pay the fee when they leave, it's "adios" and NOT "nos vemos" (though they probably don't know it at the time).

The question yet to be answered is (with apologies to Mickey Spillane), "How long is the good-bye?"

Well, they'll always be welcome at the Gulch: http://tinyurl.com/pxedl7a

 

[john68225]

From the info we do have (not all), it sounds like the issue was two fold:
1) Not paying the overstay fine when leaving.
2) Doing too many "visa runs" to Uruguay.

So to avoid the above issues:
1) Pay the overstay fine when leaving.
2) Forget about visa runs, just pay the overstay fine.

Am I missing anything on what we have at present?

To solve the OP's issue, I'd suggest "losing" your current passport and getting a new one, new number ...etc (do US passports have new numbers each time? I know Brit/Aussie passports do), then coming back on that one.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Listen. I don't need judgment, I need someone to answer some simple questions and not be told "you should've done X." I was denied entry. They sent me back. I want to know if being denied entry implies anything permanent. Is it permanent? Is it for a year? Is it for a few months? Who decides? I want to know how/if I can get in while avoiding going through the residency procedure. I want to get in, get my stuff, and leave. Anyone have any advice on this?

The bann is for 5 years.

 

[Chet]

Does it seem odd that one of these threads pops up every couple of months .. panic problem with immigration, badly explained. People panic, discuss possible other problems, possible loopholes, reveal their own strategy and status and then it fades away ....until the next one.

 

[steveinbsas]

Oh ... so it was NOT overstaying the 90 days tourist visa.

Not paying overstay fine IS DIFFERENT from overstaying ... also ... DIFFERENT from Reciprocity fee.

We are still trying to guess exactly what happened ? Seems no one knows yet.

I am not sure smirkypants was denied entry for not paying the overstay fee. I was reading two threads (that were "linked" to each other) on the subject last night.

The other thread is "How can I get back in the country?" http://baexpats.org/...ry-please-help/ and it was arami035 who was denied entry for not paying the overstay fee.

That thread includes this post:

You can read the decree here: http://www.migracion...cion_899_13.pdf

It is perfectly legal to leave the country without paying the fine as of August 2013. Those who don't pay it before returning (via the internet) won't be allowed to enter, however.

If smirkypants was actually denied entry on the basis of having too many stamps (and apparently "living" in Argentina) all perma-tourists should be very concerned.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

If smirkypants was denied entry on the basis of having too many stamps (and apparently "living" in Argentina) all perma-tourists should be concerned.

Correct! As Argentina upgrades to First-World standards in things like immigration and banking regulations people will be shocked that they can't continue breaking the law.

This isn't 2006 anymore.

 

[steveinbsas]

Seems it´s happening now at a faster rate. 3rd time in a span of 7 months.

It´s been said so many times so many ways in this forum that if you overstay your tourist visa IT IS A LOTTERY ( simply put: immigration officer discretion ).

If all three of the denials of entry happened at EZE I wonder if they actually occurred as the result of the "discretion" of an individual immigration officer.

The "tourists" who are denied entry have to be detained and "processed" before they are sent back.

That doesn't sound like something that would happen at the sole discretion of one official sitting in a glass both at the airport.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

That doesn't sound like something that would happen at the sole discretion of one official sitting in a glass both at the airport.

If facts, it works like that.
The immigration "theory" is that the airport is not Argentine soil, so they just reject you and you go back in the néxt airplane.