Immigration / Rentista Visa

[Pierre Smith]

Argentina is 10x better than Paraguay, and I can only think that person recommended Paraguay as a joke.

Anyway, the issue you're having is that the rentista visa requires that your income not be from work, it must be passive. You'll have to prove to an embassy officer that this is the case. An online business that you run currently, and plan to continue to run from Argentina, generally would not qualify. If you did restructure it to whatever the equivalent of LLC is over there, you could set someone else up as the manager and make the case that your monthly draw is investment income stable enough to be meet visa rentista requirements. And I was saying that sole proprietorship structure doesn't matter all that much, so long as the source of income meets the requirements (ie. you're not actively working for it, and certainly that you won't continue to work on it in Argentina).

 

[db887]

Argentina is 10x better than Paraguay, and I can only think that person recommended Paraguay as a joke.

Here is my list Paraguay is better country for expats than Argentina. Whats yours?
1. Nicer people.
2. Virtually no taxes
3. Better food. Organic vegetables and grass fed beef by default.
4. Better health care*.
4. Pleasantly corrupt police and government officials accepting reasonable gratuities.
5. Inexpensive real estate (buy and rent) and liberal zoning laws.
6. Educational system not politicized.
7. Traditional Spanish culture.
8. Stable economy and currency.
9. No ever present, brutal, confiscatory tax collection agency.
10: Tossup: easier residency that never expires but impossible citizenship.

* http://thepatientfactor.com/canadia...zations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/

 

[Pierre Smith]

1. Very little to do aside from speak with the neighbors, still very much a peasant culture;
2. Cuisine is even worse than Argentina's, and non-Paraguayan/Brasilian cuisine is very rare;
3. Very little in the way of meaningful economic activity outside of agriculture, resource extraction, etc (how would OP start a business in Paraguay? there's just no market for anything, almost no tourism, nothing);
4. Remote, verging on isolated, with no significant connection to the outside world, whether culturally, by air links, integration into the international system, or any other measure; etc;
5. No proper public transportation system or really any form of functioning public sphere;
6. No middle class and, consequently, no broad array of services and goods aimed at the middle class consumer, which means that shops basically all have the same lower quality things;
7. Highly unattractive cities and towns, including the capital;
8. A lack of the sort of amenities that an ex-pat expects, particularly in housing - Paraguay is a hardcore third world country, as opposed to Argentina, which is more like a poor European country;
9. No expat community to speak of, which compounds the sense of isolation and boredom, especially in contrast with Argentina;
10. No real prospect that any of the above will change any time soon.

There's some cool stuff about Paraguay - the Guarani aspect of the culture, in particular - and if you're some sort of hardcore libertarian type who wants to live in the middle of nowhere, I could see Paraguay being attractive. It's also true that Argentina has many faults, obviously. By almost every metric, however, Argentina is vastly superior to Paraguay, and that's especially true when we're comparing capital cities.

 

[db887]

1. Very little to do aside from speak with the neighbors, still very much a peasant culture;
2. Cuisine is even worse than Argentina's, and non-Paraguayan/Brasilian cuisine is very rare;
3. Very little in the way of meaningful economic activity outside of agriculture, resource extraction, etc (how would OP start a business in Paraguay? there's just no market for anything, almost no tourism, nothing);
4. Remote, verging on isolated, with no significant connection to the outside world, whether culturally, by air links, integration into the international system, or any other measure; etc;
5. No proper public transportation system or really any form of functioning public sphere;
6. No middle class and, consequently, no broad array of services and goods aimed at the middle class consumer, which means that shops basically all have the same lower quality things;
7. Highly unattractive cities and towns, including the capital;
8. A lack of the sort of amenities that an ex-pat expects, particularly in housing - Paraguay is a hardcore third world country, as opposed to Argentina, which is more like a poor European country;
9. No expat community to speak of, which compounds the sense of isolation and boredom, especially in contrast with Argentina;
10. No real prospect that any of the above will change any time soon.

There's some cool stuff about Paraguay - the Guarani aspect of the culture, in particular - and if you're some sort of hardcore libertarian type who wants to live in the middle of nowhere, I could see Paraguay being attractive. It's also true that Argentina has many faults, obviously. By almost every metric, however, Argentina is vastly superior to Paraguay, and that's especially true when we're comparing capital cities.

Thanks, lots good points and some cant even disagree with. Definitely two viewpoints collided.

But also forgot to mention: CRIME, second lowest in South America.

 

[StephOlive]

Argentina is 10x better than Paraguay, and I can only think that person recommended Paraguay as a joke.

Anyway, the issue you're having is that the rentista visa requires that your income not be from work, it must be passive. You'll have to prove to an embassy officer that this is the case. An online business that you run currently, and plan to continue to run from Argentina, generally would not qualify. If you did restructure it to whatever the equivalent of LLC is over there, you could set someone else up as the manager and make the case that your monthly draw is investment income stable enough to be meet visa rentista requirements. And I was saying that sole proprietorship structure doesn't matter all that much, so long as the source of income meets the requirements (ie. you're not actively working for it, and certainly that you won't continue to work on it in Argentina).

Hi Pierre, thank you for your reply.
the thing about our online business is that we don't work on it ourselves we are just the owners, others than that it practically runs itself. I will definitely look into LLC and see what i can do about it. I will also speak to my bookkeeper and see what we can do with regards to proving that this income is not actively worked for.
I must say that i have read on a few places people overstaying their tourist visa and after 1 year applying for citizenship, i would prefer doing everything the legal way rather but i have to say it made me think about it for a bit... lol.
Anyway thank you for all your feedback, greatly appreciated!!

PS do you live in Argentina? if so where about?

 

[StephOlive]

I then also wanted to know if i have a lump sum of savings cant i show that as proof of funds? That alone will last us just over a year?

 

[steveinbsas]

I then also wanted to know if i have a lump sum of savings cant i show that as proof of funds? That alone will last us just over a year?

No

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I then also wanted to know if i have a lump sum of savings cant i show that as proof of funds? That alone will last us just over a year?

This is why I keep going on about a trust fund.

In the case of savings, only the interest would be taken into consideration. Place the savings into a trust fund - which is legally separate from you - and have the trust fund purpose to make monthly payments of capital to you. I CBA to go back and look but I'm sure we established years ago that this was a legitimate form of passive income.

 

[Rich One]

This is why I keep going on about a trust fund.

In the case of savings, only the interest would be taken into consideration. Place the savings into a trust fund - which is legally separate from you - and have the trust fund purpose to make monthly payments of capital to you. I CBA to go back and look but I'm sure we established years ago that this was a legitimate form of passive income.

Would require a large sum, to live from interests or out of capital? If you have the power to revoke/amend the Trust would it be eligible as passive?

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Would require a large sum, to live from interests or out of capital? If you have the power to revoke/amend the Trust would it be eligible as passive?

A trust is a legal entity in it's own right: it's the sort of thing you set up for the profligate 18-year-old so that money is theirs but they can't touch it until they are (hopefully) more mature when older. It's the sort of thing parents set up for children who go away on gap-years, the sort of thing (most) presidents of the USA set up so their personal interests don't interfere in matters of government. I'm neither a lawyer nor a legal expert but a proper lawyer will have plenty of experience setting something like this up for purposes like that.