Moving to Argentina

Many thanks for this: shell = my usage = off the shelf company in some english parlance I think. My friend is Irish and has worked for a company for 2-3 years and told me that getting perm residency was not a problem in her (big) company as their company lawyers handle it all. She no doubt had a proper contract (and is paid in USD).

I know from experience that getting permanent residency is not difficult on the third renewal of the visa pensionado and I know others who have easily obtained permanent residency on the third renewal of the visa rentista. As I previously indicated, I believe that I once read a post by someone who said it was possible to get permanent residency on the second renewal of a "work' visa, but I don't know if that is correct. In any case, it isn't necessary to be represented by a lawyer to get the cambio de categoria, but of course it's a nice benefit if you work for a company who provides one.

On the investment side if one sets up a valid Argentine business enterprise (or perhaps a branch on a euro company?) then it may be possible to begin a process without a labour contract, though complicated, it seems. Many thanks.

I'm not sure of the current requirement (the exact amount) for setting up "a valid Argentine business enterprise" in Argentina, but I'm sure it would require an investment of well over a hundred thousand dollars.

Given the red tape involved as well as the risk to the capital investment (which I would consider greater today than ever), I would hardly consider this an attractive alternative to having a "labor contract" for the purpose of obtaining temporary residency in Argentina.

At, $30.000 ppm, the current requirement for the visa rentista is less than $800 USD and even if (as I expect it to happen soon) it is increased dramatically, I estimate the new monthly income requirement will (once again) be about (if not at least) the equivalent of $2000 USD.

While investing in rental property in Argentina would generate income in Argentina, that rental income cannot be used to qualify for a visa rentista.

Based on posts I've read in this forum, Argentine migraciones apparently accepts rental income from foreign properties as a stable and passive source of income to qualify for the visa rentista. One member reported they got a visa rentista based on the rental income from one house in the USA.

Given that, it makes more "sense" (at least to me) to buy rental property in another country (I don't think you have to be a US citizen or resident to buy property in the USA) and use that as the income source to qualify for temporary residency in Argentina.

What's really "great" about that is there is no Social Security or Medicare tax on rental income in the USA and, as far as I know, there would be no federal "income" tax on the first $24,000 of US income derived from renting property if there was no other US income.

State income taxes can be avoided by buying property in a state which does not have them and that would only leave local property taxes to pay.

Argentina does not charge the personal asset tax on property owned by foreigners with temporary residency, so the only question that would need to be answered is how much income tax would Argentina want to collect on the foreign rental income.

In my opinion, if one has the necessary funds to buy a property that will generate a monthly income of $2000 USD, that seems a much safer way to get residency in Argentina without investing (and risking) even more capital than that in an Argentine business venture, and far more attractive than getting a "labour contract" which would actually require one to work in Argentina.

I've previously posted on a method to qualify for temporary residency with a "bank trust" that has $48,000 on deposit and will make monthly distributions of $2000 when applying for temporary residency.

Obviously, $48K would generate $2000 in monthly income for two years, but I once got the impression that's what migraciones wanted to see and "intuition" tells me it might be necessary to deposit an additional $24,000 into the trust prior to each renewal.

PS: Anyone with additional information is welcome to add to what I've written here as well as shoot holes in anything that is incorrect.
 
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