I recently went to Migraciones en Retiro to get the visa extension (
prórroga). So I thought I'd give some words of advice for people wanting to extend their visa de turista past the 90 days you automatically get.
How you get there is obviously not part of the procedure
sensu stricto, but I'll note that I took the train from Palermo and that day there happened to be cancelled train so I spent probably 45 minutes waiting in Palermo and then the walk from the station to the Migraciones building isn't exactly fun. At one point I crossed railroad tracks where there were two firemen gathering funds for new uniforms (that was the story, anyway -- and they were very nice if nothing else) and they told me that earlier that morning someone had been stabbed in a robbery where I was just walking. The lack of police presence in the area given a fresh stabbing seemed a little odd, but
Then I get to the building and I have to say, I expected more. I've only done a similar process once in my life (in Lima, Peru) and the difference is night and day. I feel like Migraciones here in Buenos Aires is something I'd expect on a land border crossing in the hinterlands somewhere. But here's the first piece of useful advice I'll give you: the line closest to you as you enter is for consultation and/or getting your turno (a slip of paper with a number). Go to the further away line that has a sign saying "citas turno" and when asked what you're up to, say some variant of buenos días, quisiera realizar el trámite de prórroga. Something like that.
Now, the first terrible mistake I made was getting there at 11:00ish. That wasn't my original plan, but that's how itt happened. The guy told me that they had already reached capacity for that day. Then he was telling me that the sistema was caído, viste and I had not in fact visto. He told me to come back the next day, earlier.
So I went the next day, earlier. I got there probably around 9:15 and this time I did get into the building. Once you're in there they pretty much tell you go here, then there, etc. It ended up taking a surprisingly long time (I left around 11:30). Most of it was just was waiting to be called, so I'd recommend taking a book. In the end I was given a piece of paper describing how to
descargar disposición to finalize the procedure. One worrying thing is that this morning I tried to do it and after following the instructions I landed on a page that said "Debe presentarse en su Delegación para poder regularizar la situación." I hope that that will change before my flight out of the country, because if it doesn't I'm just going to take this paper and my receipt and say, yanqui entender muy poco yanqui ya pagar.
Anyway, hope this helps someone down the road!
Pd. Very important (!!) At migraciones, before entering the building, I was asked when my visa was going to expire and elsewhere I've read that you need to go in the 10-day window before it expires. I'm curious to know
why that's the policy, but in any case it seems like it's enforced. Also don't forget your 4000 pesos in cash.
