Need advice on digital nomad visa vs work visa

[toongeorges]

A better idea might be to come for 90 days as a tourist, work remotely for your company, extend for another 90 days to make it 6 months in total. If the relationship survives that test, you can investigate the options you mention, and others.

Probably the best option initially.

Try to make it work with 2 times 90 days per year in Argentina initially and spend the rest of the time in Uruguay or Europe.

As long as you keep yourself to these restrictions, you can keep doing it forever.

If that is not enough, my first thought (for your situation) would be to consider a student visa.

You can decide to overstay one of your 90 days of a tourist visa for as long as you like, which you can then regulate by paying a fine before leaving the country. You can only leave Argentina if you overstay your 90 day visa after you pay the fine. Doing this once is no big deal, even if you overstay for 2 years. You cannot repeat overstaying 90 day visas and if upon arrival to Argentina they ask you what the reason for visiting is, always reply tourism, because if you say you want to be with your girlfriend, they may deport you and deny future entry in Argentina. A tourist visa is for tourism.

 

[foobar]

To the best of my knowledge (non-expert in either field but quite experienced now having worked with both immigration and tax advisers over a number of years), this would work:

1. Work remotely for your German company and enter as a tourist for 90 days with a view to extending for another 90 days.
2. During the 180 days as a tourist, investigate how to have a civil union registered and use that as a basis for applying for temporary residency (I don’t know anything about the civil union option, but other people have written about it recently on this board). Once you have a temporary residency application in process, Argentina won’t deport you, even after your second 90-day tourist visa expires. The temporary residency application process could take weeks or even months, meaning you are extending your initial stay well beyond the initial 180 days (and NOT accruing time towards Argentina tax residency).
3. Be issued temporary residency for 365 days, and with it the DNI. At that point, you may well have already been living happily in Argentina for perhaps a year, or even longer. Only at this point do you begin to accrue time toward Argentine tax residency.
4. Travel to neighboring countries for 90 days during the 365 days and thus zero your existing accrual of time towards Argentine tax residency.
5. At the end of the 365 days, you will now have been in Argentina for perhaps as much as two years (or even more, depending on how long the initial temporary residency process took). And you still will not be a tax resident in Argentina (although it will be important to check what German legislation says about losing German tax residency during that period).
6. Renew your temporary residency (having been outside the country for 90 days won’t prevent you renewing).
7. Rinse and repeat, if you wish. (By this stage, you will know a lot more, in particular whether you are sure you want to get married and settle down here for a while and obtain permanent residency and start paying tax here.)

(Some will advise you to enter as per step 1 above and start a citizenship bid. The disadvantage is it will throw you into Argentine tax residency after 12 months and, probably, under the tax agreement, starting to pay tax here rather than in Germany.)

(Others will advise you to never register for and pay tax here, even if the tax agreement says you should, and will tell you you will easily get away with it. Some of us aren't so sure about that.)

Thanks a lot for this detailed step by step plan! The only thing I'm not sure about is whether in step 2 we are already entitled for the civil union at that point. I had looked into this briefly before and read that it requires you to live together as a couple for at least two years prior to applying. The issue is that this might only count living together in person, not long distance relationship time, although I'm not sure if that's correct.

 

[foobar]

By now I'm really turning away from the idea of switching jobs to an argentine based company. I think @toongeorges is right and I'd totally throw my career out the window that way.

But in the hopes to find another alternative I've started to think about everything from the back. Assuming that everything will go well with our relationship and living together in argentina turns out great for both of us, then I'd be looking into a long term solution to stay there and at the same time keep working for my german employer.
I've already been advised that for a setup like this my employer either needs to open and register an office in argentina (which they likely don't want to due to the involved costs and legal hassle) or employ me through an employer of record.
I'm not 100% sure but I think the way these services work is by hiring employees through an office they have in the desired country on behalf of your foreign employer. I've messaged one of these services to find out if their argentine office is registered with RENURE and would therefore qualify for getting a regular work visa / temporary residency. Unfortunately they were very vague about details without booking and paying for their services but they at least confirmed that they are not using the digital nomad visa.

Does anybody here have more experiences with these employer of record services and can tell what types of visas they are actually using?

 

[FrankPintor]

By now I'm really turning away from the idea of switching jobs to an argentine based company. I think @toongeorges is right and I'd totally throw my career out the window that way.

But in the hopes to find another alternative I've started to think about everything from the back. Assuming that everything will go well with our relationship and living together in argentina turns out great for both of us, then I'd be looking into a long term solution to stay there and at the same time keep working for my german employer.
I've already been advised that for a setup like this my employer either needs to open and register an office in argentina (which they likely don't want to due to the involved costs and legal hassle) or employ me through an employer of record.
I'm not 100% sure but I think the way these services work is by hiring employees through an office they have in the desired country on behalf of your foreign employer. I've messaged one of these services to find out if their argentine office is registered with RENURE and would therefore qualify for getting a regular work visa / temporary residency. Unfortunately they were very vague about details without booking and paying for their services but they at least confirmed that they are not using the digital nomad visa.

Does anybody here have more experiences with these employer of record services and can tell what types of visas they are actually using?

Yes, services like you describe exist. The local company will need to be registered with RENURE, and will charge you, or your company, all employee and employer taxes, plus your salary and a commission.

In return you become an employee, with a regular foreigner visa (precaria -> temporary (3 years) -> permanent residency, at which point you can dump the local company). You can do everything a resident does: open a bank account, get insurance, buy a car, a house, whatever. You're also on a path to citizenship, should you want that. The local company might also set you up with a facilitator ("gestor") to deal with immigration, and recommend you to a bank.

You get a monthly salary, all taxes itemized, holiday pay, etc. The local company will bill every month and convert everything to Pesos in Argentina at the official rate. It's not exactly cheap, but it works.

 

[redlobster]

By now I'm really turning away from the idea of switching jobs to an argentine based company. I think @toongeorges is right and I'd totally throw my career out the window that way.

But in the hopes to find another alternative I've started to think about everything from the back...

So, you're German. You have a steady job that can be done remotely. You have an Argentine girlfriend. You can enter the country without a visa.

Aside from the German love of order and the idea that things need to be done properly, what's stopping you from just coming to Argentina and staying here, hoping that things will eventually work out for the best?

What's your biggest fear? That you'll decide to travel and then won't be able to return? That the police will catch you on the street and drag you to the airport to send you back home?

 

[Alby]

But in the hopes to find another alternative I've started to think about everything from the back.

The other alternative, thinking everything from the back, is that you bring her to Germany after she's finished her studies. If the relationship works, it's probably an equally likely final scenario, so you should also be investigating the immigration and tax implications of that, instead (or as well as).

 

[foobar]

Aside from the German love of order and the idea that things need to be done properly, what's stopping you from just coming to Argentina and staying here, hoping that things will eventually work out for the best?

What's your biggest fear? That you'll decide to travel and then won't be able to return? That the police will catch you on the street and drag you to the airport to send you back home?

It's hard to describe, really. I think there's multiple reasons tbh. Part of it is german culture, part of it is the way I was raised / being taught to always follow the rules (or attempt to change them if they are unfair), partly I just like things to be neatly organised.
I know I'm leaning towards the more extreme side of precautions. I am able to make spontaneous decisions and willing to take risk but only when I'm well prepared. I am also able to improvise, it's just all more stressful for me.

In this case specifically I honestly dislike the idea of a pieced-together temporary solution involving multiple long distance journeys per year for visa/tax reasons. My girlfriend and I are longing for a permanent and stable solution and I'm sure everyone who's already done long distance with an ocean between both knows what I mean. Saying goodbye to your girlfriend at an airport, knowing you'll not be with her for months is one of the worst feelings imaginable.
Also I'm a very introvert person and adjusting to a new place is always very stressful for me. I'm not the type of person to live out of a suitcase for long periods of time.

Of course the employer of record solution would be way more expensive than other options. I'm sure for most people the more temporary way would be just fine and they'd save a lot of money with it. But for me having peace of mind would probably be worth the additional cost plus it would include a DNI (so greatly simplify renting etc) and include a path to permanent residency in case we desire.

 

[foobar]

The other alternative, thinking everything from the back, is that you bring her to Germany after she's finished her studies. If the relationship works, it's probably an equally likely final scenario, so you should also be investigating the immigration and tax implications of that, instead (or as well as).

Good point! Although the situation/outlook in germany isn't exactly ideal either at the moment. (war in ukraine, (far) right AfD potentially becoming part of the next government, huge demographic issues in the next ~20 years (average age is already 47 and it just drags you down mentally, not even talking about all the important changes that are blocked by the older generations), people being stressed out and grumpy all day / the culture of complaining about everything all the time, serious struggles to get any kind of doctor's appointments, gray and cold weather in winter that makes you depressed, ...)

... damn that list got longer than I expected^^ You see, german culture of complaining all the time
I'm sure there's a lot of "not ideal" things in argentina too that I just don't know about yet. In the end we'll have to decide that long term and I'll also look into migrating the other way. For the time until my girlfriend finishes her degree we need a solution for argentina though because I'm not going to do long distance for several more years unless we absolutely have to.

 

[foobar]

It's hard to describe, really. I think there's multiple reasons tbh. Part of it is german culture, part of it is the way I was raised / being taught to always follow the rules (or attempt to change them if they are unfair), partly I just like things to be neatly organised.
I know I'm leaning towards the more extreme side of precautions. I am able to make spontaneous decisions and willing to take risk but only when I'm well prepared. I am also able to improvise, it's just all more stressful for me.

In this case specifically I honestly dislike the idea of a pieced-together temporary solution involving multiple long distance journeys per year for visa/tax reasons. My girlfriend and I are longing for a permanent and stable solution and I'm sure everyone who's already done long distance with an ocean between both knows what I mean. Saying goodbye to your girlfriend at an airport, knowing you'll not be with her for months is one of the worst feelings imaginable.
Also I'm a very introvert person and adjusting to a new place is always very stressful for me. I'm not the type of person to live out of a suitcase for long periods of time.

Of course the employer of record solution would be way more expensive than other options. I'm sure for most people the more temporary way would be just fine and they'd save a lot of money with it. But for me having peace of mind would probably be worth the additional cost plus it would include a DNI (so greatly simplify renting etc) and include a path to permanent residency in case we desire.

Also in case of leaving the country to avoid tax residency I really don't know where I'd go. Going back to germany/europe would have implications on tax so ideally it would be some other country. But where would I go? And would there be additional things that need to be prepared in this case? In my mind it just overcomplicates things but maybe there's a super easy solution that I'm not seeing yet.

 

[Alby]

It seems you need a provisional a solution for the next year or two at the most that involves you coming here and zero absences while you are here (and no overstaying). Unfortunately, there is probably no temporary residence category available to you, other than the one you would open up by jumping the gun and marrying the girl (unless you can make that civil union option--point 2 in the above list--work somehow). So, if the thought of overstaying drives you nuts, you are going to have to let go of the zero absences obsession. Once you've done that, it will become a lot easier for you to solve this problem. There are solutions that will get you through with minimal absences for relatively short periods of time, with you still holding your job and not becoming a tax resident here.

(Two or three years from now--an amazingly short period of time, though it may not seem that way at this point in your life, because time speeds up in a way you can't possibly yet understand--your life, and her life and your options and wants will be very different, again in ways you can't possible predict now.)