So let me understand this...a "tourist visa" issued at the port of entry (the airport) is valid for 90 days as a tourist. Before the 90 days is up you go to Uruguay and reenter Argentina, to get another 90 Tourist Visa; and repeat again. Yet another group of people let their 90 Tourist Visa expire, continue to live in Argentina and when caught, pay a penalty/fine. Right so far - and then you wonder how many times you can get away with this?
I don't know about Argentina but in the States lying to a US Customs Official is a felony.
Why not just apply for the right visa.....instead of playing some foolish game with the immgration everytime?
Does the word integrity ring any bells for some of you!
"Why not just apply for the right visa?"
Many (if not most) of those who are either making "visa runs" or overstaying their tourist visas simply do not have that option because they don't qualify for one.
It would be easy for those of us who do, especially those who are relatively new to Argentina to say, "Boo-hoo, too bad for you." but there really are "extenuating" circumstances...at least in some cases, especially for some who have been playing this game for a number of years.
When I arrived in 2006 I realized almost immediately that I could qualify for a resident visa and got one in less than six months. I did get one 90 day extension at migraciones just before my 90 day tourist visa expired. I did so knowing that I was going to apply for residency but did not want to do so with an expired visa. I was thinking exactly the same way as several individuals who recently posted about making a visa run prior to applying for their residency. At the time this forum existed but there wasn't much information on the subject.
Anyway, at that time it was possible to enter Argentina, get a 90 day visa, renew it at migraciones, and then go to Uruguay to get a new visa when the extension expired. In 2006 it was also possible to go to migraciones just before the new visa expired and get a 90 day extension. This process could be repeated without ever overstaying and only making one trip to Uruguay (or Brazil or any other country) per year.
I believed that changed in 2010 with the new decreto and ever since then there has been the "ever present" fear of a "crackdown" on pseudo-tourists (those who were essentially living year round in Argentina with only a tourist visa, expired or not). If I understand the timeline correctly, in 2010 (perhaps a bit later) migraciones stopped issuing extensions of the "second" 90 day visa obtained in a calendar year.
I realize that many of those who are currently making the visa runs and/or overstaying arrived post 2010 but there are probably a few who have been playing this game since well before 2010. The possibility of a crackdown is something they have to live with every time they leave and reenter Argentina. Overstaying isn't a crime and saying they are going to regularize their resident status as soon as possible isn't a felony. It's pointless to compare the US system (or immigration laws) to those of Argentina.
The "system" that allows individuals to make visa runs and/or overstay and pay multiple times has been in place and "running" for many years.
I hope this helped to answer some of your questions.
PS: The word integrity certainly rings a bell for me. I was in Argentina for less than fifteen minutes after my first arrival in 2006 when the vet at the airport extorted a $100 payment to allow me to bring my dog into the country. That was when I realized that I had just entered a country with less 'integrity" than the one my dog and I were born in.
And I don't think that making repeated visa runs or overstaying a tourist visa constitutes a breach of anyone's integrity.
