Permanent residency for ARS$2,000?

[steveinbsas]

Also, what category of residency could they possibly obtain for him?

Permanent residency is a separate category of visa, and to get it you either have to have had temporay residency for three years or have a Argentine family relationship (be the child of or parent of an Argentine citizen or married to an Argentine citizen or permanent resident). Permanent residency based on the family relationshp requires documentation as well (birth certificates, marriage lisences, passports and DNIs).

If this company can get someone permanent residency for $2000 pesos and all they have to provide is a criminal report, their passport, and birth certificate they should have dozens of expat clients per week. In fact they should have more clients than migraciones.

Don't they also want photos for the DNI?

Does their service include providing the DNI which is now automatically issued as part of the visa process? Will it be mailed to the customer's home? And what about the certificado de domicilio which provides the address where the DNI is sent? That was not included in the list of required documents. I know that gestors can picked up DNIs for their clients. If this is included for $2000 pesos it is a really great deal...and hard to believe anyone would do everything necessary to get someone a visa and (possibly) a DNI without an advance deposit.

I also wonder how this could be "legal" and how could $2000 pesos be enough "incentive" for those invloved to create a file at migraciones, get the visa approved and entered into the system, and the DNI issued.

 

[garygrunson]

Even if this all is fake, 2000 pesos would not be worth the work to fake all this. I would say that if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

I am trying to add up all the cost I paid over the years to get my permanent residency...the last step involved a gov. fee of about 800 pesos alone, not counting all the other little fees from the three years process, there is no way this is legit. Just throw your money in the street. Same end result.

 

[ElQueso]

I paid a little more than that to my lawyer to get my permanent DNI, starting almost three years ago (I know the price has gone up quite a bit since then, and many lawyers back then charged as much as three times what I paid). Half on completion of temporary residency, other half on delivery of DNI. It just so happened that my process took so long (due to my issues, not my lawyer's) that I received a permanent resident visa as my first DNI. Heh.

In my opinion, it's not necessarily a bad thing you're friend is looking at.

Steve is right though - they can't do everything for your friend. He'll have to go get his fingerprints. He has to be there the day he applies. Other times here and there if there are issues to deal with. But everything else my lawyer handled for me - he did ALL the legwork for me, including getting my FBI report (I got the fingerprints but he did the rest, including paying for it and then charged me as an extra fee, all agreed up front) and reviewing all of the documents, telling me where we needed to make adjustments, taking them to his contacts in immigrations and ensuring there were no snafus, etc. He was always dependent on following the process up and making sure that things were moving along. He even ended up picking up my DNI from the distribution center, even though you're supposed to have to do that in person.

Steve and I have a difference of opinion on whether or not to use a lawyer but he had a much easier time of it than I did. It was worth the money to me to be able to work and concentrate on my daily life than worry about all that.

If they tell your friend they can do all those other things that we all know he's going to have to do personally, watch out and try to see where the scam is.

The rentista visa - I don't know that it's true they don't do checks to verify things. I have a friend who is getting a rentista visa through a company he owns in Panama. He had to have accounting reports (which he got himself through his accountant in Panama and passed on to the lawyer) showing that the company is a going concern and has money to pay the monthly requirement. In order to qualify the money for the rentista visa, it basically had to come from an investment - he was a part owner of the company and the money that would qualify were dividends paid by the company to him as a shareholder. Immigrations here DID follow up on his stuff, including rejecting his first application and making him make a second that hasn't been ruled on yet.

There are various "gray" means to meet the qualifications of a rentista visa and I don't know - maybe this company your asking about provides something like that?

If there is a problem with whatever process they use, I doubt you would go to jail, but you may not be able to apply for any other residency as a result and may even be shown the door - I don't know.

As far as using some sort of facilitator who has contacts in immigrations and can get the job done with as little headache for you as can be managed (there will be some, it is completely unavoidable to at least some extent) for $400 US (I'd pay him dollars at a 5-1 exchange rate if you can work it out with him), I'd try it, particularly if you don't have to pay anything up front.

BTW - do be prepared to pay all the fees that you have to pay for application of residency, application for DNI, various fees here and there, etc, that have all been discussed before. I doubt very much the price includes these items.

 

[ElQueso]

I am trying to add up all the cost I paid over the years to get my permanent residency...the last step involved a gov. fee of about 800 pesos alone, not counting all the other little fees from the three years process...

I doubt the fee the company is asking for includes the fees he has to pay personally. They may not have stated it, but they're not going to pay those fees for him. It's not very uncommon for them not to mention that, but he'd find out when they came to him and asked him for the fees for getting started. Nothing up front means nothing of their $2000 pesos up front I'm sure.