Permanent Residency: One down, One to go...

[darksider415]

My wife and I started our permanent residency process together, with her applying under Ley 26.240 as a Brazilian and me as her spouse. Hers was officially resuelto today, so now we're just waiting on Migraciones to give mine the stamp of approval. Fingers crossed that they get mine wrapped up soon, too.

 

[juls2208]

Hello @darksider415,

Thank you for sharing your timelines.

I am very new here but in the same situation as you.

My spouse is Brazilian by birth and me Canadian, French and Italian and we will both be moving to CABA, Argentina in March 2025.

We will also apply to permanent residence through Ley 26.240. Would you be able to share more of your experience with me? I have the following questions:
- Is a lawyer needed in that process? My spouse and I both speak decent Spanish.
- What are the things you'd recommend and avoid doing in the process?
- Do the Brazilian documents have to be translated and apostilled?

Any other recommendations would be super helpful! Thanks very much for your help!

 

[AussieSurfer]

How much does it cost? I have a sing,e 50 year old Brazilian friend here who wants money could I pay 5k to marry her and get citizenship

 

[darksider415]

Hello @darksider415,

Thank you for sharing your timelines.

I am very new here but in the same situation as you.

My spouse is Brazilian by birth and me Canadian, French and Italian and we will both be moving to CABA, Argentina in March 2025.

We will also apply to permanent residence through Ley 26.240. Would you be able to share more of your experience with me? I have the following questions:
- Is a lawyer needed in that process? My spouse and I both speak decent Spanish.
- What are the things you'd recommend and avoid doing in the process?
- Do the Brazilian documents have to be translated and apostilled?

Any other recommendations would be super helpful! Thanks very much for your help!

To answer your questions in order..
1 - No lawyer needed, just decent written Spanish to send inquiries about both of your cases every 48 hours, once you get past the 30 day mark. FWIW, when we did ours, I was literally the only person in the extra-Mercosur line who wasn't Russian and who didn't have a lawyer or interpreter present. The Migraciones folks were also way nicer and more polite with me, so...
2 - Have everything in order from the beginning. It makes the process go much easier. On this note, if you do the express appointment, you HAVE to have your Argentinian background check done before your appointment if you don't want it to be held up in bureaucratic hell for a month before someone takes action.
3 - No translation or apostille needed because Brazil is part of Mercosur and there's a specific exception in place for Brazilian documents. We got caught by Brazil changing their system for emitting and verifying their antecedentes penales the week in-between the initial submission of docs online and the appointment, which made us need to submit a new one from Brazil, but that shouldn't affect y'all.

Overall, her process was 56 days from turno to resuelto including the New Year's holiday, mine was 78 days to resuelto. (December 27 until February 20 for her, March 14 for me) and then the hard DNIs arrived within a few days of each other. Mine arrived the last week of April and hers arrived the second week of May. I still don't know why my residency took longer, but my DNI arrived faster.

How much does it cost? I have a sing,e 50 year old Brazilian friend here who wants money could I pay 5k to marry her and get citizenship

1 - It's not citizenship, it's residency.
2 - There's a very significant risk they will interview to make sure it's a legit marriage. We had plenty of proof that they never asked for, but you never know... It probably helped that I have a _lot_ of Brazilian stamps in my passport from when we were dating.
3 - It was about $60 combined when we did it, prices have gone up a lot based on the tasas migratorias. Expect closer to $200 combined, now.

 

[juls2208]

To answer your questions in order..
1 - No lawyer needed, just decent written Spanish to send inquiries about both of your cases every 48 hours, once you get past the 30 day mark. FWIW, when we did ours, I was literally the only person in the extra-Mercosur line who wasn't Russian and who didn't have a lawyer or interpreter present. The Migraciones folks were also way nicer and more polite with me, so...
2 - Have everything in order from the beginning. It makes the process go much easier. On this note, if you do the express appointment, you HAVE to have your Argentinian background check done before your appointment if you don't want it to be held up in bureaucratic hell for a month before someone takes action.
3 - No translation or apostille needed because Brazil is part of Mercosur and there's a specific exception in place for Brazilian documents. We got caught by Brazil changing their system for emitting and verifying their antecedentes penales the week in-between the initial submission of docs online and the appointment, which made us need to submit a new one from Brazil, but that shouldn't affect y'all.

Overall, her process was 56 days from turno to resuelto including the New Year's holiday, mine was 78 days to resuelto. (December 27 until February 20 for her, March 14 for me) and then the hard DNIs arrived within a few days of each other. Mine arrived the last week of April and hers arrived the second week of May. I still don't know why my residency took longer, but my DNI arrived faster.



1 - It's not citizenship, it's residency.
2 - There's a very significant risk they will interview to make sure it's a legit marriage. We had plenty of proof that they never asked for, but you never know... It probably helped that I have a _lot_ of Brazilian stamps in my passport from when we were dating.
3 - It was about $60 combined when we did it, prices have gone up a lot based on the tasas migratorias. Expect closer to $200 combined, now.

Thank you so very much @darksider415 for your response. It was more helpful than 100 webpages combined, assuming there aren't that many people in our situation!

 

[darksider415]

Thank you so very much @darksider415 for your response. It was more helpful than 100 webpages combined, assuming there aren't that many people in our situation!

Definitely glad I could help.

A minor other note is that if you have your Italian driver’s license, Argentina will let you transfer it in with no testing required, thanks to an agreement between Argentina and Italy.

 

[AussieSurfer]

To answer your questions in order..
1 - No lawyer needed, just decent written Spanish to send inquiries about both of your cases every 48 hours, once you get past the 30 day mark. FWIW, when we did ours, I was literally the only person in the extra-Mercosur line who wasn't Russian and who didn't have a lawyer or interpreter present. The Migraciones folks were also way nicer and more polite with me, so...
2 - Have everything in order from the beginning. It makes the process go much easier. On this note, if you do the express appointment, you HAVE to have your Argentinian background check done before your appointment if you don't want it to be held up in bureaucratic hell for a month before someone takes action.
3 - No translation or apostille needed because Brazil is part of Mercosur and there's a specific exception in place for Brazilian documents. We got caught by Brazil changing their system for emitting and verifying their antecedentes penales the week in-between the initial submission of docs online and the appointment, which made us need to submit a new one from Brazil, but that shouldn't affect y'all.

Overall, her process was 56 days from turno to resuelto including the New Year's holiday, mine was 78 days to resuelto. (December 27 until February 20 for her, March 14 for me) and then the hard DNIs arrived within a few days of each other. Mine arrived the last week of April and hers arrived the second week of May. I still don't know why my residency took longer, but my DNI arrived faster.



1 - It's not citizenship, it's residency.
2 - There's a very significant risk they will interview to make sure it's a legit marriage. We had plenty of proof that they never asked for, but you never know... It probably helped that I have a _lot_ of Brazilian stamps in my passport from when we were dating.
3 - It was about $60 combined when we did it, prices have gone up a lot based on the tasas migratorias. Expect closer to $200 combined, now.

I can basically speak Portuguese just translating from spanish in my head do you think that will cut it ? Who does the interview ? Eg are they motivated and diligent or do they just want to get through to 5pm so they can go home like most government workers I've met here

 

[darksider415]

I can basically speak Portuguese just translating from spanish in my head do you think that will cut it ? Who does the interview ? Eg are they motivated and diligent or do they just want to get through to 5pm so they can go home like most government workers I've met here

Nope. They'll want to see evidence of life together, a relationship, etc... Someone from Migraciones would do the interview, and they've been more motivated to say no these days than yes. Make their life easier, follow the rules.

Also, marriage just for the residency is a _bad_ idea. The divorce laws in Argentina are not to be trifled with, and 0/10 you do not want any part of that.

 

[juls2208]

Hi @darksider415,

Thanks again for your help a couple weeks ago. With our move in March approaching, we have started to collect the documents that will be required and I have a few extra questions for you.

1- Do I need to get my Canadian passport translated as well?
2- Are there any income requirements? We both can provide bank statements, pay stubs, tax records, etc. but I don't know if this is at all required.
3- Regarding the Certificado de domicilio, it looks like it can be obtained from either the City or the Police. Is there a difference? We will be staying in an AirBnB in Belgrano for our first three months and I'm not sure how this would work. My asumption is that we could just drop by the police station with two Argentinian witnesses?
4- Some of our documents will have to be translated into Spanish. My understanding of the process is that we find a certifified translator and then bring the translated documents to the Colegio de Traductores Publicos for authentication?

Thanks again for your help and have a great weekend!

 

[darksider415]

Hi @darksider415,

Thanks again for your help a couple weeks ago. With our move in March approaching, we have started to collect the documents that will be required and I have a few extra questions for you.

1- Do I need to get my Canadian passport translated as well?
2- Are there any income requirements? We both can provide bank statements, pay stubs, tax records, etc. but I don't know if this is at all required.
3- Regarding the Certificado de domicilio, it looks like it can be obtained from either the City or the Police. Is there a difference? We will be staying in an AirBnB in Belgrano for our first three months and I'm not sure how this would work. My asumption is that we could just drop by the police station with two Argentinian witnesses?
4- Some of our documents will have to be translated into Spanish. My understanding of the process is that we find a certifified translator and then bring the translated documents to the Colegio de Traductores Publicos for authentication?

Thanks again for your help and have a great weekend!

1 - If your passport has Spanish, no. Otherwise, yes. (US passports are in English, French and Spanish, so I didn’t need a translation)

2 - No income requirements. Your spouse has a right to residency by virtue of being Brazilian, you get to derive your residency through your spouse.

3 - This depends highly on the police office. The first time I tried, they insisted on coming by to deliver it, but they came by before we had finished walking home. The second, I had an envelope addressed to me at my address and they issued it on the spot.

4 - Your translator should handle this for you.

Hope this helps.