Permatourism and EZE

[John.St]

From what I have read no one in the history of this board has ever been denied entry for overstaying their visa.

True, only rumours about "someone a friend of mine knows ..."

Going to Colonia to do a 'visa run' is basically a gigantic waste of time and money.

Except if you have friends on both sides of the border. My visaruns are vacations of a week or two, staying with friends who also come and stay in my home.

 

[AlexanderB]

I have never criticized permatourists and said so in previous posts.

They're just lucky that Argentina is (arguably) the best (if not the only) country in the world who doesn't take their own laws regarding "tourist visas" seriously.

At some point (sooner or later) that is likely to change.

Even if you don't have a "valid" tourist visa, if you are in Argentina, the chances of being deported are almoat zero and even if there ever is a "crackdown" on perma-tourists, the chances of being able to stay are high while the chances of being able to leave and reenter may not be as good.

I would agree with all that, based on my understanding.

 

[surfing]

Yeah, I get it. A lot of you are eager to taunt us, "nah na-na-na nah, I qualify for some officially sanctioned residency status so I didn't have to slum it like you permatourists!" That's nice. Good for you. I'm not looking for advice on just how much more awesome you are.

I read this whole thread and I don't know where you are getting that; I see a lot of people trying to be helpful but no taunting.

 

[citygirl]

AlexanderB - I don't know of anyone who has ever been denied entry at EZE or anywhere else for being a perma-tourist. Occasionally someone will post about hearing about a a "friend of a friend" but never anything verifiable.

I know people here who have living the perma-tourist route for years and years and years with nary an issue. All things are of course subject to change but in the scheme of things I would be concerned about, that wouldn't be high on the list.

(Oh and FWIW, I once had dinner with someone fairly high up the ladder at Migraciones and asked him about the 180 day limit leave for 1 day/etc. His comment was that of course they understand the loophole and if they wanted to close it, they would change the law to match Brasil's for example and specify no more than 180 days in a 365 day time period. His comment was they hadn't done so for a reason. )

 

[joemama]

Also I once was having dinner at a parrilla and a guy sitting next to us starting chatting us up. We ended up sharing a bottle of wine and he told us he worked at migraciones as an assistant to the top guy. He told us that they actually like all the immigrants from US, Europe, Canada, Australia, etc as they bring money into the country. Its the bolivians, paraguayans, etc they are concerned about.

Basically he told me they are well aware of all the 'rich' permatourists and they see no reason to stop it.

I guess it could be argued that this is unfair bias to us 1st-worlders, but that is a different conversation.

 

[ben]

FWIW, I know of one person whom they threatened to deport, for the better part of a day. He'd arrived in the morning, and they let him go mid-afternoon. This happened about 4-5 years ago.