"permatourists" And Background Checks

[citygirl]

Is it possible for someone who have been here for years to present just the antecedentes penales from Arg when applying for residency regardless of official status? IE, say you've been living here as a permatourist for the past 3 years and now you're applying for residency based on whatever, would it be doable to just do the argentine background check? The migraciones website states "emitidos por las autoridades competentes de los países donde haya residido por un plazo superior a UN (1) año, durante el transcurso de los últimos TRES (3) años. Solo exigible a mayores de 16 (dieciséis) años."

I swear I read on here that someone had done it but I can't find it. This came up in conversation and it seems totally possible and now I'm curious. It would certainly make the process a lot easier.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Who knows. I always advice to just overstay because then there is no doubts.
But yes, if you live here over 2 years, the local criminal check is enough.

 

[sesamosinsal]

Hi CityGirl - I believe you're referring to a thread of mine: http://baexpats.org/...r-last-3-years/

I ended up going through the hassle of getting my US background check. Perhaps I could have argued, but I've been in Argentina too long to bother arguing with a government official here...

I did find it interesting that on the back of my DNI, DNM noted my "date of residency (fecha de radicación)" as August of 2009. I traveled back and forth quite a bit from 2009 through 2011, but lived here more than 6 months out of the year from the date I arrived (August of 2009). I never had a DNI of any kind until I applied for it in 2013. Perhaps I wouldn't have needed it after all...

 

[citygirl]

Thanks guys! Bradly, now I remember yours. But someone just posted recently too they were doing it and migraciones was adding up the days they were here but I don't know how it was resolved.

 

[Patagone]

Just tagging along as I would be interested in hearing about this. Did anybody actually have success with this? Would save a lot of hassle getting the background checks.

 

[domthegreat]

I just went through this entire experience.

I had been living here for about 5 years +/- on tourist runs + actually leaving for work/family reasons every 3 months. When we got married and changed our plans to stay here I started the process of getting everything done.

Our lawyer (family friend) agreed to assist with my case and advised me that I didn't need the FBI check since I had been here for longer than 3 years. I had never been out of the country for longer than 1 year, and I had been in Argentina for at least 3 years (7 since my first visit in 20008 and I have never been away from Argentina for longer than 4 months in any one stretch)

So everything was presented this way and accepted. I got my Precaria and then waiting for everything to process. I renewed my precaria once without any problem, but then the second time it wouldn't renew online and I had to go down to migraciones. There they still never told really told me what was the problem. I had to have my lawyer look at it and my case had been flagged as "falta de documentacion". She submitted an official note saying the requirement did not apply to me, blah, blah, blah. After another 3 months, I went to renew and they refused. They said I was missing documents, blah, blah blah. After they got quiet militant with me I finally found someone who explained what was the problem.

The law says that you must have been residing in Argentina for at least 3 years and not returned to your country of origin for "longer than a period of 1 year" in order to forgo the FBI check. But they decided to apply ALL of my trips to the US over the last 3 years and combined they said they equaled just over 13 months and thus I needed an FBI check. Ironically enough, we went through my passport and all my flight records for the last three years and realized I had actually spent roughly 320 days out of the last 3 years in the US. I tried presenting this information to the people at migraciones (migraines as I call it) and they just didn't care. Finally, after literally talking to 3 supervisors and 6 other low-level peons, one finally just leaned in and said to my (Argentine) wife "look, you are from here...you know how it works. Explain it to him....it doesn't matter what the law says. The director says he needs his American background check...even if you are right, it doesn't matter, the director wants it and thats that." Even my lawyer went and presented notes saying this did not apply in my case, but they didn't care (note, my lawyer has successfully argued cases before the supreme court, and handles immigration items regularly...so she is perfectly capable)

In the end, I had to beg them to give me 30 day extension of my precaria so I could go to the states and get my FBI check. I left a few days later to go get it in person. One I came back I showed them a print out of my report (in english) and said I needed more time for the official version to arrive. No questions asked they gave me 3 more months on my precaria (irritating because before I left they swore it was impossible to have a precaria extension for longer than 30 days)

MY advice would be to just get the check if possible. Otherwise, even if the law is on your side no neat migraciones seems to care. If you are even lucky enough to get them between mate breaks, they won't give you any consideration in the matter, especially if it requires them to think even slightly outside the normal thought processes they have each day.

 

[sleslie23]

I tried presenting this information to the people at migraciones (migraines as I call it) and they just didn't care. Finally, after literally talking to 3 supervisors and 6 other low-level peons, one finally just leaned in and said to my (Argentine) wife "look, you are from here...you know how it works. Explain it to him....it doesn't matter what the law says. The director says he needs his American background check...even if you are right, it doesn't matter, the director wants it and thats that." Even my lawyer went and presented notes saying this did not apply in my case, but they didn't care (note, my lawyer has successfully argued cases before the supreme court, and handles immigration items regularly...so she is perfectly capable)

It sounds to me like they wanted you to present "notes" of a different type - AKA Dead Rocas.

I had a similar problem finalizing my permanent residency. The "fixers" my company hired weren't the bribing kind and thus it took an additional six months.

 

[steveinbsas]

It sounds to me like they wanted you to present "notes" of a different type - AKA Dead Rocas.

I had a similar problem finalizing my permanent residency. The "fixers" my company hired weren't the bribing kind and thus it took an additional six months.

It took about two weeks to obtain my permanent residency in 2010 and there wasn't the slightest hint that anyone wanted a bribe. The lady at the prorrogas had processed my previous two renewals and remembered me. She reviewed my updated documents and a supervisor told her everythng looked OK. She gave me her direct number and told me to start calling after ten days. At the two week mark she said everything was approved and to come in the next day.

I did so and when I arrived she saw me and told me to take a seat and wait. After over an hour she came over and told me that my file could not be found. After another hour she motioned for me to come to her desk. She said I was already approved but it might take a day...or a year..to find my file and that I would have to officially request a "new" certificate showing my permanent resident status. I actually had to pay $50 pesos for the new certificate as if I had lost the first one. I was told I needed to take it to the Registro to get the cambio de categorina noted in my DNI.

I waited about an hour for the privilege of getting a form to pay the $50 pesos, then go pay it and bring back the receipt (not having to wait long to present it). Then I had to wait about a week to go back to get the new certificate, waiting another hour.

After that (about a week later) I went to the Registro (then in at tent at migraciones) to get my DNI updated. I signed in and then waited about an hour for my turn. When my name was called I handed the employee my DNI and told him why I was there. It took him less than five minutes to access my information in the computer and he gave me a ticket to pay the DNI fee. I went back and waited to be called again. It took less than five minutes to note the change to permanent residency in my DNI.

He never looked at the certificate I brought with me. He never even asked for it.

All in all I'd say I had it pretty easy...and about 99.44% trouble free.

 

[citygirl]

Dom - I think it was a previous post of yours that I was remembering. Thank you for updating here.

 

[domthegreat]

Dom - I think it was a previous post of yours that I was remembering. Thank you for updating here.

Sure thing! I know that I have benefited a lot from the experiences of others here, so while I don't normally contribute much, I felt I needed to do so here. Let me know how it works out, especially if you decide to forego getting the FBI check...I would be very interested to see if you manage to pull it off.