Hi everyone, I'll try to keep it short!!
Currently on and off between Cordoba (I met a girl from here 3 years ago online) and home in England and working as a freelancer for Smartodds, a UK based company (providing in play stats/analysis on football matches).
Do you know how I could obtain a work permit/residency and eventually a DNI? At the moment I'm just coming here on tourist visas and leaving within the 90 days or extending it in migraciones (although I've done that twice now and I'm only permitted one more).
I've spent days in migraciones and online seeking advice but can't seem to find a way that my current source of income can be used to gain it.
I earn more than enough money to be able to support myself here and could prove so with bank statements etc.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
In order to qualify for the visa rentisa the foreign (aka: external) income must be "stable" and passive (from investments, not work) and (at least in theory) must continue for two years (even though the visa is granted one year at a time).
If you have been able to extend your visa more than one time at migraciones in Cordoba you should consider yourself lucky. Migraciones in CF will only do it once. You cannot get a "work permit" and go looking for a job. Employers of foreigners in Argentina must be registered with migraciones and receive permission to hire each foreign employee.
If you don't want to get married you can simply overstay your visa, and, about a year after your first arrival, you can begin the (on average one year) process to apply for Argentine citizenship (with a good lawyer who has a "track record" for winning citizenship cases for foreigners without a DNI). You should be able to use your foreign income to show a "legal means of living" when you apply for citizenship, even though you have not been paying taxes in Argentina. The two year "residency" requirement for citizenship began the first day you ever set foot on Argentine soil and an uninterrupted stay is not required.
Hopefully, before the end of that year, migraciones in Cordoba wont send you a notice that you have overstayed and invite you to regularize your immigration status in 30 days or leave the country. If you fail to comply you could then be given ten days to leave the country.
That isn't likely unless you make someone angry enough to report you.
If you get really desperate you could rent a wheelchair and get a note from an Argentine doctor saying you need ongoing medical treatment. That will get you temporary residency but I don't know for how long. Of course if someone from migraciones sees you out dancing with your girlfriend you might get a swift kick.
I think I read in the discussions that if you manage to stay for 2 years in Argentina, you qualify for a DNI, even if you were overstaying your tourist visa, though others should correct me.
Staying in the country for two years does not make you eligible to go to the registro and get a DNI. You have to be granted citizenship by a judge or obtain temporary or permanent residency from migraciones before a DNI can be issued. If you waltz into migraciones after two years and ask for a DNI you will probably be given 30 days to "regularize" your status (aka fulfill the requirements for temporary residency).
