Refused When Trying To Pay Overstay Fine

[Jas0nP]

Hi everybody, i'm posting this on behalf of a friend:

So I have overstayed my 90 days in Argentina. I went to immigration office in cordoba(where I am flying out of) to pay the tax. A page in my passport that is completely irrelavent is torn. They say they cannot let me pay the tax because of this. I have travelled across borders many times and never an issue. I dont know if they are looking for a bribe?

How I see my options now. Wake up in the morning hope I get different people/try to bribe. If that fails get on bus from Cordoba to EZE in BA try to do it there and bus back to catch my flight out of Cordoba to Colombia. If that doesnt work try to play stupid/bribe immigration when leaving Cordoba.

If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions would be very grateful

Thank you

 

[internationalguy]

A mutilated passport by definition is void and no longer valid. Even if you were allowed to pay the fee the people who do immigration over at EZE technically can't allow you to leave the country because you don't have a valid passport. It makes no difference which page is torn. Get a replacement from your embassy.

 

[Montauk_Project]

Its not easy to bribe people. This is not to say that there are no bribes, but you can´t go and just offer one in immigrations or in many other places.

 

[sleslie23]

Its not easy to bribe people. This is not to say that there are no bribes, but you can´t go and just offer one in immigrations or in many other places.

Exactly! If it were that easy to bribe people in AR, I would have been studying an undergraduate degree at UBA years ago!

Usually people who want bribes come to you. Not vice-versa.

 

[nikad]

Report this to your embassy

 

[Montauk_Project]

I actually offered a bribe when I first got here to get by visa. Employee started screaming, in English "what do you think we are, a banana republic!!!!!!!!!???!!!" made things worse. The worse thing you can do is go arround offering one, you would probably need an intermediary. And all said in done, getting passport replaced will be less expensive and quicker.

 

[Jas0nP]

haha, that sounds like a terrible outcome.

my friend's flight is in 2 days to Colombia so a replacement passport i imagine wouldn't get there in time. possibly meaning he'd have to cancel it and wait or get an emergency passport to return back to his country first.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

I think the turnaround time for a passport is 24 hours. At least with the US Embassy.

 

[garryl]

The government employees in the world, especially in Argentina and Spain, are like programmed machines, they do not think, do not care.
If you over stayed, there is a predefined procedure, if you are not in the preset box they are given, you are Fked, they will do nothing.

 

[bdk1]

If your friend is American, he can get a limited-validity emergency passport: http://argentina.usembassy.gov/passports.html