Rentista - Freelance/LLC Owner

[julia_en_ruta]

Having just gotten my rentista residency approval (woo hoo!), I thought I'd write a couple of notes on my situation for anyone in the future looking for info about whether it's possible to have a successful application as a freelance consultant with clients outside of Argentina. I can't really offer advice on other people's specific situations beyond "talk to an attorney". Of course, as the eternal disclaimer, the rules could change at any minute based on various political whims, and for all I know the success in repeating this could be dependent on whether or not the migraciones staffer had enough lunch that day or Boca lost the championship game, or whatever.

• I have a US-based LLC. My invoices are paid to the LLC.
• I used an attorney (Celano) to complete this process, which I would recommend.
• It took me around six months to collect documentation, get things apostilled, etc. before I submitted everything. I didn't need to submit new FBI fingerprint forms even though they technically expired halfway through the data collection process, but I also didn't leave the country once I started getting paperwork together.
• I worked with an accountant in the US to have him review the LLC's bank statements and verify that I consistently had enough income coming from the business to my personal account to meet the requirement. He provided an apostilled statement to that effect.
• Once I had the precaria in-hand, I used it to get a CUIL.
• With the CUIL and precaria together I was able to talk my way into getting a basic dual-currency bank account at Santander (not easily -- see my note in this thread) to start transferring the monthly minimum amount. Previously that could be WU transfers to a peso account, but apparently they just changed it to require a SWIFT transfer that's received in dollars. I've been able to receive dollars directly into my dollar account through SWIFT without them being pesified, but I have to submit a form in person every time I want them to be deposited into the account.
• Once everything was submitted it took almost four months to get the decision. This was long enough that my precaria had to be renewed twice and the attorney's office submitted an amparo por mora.

 

[Stephano]

Congratulations on reaching this important milestone!
I think this is also great news to me. I had contacted a lawyer to inquire about the possibility to get permanent resident status through a rentista option but he discouraged it stating that that would have been very costly. I tended to agree because I assumed that the 2000+ USDs would need to go to an Argentinian bank account and being pesified, thus being exposed to inflation and/or lose some 30% if I decided to buy back dollars at a cueva. If I understand correctly you can open a bank account in dollars at a local bank, and then transfer dollars there, to satisfy Migraciones' requirements. Is that correct? If this is the case, that changes would make a viable option to me. The lawyer I had contacted proposed a residency by study, but given my age it would be quite difficult to get transcripts from my high school in Italy (which is a required document for Migraciones), as I have graduated some 38 years ago.

 

[Manuel]

The ammount, right now, is close to USD 900 (monthly base), after currency devaluation. On the other hand, this ammount will suffer a re-adjustment, after a new minimum salary wage announced late january.

 

[julia_en_ruta]

you can open a bank account in dollars at a local bank, and then transfer dollars there, to satisfy Migraciones' requirements.

That's what I'm currently doing, and is my understanding of the correct (current) process per my attorney.

 

[abrotherabroad]

Having just gotten my rentista residency approval (woo hoo!), I thought I'd write a couple of notes on my situation for anyone in the future looking for info about whether it's possible to have a successful application as a freelance consultant with clients outside of Argentina. I can't really offer advice on other people's specific situations beyond "talk to an attorney". Of course, as the eternal disclaimer, the rules could change at any minute based on various political whims, and for all I know the success in repeating this could be dependent on whether or not the migraciones staffer had enough lunch that day or Boca lost the championship game, or whatever.

• I have a US-based LLC. My invoices are paid to the LLC.
• I used an attorney (Celano) to complete this process, which I would recommend.
• It took me around six months to collect documentation, get things apostilled, etc. before I submitted everything. I didn't need to submit new FBI fingerprint forms even though they technically expired halfway through the data collection process, but I also didn't leave the country once I started getting paperwork together.
• I worked with an accountant in the US to have him review the LLC's bank statements and verify that I consistently had enough income coming from the business to my personal account to meet the requirement. He provided an apostilled statement to that effect.
• Once I had the precaria in-hand, I used it to get a CUIL.
• With the CUIL and precaria together I was able to talk my way into getting a basic dual-currency bank account at Santander (not easily -- see my note in this thread) to start transferring the monthly minimum amount. Previously that could be WU transfers to a peso account, but apparently they just changed it to require a SWIFT transfer that's received in dollars. I've been able to receive dollars directly into my dollar account through SWIFT without them being pesified, but I have to submit a form in person every time I want them to be deposited into the account.
• Once everything was submitted it took almost four months to get the decision. This was long enough that my precaria had to be renewed twice and the attorney's office submitted an amparo por mora.

This is great to hear. I'm hoping to apply for the Rentista visa using my US LLC income as my source of income too. The tough part is the lawyers I've talked to seem very unsure about the required documentation. I want to try and get it all done in one go in the US. Also, I want to attempt to do it on my own without a lawyer, just to find out if it is possible and pass on the knowledge.

It sounds like you submitted these documents
- Affidavit from an accounting stating your income
- FBI background check


Did you have to submit any of these other documents?
- Profit and Loss statement for 12 months
- Notarized company bank statements for 12 months
- Tax returns
- LLC operating agreement

Or any other documents?

 

[julia_en_ruta]

@abrotherabroad Yes to the affidavit/FBI check, and I included all of my incorporation documents. I had to provide statements from my business bank account to the accountant, but he didn't need them to be notarized. I'm not sure if those were incorporated into the application, since I didn't put it together.

 

[RenaissanceMan]

In the case of the Rentista Visa, aren't the recurring monthly funds transferred also taxable in Argentina? Would that be double taxation with the US as there is no tax treaty between the US and Argentina?

 

[julia_en_ruta]

In the case of the Rentista Visa, aren't the recurring monthly funds transferred also taxable in Argentina? Would that be double taxation with the US as there is no tax treaty between the US and Argentina?

The taxability in Argentina is a great question for a local accountant. There's no tax treaty, but a certain amount of income earned while living abroad is not taxed by the US.

 

[02maples]

Do not quote me on this, but isn’t it all the income you earn from your LLC is taxable in Argentina? It does not matter what you transfer to Argentina but what you earn while leaving here. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.