Rentista passive income through irrevocable trust?

[TruchoTango]

You are overthinking this. The asset selection is not that complicated and it's not that important.

If money is no object and you want a bulletproof application for a residencia rentista, buy some rental real estate in the US that rents for more than $2K monthly and use the rental contract in your application. It will sail through. Don't worry about trusts and don't worry cash/cash equivalents or liquidity.

If you don't have that kind of heft, buy any financial asset that throws off more than $2K per month in fixed income. The personnel at Migraciones don't know a government bond from James Bond. You simply need to convincingly and confidently state that your asset meets the the three criteria I mention above.

One year, I used publicly traded units of a master limited partnership as my rentista source of payment. It took some explaining to the 30-year old Migraciones employee that reviewed my application. But it was ultimately approved.

This process is not that complicated. Get your asset set up. Get a financial professional with a letterhead to write you a verification, confirming that a) you won't sell the asset for the next 12 months and b) the supra-$2,000 monthly income is pretty much guaranteed. Get your FBI check. Bring your documents to BA. Call Josefina Murphy for translation. Get an Argentine bank account established and link the two accounts. And get your process going at Migraciones online. It's not much more complicated than that.

 

[Lienohi]

If money is no object and you want a bulletproof application for a residencia rentista, buy some rental real estate in the US and use the rental contract in your application. It will sail through. Don't worry about trusts and don't worry cash/cash equivalents or liquidity.

Thank you for the advice. I wouldn’t say money is “no object” when you consider the price of US real estate. I’d think I would need to spend at minimum 200-300k to guarantee a passive income of $2000. That said, perhaps I could find some real estate in a terrible place in the US for 50-100k and have a friend “rent it” for $2,000/month. Is this even feasible? Is it safe to say they wont be looking up the address of the property title I provide and see that the true market for the rent would be $300/month for example… because if that strategy failed I’d be sitting on a illiquid piece of dirt real estate and be “out” likely six figures until I could resell said piece of real estate. Thanks for helping me!

Seems like real estate is the only true guaranteed path to sail through the rentista visa application.

 

[lunar]

I’d think I would need to spend at minimum 200-300k to guarantee a passive income of $2000.

My guess is, if you are willing to spend 200k to guarantee a passive income of 2k per month for a year, many people would be interested to help you.

 

[Lienohi]

My guess is, if you are willing to spend 200k to guarantee a passive income of 2k per month for a year, many people would be interested to help you.

I’m not willing to spend 200k. But I would be willing to spent 50-100k however there’s no way a home that cheap will realistically generate 2k in passive income. I would need to make it appear as though someone is renting at that rate when I would in reality be renting it from myself, if you know what I mean. If this is feasible and the migraciones dont actually look up the value of the property you are using/thereby finding out its actual rental market rate is closer to $500/month I would be all for it.

Can anyone speak to this? I suppose we don’t know what exactly is done in migraciones back office regarding researching the property deed you provide supposedly renting for $2,000 month. I could have a friend deposit 2k/month into my account for “rent” for 6 months if I knew with a high degree of certainty they wouldn’t ultimately look up the address and see the market rate for rent is 25% of that which I’m claiming. I’d be hoping as long as they see a history of payments of 2k over 6 months and that I own the deed to the property that I would be in the clear.

If we can get a poll going from everyone stating the % chance they think something like this would work, I’d be most grateful.

 

[lunar]

... we don’t know what exactly is done in migraciones back office regarding researching the property deed you provide supposedly renting ...

"Passive" means earning income without direct effort. Immigration doesn't specify that one must rent properties, you seem to associate the two for some reason.

 

[Lienohi]

"Passive" means earning income without direct effort. Immigration doesn't specify that one must rent properties, you seem to associate the two for some reason.

If you look back through previous responses to this thread, several people mentioned that real estate was the bulletproof way of sailing through the rentista visa application process as they apparently much prefer to see owners of real estate vs. people holding liquid stock in a company for example.

I’m trying to set up my rentista application with the highest % chance of success. Seems to me that the initial idea of funding a trust with 30k to be distributed over 12 months is not in my best interest as it’s not what they are looking for ideally—from the advice I’ve received here.

I don’t mind spending $ to make sure I get the rentista though I don’t want to spend a fortune if it can be avoided. Obtaining the rentista is very important to me. I’m in pursuit of Argentine citizenship combined with my St. Kitts citizenship. Intend to renounce my US citizenship once I have 2 other passports (US too much global power and influence for my liking) and I’d like to have bank accounts in countries that don’t accept US customers due to the headaches it causes them.

 

[TonyTigre]

I'm curious if you have considered all of the following:
1. The Exit Tax when renouncing your US citizenship, which will include unrealized gains, and probably require you to mark-to-market the value of your company and other assets.
2. Argentina's tax code... The wealth tax in Argentina, additional future taxes on the wealthy, also tax on worldwide assets.
3. Where you would hold your money after the sales of your company and how comfortable you are that it will be well protected from your new government and/or the institution you entrust your money with. [Of course this is very personal and a response is not expected.]

Obviously the best way to ensure getting your application approved is to hire the best connected immigration lawyer you can find especially if you're willing to spend some money to save some money. There might also be an option to simply remit $24,000 to Argentina to satisfy the income requirement. At least ask your immigration lawyer about that.

 

[Lienohi]

I'm curious if you have considered all of the following:
1. The Exit Tax when renouncing your US citizenship, which will include unrealized gains, and probably require you to mark-to-market the value of your company and other assets.
2. Argentina's tax code... The wealth tax in Argentina, additional future taxes on the wealthy, also tax on worldwide assets.
3. Where you would hold your money after the sales of your company and how comfortable you are that it will be well protected from your new government and/or the institution you entrust your money with. [Of course this is very personal and a response is not expected.]

Obviously the best way to ensure getting your application approved is to hire the best connected immigration lawyer you can find especially if you're willing to spend some money to save some money. There might also be an option to simply remit $24,000 to Argentina to satisfy the income requirement. At least ask your immigration lawyer about that.

Great questions and points.

1) I have considered the exit tax and it’s actually a big reason why I want to renounce or at least be in the position to renounce. My NW will soon be above the threshold for exit tax (if it’s below 2.5 mil I believe, no exit tax is required) so I need to hurry up about this. In hindsight I should have done this a year or two earlier.

2) I have considered it and am confident I have a strategy that will protect me, it also doesn’t hurt that Argentina is not remotely as competent and influential as the USA when it comes to this sort of thing.

Would you happen to know who is the best connected immigration lawyer in BA? I have a contact on the ground in BA who can look into this but someone on this forum that’s been in a similar situation would probably have better insight. Happy to pay the right people, the right lawyers are worth their weight in gold I’ve learned this early on fortunately.

 

[Lienohi]

You are overthinking this. The asset selection is not that complicated and it's not that important.

If money is no object and you want a bulletproof application for a residencia rentista, buy some rental real estate in the US that rents for more than $2K monthly and use the rental contract in your application. It will sail through. Don't worry about trusts and don't worry cash/cash equivalents or liquidity.

If you don't have that kind of heft, buy any financial asset that throws off more than $2K per month in fixed income. The personnel at Migraciones don't know a government bond from James Bond. You simply need to convincingly and confidently state that your asset meets the the three criteria I mention above.

One year, I used publicly traded units of a master limited partnership as my rentista source of payment. It took some explaining to the 30-year old Migraciones employee that reviewed my application. But it was ultimately approved.

This process is not that complicated. Get your asset set up. Get a financial professional with a letterhead to write you a verification, confirming that a) you won't sell the asset for the next 12 months and b) the supra-$2,000 monthly income is pretty much guaranteed. Get your FBI check. Bring your documents to BA. Call Josefina Murphy for translation. Get an Argentine bank account established and link the two accounts. And get your process going at Migraciones online. It's not much more complicated than that.

Haha thank you for the vote of confidence. I am a control freak at times and can overthink things so foreign to me. I just don’t want to spend time and money in the wrong way and have my application ultimately denied. Thanks for this. I have just about everything sorted with exception of the selection of what to do for the passive income requirement.

Has anyone here in the past few years used a trust with liquid assets to successfully get a rentista approved? I know @steveinbsas has used a trust however this was in the early 2000s and it doesn’t sound like it was cash/cash equivalents but rather something else less liquid/more appeasing to migraciones.

Has anyone here funded a trust solely for the purpose of getting rentista visa or am I going to be the guinea pig haha

 

[Alby]

If you look back through previous responses to this thread, several people mentioned that real estate was the bulletproof way of sailing through the rentista visa application process as they apparently much prefer to see owners of real estate vs. people holding liquid stock in a company for example.

Trucho said it would sail through. Other people have had different experiences. My near three-year odyssey (admittedly complicated by the pandemic) with a real estate-based, lawyer-supported and perfectly documented Rentista application has been reported several times on this board.