Stolen Wallet.........

[loribuenosaires]

Hi everybody. I had my wallet stolen this weekend. It had my CA drivers license and ID as well as my social security card. Any idea if I can renew these here at the embassy?
Also, my passport expired in Feb. I was so busy getting married (to an Argentine) I did not realize it. I have already been to the immigrations here once this year and paid the fine as well as flown to Miami and paid a fine there at the airport. I am not flying anytime soon and I think I can only go to immigrations once per year for expired passports. Does anybody know anything about this? Does that fact that I got married matter with this problem? I was thinking I could just start my residential visa process and not worry about the fact mine is expired. Well the passport has not expired, but the 3 month visa has. My whole passport will expire in May though, I have to apply for a new one by mail here at the consulate. Does anybody have any idea how long that takes?
Has anybody here married an Argentine, here, and then applied for their residential visa? I had a bunch of info about this from this site but then my pc crashed and I lost it all. I'll do a search and see if I can find it.
Thanks!

 

[ericdharma]

I'm no immigrations expert but while the laws here are pretty lax I think that letting your Tourist Visa lapse while you are in the process of trying to get your Resident Visa is a bit much. At the very least (if I were you) I would make the trip to Colonia, pay the fine, and get your tourist Visa current while your passport is still valid. The next step would be to contact the American Embassy and get the new U.S. passport ASAP. I would do this first as insurance and because I think that while it will cost you, it will not be so difficult but it will take some time. If you get on it ASAP you can probably have everything resolved regarding the U.S. government before May. (I lost a passport once and had it replaced as an emergency and I was surprised at how quickly they replaced it. It only took a week but I was in the States at the time. I also called my local State Representative and got him involved.) Who knows what kind of time and red tape you will have to go through to re-process those Argentine documents? While you are in the midst of pursuing your resident Visa you don't want to give the Argentine authorities a reason to make things difficult for you. With respect to whether or not you can renew again, I think that the main issue is not so much about whether or not you are married to a local but what form of visa is keeping you in the country. If the only documentation keeping you here is the tourist Visa that expired you can go to Uruguay, pay the fine again, and renew the Visa no problem. Don't even mention to the officials that you are married to an Argentine. If you haven't been issued some other kind of Visa that would be associated specifically with the marriage it does not matter and the customs officials at Buquebus would have no way of knowing about this. It is already kind of a mess but I think that it would be an even bigger mess if you stay illegal.

 

[loribuenosaires]

Thank you. I agree, it's a mess. I want to hurry up and get my legal residence. How do I go about paying the fine in Uruguay? I just pay the immigrations at the buquebus place upon returning? I will do that, then contact the embassy about renewing my passport and then start my legal residence papers.

 

[loribuenosaires]

If I go to Colonia how much is the fine? How does that work when you take the Buquebus?

 

[nikad]

SFGirl,I am argentine and my husband is american, we got married here a coupe of years ago. I think your priority should be to get your passport issued from the US embassy. You are legally entitled to be here since you are already married to a citizen, so you can just carry with you a copy of your marriage certificate along with your passport. Things at migrations can take months ( it took us about a year ), and even once you are started with the process, you are not going to get any provisory paper saying that you are applying for residency, so it will basically be the same for several months. Do get your passport. Those are my 2 cents.
V

 

[Paul_NL]

If I go to Colonia how much is the fine? How does that work when you take the Buquebus?

I paid 60 or 70 peso for a month in 2005, I needed to sign some papers but I have no idea if it was legal

 

[ericdharma]

I remember paying about 50 pesos in October of 2006 but I actually did it at Ezeiza. I have since renewed my Visa another time through Buquebus but I was not illegal at the time. I did get my IVA tax refund there and they have a Caja line (that is usually very long make sure that you arrive early to make time for all of this) where you handle all of those types of transactions. I would think that you would pay the fine there but you might want to call Buquebus to confirm the situation.

 

[loribuenosaires]

Thank you.

 

[ghost]

I remember paying about 50 pesos in October of 2006 but I actually did it at Ezeiza. I have since renewed my Visa another time through Buquebus but I was not illegal at the time. I did get my IVA tax refund there and they have a Caja line (that is usually very long make sure that you arrive early to make time for all of this) where you handle all of those types of transactions. I would think that you would pay the fine there but you might want to call Buquebus to confirm the situation.

OK, can someone tell me what is Buquebus and also what is this IVA tax refund ?

 

[igor]

ghost, Buquebus is a company that operates a ferry line between Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. http://www.buquebus.comhttp://www.buquebus.comIVA - impuesto de valor argegado - is an analog of VAT (value added tax) in Europe. Currently it is at 21% if I am not mistaken. In some cases IVA for purchases you have made can be refunded.