Strange Customs Experience Crossing Private Boat To Carmelo

lucha54

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My boyfriend's friend's parents have a house in a Club de Campo a few km from the city of Carmelo.They take boats there and we went in one this Easter weekend for a little vacay (and a little visa-run for me).

We went from Tigre through the little waterways of the delta we arrived at the Prefectura just before crossing the river, the guy didn't stamp my passport! I was confused because I thought maybe we go stamp in somewhere else? But he had stamped our 'roll' (the document you fill out to declare that you are crossing with the boat and who the passengers are). So we turned around and got the exit stamp for me. The driver of the boat told me sometimes they don't even stop there but since it was a holiday weekend better just do it so we don't have any problems.

When we arrived at Puerto Camacho, a little port in this club de campo, we took the forms to the prefectura office and she said she didn't have the stamps for passports, that I'd have to go to the port in town (where the Cacciola ferry leaves from). I didn't have any way to get there but the next day a relative gave me a lift because the sister of our friend was taking the ferry back a day early. There, they told me I needed the roll if I wanted to get my entrada and salida stamps for Uruguay, and while she didn't explicitly say that I needed them to be here, or needed them to be able to return to Argentina, she mentioned something like "otherwise what are you going to do when you go back to prefectura Argentina and you don't have the Uruguay stamps?"

She told us to go to the airport which was closer to where we were staying, which I was finally able to do yesterday with a ride from El Negro Oro himself!! (not that I knew who he was but they told me later and it was a hoot). He had called the airport and said, "Yeah, put the customs guy on the phone.... Hey, I've got this foreign girl here, she needs some stamps, can you help us out?" Well the guy at the airport was already expecting us cuz the lady from the port had called the day before and he was super nice and gave me the in/out stamps and sent me on my way.

Then we went back to Argentina and because we left so late and needed to get home before sunset, they didn't stop at prefectura! So now I am here without an entry stamp. I'm thinking/HOPING I can go up to San Isidro or San Fernando prefectura with the roll and get a stamp there but I'm concerned that they are going to give me a hard time (or at a later date give a hard time to the guy who was driving the boat) because we didn't stop at prefectura on the way back. Our friend's dad said he was just going to 'drop the rolls at San Isidro tomorrow' like it's not big deal! but I'm not actually sure that I can get the stamps there. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?

The craziest thing is how easy it is to arrive in a boat from Uruguay and not register yourself... the implications for illegal activity are monumental.
 
Lanata's PPT covered this very subject last year.
I can't be of any help to a fellow sailor, but I thought I'd throw that in.
Why don't you just go to the Prefectura and explain?
 
Sounds like an episode of "Green Acres".

I would have blown off getting the Uruguay stamp in the first place, unless this was your "visa run".
 
I went to prefecture San Isidro and they said that all the people from the roll need to be present for them to stamp the entrada! Because they have to stamp the roll and my passport, and there are 3 other people (my bf and our friend's brother and uncle who went in the boat with us). I don't know when we'll all be able to get together to go do it... this is such a pain. What if I just don't do it and then try to leave at the airport ?? What could happen?
 
I went to prefecture San Isidro and they said that all the people from the roll need to be present for them to stamp the entrada! Because they have to stamp the roll and my passport, and there are 3 other people (my bf and our friend's brother and uncle who went in the boat with us). I don't know when we'll all be able to get together to go do it... this is such a pain. What if I just don't do it and then try to leave at the airport ?? What could happen?

They'll make you leave the country. Which is exactly what you'll be doing anyway.

Don't worry about.
 
They'll make you leave the country. Which is exactly what you'll be doing anyway.

Don't worry about.

OK let's say I take a short trip to Chile in a few months... no consequences either leaving, entering Chile, or re-entering? My big fear is that they'll take me aside and make me miss a flight.
 
I went to prefecture San Isidro and they said that all the people from the roll need to be present for them to stamp the entrada! Because they have to stamp the roll and my passport, and there are 3 other people (my bf and our friend's brother and uncle who went in the boat with us). I don't know when we'll all be able to get together to go do it... this is such a pain. What if I just don't do it and then try to leave at the airport ?? What could happen?
In Argentina no good deed goes unpunished.
 
Illegal entry allow them to reject you at the border and to ban you for 5 years.
 
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