Tourist visas

Great post, Eclair...especially the last sentence.

Going to Colonia does not "renew" a tourist visa. There's no such thing. Usually, going to Colonia results in a "new" tourist visa, but that "courtesy" could end at any time...for everyone.
 
AlexanderB said:
As a prospective perma-tourist, I'd be genuinely curious to know what those are!

The only advantages of having a current tourist visa stamp that I know of are changing dollars for pesos at banks, renting a hotel room or a car, and getting married .

It may not be required for getting married, but getting married may not be an "advantage" either. :D

Of course it also means you don't pay an overstay fee (currently $300 pesos) when you leave the country.
 
Well, not being able to rent a hotel room if one needs to is a pretty serious impediment.
 
Seems to me there's two different issues going on here. And BTW - we are kind of starting to beat this to death, but I find it strangely interesting...

One issue is the specifics about two visas per year being available legally vs 180 days a year allowed.

The other is whether you should, as a perma-tourist, even worry about the above, which to me is the most important. What I think bajo_cero is suggesting is that your best bet to be a perma-tourist is not to catch the eyes of the authorities and put yourself in a position that you could be denied entry into the country. It really makes the question about the number of days allowed in country vs number of days on a visa a moot point for a perma-tourist.

By going the Uruguay "renewal" route (I know it's actually not a renewal) you are putting yourself in the scope of the government's sniper rifle and the individual reviewing your passport can choose to pull or not pull the trigger on denying you entry. Just like any other country I know, the immigrations officer has the sovereign right, at that moment, to deny you entry because he partied too late last night and he's in a bad mood. Of course, he could catch hell later on if the person attempting to enter files a complaint and his case was reviewed, but that doesn't help in the moment for the traveler.

In reality, the trigger here is not well-oiled and a bit rusty, so the trigger doesn't get pulled very often. Just following the sniper rifle metaphor. I don't mean to imply that immigrations is sloppy, but I think it's more likely the trigger is not well-oiled on purpose; i.e., it's a concious policy, CURRENTLY, to allow the "abuse" to continue.

So the best thing for someone to do who is planning on staying here for a long period of time: don't leave the country if you can help it. Certainly don't do it on the 90 day anniversary of your last entrance into the country because the risk, though low CURRENTLY, isn't worth it.

Now, for someone like shoush, I think you don't worry about it, not to the point of losing sleep, certainly. You do what you have to do.

The likelihood of being denied entry is pretty small. Yes, it is a possibility and I have heard second-hand that it's happened, but those are two people out of maybe a hundred or so people that I personally know or have known over the last six years who have done this with no issues (not all necessarily "perma-tourists", but have been here many times a year, in and out sometimes for months stay at a time, etc).

Also, if I understood right, you've stayed nines month a year out of the last three years, which means 8 or 9 visa trips total (3 times a year for three years). 18 stamps more or less? I bet that's not too bad. Maybe lessens your changes to get nailed.

Hell, if you're really worried about it and want to make absolutely certain, get a civil marriage certificate and do the wedding in a church. I don't know what you're planning, but even if you weren't planning on getting married in a church, a civil wedding isn't great for celebrating - it's what comes afterward at the boda (without a church wedding I mean). At least then you'd have a strong case for getting back in the country, if for absolute bad luck you were denied entry later.

==============

Nothing in this world is zero-risk.

I think bajo_cero is correct in his suggestions, and particularly that one should not just completely ignore the possibility of being denied entry. Things are changing and as bajo_cero said, Cristina is very nationalistic. Look at the countries she's pissing off, seemingly without regard to consequences. Look at the laws that are being passed related to foreign ownership of land and the other items bajo_cero mentions.

These are not the acts of someone who is exactly welcoming foreigners and a lot of the way things are being handled by immigrations officers could change, from a policy standpoint.
 
Perhaps as a result of my infinite naivete, I still get the impression that the government fundamentally looks favourably upon law-abiding foreigners that come to Argentina and spend money.

The land ownership reforms and other things are different; they point to the fact that the nationalistic viewpoint is hostile to the economic downside of foreign presence (foreigners owning assets, or "taking jobs away" from native Argentines, etc.).

But does that mean they are hostile to the upside--foreigners living there and spending money?

I think it's pretty well-established in the expat milieux that the Argentine government likes formulas where they get to take the upside without the downside. :)
 
I'm suprised nobody mentioned renewing your passport to have a clean slate to work with. You could tear the back cover go to the embassy and get a new one in a few days. Granted there is a cost in dollars and time. But it would be like a clean slate.

I have heard that they are putting in thumb print scanners at EZE and buquebus for tourists in place of the immigration forms.
 
AlexanderB said:
Perhaps as a result of my infinite naivete, I still get the impression that the government fundamentally looks favourably upon law-abiding foreigners that come to Argentina and spend money.

I don't have any reason to agree or disagree with you. Its a fact that the government has allowed foreigners relatively freer access to the country compared to Western Europe or the US. Whether that is because they look "favorably" upon law-abiding foreigners or not is a different matter on which I could not say anything for sure.

AlexanderB said:
The land ownership reforms and other things are different; they point to the fact that the nationalistic viewpoint is hostile to the economic downside of foreign presence (foreigners owning assets, or "taking jobs away" from native Argentines, etc.).

I don't mean to be picking on you in every thread Alexander but surely here you meant, "creating jobs for" native Argentines? One of the biggest advantages of foreign owned property here is that a lot of small and medium sized businesses have done so, in turn, creating more job opportunities. Especially after the 2001 idiocy of the Argentine government when no sane big time investor wanted to jump right back in.

AlexanderB said:
But does that mean they are hostile to the upside--foreigners living there and spending money?

I think it's pretty well-established in the expat milieux that the Argentine government likes formulas where they get to take the upside without the downside. :)

Uh, they do! Well most of the time anyway. It happened a long long time ago and people have already forgotten about it but maybe if you went to your local library and checked the newspapers from about a millenium ago, you will find a story about the ONCE train crash. And TBA. :p See how that unfolded?

By the way, you sound like you're very new here(?).
 
Its_not_me said:
I'm suprised nobody mentioned renewing your passport to have a clean slate to work with. You could tear the back cover go to the embassy and get a new one in a few days. Granted there is a cost in dollars and time. But it would be like a clean slate.

I have heard that they are putting in thumb print scanners at EZE and buquebus for tourists in place of the immigration forms.

I think they have your details on their computers, don't they?
 
nicoenarg said:
I think they have your details on their computers, don't they?
They do indeed have entry/exit details on the computer. I reviewed the record of a friend who was extending his visa at Migraciones when the agent questioned his 4 pages of entries and exits over 5 years.

The passport trick is interesting, however, since the record I saw was keyed to my friend's passport number. In most countries, passport numbers are the national ID number or a superset of the ID number, so a new passport carries the same number. That's not the case with passports from the US, where citizens have no national ID number. So a new US passport would probably start a new Migraciones record.
 
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