Here's my experience getting DNI as spouse - and parent - of Argentine nationals.
Need the originals of the following:
- Birth Certificate. (I was told that without the birth certificate I'd have been sent home).
- Passport.
- Criminal background check from home country (as well as any country in which you spent >6 months).
- Criminal background check from Argentina.
- DNI of Argentine relative.
- Proof of address: Utility bill in your name, or Certificate of Residency from police.
- 3 photos.
All of the above must be photocopied. Your passport needs a full set of copies of all pages including blank ones.
All documents not in Spanish must be translated by a certified translator and the translation must be legalized by the Colegio de Traductores Publicos de Buenos Aires. Normally the translator goes and takes care of that last step for you for an extra fee, or you negotiate it as part of the package.
Legalization:
Any documents issued by/in countries that are party to the Hague convention (example: USA or UK) must bear an apostille from the authorized authority of the issuing country. In case of USA, that's usually by the Secretary of State of the issuing state. In the UK, it's centralised: info
here.
Any documents issued by/in countries that are
not party to the Hague convention (example: Canada) must be authenticated by the authorized authority of the issuing country, and that authentication must
then be legalized by the Argentine consulate
with jurisdiction where the documents were issued.
If your birth certificate or RCMP background check is from Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver, they must be authenticated with Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, then sent to the consulate in Toronto. If your papers are from Halifax, they get sent first to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, then to the Arg consulate in Montreal.
Once you have all of that, you go the the immigration office at Av Antartida Argentina, stand in line for a bit, leave with a paper confirming that you have provisional residency (residencia precaria), and your DNI arrives by courier to your home a few weeks later.
Make sure you're on hand to receive it, as going to their office to fetch it yourself is not a pleasant experience. Trust me.
Your children will be Argentine by virtue of having an Argentine parent whether or not you do all of the above.
