US residency for Argentines??

[earlyretirement]

How did you do this? Filing the forms isn't free.

Ah, I wasn't referring to any filing fees. There I agree they add up but I still didn't think it was too bad considering she would get permanent residency to live in the USA. As I mentioned it was $590 to renew. And a few hundred that we paid to the US Embassy in Buenos Aires but I was referring to legal fees since you mentioned your lawyer.

I just filed all the paperwork myself. I didn't use any attorney to do it. That was what I was referring to. Maybe I misunderstood your post that you paid legal fees to file these forms.

I spent far more time, red tape, aggravation and especially money getting permanent residency in Argentina than she spent getting permanent residency in the USA.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Ok, got it. We did use a laywer to consult but did all the paperwork ourselves. I think his fees were $100/hr and we probably spent $300 with him. At the same time I made one mistake on my wife's fiance visa - got her birthdate backwards - and it was another $600ish to get that corrected.

Overall this process was something like 2 years and every form was another $500US+. It added up very fast. Don't even want to add it up. Add on top of that the flights back and forth to Argentina. I could have bought a REALLY nice car with cash! I remind her of that on occassion.

It's funny, it seems to me that my permanent residency for Argentina was much easier - $600ARS for the residency plus $40ARS for the DNI plus my US Appostile and some miscellaneous fees for translating documents - was a slamdunk. Just my experience.