Visa issues

[tomperlee]

Hello!
I have been in Argentina for 6 months now. I border hopped to chile after 3 months to renew my visa. I plan to stay for roughly a year in total, so (knowing that I would end up having to pay the overstay fine regardless) I chose not to pay for the 3 month renewal and my visa has expired. The issue is that something has come up at home and I would like to fly there and stay for roughly 2 weeks. If I do this will it be possible to reenter Argentina after the two weeks?

Thank you!

 

[semigoodlookin]

Unfortunately, your situation has arisen at a bad time. The answer to your question is probably (you can re-enter), but maybe not. It's always been a lottery, but one heavily in favor of the traveler. Now the odds of the lottery are changing and your chances of losing are higher. Chances are, you pay your fine at the airport on the way out, receive a lecture from the immigraciones worker and maybe at passport control too, and leave to come back in two weeks to another lecture but ultimately be let back in to the country.

Sadly, this is not a sure thing anymore and there is an increasing chance you are told you cannot come back. Is this your first overstay? That may help. There is no definitive answer to your problem other than take the risk or don't take the risk.

 

[tomperlee]

So if I am not able to reenter the country, what is the process? Do I have to fly back to the US?

 

[tomperlee]

And this will be the case even though I have already used my one border hop that seems to be the limit?

 

[semigoodlookin]

The problem with the system is we are only dealing with maybes and not certainties. As I said, the chances are you will be allowed back into Argentina without a problem. One border hop is not the limit, some people have hopped the border 50 times and move in and out of the country without an issue, others get a final warning after 3. However, having only one visa jump may look better when they open your passport at the airport than 50 stamps.

• If they do deny you re-entry, yes you will be sent back on a plane to the US, or wherever you flew from.
• They seem to be taking a stricter approach to people abusing the system. I doubt your single visa run counts as abusing the system, but there are no guarantees.
• It appears to be at the discretion of the border control agent. Some don't care and pass you through with a welcome to Argentina!, others may give you a lecture about doing visa runs, others may decide to weild their power completely (again, this is less likely in your situation but not an impossibility).
• Unfortunately, you may have a border agent who doesn't care when you leave and one who does when you return (or vice versa). In other words, the advice or lack thereof of one agent counts for little when dealing with the next agent.

Admittedly, all this looks like scare mongering and putting you off the idea. That's not what I am doing. In fact if it was me I would just go for it. I repeat, it is more likely you complete your trip with zero issues. It is just worth remembering the risk is there and has been increasing recently.

Btw, this recent thread will give you a decent idea of the general situation at the moment:

https://baexpats.org/threads/us-citizen-deported-at-ezeiza.41101

 

[brandon]

Was there ever a link or reply of how many people have actually been denied entry this year?

 

[steveinbsas]

Was there ever a link or reply of how many people have actually been denied entry this year?

I don't believe anyone provided a specific number, but there have only been a few reports of individuals actually being denied entry for abusing the tourist visa. There may have been a few more that we haven't read about here

As Camel pointed out, the number of "deportations" is rather meaningless without knowing how many perma-tourists have been allowed to reenter.

We have the numerator (1), but what is the denominator? The statistic is almost meaningless without the denominator. If we have 1 deportation for this every 6 months, and we have 100,000 entries, then we have 0.001% deportations. You can adjust the denominator as necessary to get the statistic you want. For example, if we know 1000 "permatourists" enter every 6 months, and 1 is deported, then we have 0.1% deportations of permatourists. But I doubt this last number is published.

 

[mmoon]

I feel like we’re at a point on this forum where we need a banner that says: VISA RUN/OVERSTAY: JUST DON’T DO IT

Yes, getting legal status is a pain, but the days of being a permatourist are waning or over. It’s not worth the stress.

 

[IfYouLeaveTakeMeWithYou]

It's such a strange thing to crack down on, considering that most perma-tourists are people bringing hard currency into the country from abroad. Then again, I guess if they're going to try to keep all the migrant workers from Haiti and Ecuador out of the country, they have to be seen to crack down on Americans and British once in a while too.

 

[sts7049]

It's such a strange thing to crack down on, considering that most perma-tourists are people bringing hard currency into the country from abroad. Then again, I guess if they're going to try to keep all the migrant workers from Haiti and Ecuador out of the country, they have to be seen to crack down on Americans and British once in a while too.

at a certain point, you have to start to think about your own country first. some semblance of border controls or having clear rules and enforcing them is not a bad thing.