Visa options post Corona

[cortazar]

Hello everyone.

I've been in Argentina for about a year, on four rounds of tourist visas. Right before everything kicked off, I had decided that I would try to a visa that would let me stay for an extended time and on less shaky ground.

Then the borders closed and there was nothing to do. However, I still have reasons to want to stay here after the country opens back up, and I'd like to be proactive now.

I know that nobody has any answers about anything right now, but I had a few ideas for the visa and I was hoping someone could chime in about the best path. The options that seem viable to me are:

1) Student Visa. If I were able to take one or two classes a semester, this would be ideal for me. I'd like to take classes in a subject that interests me, I reckon my Spanish is good enough for an academic environment. If I had to enroll fulltime, it'd affect my work and I couldn't do it..

2) Rentista. Seems a more plausible option. I have a remote job that brings me a decent income. This money is not passive, but I suppose I could buy some kind of financial asset. What is the yearly income needed? Online I keep seeing 30,000 but that can't be true can it? For those with experience, I'd appreciate input about how long this process normally takes. Is it straightforward (by Arg standards, of course)?

I am lucky enough to have my own work that I do online so I'm not too interested in getting a local job, although I suppose I could without much trouble.

Thanks for the advice and sorry for being yet another person who registers just to get advice. Hopefully I can contribute some info too.

Stay safe out there!

 

[Pierre Smith]

Yep, rentista is really that low. However, it's not easy or quick.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Citizenship is an option.

 

[Alby]

Based on the information you have provided, and my own (current) experience with this residency class, you should forget about the rentista option. If it doesn't currently exist, you would need to first create your rental investment (say a property that generates rental income, or shares that generate dividend income, in the equivalent of 30,000 pesos per month--or more, if they subsequently decide to increase the amount) run it for several months, in order to be able to provide documentary evidence of the income entering your bank account outside Argentina. Once you have gone to all that trouble, and made that investment of time, money, and energy, you have now completed just the first of a series of complicated steps that are necessary to even get your application registered and start the process. You can't really attempt all this from inside Argentina: you have to leave, put the arrangements in place at home, gather a complicated suite of documents, have them apostilled in your home country, and then return here to have them officially translated. All that, merely to get to first base: register your application here with Migraciones. And that's when the fun really begins...

As per other threads on this site, should you ever get the end of the process successfully, you will have inadvertently also bought yourself liability each year of your residency to pay Argentina's wealth tax, currently calculated at 2.25% on the value of your rental investment (i.e., 2.25% (each year) of the value of your overseas asset that generates the income).

In fact, under any category of residency (even the student category), you will be up for the wealth tax on your assets overseas. But your chances of successfully avoiding the tax (i.e., pretending you don't have any overseas assets) drop considerably if you are a Rentista, since this category obliges you to directly declare to the Argentine government that you have such assets.

 

[antipodean]

In fact, under any category of residency (even the student category), you will be up for the wealth tax on your assets overseas. But your chances of successfully avoiding the tax (i.e., pretending you don't have any overseas assets) drop considerably if you are a Rentista, since this category obliges you to directly declare to the Argentine government that you have such assets.

As I understand, if your visa is linked to employment and you are employed by a company here you can enjoy up to 5 years as a temporary resident during which time you pay tax only on Argentine source income and don't pay tax on overseas assets or income since you are a non-resident for taxation purposes.

However, those individuals who hold a temporary visa and whose presence in Argentina is based on the grounds of employment which is duly accredited and which requires their permanency in Argentina for a period not exceeding 5 years are not considered Argentine residents, but non-residents located in Argentina on a permanent basis (NRPP). NRPPs are only subject to taxation on Argentine-source income, but for the purpose of tax calculation, they shall be governed by Income Tax Law provisions applicable to Argentine residents.

https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2011/12/income-tax_2014-12-26-10-48-12.html

 

[Bajo_cero2]

For citizenship you just need to be 18 years old, to apply before a Federal Judge and to have been living here for 2 years by the time of the decision.

 

[dsp27]

For citizenship you just need to be 18 years old, to apply before a Federal Judge and to have been living here for 2 years by the time of the decision.

But if he needs to be able to live here freely and come and go without worrying how is that gonna happen? It takes -- as you know really well -- 18/24+ months to get a decision. What is he supposed to do in the meantime?