Tourist Visa Information

[Rockin Bob]

Are you going to Uruguay just to go or to renew your visa? If you are going just to renew your visa, don't go.

I myself would advise doing a day trip over to Uruguay. I don't know how it is in Argentina, but I once overstayed my welcome in Brazil and paid a fine, and it has haunted me ever since! Not that they don't let me back into the country, but there is always a delay while the agent tells me to wait and disappears into the police office.

On the other hand, my impression of Argentine immigration is that you could present a napkin with your name written on it and a smiley face and that would be a valid document. So you could just pay the fine and not worry about it.

[El Perro]

If I go to Uruguay and return how do I pay the fine? You can only pay at ezeiza?

Are you going to Uruguay just to go or to renew your visa? If you are going just to renew your visa, don't go.

[Extraordinary]

Overstay and pay the fine at the airport. Do NOT go to immigration. People overstay, pay the fine and re-enter the country all the time. Piece a cake.

If I go to Uruguay and return how do I pay the fine? You can only pay at ezeiza?

[El Perro]

My holiday visa runs out Thursday. Is it ok to overstay. Then leave the country and pay a fine? Will they let me back in? Thanks.

Overstay and pay the fine at the airport. Do NOT go to immigration. People overstay, pay the fine and re-enter the country all the time. Piece a cake.

[Extraordinary]

It is right across. The major street from the Retiro Train Station.

Maybe three straight blocks.

It's a maze of red tape bullshit! They will send you from building to building, line to line and table to table.One of the Boys.

Killed 5 people in a car wreck while he was here on vacation. Living here.

TL had. To take our fellow Monger from building to building for 5 straight days just to find the correct monkey to allow him to travel, leave the country.

It was hell.

At one point they hauled him in for not changing his address!

Finally met the head of immigration in BA and got things squared out!

Took us 5 days!

Good luck!

By the way, why do you need it?

TL.

Please excuse my fucking spelling and grammar but this pos computer is a pos ! MFN thinks for me before I write ! In Spanish it's a joke ! Fuck I hate this turd !

My holiday visa runs out Thursday. Is it ok to overstay. Then leave the country and pay a fine? Will they let me back in? Thanks.

[TejanoLibre]

Does anybody know the address of the immigration centre in buenos aires. I want to renew my holiday visa. Thanks.

It is right across. The major street from the Retiro Train Station.

Maybe three straight blocks.

It's a maze of red tape bullshit! They will send you from building to building, line to line and table to table.One of the Boys.

Killed 5 people in a car wreck while he was here on vacation. Living here.

TL had. To take our fellow Monger from building to building for 5 straight days just to find the correct monkey to allow him to travel, leave the country.

It was hell.

At one point they hauled him in for not changing his address!

Finally met the head of immigration in BA and got things squared out!

Took us 5 days!

Good luck!

By the way, why do you need it?

TL.

Please excuse my fucking spelling and grammar but this pos computer is a pos ! MFN thinks for me before I write ! In Spanish it's a joke ! Fuck I hate this turd !

[Extraordinary]

Does anybody know the address of the immigration centre in buenos aires. I want to renew my holiday visa. Thanks.

[Jackson]

Mine is also from 2010, and that passport now has two holes punched in the front cover because I have since obtained a new passport. And I was welcomed with open arms! BTW you will be checked more than once by the airline you are flying to make sure that all is in order.

Bob.

Many expired passports have visas that are still valid.

That's one reason why they let you keep your old passports, so you can still use the visas contained therein.

Thanks,

Jax.

[El Perro]

Mine is also from 2010, and that passport now has two holes punched in the front cover because I have since obtained a new passport. And I was welcomed with open arms! BTW you will be checked more than once by the airline you are flying to make sure that all is in order.

Bob.

Thanks Bob. I figured I was safe but best to check.

Cheers!

[AllIWantIsLove]

Mine is also from 2010, and that passport now has two holes punched in the front cover because I have since obtained a new passport. And I was welcomed with open arms! BTW you will be checked more than once by the airline you are flying to make sure that all is in order.

Bob.

I'm thinking about a visit in about a month. I have the "visa-like" page in my passport from 2010, good to 2020. I'm assuming I don't have to go online and mess with the reciprocity thing. Please let me know if I have that wrong.

Thanks.

[El Perro]

I'm thinking about a visit in about a month. I have the "visa-like" page in my passport from 2010, good to 2020. I'm assuming I don't have to go online and mess with the reciprocity thing. Please let me know if I have that wrong.

Thanks.

[Jackson]

Argentines visiting the US have to apply for a visa. The application form costs the same as the fee for Americans to enter Argentina (thus the "reciprocity" of the "reciprocity fee"). Applying for this visa can be a highly traumatic experience (ask anyone. Not only Argentines). You are in the hands of a, often power crazy, menial civil servant. If he or she decides not to give you a visa you are not even allowed to know why and much less appeal. And you don't get your money back. The US authorities refuse to inform on how many applicants are rejected.

Argentines are the fifth biggest population visiting Miami every year with about half a million tourists. This year there are many restaurants and apartment rentals that are accepting PESOS at the official rate of exchange!

But this is the difference.

The US Government charges a visa application fee because it costs money to actually conduct an investigation into the visa applicant. These investigations are necessary to determine the probability that the applicant will return to Argentina when their proposed visit to the USA is completed, this being necessary because we have a big problem in the USA with foreign visitors deliberately overstaying their visas.

On the other hand, Argentina does not have a problem with American citizens deliberately overstaying their visas to enter Argentina, and thus Argentina does not need to screen visa applicants from the USA.

The operative words in the first paragraph are "actually conduct an investigation".

Argentina does not conduct visa investigations, and thus all they're doing is using reciprocity as an excuse to extract money from every American citizen who enters Argentina. There is no justification for charging a visa application fee when no visa application investigation is being conducted.

Thanks,

Jackson

[Aqualung]

Argentines visiting the US have to apply for a visa. The application form costs the same as the fee for Americans to enter Argentina (thus the "reciprocity" of the "reciprocity fee"). Applying for this visa can be a highly traumatic experience (ask anyone. Not only Argentines). You are in the hands of a, often power crazy, menial civil servant. If he or she decides not to give you a visa you are not even allowed to know why and much less appeal. And you don't get your money back. The US authorities refuse to inform on how many applicants are rejected.

Argentines are the fifth biggest population visiting Miami every year with about half a million tourists. This year there are many restaurants and apartment rentals that are accepting PESOS at the official rate of exchange!

[Aqualung]

If you paid the "reciprocity fee" under the old system, the Argies stuck a receipt on one page of your passport. The "fee" is good for 10 years from the date you paid it, so your USA passport will expire before the "fee" does. I have not come across anyone that this happened to, so I am just guessing when I say that if you show them both passports, they will not make you pay the "fee" again. HOWEVER, this is Argentina, so who knows what the authorities will do.

Tres3

Once you have paid you should be in the system and even if you can't produce the proof of payment there shouldn't be a problem. But. (note my use of the conditional tense) this is Argentina. If you have the stamp on an old passport carry it with you.

[DaveNYC]

The Airport fee paid when leaving, this is now included in the ticket price.

First thing to remember about Argentina in case this is your first visit, I'm assuming so because of your low post count, nothing is simple or logical.

First as an adult, kind of sounds like my job LOL.

Standing in the line to pay a tax to get out of a country. If they could charge you a disposal / dumping fee each time you dropped a deuce, in country, they would.

Dave: The methods of payment just changed at the end of 2012. The Argies make a point of clarifying that the $160 isn't for a visa, since they don't require American tourists to have a visa. Rather, it is a "reciprocity" fee because that is what it costs Argies to come to America.

I wonder, now that they do not have the pay-upon-arrival option, what do they do with people who arrive without the online printout? I can't imagine that they stick you on the next flight back to where you came from. However, given that it is Argentina, I would expect that whatever the process is, it is arbitrary, inconsistent and time-consuming.

I'll be sure to pay it online today.