Has anyone applied and been approved for the Rentista visa?

[lemonade]

for my Residency under "Rentista Savings" that zero people have confirmed works, and no one knows what anyone wants for this, Immigration bosses also want me to deposit $17,000 USD in an Argentine account. that being said, i have never had a DNI# and thus Santander won't let me open an account (the person i'm helping only had to show $1,200 USD deposited in Cordoba via WesternUnion last year to get a Residency and DNI, so they got lucky i guess?)

since i only have a BNA pesos savings account, i can't wire Dollars, so i'm not sure what the best route is. getting 17k USD in Pesos at the 1,195.56 current ARS/USD rate at https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/home.html (not including fees) would be 20,324,520 Pesos, so even if i could get 20,000-Peso notes, this would be 1,017 of those notes, of which i'm certain zero Western Union locations have that much. i'm almost certain i would have to go and get 1,000-Peso note stacks from sending smaller amounts like 2,000 USD to different branches, and thus have to travel a lot of pay higher fees, etc.

anyone have any ideas? anyone know anyone doing the Rentista Savings option with a Trust or High-Yield Savings Account or similar? (using a lawyer or not; i just need to know the logistics and options). if i could deposit to my friend's Santander USD account it would be cake to show the paper trail, and pay a Public Accountant to show that the money is in Argentina, in Dollars or Pesos (the person i helped didn't need an accountant, which saved $100 USD luckily!)

right now i was planning to just get another Precaria and then start the citizenship process without ever having a DNI and just see if it could work. but NOW, with Migraciones being in-charge of Citizenship (which i completely disagree with, and is against the spirit of LLA/Milei's desire to give the national Executive branch less power, not more), this won't be an option according to what they told me in Mendoza this month June 2025. i think my options are:

A. deposit 17,000 USD in various Western Unions and pay a ton in fees, and have to deal with physical cash or risk transferring WU to my Banco Nacion pesos account (which sounds like a nightmare), and hope that the rate doesn't go higher because then i'll have bought Pesos at a bad rate all at once instead of the dollar-cost-averaging i'm doing now. and pay an accountant to legalize the paper trail.

B. kick the can and hope the immigration reforms are common sense when they are released, and i don't need a DNI, temp residency for 3 years, then perm residency for 2 more years without leavng the country ever.

C. get a work visa that comes with a DNI for a year (zero people have said this is possible; most here want to hire people under the table).

D. go to university that will give me a DNI, which takes forever to enroll and then i'd have to actually study (none of the schools here have any topics i'm interested in, and zero classes in English, which may sound dumb but i don't want to get another degree, and i especially think it's dumb to get a degree in Spanish in Argentina, at least with my topics of study).

E. fake marriage or have a kid. horrible option, but literally hear it all the time: 'why not just have a baby here?' - lol lol lol, you know the peronists have destroyed immigration when THAT is the easiest and most logical option. what a horrible reason to bring a life into the world. and i'm not doing a fake marriage with an Argentine to get a passport; it could easily get caught, and i'm too high wealth to risk my crypto assets be seized by a divorce.

anyone else see anything that has worked? i just need a DNI number it seems, then everything else gets smoother afterward. right now my bottleneck is Immigrations saying i need to deposit 5x monthly salary in one lump sum for a year's residency, which is 17,000. maybe i could fly with 17,000 USD into Buenos Aires and declare it, and have that paper trail, and exchange it at a cueva to deposit those pesos in my BNA account? i imagine that will be quite the clusterf^^^

It doesn't sound like that is common. I thought I read about someone setting up high interest savings account in the USA or maybe dividend paying stocks and using that? Just go with the option where you deposit the funds and pay the fees. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal.Or just get student visa. Is 17,000 really that big of a deal? Are you that strapped for cash?

 

[Larry]

for my Residency under "Rentista Savings" that zero people have confirmed works, and no one knows what anyone wants for this, Immigration bosses also want me to deposit $17,000 USD in an Argentine account. that being said, i have never had a DNI# and thus Santander won't let me open an account (the person i'm helping only had to show $1,200 USD deposited in Cordoba via WesternUnion last year to get a Residency and DNI, so they got lucky i guess?)

since i only have a BNA pesos savings account, i can't wire Dollars, so i'm not sure what the best route is. getting 17k USD in Pesos at the 1,195.56 current ARS/USD rate at https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/home.html (not including fees) would be 20,324,520 Pesos, so even if i could get 20,000-Peso notes, this would be 1,017 of those notes, of which i'm certain zero Western Union locations have that much. i'm almost certain i would have to go and get 1,000-Peso note stacks from sending smaller amounts like 2,000 USD to different branches, and thus have to travel a lot of pay higher fees, etc.

anyone have any ideas? anyone know anyone doing the Rentista Savings option with a Trust or High-Yield Savings Account or similar? (using a lawyer or not; i just need to know the logistics and options). if i could deposit to my friend's Santander USD account it would be cake to show the paper trail, and pay a Public Accountant to show that the money is in Argentina, in Dollars or Pesos (the person i helped didn't need an accountant, which saved $100 USD luckily!)

right now i was planning to just get another Precaria and then start the citizenship process without ever having a DNI and just see if it could work. but NOW, with Migraciones being in-charge of Citizenship (which i completely disagree with, and is against the spirit of LLA/Milei's desire to give the national Executive branch less power, not more), this won't be an option according to what they told me in Mendoza this month June 2025. i think my options are:

A. deposit 17,000 USD in various Western Unions and pay a ton in fees, and have to deal with physical cash or risk transferring WU to my Banco Nacion pesos account (which sounds like a nightmare), and hope that the rate doesn't go higher because then i'll have bought Pesos at a bad rate all at once instead of the dollar-cost-averaging i'm doing now. and pay an accountant to legalize the paper trail.

B. kick the can and hope the immigration reforms are common sense when they are released, and i don't need a DNI, temp residency for 3 years, then perm residency for 2 more years without leavng the country ever.

C. get a work visa that comes with a DNI for a year (zero people have said this is possible; most here want to hire people under the table).

D. go to university that will give me a DNI, which takes forever to enroll and then i'd have to actually study (none of the schools here have any topics i'm interested in, and zero classes in English, which may sound dumb but i don't want to get another degree, and i especially think it's dumb to get a degree in Spanish in Argentina, at least with my topics of study).

E. fake marriage or have a kid. horrible option, but literally hear it all the time: 'why not just have a baby here?' - lol lol lol, you know the peronists have destroyed immigration when THAT is the easiest and most logical option. what a horrible reason to bring a life into the world. and i'm not doing a fake marriage with an Argentine to get a passport; it could easily get caught, and i'm too high wealth to risk my crypto assets be seized by a divorce.

anyone else see anything that has worked? i just need a DNI number it seems, then everything else gets smoother afterward. right now my bottleneck is Immigrations saying i need to deposit 5x monthly salary in one lump sum for a year's residency, which is 17,000. maybe i could fly with 17,000 USD into Buenos Aires and declare it, and have that paper trail, and exchange it at a cueva to deposit those pesos in my BNA account? i imagine that will be quite the clusterf^^^

Looks like doing it yourself without a lawyer wasn't a good idea after all. You are still spinning your wheels after over a year.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

Is 17,000 really that big of a deal? Are you that strapped for cash?

are you serious?

You are still spinning your wheels after over a year.

thank you for your comment, atrocious as always. do you enjoy when others suffer?

 

[Larry]

are you serious?


thank you for your comment, atrocious as always. do you enjoy when others suffer?

How are you suffering? Is this not what everyone else that has applied for Argentina has to do with exception of people on social security? Are they asking you something special or different than everyone else? Do you expect to get special treatment vs. others? Maybe I am missing something?

 

[FuturoBA]

Thank you for sharing information. I have gone online to a few places and trying to get as much info as I can. I am trying to move here and find a long-term rental. It is much more difficult than I thought. Some Airbnb owners are jerks! Others want an entire year up front!

I am trying to get permanent residency here and get my dni. And then hopefully obtain Argentine citizenship with my wife.

We are here now trying to get an Airbnb or other longer term rental for 6 months. We didn't have all the documents we need so might have to go back to the US to get them and then come back or maybe we can get them remote.

Will overstaying past the 90 days have any negative effect on our rentista visa? Is there a certain amount of time you can max overstay? Or the # of times you can do this? Will paying the fine in any way affect the rentista visa?

If we start the rentista visa now and we have to provide an address here in BA does it matter if the address isn't the same when we come back? Or is it better to stay in a hotel and apply there and come back again and explain the situation to them? Or does the address part not matter? I have a local friend I might be able to use her address.

An immigration lawyer told me that I could set up an LLC and get annual dividends as proof of passive income. He said to get a letter from CPA stating that I get annual dividends of more than $25k and a bank statement showing the dividends coming from my LLC and a certificate of good standing from the state where the LLC is from. I read on another forum the dividends have to be monthly. Is that true? Or is annual ok? How many months bank statements do I need to submit?

Thanks to all of you that provided info.

@Bingo Are you still moving forward with your rentista visa and any updates on setting it up or how it's going??

I recently spoke with two immigration attorneys who stated you could use savings. And the best part is they converged on the same thing lol(as most cases you ask 10 different questions you get 11 different answers) - both stated the best way to show those savings is if you sold some real estate(in the US). For one has to justify the source of the funds and RE is the simplest way.

Now I don't know if you were or are looking to go the LLC route and rules might be different, but again I was told the passive income schedule was different depending on who you talk to. However, most suggested monthly - again to simplify it. One attorney said you don't want someone on the other side seeing missing months and not realizing the funds still adds up, just done on a different schedule. IE someone not bright enough to notice what's going on and hence delaying the process.

 

[Betsy Ross]

@Bingo Are you still moving forward with your rentista visa and any updates on setting it up or how it's going??

I recently spoke with two immigration attorneys who stated you could use savings. And the best part is they converged on the same thing lol(as most cases you ask 10 different questions you get 11 different answers) - both stated the best way to show those savings is if you sold some real estate(in the US). For one has to justify the source of the funds and RE is the simplest way.

Now I don't know if you were or are looking to go the LLC route and rules might be different, but again I was told the passive income schedule was different depending on who you talk to. However, most suggested monthly - again to simplify it. One attorney said you don't want someone on the other side seeing missing months and not realizing the funds still adds up, just done on a different schedule. IE someone not bright enough to notice what's going on and hence delaying the process.

Can I ask you FuturoBA which immigrations mentioned this? My sister now that she bought a property might look into that but her accountant is saying there are downsides to getting permanent residency here with Argentina and the USA not having a tax treaty.

 

[Bingo]

@Bingo Are you still moving forward with your rentista visa and any updates on setting it up or how it's going??

I recently spoke with two immigration attorneys who stated you could use savings. And the best part is they converged on the same thing lol(as most cases you ask 10 different questions you get 11 different answers) - both stated the best way to show those savings is if you sold some real estate(in the US). For one has to justify the source of the funds and RE is the simplest way.

Now I don't know if you were or are looking to go the LLC route and rules might be different, but again I was told the passive income schedule was different depending on who you talk to. However, most suggested monthly - again to simplify it. One attorney said you don't want someone on the other side seeing missing months and not realizing the funds still adds up, just done on a different schedule. IE someone not bright enough to notice what's going on and hence delaying the process.

Hi @FuturoBA, thanks for following up!


Yes, we’re still moving forward with the rentista visa, but it’s definitely been a bit of a rollercoaster. We’re currently gathering the remaining documents we need from the US (which has been slower than expected), so we might need to go back briefly or have someone send them to us.


As for the address, we decided to use a local friend’s address for now, just to get the process started, the attorneys we spoke to said it’s fine as long as we update it later if it changes.


Regarding the income proof, we were also told by a lawyer that showing monthly income makes things simpler because they don’t like “gaps,” even if the annual total is enough. That said, if you can clearly document where the funds are coming from (like real estate sales or LLC dividends) and have the CPA letters and bank statements lined up, it should work, but as you said, the criteria can vary depending on who reviews your file.


We’ll share more once we get past the document hurdle, hopefully soon!

 

[FuturoBA]

Can I ask you FuturoBA which immigrations mentioned this? My sister now that she bought a property might look into that but her accountant is saying there are downsides to getting permanent residency here with Argentina and the USA not having a tax treaty.

The two attorneys were Paula Carello from the firm luxbrumalis and Martin from MHLegalhub both who were very responsive and knowledgeable. Paula is an immigration law professor and worked in the immigration department too and who I'm leaning towards using.

Immigration to Argentina Lawyer | LUX BRUMALIS - Especializados en Migración, Asilo, Ciudadanía, Desarrollo y Derechos Humanos

luxbrumalis.com.ar

MH Legal Hub | Law Firm in Argentina

MH Legal Hub are at the forefront of commercial and immigration law, offering smart, customized solutions to help businesses thrive and individuals build a bright future in Argentina.

www.mhlegalhub.com

Hi @FuturoBA, thanks for following up!


Yes, we’re still moving forward with the rentista visa, but it’s definitely been a bit of a rollercoaster. We’re currently gathering the remaining documents we need from the US (which has been slower than expected), so we might need to go back briefly or have someone send them to us.


As for the address, we decided to use a local friend’s address for now, just to get the process started, the attorneys we spoke to said it’s fine as long as we update it later if it changes.


Regarding the income proof, we were also told by a lawyer that showing monthly income makes things simpler because they don’t like “gaps,” even if the annual total is enough. That said, if you can clearly document where the funds are coming from (like real estate sales or LLC dividends) and have the CPA letters and bank statements lined up, it should work, but as you said, the criteria can vary depending on who reviews your file.


We’ll share more once we get past the document hurdle, hopefully soon!

Great to hear. In theory the process sounds simple on paper and even had some attorneys tell me such but the difficult part is the inefficiency, things getting lost, and hurdles depending on who you're dealing with that day. Much better to have a lawyer help with dealing with all that back and forth.

 

[Betsy Ross]

The two attorneys were Paula Carello from the firm luxbrumalis and Martin from MHLegalhub both who were very responsive and knowledgeable. Paula is an immigration law professor and worked in the immigration department too and who I'm leaning towards using.

Thank you so much. I will pass on to my sister. It is funny as I have lived here for years and she was never too interested until she bought a place here. Now she talks about moving here in retirement. Once you own a place it is very easy and affordable to live here. I will pass on those two contacts. Please keep us posted if you proceed and post about your experiences. Very helpful. I did mine so long ago and glad I don 't have to worry about that now.