Immigrating to Argentina, from permanent tourists to actual immigrants

When I first arrived in Argentina, over a decade ago, it was very common to hear the word permatourists as in people who entered Argentina on a tourist visa and overstayed, often effectively living in Argentina on a permanent basis, but without the paperwork. The practice was well known and apparently tolerated. The easiest fix was to take a brief trip abroad, usually to Uruguay, and re-enter Argentina for a fresh 90-day tourist visa.

Then I began reading about immigration officers at the border starting to reprimand this practice. In most case, it was just a verbal warning. In a few cases, people were granted conditional entry, with a set time to leave. Never in my lifetime I had heard that border control was such soft. Having had to deal with US Borders and Customs, I don't take the border crossing lightly. I did one trip to Colonia close to my 3-month expiration date, and then I got married just days before my second 3-month tourist visa was up.

Some permatourists had bought properties or effectively lived here with all of their belongings. Now I am reading about permatourists being stopped and banned for 5 years from entering Argentina. Some on FB are complaining about it - they claim the previous attitude toward permatourists implied it was free of consequence to overstay. Some of the banned people did overstay and even paid the overstay fee. Never it was mentioned that paying the overstay fee would have carried consequences in the future. It was the general understanding that paying the fee would wash your sin away.

Meanwhile, over 23,000 Russians moved to Argentina in 2022 alone, one year after the Russian-Ukranian war begun. It seems that those who actually stayed were just 10% of those who arrived. And that in 2025 the new citizenship laws introduced by Milei, and the higher cost of living in dollars drove away a lot of families, who preferred Brazil and Spain to Buenos Aires.

My question is - of those of this forum who have been for several years - did you ever consider naturalizing an Argentinian citizen? As far as I know, I am the only one of this forum who naturalized. At times, I have regretted it. But I was super convinced it was a good idea when I naturalized.

Russian settling in Argentina - data from the Immigration Bureau.

Quote from Rice

serafina , you say that at times you regret having naturalized. Why is that?

Because I wasn't aware of the tax implication for citizens, even if not living in Argentina. It is similar to the US - you can never forget home (or home can never forget you).

I naturalized mainly because to practice here it is required to hold citizenship (if naturalized, at least for 5 years). I didn't know that it could be challenged in court for discrimination...I learned it only last year. Also, it cannot be renounced, unlike US or. Italian citizenship. It can only be revoked in case of very grave crimes, but I am not willing to go down that path

Translation as a traductor público.