Argentina visa for UK citizens: 90 days free, then residence

A British citizen can arrive in Argentina without arranging a visitor visa: the initial stay is 90 days. Migraciones (Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, the immigration office) can extend it once by another 90 days for 20 UMSM, or ARS 20,000 (about US$13). Someone intending to settle instead needs a residence category based on a pension, income from assets, a local employer, study or family. An application filed inside Argentina through RADEX costs 100 UMSM, or ARS 100,000 (about US$66), per applicant at September 2026 rates; a first DNI adds ARS 20,000 (about US$13).

Pensionado and rentista residence require qualifying monthly income of five times the minimum wage (SMVM), which is ARS 1,956,000 a month in October 2026. Family residence is temporary, including for a spouse of an Argentine citizen, and can run up to three years. The visitor stamp, a digital nomad permit and residence each give a different amount of time in the country, so the first decision is what the stay is actually for.

What the visitor stamp permits

Day one is the entry date recorded by Migraciones. By day 90, a visitor who needs more time can request a prórroga de permanencia, an extension of stay, during the preceding ten days; it costs 20 UMSM (ARS 20,000). There is one extension per entry and it cannot be requested after day 90. The visitor stay suits travel, business meetings, flat viewings and gathering residence paperwork. A British passport must remain valid for the whole stay.

Local employment or invoicing Argentine clients requires an appropriate residence route. Remote work for a UK employer sits in a grey area on visitor status; the digital nomad transitoria permit is the route designed for work for clients abroad. There is no UK-Argentina working holiday agreement, and British nationality alone brings no MERCOSUR residence entitlement.

A ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay and a return to Buenos Aires can start another 90-day entry, but officers may question repeated border runs. Visitor days contribute nothing to permanent residence or citizenship. Someone who has already overstayed pays for a habilitación de salida, an exit authorisation of 40 UMSM (ARS 40,000, about US$26), valid for ten calendar days. Failure to comply with an order to regularise can result in expulsion and a re-entry ban of at least five years.

Which residence route fits the move

Most applicants can enter visa-free and file in Argentina, without a prior appointment at the Argentine consulate in London. An overseas consular filing does exist: the official table gives a non-MERCOSUR fee of 600 consular units, versus 300 for MERCOSUR nationals. For a British passport holder, the in-country temporary or permanent residence fee is 100 UMSM; MERCOSUR nationals instead pay 50 UMSM and may reach permanent residence after two years.

A migrant-worker or family resident may work locally; pensionado and rentista categories bar local work. A family resident sponsored by an Argentine citizen or permanent resident can receive up to three years with multiple entries, while one joining a temporary resident receives the sponsor's remaining term. Scientists, athletes, artists and religious workers have smaller sponsored categories. Digital nomad time carries no DNI and counts towards neither permanent residence nor citizenship; its application uses a separate Migraciones online process rather than RADEX.

What counts as pension or asset income

The pensionado and rentista threshold is five times the salario mínimo, vital y móvil (SMVM): ARS 1,956,000 a month in October 2026 (5 × ARS 391,200). It is a peso test, so the figure moves with each SMVM rise, and it is repeated at each annual renewal. Compare your own monthly income, at the exchange rate on the day you file, with five times the SMVM. Pensions belong to pensionado; rent, dividends and interest from owned assets belong to rentista. Salary, freelance receipts and a savings balance cannot replace the required recurring income shown on bank statements.

A UK State Pension is payable in Argentina but remains frozen at its initial rate, as Argentina is absent from the countries receiving annual increases. A full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27 and is paid in sterling, while the income test is set in pesos, so how it compares depends on the exchange rate on the day you file. A DWP letter from the International Pension Centre, workplace pension or annuity provider letters, tenancy agreements for UK property and broker statements for dividends provide the evidence appropriate to each income stream.

Paperwork before departure and filing after arrival

UK certificates require an FCDO apostille, followed by Spanish translation by a traductor público (sworn translator) in Argentina and legalisation of the translator's signature by the Colegio de Traductores. A DBS check is unsuitable for the foreign police-certificate requirement: ACRO issues the certificate covering the whole UK. Applicants aged 16 or over also need a police certificate from each other country where they lived more than a year during the previous three years. The ACRO certificate should still be recent when the application is filed.

GRO and ACRO certificates cannot use the e-Apostille, so their originals go through the paper service. A marriage certificate also connects a passport in a married name to a birth certificate in a maiden name. These timing differences matter when the residence application depends on a recent police certificate.

The applicant files at radex.migraciones.gob.ar while physically in Argentina. An address is needed; since DNU 70/2023, a lease's term, currency and rent reviews can be freely agreed and set out in the contract. Applicants aged 16 or over obtain the Argentine criminal record certificate from the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia through the standard RADEX process. UK originals arrive apostilled, then receive their local translations and Colegio legalisation before upload. The 100-UMSM filing fee can be accompanied by 50 UMSM for a preferential appointment; Migraciones says the procedure is personal and simple and needs no gestor (paperwork agent).

Filing yields a residencia precaria, a renewable 90-day provisional certificate allowing legal stay, work and travel while the application is pending. Migraciones does not publish a fixed decision time; the precaria certificate (or the status shown in RaDEX) covers the wait, and it needs renewing while the case remains open. After approval, RENAPER (the national registry) issues the first DNI for ARS 20,000; it arrives by post in two to six weeks and can be added to the Mi Argentina app. A stale certificate, an unrenewed precaria or mismatched names can slow an otherwise complete filing.

Residence beyond the first approval

After three years of temporary residence, permanent residence is available with at least half that period spent in Argentina and no single absence of six months or more. Family residents use arraigo, or settlement, for the transition. Citizenship is a separate petition under Ley 346 and article 20 of the Constitution, based on two years of continuous legal residence.

DNU 366/2025 moved the granting of citizenship from federal judges to Migraciones. On 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared the decree null in the Yang case. Lawyers disagree on the ruling's scope, and the Supreme Court has not ruled as of 4 October 2026. Ask an Argentine lawyer which filing route is available before relying on the decree. Britain permits dual nationality, allowing an Argentine citizen to retain a British passport. Argentina also announced a citizenship by investment programme on 2 October 2026, with a US$350,000 contribution or a bond of US$800,000 and applications expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2026. Our guide for UK citizens covers the costs, the UK tax position and the court challenge to the decree beneath it. For help with this programme, we recommend Lucero Legal's citizenship by investment service.

Temporary residence also has a tax consequence: after 12 months, Argentine tax residence brings worldwide income within declarations to ARCA, formerly AFIP. The 1996 UK-Argentina double taxation convention, in force since 1 August 1997, governs relief when both countries tax the same income. The right residence category therefore matters well beyond the visitor's first 90 days.