Argentina digital nomad visa & residency (2026)

A federal court declared portions of Decree 366/2025 unconstitutional, ruling that the decree's prohibition on foreign parents of Argentine-born children immediately applying for citizenship violated the Constitution. The ruling — the first of its kind against the Milei immigration DNU — creates precedent that an executive decree cannot override constitutionally guaranteed citizenship rights.

Argentina established a procedure allowing foreigners who make a 'relevant investment' (defined by the Ministry of Economy) to apply directly for citizenship via a new Investment Citizenship Programs Agency, bypassing the standard residency-accumulation period. It reshapes how wealthy remote workers and investors can secure long-term status.

Signed in July 2025, Decree 524/2025 amended the Citizenship Law to allow foreign nationals to obtain Argentine nationality — with no prior residency requirement — via a minimum USD 500,000 investment in qualifying productive sectors (agribusiness, renewables, technology, tourism infrastructure). Argentina becomes the first South American country with such a programme; implementing regulations were still being drafted as of mid-2026.

President Milei's DNU amended Migration Law 25.871, requiring foreigners to hold health insurance, demanding proof of 'sufficient economic means' for permanent residency, tightening citizenship requirements, allowing revocation of residency for absences over one year, and consolidating citizenship authority within the National Migration Directorate.

The National Migration Directorate established a transitory residency of up to 180 days, renewable once, for remote workers from visa-exempt countries who provide services via technology to foreign-based clients. This was Argentina's first dedicated digital nomad visa, framed as part of a remote-work tourism strategy.

Migraciones launched the operational guidance and electronic entry process (TIE) for digital nomads under Article 24(h), detailing application documents (CV, proof of remote contract/income) and the once-only extension requiring proof of income and presence in-country for at least 50% of the period.

The Fernández government repealed Decree 70/2017, restoring the rights-based provisions of Law 25.871 that had been modified, including due-process protections in expulsion proceedings. This re-established the more permissive residency framework that prevailed when the digital nomad visa was later launched.

The Macri government amended Law 25.871 to create a 'special summary migration procedure,' shortening appeal windows to three days and broadening grounds for expelling and barring foreigners with criminal records. It was later challenged in court and ultimately repealed, marking a restrictive swing in Argentina's migration policy.

The implementing regulation defined how the permanent, temporary (including the rentista/income-based category) and transitory residency types operate, the procedures and requirements that later provided the legal basis for the digital nomad residency under Article 24(h).

Argentina launched the Patria Grande program in 2004–2005 to regularize undocumented migrants by operationalizing the 2002 MERCOSUR Residence Agreement. By 2010 more than 1.1 million people — 90% MERCOSUR nationals — had obtained legal Argentine residence via nationality alone (no job offer required). The program cemented the MERCOSUR pathway as the fastest residency route for South American nationals and demonstrated that the new rights-based framework was actively enforced.

Argentina enacted its foundational migration law (in force from January 2004), creating the permanent, temporary and transitory residency categories and a rights-based, relatively open immigration regime. It is the statutory basis on which all later residency and digital nomad rules were built.

On December 6, 2002 the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay (plus associate states Bolivia and Chile) signed the Agreement on Residence for Nationals of MERCOSUR States. The accord allows any signatory-state national to obtain two years' temporary Argentine residence using only proof of nationality and a clean criminal record — no employment offer or sponsor needed — and then apply for permanent residence before expiry. It remains the simplest and fastest legal residency pathway into Argentina for South American nationals.