Argentina citizenship by investment

imidaily.com/latin-america/argentina-announc…h-timeframe/

Takeaway: $350,000 USD contribution to the treasury or $800,000 USD zero interest 7-year bond created for this program.

Not what I had hoped for, though I’m sure with that low of a contribution people will pounce on it. I wonder if the EU will attempt to yank Schengen visa-free. It will also be interesting to see the impact on Caribbean programs.

It’s an easy button all the way into a South American country and Mercosur. No time wasted with residence and naturalization, and with the recent law passed you can get the passport without becoming a tax resident. Decent passport for travel though unnecessary for anyone with a western passport.

Good for some Africans and Arabs for the passport (also good for not living in Africa). Also the mentioned lazy Chinese (who will have to hide it from the Chinese government). Maybe some Westerners who have specific interests in Argentina and would benefit from skipping the line (not for the passport). Not sure exactly what those interests would be but there are probably some edge cases.

Worth $350,000 or opportunity cost on $800,000? Definitely not to me.

I’m sure the influencers and their audiences will leap on it.

Had it been a legitimate investment route through foreign currency denominated (sure as shit will not touch the lira or the peso) interest bearing government bonds (like Turkey) or even real estate (like Turkey except in a place that isn’t an utter shit hole)? I would have tossed in. If you can generate a return and get a passport tossed in, why not? That is not the case here though.

JohnnyDoe said:

A button that activates what?

Those who can afford one already bought it elsewhere. Argentina is late to the party.

In short: practically worthless except for a very few specific cases, for which anyway there are already cheaper alternatives.

Maybe good for those Westerners who decide to renounce their current citizenship. But if they want to move out of their Western gulag they should better choose Vanuatu, Nevis or Grenada.

It’s a button that activates an Argentine nationality and passport in the few specific cases where this might be the easiest or most definite way of doing things. There are always new Africans and Indians who have newly ill-begotten gains and now want to move around more easily, as well. Renouncing would be better done on this than a Vanuatu passport or one of the Caribbean passports.

For some people it will actually be useful. For others they’ll do it just because one of the influencers tells them to do it. I bet they’ll have more than 1000 applicants in Q1 27 alone. I’d be surprised if anyone on this forum is one of them, though. All of the points about its lack of value for the cost are valid for people who aren’t in one of those mentioned categories.

jafo said:

Why these CBIs have always bothered me is that they share one's info and sometimes, can cancel the passport if they don't like one's opinion or behavior.

Argentina gave these out for FREE in the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It was so easy then. A FOAF (Friend of a Friend) collected a bunch of them from Latin America before CBIs even existed, so he's grandfathered in. The problem is that they all have his same identity, so it really doesn't help him much in his day to day:censored::bag:

Ultimately any country can cancel a citizenship or passport if they really want that. Argentine constitutional limitations might make it harder for them than Vanuatu or one of the Caribbean islands, which are known grifts that will cancel for any reason or charge thousands of dollars in due diligence fees for passport renewal. Turkey has been on a cancellation spree as well lately.

To be fair, the countries of all of my passports are currently being badly mismanaged by corrupt politicians. This is not a problem unique to St. Kitts, and one does not immediately think of “good steward of the Argentine economy” when one thinks of the Argentine government. The greatest benefit of having more than one is the ability to care less about any one in particular.

JohnnyDoe said:

It’s like “diversification” done wrong in investments: the more you diversify, the more chances you have to lose your money.
Multiplying your citizenships multiplies your problems.
If your original passport is rubbish, get a better one and stop there.

The risk of downside doesn’t get enough attention. It’s a matter of risk management. It would not be good to be a Ukrainian or Russian living abroad and have to try to renew your only passport right now. In 2021 there was no problem.

It’s a much different matter to have, for example, been a Ukrainian who got Hungarian citizenship by descent in 2021 than to be one living on a Ukrainian passport and residence visa and have to try to get something else in place while facing an expiration date and difficult renewal. Hungary would not have been much bother in the past five years.

On the other hand, one could have gotten French citizenship and then be impacted by their new tax law while having no problems with the primary Canadian passport.

JohnnyDoe said:

It’s like “diversification” done wrong in investments: the more you diversify, the more chances you have to lose your money.
Multiplying your citizenships multiplies your problems.
If your original passport is rubbish, get a better one and stop there.

To this point, Hungary’s new wealth tax has a provision that counts dual citizens living abroad as tax residents. Quite glad I didn’t bother to learn the barbaric language and naturalize under their ancestry provisions.

Canada and Italy both now have exit tax provisions which limit flexibility in living or establishing ties in either place.

There is often no consideration of the downside risk with people either not thinking of it or assuming they’ll be able to dispose of the citizenship quickly without considering timelines and exit taxes. That does not mean there aren’t sometimes significant (or minor) upsides. Anyone Russian or Ukrainian could speak to the upsides.

In my case, there are no downsides to my choices…yet…but only minor upsides. None of this is relevant to Argentinian CBI which remains uninteresting in its current form.