The law sets no deadline for deciding a residence application, and agency processing falls to 27. Argentina's path to citizenship is 100 out of 100.
On paper the terms are simple: a modest rentista threshold, permanent residence after 3 years, citizenship after 2 years under the Constitution, dual citizenship allowed. The spouse of a temporary resident gets their own residence and can work at once, there is no numeric income threshold for family reunification, and primary and secondary schools are open to children whatever their status. There are no language or integration tests.
Delivery is where it breaks. The law sets no decision deadline at all, and the state does not publish refusal statistics. Applications go online through RADEX, but the bottleneck is the in-person appointment: up to six months in Buenos Aires, 2-3 weeks in La Plata, a few days in the provinces. While the case is pending, a temporary document called precaria lets you live, work and travel, but since 2025 it is issued for 90 days instead of 180 and does not count towards permanent residence or citizenship.
Rules for current residents were tightened twice in two years. Decree 366/2025 of 29 May 2025 made healthcare and state universities paid for everyone except permanent residents, allowed residence to be cancelled for any intentional crime, required address changes to be reported within 3 working days on pain of cancellation, and abolished administrative appeals. Courts declared its citizenship part void in June 2026, and the government is appealing to the Supreme Court. Decree 681/2026, in force since 31 July 2026, added cancellation for speech, with no transitional rules. We found no mass revocations, but cancellations of existing permits are being applied.
Rentista status does not depend on a job, so losing one does not affect it. The law lets temporary residents work, but earned income does not count as the rentista basis, and it does not say what happens if passive income disappears mid-term; that surfaces at renewal.
Day to day, a state programme offers a free basic account for migrants, including on the precaria document, but with a cash limit of ARS 50,000 a month. Full banking requires a DNI card and a CUIL tax number, and some banks refuse. Having a degree recognised through the education ministry takes months.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
Visa-free entry for up to 90 days, according to the Argentine consulate's list. After that, the same residence procedure as for everyone.
Under the Mercosur Residence Agreement they get temporary residence on nationality alone: no income threshold, no job offer, no stated purpose. Permanent residence comes after 2 years instead of 3.
Visa-free entry for up to 90 days, according to the Argentine consulate's list. After that, the same residence procedure as for everyone.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no direct nationality restrictions on rentista residence. The Argentine consulate's list allows visa-free entry for up to 90 days.
The place interval 20-36 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Path to citizenship: 100 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 57.1. The weakest is Agency processing: 27 against 48.7. Above the world average: 4 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
The law sets no deadline. In 2026 Buenos Aires appointments take up to 6 months, the decision 2-6 months and the DNI card about 30 more days; in the provinces an appointment can come within days.
Yes, through rentista residence, but the income must be passive, such as from property or investments; salary and freelance income do not qualify. There is no self-employment route, and the nomad visa is short-term with no path to permanent residence.
The migration fee is 3 indexed UMSM units, plus an optional ARS 10,000 for priority booking. We have not checked the current peso value against an official publication, so we give no family total.
Yes. Since 2025 residence can be cancelled for any intentional crime or false address details, and since 31 July 2026 also for "hate messages". Administrative appeals no longer exist.
Permanent residence after 3 years of temporary residence. Citizenship after 2 years of residence under the Constitution, dual citizenship allowed; the court process takes 1-2 years or more, and time on a precaria document does not count.
The law is still generous on family and the path to citizenship, but since 2025 the state has been tightening rules for current residents: paid healthcare, new grounds for cancelling status, mandatory address reporting. The main daily pain is the appointment queue.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.