Why this passport is of interest. The main advantage is visa-free entry to the Schengen Area: up to 90 days in any 180-day period without obtaining a visa. Overall, the Argentine passport provides visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more than 140 countries, and as a citizen of a Mercosur country (the economic union of South American countries), its holder can obtain a residence permit in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and other states of the bloc under a simplified procedure. Dual citizenship is permitted, so there is no need to renounce your current passport, and residence in Argentina is not required to obtain citizenship under the programme. The passport does not confer the right to live and work in the EU, but for business and personal travel to Europe it is a full substitute for a Schengen visa.
Legal basis
The programme is based on two legal acts. Decree 366/2025 amended Citizenship Law No. 346: foreign nationals who, regardless of the length of their residence, demonstrate a significant investment in the country become citizens by naturalisation. The procedure was set out in detail in Decree 524/2025 of 31 July 2025.
Under the standard procedure, Argentina requires at least two years of continuous legal residence for naturalisation, but where an investment has been approved, this requirement is waived.
Options and cost
The main applicant chooses one of two options: a non-refundable contribution of USD 350,000 to the National Treasury or the purchase of a government bond worth USD 800,000 issued specifically for the programme.
Family members apply together with the main applicant, with a separate contribution. For a spouse and for children aged 18 to 25 who are unmarried and have no children of their own, the contribution is USD 100,000 each; for children under 18, it is USD 25,000. As a result, a family consisting of the main applicant, a spouse and two minor children will be able to obtain citizenship for a total of USD 500,000. All funds must pass through the formal financial system in compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements.
How the application is reviewed
The application is submitted to the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programmes under the Ministry of Economy. The Agency engages the intelligence service (SIDE), Argentina’s financial intelligence unit (UIF, the equivalent of an FIU), and the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the review. The Government states that the standards of due diligence, financial transparency and risk management will comply with the recommendations of the OECD and the FATF.
The review covers the applicant’s identity, the traceability and lawfulness of the origin of funds, assets and finances, jurisdictional risk, criminal records and reputation, as well as immigration history. Following the review, the Agency sends a recommendation to the National Migration Service, which takes the final decision. Under Decree 524/2025, it has 30 working days to do so from receipt of the Agency’s report.
Are there restrictions for citizens of any particular countries?
There is no direct prohibition. Neither Law No. 346, nor Decree 524/2025, nor the official announcement of the programme restricts the range of applicants by nationality.
The key point lies not in a list of countries but in the procedure itself. Under Decree 524/2025, the Agency requests opinions from the security, financial intelligence and intelligence agencies to ensure that the grant of citizenship ‘no represente un riesgo para la seguridad o los intereses nacionales’ – does not pose a risk to security or national interests. The criteria for this assessment have not been published, and the official announcement expressly lists the assessment of jurisdictional risk among the stages of the review. In other words, a dossier may be deemed unreliable at the discretion of the authorities, and it is impossible to influence this part of the process in advance.
What does depend on the applicant is how their dossier looks. We recommend that the dossier provide for the possibility of making the investment from banks other than those of countries regarded as sanctioned or high-risk.
The programme has not yet accepted a single application, and the secondary legislation setting out the review procedure has not been published. It makes sense to consider the programme now, but with the understanding that the first decisions and the actual criteria will only become clear once applications open in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Our advice is to wait for the regulations to be published – this is expected around December 2026. Once the application procedure and review criteria are known, we will analyse whether your particular case fits the programme. At REVERA, we offer clients only those options that actually work, and we do not take on programmes until we ourselves are confident of how they are applied in practice.
