Most of your paperwork in Argentina happens in Spanish. A study of Migraciones' online filing system in its early years reported that it was in Spanish only, and foreign-language documents need a Spanish translation by a sworn translator. Learn the words below and the forms, emails and contracts get much easier to follow.
Select any underlined term to see its meaning.
At Migraciones
- Migraciones (immigration authority): the everyday name for the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones.
- trámite (procedure): any formal procedure with a government office.
- radicación (residence application): used both for applying for residence and for a residence granted.
- RADEX (online filing system): where you file a residence application from inside Argentina.
- Finalizar Orden (finalise order): the step that closes the form and creates the payment slips. After it, mistakes are corrected at your appointment, not online.
- turno (appointment): yours is at the Migraciones office nearest the address you declared. Walk-ins are not accepted.
- turno preferencial (paid earlier appointment): brings your date forward. It does not speed up the decision.
- delegación (local office): a Migraciones office outside the Buenos Aires headquarters.
- expediente (case file): its number is what you use to renew a precaria and check your case online.
- precaria (temporary certificate): lets you stay, leave, re-enter, work and study while you wait. It is not an approval.
- domicilio electrónico (electronic address): the email address you declare. Messages sent there count as legal notice, so check it, and its spam folder, often.
- intimación (deficiency notice): a formal notice that something in your file is missing or must be corrected.
- días hábiles (business days): several Migraciones deadlines count working days, not calendar days.
- recargo (surcharge): an extra charge, for example on a renewal made just after a residence has expired.
- gestor (paid fixer): Migraciones says a residence application is personal and needs no gestor.
Your documents
- apostilla (apostille): authenticates a foreign public document. Migraciones accepts it instead of consular legalisation.
- legalización (legalisation): certification that a document or signature is genuine.
- traductor público (sworn translator): a translator registered in Argentina. Foreign-language documents for Migraciones must be translated by one.
- Colegio de Traductores (translators' college): the body that legalises a sworn translation.
- certificado de antecedentes penales (criminal-record certificate): Migraciones needs the Argentine one, and for some applicants one from other countries too.
- constancia de domicilio (proof of address): what Migraciones asks for. The pages we read do not say which documents it accepts.
- certificado de domicilio (address certificate): one form of proof of address. In Buenos Aires City, people without a DNI report an online request that did not work, and going in person to a Comuna office instead.
For the details, read apostilles and sworn translations.
Your numbers
- DNI (ID card): comes only after your temporary or permanent residence is approved.
- CUIL (work ID number): issued by ANSES. Banks ask for it too.
- CUIT (tax ID number): issued by ARCA, the tax authority.
- clave fiscal (tax login): your login for the tax authority's online services.
Read DNI, CUIL, CUIT: which number you need for the order to get them in.
At the bank
- caja de ahorro (savings account): the basic account. Central Bank rules are reported to allow a bank account to be opened on a precaria, but results vary by bank and branch.
- BCRA (central bank): sets the rules for bank accounts. A complaint to it is the formal remedy when a bank refuses despite complete paperwork.
What a press report says to bring when you open an account on a precaria: Passport (and visa if applicable), precaria and a CUIL; some were asked for monotributo proof.
More in opening a bank account before you have an ID card.
With your landlord
- inmobiliaria (property agency): lists flats and, for long leases, usually checks your income and asks for a guarantee.
- alquiler temporario (short furnished let): often priced in dollars. Sources disagree on the longest term such a contract can run.
- garantía (rental guarantee): the security a landlord asks for on a long lease.
- garantía propietaria (property guarantee): another person backs your lease with a property they own.
- seguro de caución (lease guarantee insurance): a paid policy that stands in for a property-owning guarantor. Not every agency accepts every insurer.
- expensas (building charges): monthly charges, quoted separately from the rent.
- ambientes (rooms): flats are counted by rooms rather than bedrooms, so a dos ambientes is a one-bedroom flat.
- monoambiente (studio): living and sleeping space in one room.
- IPC (consumer price index): the most common index for adjusting rent in new leases.
More in renting as a foreigner.
If you buy
- escribano (notary): checks the title and the registry.
- boleto de compraventa (preliminary purchase contract): signed with a down payment before the deed.
- escritura pública (deed): transfers ownership once it is executed and registered.
Read before you sign
Contracts are in Spanish. Forum users describe buyers who signed a preliminary contract without understanding it. If your Spanish is not strong, get a translation, or have someone you trust go through the contract with you, before you sign.
What to do next
Get the sounds right with Argentine Spanish in ten minutes. Then see where to study and what it costs. If you have not chosen a residence route yet, start with the Route Finder.