Student residency: living in Argentina while you study

You are coming to Argentina to study, and you are enrolled as a regular student. This is temporary residence for students. It can lead to permanent residence.

It fits regular students at a recognised secondary school, tertiary institution, university or postgraduate programme. Interns and scholarship holders are covered too.

Your school must be registered with Migraciones (Argentina's immigration authority). It issues the proof you need: a Constancia de Inscripción Electrónica (electronic enrolment certificate). If your school cannot issue one, this route does not fit.

Planning a language course? Ask the school whether it is registered with Migraciones and can issue the certificate before you plan on this route.

This guide covers people who can visit Argentina without a visa. If you need a visa to visit, speak to a lawyer before you plan.

Enrolment. You must be a regular student at a recognised institution. Migraciones lists secondary, tertiary, university and postgraduate study, plus interns and scholarship holders.

The certificate. Your proof is the electronic enrolment certificate. It must come from an institution that is itself registered with Migraciones. Ask your school early whether it can issue one.

Other documents. The only route-specific document the student page lists is the enrolment certificate. You also need the core documents every route asks for, such as police certificates and proof of address.

How long it is granted for. Migraciones grants student residence for 1 year at a time, and you can extend it. The law allows up to 2 years, but that is a ceiling in the law, not what Migraciones grants.

Work. Under the migration law, temporary residents may work during their authorised stay.

The rule. The route is article 23 j of the migration law, Ley 25.871, and Migraciones Disposition 2.802/2023.

Migraciones publishes no fixed decision time. Nobody can promise you one, and we do not.

At home. Police certificates and apostilles take as long as each country takes. We have not found reliable ranges for them, so find out early how long each one takes. Ask your school how long it takes to issue the enrolment certificate.

Filing. You file online in RADEX, from inside Argentina. Card payments are credited at once. Cash payments take 5 business days. After you upload your documents, Migraciones emails you within 24 hours with an appointment or a request for more documents. Check your spam folder. The appointment is at the Migraciones office nearest your declared address, and there are no walk-ins.

Waiting. Migraciones may give you a precaria (temporary certificate) while it decides. We have found no official statement of when the first one is issued. Each one lasts up to 90 days. It lets you stay, leave, re-enter, work and study. It is not a promise of approval. You can request a renewal online from 15 days before it expires, and only from inside Argentina.

The decision. We have found no figure for this route from a source we can cite.

The ID card. If your residence is approved, your DNI (ID card) is mailed to your declared address. We found no official delivery time. A consumer guide describes it as "generally in a few weeks" after approval, by post.

You pay government fees yourself, directly. When you finish the online form, RADEX produces 3 payment slips: the residence fee, the ID card and the Argentine criminal-record check. You pay each one by card or cash. Migraciones says the procedure is personal, no agent (gestor) is needed, and the only payments are the ones the system generates. We never collect government fees.

For one adult:

• Residence fee: ARS 100,000 (about USD 65 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026), or ARS 50,000 (about USD 32 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) for Mercosur nationals.
• ID card: ARS 20,000 (about USD 13 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026).
• Argentine criminal-record check: the national criminal-records registry charges from ARS 1,000 (about USD 1 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) to ARS 8,500 (about USD 6 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) for its certificate, depending on how fast it is delivered. We have not confirmed the amount on the RADEX slip.

Some applicants pay no residence fee: under-18s applying with a parent; refugees; recognised clergy; people certified as vulnerable (Decreto 584/2024 art. 4 I).

Other costs:

• Apostilles, paid in each country that issues a document. Prices vary by country.
• Sworn translations. The translator sets their own fee. A simple legalisation of each translation at the translators' college in Buenos Aires City costs ARS 33,000 (about USD 21 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) per document, paid to the college.
• Renewing a precaria can cost ARS 10,000 (about USD 6 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026), or ARS 5,000 (about USD 3 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) for Mercosur nationals, when the fee table treats the renewal as attributable to you. We have not found when that applies.
• A preferential appointment costs extra. It brings your appointment forward. It does not speed up the decision.
• Each renewal, and the later change to permanent residence, costs ARS 100,000 (about USD 65 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026), or ARS 50,000 (about USD 32 at ARS 1,540 on 6 October 2026) for Mercosur nationals. A late renewal costs 50% more.

University fees. Since Decreto 366/2025, undergraduate study at state universities is free for Argentine citizens and foreigners with permanent residence. State universities may charge other foreigners, including students on temporary residence. In the latest report we found, no national university had announced fees. Ask your university before you enrol.

We charge nothing for this guide. You file and pay everything yourself. If you need a lawyer, you choose them and pay them directly.

Student residence is temporary. Migraciones grants it for 1 year at a time, so you renew it before each grant ends. You can file the renewal from 60 days before expiry. We have not yet read the student renewal page, so check where to file and what it asks for before you file.

If you miss the expiry date, you have 30 days to file, at 50% more. After that, the right to renew lapses.

Permanent residence. After 3 years of temporary residence, or 2 years for Mercosur nationals, you may apply for permanent residence if you meet the conditions:

• You were in Argentina for more than 50% of the period granted. Two Migraciones pages disagree on whether exactly 50% is enough, so plan for more.
• You were never abroad for 6 months or more in a row.
• You can prove medios económicos suficientes (sufficient economic means). We have not yet read the list of accepted documents that Migraciones links to, and we have found no published amount.

Time on a precaria does not count toward those years. Free undergraduate study at state universities is one of the things that depends on permanent residence.

Keeping your status. Being abroad for 6 months or more cancels temporary residence, unless an exception applies, such as studies of interest or express permission from Migraciones. Whether those months must be in a row is not clear, so ask before a long trip. Report any change of address to Migraciones within 3 business days.

Tax. Residence and tax residence are separate questions. If you will earn money here, speak to an accountant.