Citizenship by investment
Argentina citizenship by investment, residency and tax
Argentina sells citizenship itself, not a residence permit: US$350,000 to the Treasury, applications from the fourth quarter of 2026, no years of residence first. It is the only route here with no stay to wait out, and the only one whose legal basis an appeals court declared void, in June 2026, with the government's appeal pending. A citizen is an Argentine tax resident, taxed on worldwide income at 5–35%. To live there first, the rentista and pensionado permits ask five minimum wages a month.
- From
- US$350,000
- First permit
- Opens Q4 2026; 30 working days after vetting
- Tax regime
- Worldwide income at 5–35%: a citizen is resident
Who Argentina's citizenship by investment suits
It fits somebody who wants a second citizenship itself rather than a permit, and can part with US$350,000 that does not come back: the contribution goes to the National Treasury and is not an asset the family owns afterwards. No years of residence come first — DNU 366/2025 lets a foreigner who makes a relevant investment be naturalised whatever the time lived in the country — and the family is priced separately: US$100,000 for a spouse or an unmarried child of 18 to 25, US$25,000 for a minor.
It does not fit somebody who needs certainty this year. The programme takes applications from the fourth quarter of 2026, and the decree it stands on was declared void by the electoral appeals court in June 2026, with the government's appeal pending. Nor does it fit somebody who wants to keep their tax position as it is: an Argentine citizen is an Argentine tax resident, taxed on income from everywhere, unless they hold permanent residence in another country.
What Argentina's US$350,000 consists of
The figure is a contribution, not a purchase. The Ministry of Economy announced it on 2 October 2026: US$350,000 paid directly and without refund to the National Treasury, or a US$800,000 government bond created for the programme, whose terms have not been published. At the European Central Bank's rate of 23 October 2026 the contribution is about €313,000.
What comes on top has not been published by anybody — no programme fee, no due-diligence charge, no tariff for the Agency. This page therefore gives no total rather than an invented one. The money must arrive through the formal financial system, and the review covers identity, the origin of the funds, assets, jurisdiction risk, criminal record, reputation and migration history, carried out by the Agency together with the intelligence secretariat, the financial intelligence unit and the Security and Interior ministries.
The procedure is Decreto 524/2025: an application to the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programmes under the Ministry of Economy, its report to the National Migration Directorate, and a decision within 30 working days of that report. The Agency's own review has no deadline.
What changed in Argentine law, and when
On 29 May 2025 DNU 366/2025 rewrote the citizenship law: naturalisation after two years of continuous residence with not a single exit from the country, granted by the National Migration Directorate rather than a judge, and the investment route with no residence at all. Decreto 524/2025, on 31 July 2025, set the procedure. The amounts came on 2 October 2026.
In between, on 30 June 2026, the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared the decree void in the Yang case: the Constitution forbids emergency decrees in electoral matters, and citizenship is one. The case concerned naturalisation by residence, not the programme, but the programme stands on the same articles. The government has appealed. Until that is settled, an investor buys a citizenship whose legal basis an appeals court has struck down — the question to put to a lawyer before any money moves.
After Argentine citizenship: tax, and living there first
A citizen, native or naturalised, is an Argentine tax resident and pays on worldwide income with a credit for foreign tax, at 5% to 35% on a scale indexed each year. That residence ends on acquiring permanent residence in another state or after twelve continuous months abroad. Argentina's wealth tax was not read for this page and nothing is said about it.
For somebody who wants to live in the country first, there are temporary permits without any investment: rentista for income from abroad and pensionado for a foreign pension, each for up to three years and renewable, at five minimum wages a month — 1,956,000 pesos in October 2026, about US$1,280, a threshold that moves every month. A remote worker from a country whose citizens need no tourist visa can stay 180 days as a digital nomad, renewable once.
Buying a home in the City of Buenos Aires carries stamp duty of 2.7% where the price is up to 226,100,000 pesos and 3.5% above that. The provinces set their own rates.
Questions about Argentina
- What is a golden visa, exactly?
- A residence permit granted because you placed a defined amount of money in the country — not because you have a job offer there, family there, or protection needs. That is the whole of the idea. It is not a passport and not a travel visa, and none of the five states compared here that issue one calls it a golden visa in its own law: Portugal issues an ARI, Greece a residence permit for investment activity, Malta a permanent residence certificate, the UAE a ten-year golden residence. The marketing name is the market's, which is worth knowing before you read anyone else's page about it.
- Where is the entry threshold lowest?
- On the threshold alone, Greece — but only in a narrow case most buyers do not qualify for. Since 1 September 2024 Greece has three tiers: €800,000 across Attica, the Thessaloniki regional unit, Mykonos, Thira and islands above 3,100 people; €400,000 everywhere else; and €250,000 only by exception, for converting premises to residential use, rebuilding an industrial building idle five years, or fully restoring a listed one — with the works finished before you file. Otherwise Cyprus: €300,000 plus VAT in a new home from a developer — and the VAT is 19% for an investor who does not move there, which makes €357,000. Then Malta €375,000 to buy or €14,000 a year to rent, the UAE AED 2,000,000 (about €466,000 at 4.288), Portugal €500,000 into a fund.
- Does the permit let me work anywhere in the EU?
- No. An investment residence permit lets you live in the issuing country and travel freely in Schengen, but it carries no right to work in other EU states. Working in the issuing country itself is usually allowed; the conditions differ.
- After how many years can I apply for citizenship?
- Malta about five years by naturalisation, Greece seven, Cyprus eight, Portugal seven for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals and ten for everyone else — that last figure changed in May 2026 and used to be five. The UAE has no citizenship route here at all. Argentina is the opposite case: its investment programme grants citizenship itself with no years of residence, from the fourth quarter of 2026, though on a decree an appeals court declared void in June 2026. Everywhere else the clock counts years of actual legal residence, not years of holding the status, so a permit that requires a few days a year accrues nothing on its own.
- Do I have to live there to keep the status?
- To keep the permit, almost nowhere: a few days a year is usually enough. For citizenship, yes — actual residence is required, and this is where expectations diverge most often.
- Does buying property make me a tax resident?
- No. Tax residence is decided by days of presence and centre of vital interests, not by ownership. Buying a house and remaining a tax resident of your own country is an ordinary situation.
Argentina: guides and research
- Argentina citizenship by investment in 2026: US$350,000, a contested decree, and Argentine tax residence
Argentina announced on 2 October 2026 a citizenship-by-investment programme: a non-refundable US$350,000 contribution to the Treasury, or a US$800,000 government bond, with no prior residence. Spouses and adult children up to 25 add US$100,000 each, minors US$25,000. Applications go to a new agency and the Migration Directorate decides. The programme stands on emergency decree 366/2025, which the electoral appeals court declared void in June 2026 in a naturalisation case; the government's appeal is before the Supreme Court. And an Argentine citizen is an Argentine tax resident unless he holds permanent residence elsewhere.
- Digital nomad visa countries in 2026: six compared at source, from no income floor to €3,680 a month
Six digital nomad visas, each read from the instrument that sets it. Argentina asks for no income at all and lasts a year at most. Dubai asks US$3,500 a month and taxes nothing. Malta asks €42,000 a year gross and five months on the island, and stops at four years. Greece and Cyprus both ask €3,500 a month net of tax. Portugal asks the most, €3,680, and is the only one of the six whose nomad route leads to permanent residence and citizenship. The difference that matters is rarely the income; it is what happens when the permit runs out.
- Argentina digital nomad visa: 180 days, renewable once, and no income floor in the text
Argentina's digital nomad visa is Migraciones Disposition 758/2022: a transitory residence under article 24(h) of the Migration Law for up to 180 days, for nationals of countries that need no tourist visa and who work remotely for people or companies abroad. It renews once, for another 180 days, on proof of income from that work, a clean Argentine criminal record and at least half of the first period spent in the country. The disposition sets no minimum income and asks for no health insurance. Applied for inside Argentina, the residence costs 32,000 pesos and the renewal 40,000.
- Retire in Argentina: the pensionado and rentista visas, five minimum wages, about US$1,280 a month
Argentina's retirement visa is two temporary residence categories in article 23 of the Migration Law: pensionado, for a pension paid for work done abroad, and rentista, for income from assets held abroad. Both ask five times the minimum living wage, which in October 2026 is 1,956,000 pesos a month, about US$1,280 at the central bank's rate, and the figure rises every month. Migraciones grants one year at a time, for a fee of 100,000 pesos. Twelve months on temporary permits make you an Argentine tax resident, taxed on worldwide income, and public hospitals of the national state treat temporary residents only with insurance or payment.
- Countries with a retirement visa in 2026: six routes compared, from €920 a month to AED 240,000 a year
Six countries, six ways of letting a retiree in. Portugal asks €920 a month, Argentina about US$1,280, Cyprus €2,000, Greece €3,500 and Dubai AED 20,000, roughly US$5,450. Malta asks for a home and a minimum tax instead of an income, and changes the price on 1 January 2027. The tax on a foreign pension runs from nothing in the UAE to 5% in Cyprus, 7% in Greece, 15% in Malta, and the ordinary scale in Portugal and Argentina. Every figure here links to the page that reads it from the instrument.
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