Argentina
Argentina Citizenship by Investment — the investor-naturalisation framework under Decrees 366/2025 and 524/2025; legislated, not open, and now under legal and administrative review
South America's first modern citizenship-by-investment framework, created by presidential decree in 2025 — and, as of August 2026, stalled. The prize is unusual for this market: an Argentine passport is the strongest in South America, roughly 169 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations on the January 2026 industry count including the Schengen Area and the United Kingdom, with MERCOSUR residence rights alongside it. But two things happened after the decrees that no application-ready programme can ignore: on 14 April 2026 the Ministry of Economy set aside the international tender for the firm that was to design and run the programme (Resolution RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC), citing relevant divergences between the bidders' approaches and ordering a re-evaluation of the process; and on 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral, in Yang, Liping, declared Decree of Necessity and Urgency 366/2025 — the very instrument that opened naturalisation to investors — null for exceeding the Executive's powers, a ruling limited to that case and open to higher review. No routes, thresholds or eligible sectors have been prescribed, no application can be filed, and any opening date is now uncertain: the 'second half of 2026' still marketed in the industry is not a government commitment. We hold a waiting list and come back to registrants with the confirmed position the day one exists — and our honest view before any commitment.
Announced — not yet open · waiting list Figures drawn from primary law and official sources — programmes change, so we confirm the exact current terms with admitted local counsel before you applyHow you will qualify.
Investment
To be prescribed — and now contingent on the legal and administrative position being settled. Decree 366/2025 opened naturalisation to foreigners who make a relevant investment and Decree 524/2025 built the agency and vetting machinery, but the qualifying routes, thresholds and eligible sectors were to come from an implementation consultancy whose tender was set aside on 14 April 2026 (RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC), and the decree itself was declared null by the Cámara Nacional Electoral on 30 June 2026 in Yang, Liping. No figure circulating in the market is official. We quote nothing; waiting-list registrants receive the confirmed terms the day they are published.
Global mobility.
Argentine citizens enter the Schengen Area without a visa for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period (Annex II, Regulation (EU) 2018/1806).
for visits. Argentine citizens visit the United Kingdom for up to six months without a visa; the UK's Electronic Travel Authorisation applies to non-visa nationals before travel.
Argentina is not in the US Visa Waiver Program, so ESTA is not available; a B-1/B-2 (or other) US visa is required.
Partial eTA access. Argentina is on Canada's eTA-expansion list: air travellers who have held a Canadian visa in the past ten years or hold a valid US non-immigrant visa may fly on an eTA; otherwise a visitor visa is required.
Roughly 169 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations on the January 2026 industry count — the strongest passport in South America and one of the strongest available through any investment-linked route anywhere: the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Japan and much of Asia and the Americas without a visa. Argentina is also a founding member of MERCOSUR, carrying residence rights across the bloc. This is the rare case where the passport itself is the mobility upgrade.
A further route — case by case
Argentina's ordinary naturalisation remains open today, independent of the investor framework: two years' continuous legal residence under Article 20 of the Constitution and Law 346, now run as an administrative digital procedure before the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones. For a family genuinely able to establish residence in Argentina, it is a working route to the same passport while the investor framework is completed. Whether it fits a particular family turns on their facts, and we take it up case by case with admitted Argentine counsel before it forms any part of a plan.
Join the Argentina waiting list.
The framework is law; the final terms are not. No official price, dependant rules or application procedure have been published, and anyone quoting a figure today is quoting a number the government has not set. Joining the list commits you to nothing — it means that on the day the terms are gazetted, you hear from us first.
What you receive when it opens: the confirmed official figures, the process as enacted, and our honest view of whether Argentina is right for your family — weighed against the programmes already open, before you commit to anything.
Join the waiting list · Argentina
Leave your details and your place is held. We come back to you personally the day the official terms exist — and in the meantime, if a programme already open would serve you better, we say so.
Kestrel Private is a discreet private-client advisory led personally by Andrew J. Taylor, formerly Vice Chairman of Henley & Partners. He has served private clients from more than 30 countries, and at Kestrel you have one senior relationship from initial strategy through implementation.
What's involved in Argentina citizenship.
- Family inclusion
- Not yet prescribed. The published decrees address the investor; dependant scope, family pricing and the documentary position for spouses and children sit in the implementing rules still to come, and we put the family position in writing once they are published.
- Due diligence
- Multi-agency security vetting is built into the framework: Decree 524/2025 routes every file through security checks across federal agencies before the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones decides. Expected baseline criteria published so far: main applicant 18 or over, background and security checks, lawful source of funds, and a qualifying relevant investment — with the detail to follow in the implementing rules.
- Timeline
- Framework created by decree in 2025 — the investor-naturalisation waiver gazetted 29 May 2025 (DNU 366/2025) and the programme agency on 31 July 2025 (Decree 524/2025). Implementation then stalled: the Ministry of Economy's international tender for the design-and-implementation consultancy (Concurso Público Internacional 34-0001-CPU25 under Decree 524/2025; bidders included Henley & Partners and Latitude) was set aside on 14 April 2026 by RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC pending a re-evaluation of the process, and on 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared DNU 366/2025 null in Yang, Liping (a ruling confined to that case; the Executive maintains the decree and higher-court review is possible). Opening date: uncertain. Once a programme is actually operational, Decree 524/2025 gives the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones 30 business days to decide a complete, vetted file — until implementing rules exist we treat every timing figure, including the industry's 'second half of 2026', as provisional.
- Physical presence
- The investor route as decreed waives the residence period itself (DNU 366/2025 permits naturalisation regardless of length of residence for a relevant investment) — an instrument now declared null in one case by the Cámara Nacional Electoral. What any operative rules will require by way of visits, biometrics or an in-country step is still to be prescribed.
- Tax
- Citizenship alone does not create Argentine tax residence — that turns on where you actually live. A client's existing tax residence, CRS reporting and any exit-tax exposure are unaffected by the passport itself, and we model the client's actual position before any commitment.
- 29 May 2025 — Decree of Necessity and Urgency 366/2025 published in the Boletín Oficial: the Citizenship Law 346 regime is amended so naturalisation is available regardless of length of residence to foreigners who have made a relevant investment for the country.
- 31 July 2025 — Decree 524/2025 gazetted (signed 30 July): creates the Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión as a decentralised body under the Ministry of Economy, with multi-agency security vetting and the final decision by the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones within 30 business days.
- 6 October 2025 — ordinary naturalisation moves to an administrative digital procedure before the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, the machinery the investor route was to run through.
- 14 April 2026 — the Ministry of Economy sets aside the international tender for the programme's design-and-implementation consultancy (Concurso Público Internacional 34-0001-CPU25; RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC, signed by Minister Luis Caputo), citing relevant divergences between the bidders' approaches and ordering a re-evaluation of the process; bid-protest guarantees are returned to Henley & Partners and Latitude.
- 30 June 2026 — the Cámara Nacional Electoral, in Yang, Liping (CNE 8843/2023/CA1), declares DNU 366/2025 null for exceeding the Executive's powers, holding that citizenship is intrinsically linked to political rights and reserved to Congress; the ruling binds the parties to that case and is open to higher review.
- As of August 2026 — the framework exists in law, no routes or thresholds are prescribed, no application can be filed, and the opening date is uncertain; the 'second half of 2026' still marketed in the industry is not a government commitment.
- The constitutional anchor is Article 20: two years' continuous residence for ordinary naturalisation, with the power to shorten it for services to the Republic — the basis the investor waiver relied on, and the basis the court found the decree overstepped.
- The passport at the end of any eventual programme is South America's strongest — roughly 169 destinations without a visa, including the Schengen Area and the United Kingdom — plus MERCOSUR residence rights across the bloc.
The governing law — in our library.
Two executive instruments, both taken from the official gazette and the Government's consolidated legislation service. (1) Decree of Necessity and Urgency 366/2025, published in the Boletín Oficial on 29 May 2025, amends the regime of Citizenship Law 346 so that naturalisation is available regardless of length of residence to foreigners who have made a relevant investment for the country — the investor waiver rests on Article 20 of the Constitution, which fixes ordinary naturalisation at two years' continuous residence and empowers the authorities to shorten it for services to the Republic. (2) Decree 524/2025, signed 30 July 2025 and gazetted 31 July 2025, creates the Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión under the Ministry of Economy, sets multi-agency security vetting and gives the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones the final decision within 30 business days. The qualifying-investment routes, minimum thresholds and eligible sectors are still to be prescribed. · Administered by Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión — a decentralised agency under the Ministry of Economy created by Decree 524/2025 — with security vetting across multiple federal agencies and the final naturalisation decision taken by the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones within 30 business days of a complete file (Decree 524/2025 arts. 1–4, 6)..
Documents marked “held by Kestrel” are mirrored on our own servers from the official source, so the reference is always available.
Argentina, answered.
- How much will Argentina citizenship by investment cost?
- To be prescribed — and now contingent on the legal and administrative position being settled. Decree 366/2025 opened naturalisation to foreigners who make a relevant investment and Decree 524/2025 built the agency and vetting machinery, but the qualifying routes, thresholds and eligible sectors were to come from an implementation consultancy whose tender was set aside on 14 April 2026 (RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC), and the decree itself was declared null by the Cámara Nacional Electoral on 30 June 2026 in Yang, Liping. No figure circulating in the market is official. We quote nothing; waiting-list registrants receive the confirmed terms the day they are published.
- When will Argentina's citizenship-by-investment programme open?
- Framework created by decree in 2025 — the investor-naturalisation waiver gazetted 29 May 2025 (DNU 366/2025) and the programme agency on 31 July 2025 (Decree 524/2025). Implementation then stalled: the Ministry of Economy's international tender for the design-and-implementation consultancy (Concurso Público Internacional 34-0001-CPU25 under Decree 524/2025; bidders included Henley & Partners and Latitude) was set aside on 14 April 2026 by RESOL-2026-522-APN-MEC pending a re-evaluation of the process, and on 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared DNU 366/2025 null in Yang, Liping (a ruling confined to that case; the Executive maintains the decree and higher-court review is possible). Opening date: uncertain. Once a programme is actually operational, Decree 524/2025 gives the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones 30 business days to decide a complete, vetted file — until implementing rules exist we treat every timing figure, including the industry's 'second half of 2026', as provisional.
- Does the Argentina passport allow visa-free travel to the Schengen Area?
- Visa-free. Argentine citizens enter the Schengen Area without a visa for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period (Annex II, Regulation (EU) 2018/1806).
- Can I include my family in the Argentina application?
- Not yet prescribed. The published decrees address the investor; dependant scope, family pricing and the documentary position for spouses and children sit in the implementing rules still to come, and we put the family position in writing once they are published.
- What due diligence does Argentina require?
- Multi-agency security vetting is built into the framework: Decree 524/2025 routes every file through security checks across federal agencies before the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones decides. Expected baseline criteria published so far: main applicant 18 or over, background and security checks, lawful source of funds, and a qualifying relevant investment — with the detail to follow in the implementing rules.
- Does Argentina citizenship grant the right to live in the European Union?
- No. Argentina citizenship can confer a second passport and visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel, but it grants no right to live, work or settle in the EU and no path to an EU passport. For a European foothold, residence by investment is the direct route.
First through the door, or better served elsewhere.
The programme is legislated but not yet open. Join the waiting list above and we confirm the gazetted terms the day they exist — or tell us what the family is trying to achieve now, and we weigh Argentina honestly against the programmes already open. A private conversation with the Founder and Managing Partner, in confidence and without obligation.
General guidance, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Figures are verified to 2026 against official primary sources, and eligibility, thresholds and timelines are confirmed in writing before you commit to anything.