How to Get Argentina Citizenship, and Why Not to Rush the Investment Route

How to get Argentina citizenship: the routes in the law

Argentina’s Citizenship Law, Ley 346 (opens in a new tab), as amended in May 2025 by Decreto (DNU) 366/2025, provides four routes that matter to most families:

• Birth in Argentina, whatever the parents’ nationality (children of foreign diplomats excepted).
• Option, for a child born abroad to a parent who is Argentine by birth or by option.
• Naturalisation, for a foreign national aged 18 or over, after two years of continuous and legal residence.
• Investment, whatever the length of residence, in an investment the Ministry of Economy accepts as relevant.

The investment route: announced, not yet open

On 2 October 2026, the Ministry of Economy said (opens in a new tab) the program will receive applications during the fourth quarter of 2026. There are two routes: a non-refundable USD 350,000 contribution to the National Treasury, or a USD 800,000 government bond created for the program. A spouse, or an unmarried child aged 18 to 25 without children, adds USD 100,000, and a child under 18 adds USD 25,000; the announcement does not tie these amounts to either route. A couple with two children under 18 pays USD 500,000 in total on the contribution route.

Under Decreto 524/2025 (opens in a new tab), the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programs (APCI) assesses the investment, gathers the security and financial reports and recommends approval or rejection; the National Directorate of Migration then decides within 30 business days of that report. No total processing time has been published, and on 11 November 2026 we could find neither an application portal nor a resolution defining the qualifying investments.

Rafael would choose the contribution over the bond, whose terms are unpublished; press reports say it must be held for seven years and pays no interest. Our page on Argentina citizenship by investment sets out both routes.

Why Rafael would not rush it yet

Rafael calls the program a bet on President Javier Milei. It was created by a decree of necessity and urgency, issued without a vote in Congress, and it faces questions on three fronts.

• The courts. In June 2026 two appeals courts ruled against the decree in individual naturalisation cases: Sala III of the federal civil and commercial appeals court (opens in a new tab) held it unconstitutional on 18 June as regards moving naturalisation from the courts, and the Cámara Nacional Electoral (opens in a new tab) declared it null on 30 June. Neither examined the investment route itself; the second case is reported to be before the Supreme Court.
• Congress. In October 2026 opposition deputies filed bills to repeal the investment route. A bill changes nothing until it passes, but it shows the political risk.
• The details. In April 2026 the ministry set aside a tender for a consultancy to design and promote the program, La Nación reported, and the procedural rules Decreto 524/2025 leaves to the Agency are still to come, so it is unclear what role, if any, licensed firms will play.

None of this rules the route out. Your money should wait for the published rules and for Argentine counsel to confirm the decree’s status; your paperwork need not.

Argentina citizenship by naturalisation: the requirements

Naturalisation asks for no investment. Under Ley 346 as it now reads, you must be 18 or over, have lived in Argentina continuously and legally for the two years before applying, and declare your wish to become Argentine before the National Directorate of Migration. Residence is continuous only if you made no trip abroad at all in that time, a rule the 2025 decree wrote in. The June 2026 rulings concerned exactly this procedure, so it is in dispute too.

The two years start only once your residence is legal. Rafael says a friend of his waited nine months for a residence permit and gave up on the plan; his own estimate for the whole route is about four years. For someone who can genuinely relocate, he says, it can still make more sense than the investment.

What your children can and cannot inherit

Rafael checked this for himself, because he plans to have children. A child born in Argentina is Argentine whatever the parents’ nationality. A child born abroad can opt for Argentine nationality (opens in a new tab) if a parent is Argentine by birth or by option; the law gives no such option to children of a naturalised parent, and the investment route is a form of naturalisation.

Children you already have can join your application within the age limits above. Nothing published so far provides for adding a child born abroad after the grant, who would have to qualify in their own right. If you plan a family, weigh this first and ask Argentine counsel how your case would be treated.

Dual citizenship, Mercosur and tax residence

Argentina does not ask you to give up your current citizenship, and its consular service states that Argentine nationality cannot be renounced; whether you keep your other citizenship depends on that country’s law.

Argentina is a Mercosur State Party, and the Mercosur Residence Agreement (opens in a new tab) lets nationals of one State Party apply for temporary residence of up to two years in another, but a naturalised citizen counts as a national only after holding the nationality for five years.

On tax, since 6 March 2026 (Ley 27.802, article 194) a foreign national who obtains citizenship through a relevant investment does not become tax resident solely because of it. The rules for foreign nationals still apply: permanent residence, or 12 months on temporary permits, makes you resident, and residents are taxed on worldwide income. This is not tax or legal advice; confirm your position with qualified advisers in each country involved.

Rafael’s advice is to prepare the file now: civil documents, translations, apostilles and a clear record of the lawful source of your funds, much the same as for other citizenship by investment programs. Our strategy assessment sets out the routes that fit your family.