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VISA UPDATE!
Soooo I will quickly overview the visa situation for most visitors to argentina. Argentina grants a 90 tourist visa upon entry. It was not possible for me to get a different one because i am neither a student nor working(getting paid at least). Every American I know here is on this 90 tourist visa. Well, there three ways to remedy the situation to stay longer, all three ways are widely known to all expats here:
1. Leave the county and upon re-entry gain another 90 days. Even jumping on a ferry to neighboring Uruguay for the day counts. The round-trip ferry ticket is about 220 pesos or 60 US.
2. Overstay the 90 days and pay a fee when leaving, at the airport. No consequences. Until last week this fee was 50 pesos or about u$s13.50. Now the fee is 300 pesos or 81 US.
3. Lastly, one can go to the immigration office and pay 100 pesos (28 US) and get a new stamp for 90 days.
I had been planning a longer trip to Uruguay but it ended up not happening. Then I was going to go this weekend but it also fell through. I wasn't too worried because I have talked to people and read hundreds of times on forums that it is just as simple to go to the immigration office. Recently though people had been talking of long lines so you should get there early.
Anyway I slowly made my way over there yesterday, 2 subways, trying to walk and eventually a cab because it's in a pretty sketchy area and I wasn't positive about it's location. It was PACKED, I found the woman I needed to find in order to take my number, DMV style, and was told that all the numbers had been given out for the day....this was at 10am. So I walked back to the subway station an came home.
After now being there twice I will say this is the mose 3rd world ive felt since ive been here(aside from the ravaging dengue epidemic we have going on here). But it was just complete chaos.
So this morning I got up really early, hopped in a cab and arrived at 730am when it opens- and I think we all know that's saying a lot for me to make it there that early. Anyway I got in the line (4th person!) and waited. And waited. The computer of course was malfunctioning so after about half hour of tweaking they finally got it working. When I got up there I said what I needed and they simply told me that wasn't an option. Now my castellano is far from perfect but this was not beyond my skill level, and we definitely both knew what eachother was saying. I explained the 3 options and he said no you just have to pay the fine when you leave. So I'm not sure if this is actually now the case (since they recently changed prices they have changed other stuff as well but its so unorganized no one would know the real rules), or if I simply talked to misinformed employees. Anyway I ended up briefly asking 2 other people and they said the same thing. I looked at the information line and knew if i waited in it, by the time I got through there were yet again be no more numbers left. So I left.
Long story short, I'm technically now illegal-oops. And will have to pay the fee upon leaving- but don't worry I still know many people who have done this previously and those who will have to now because many people don't bother with uruguay or immigrations since the fee used to be cheaper. However I probably still plan on leaving the country before I go home in august and can hopefully then just pay the fee to get it out of the way.
I don't have time to catch up on anything else right now because I'm late for meeting friends for dinner but Eddie is coming to visit me starting sunday! which im excited about and also if you havent heard Wesley officially is a Dr. and is graduating next month with his PhD. CONGRATS!
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