Argentina citizenship by investment 2026: cost, requirements

USD 350,000 or a USD 800,000 bond: on 2 October 2026 Argentina announced a citizenship by investment program. Nobody can apply yet: applications are promised for Q4, and the decree behind the scheme is being contested at the Supreme Court.

On 2 October 2026 Argentina put a price on its passport: a non-refundable USD 350,000 contribution to the national treasury, or USD 800,000 in a dedicated government bond. Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli unveiled the scheme at Argentina Week in Paris. If it goes live, Argentina will become the first country in South America to grant citizenship for money with no residence requirement.

The catch: nobody can apply today. The government promises to open applications in the fourth quarter of 2026, but there is no regulation setting the amounts and no portal to file through. And the decree that the whole scheme rests on was declared null by Argentina's National Electoral Chamber on 30 June 2026, a ruling the government is now fighting at the Supreme Court.

Below: what exactly was announced, what it costs a family, who vets applicants, what can be prepared now, and which lawful routes to Argentine citizenship work without waiting.

What was announced on 2 October 2026, and what is actually in force

The announcement is genuine, but for now it is a promise rather than a working procedure. Argentina's Ministry of Economy (Ministerio de Economía) published a press release on the government portal argentina.gob.ar: the Citizenship by Investment Program (Programa de Ciudadanía por Inversión) will start accepting applications during the fourth quarter of 2026.

There are two routes. The first is a non-refundable USD 350,000 contribution to the National Treasury (Tesoro Nacional), paid straight into the budget rather than into a separate fund. The second is a USD 800,000 subscription to a government bond (título público) created specifically for the program. Funds must move through the formal banking system and pass anti-money-laundering checks. The government says the money will strengthen the country's fiscal and financial position.

What already exists in law:

• The legal ground. Decree 366/2025, a DNU (decreto de necesidad y urgencia, an emergency decree the president issues in place of a statute), added a new ground to Citizenship Law 346 on 29 May 2025: a relevant investment (inversión relevante), regardless of how long the applicant has lived in the country.
• The agency. The same decree created the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programs (Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión) under the Ministry of Economy. Decree 285/2026 appointed its executive director from 22 April 2026.
• The procedure. Decree 524/2025 of 31 July 2025 set the process: the agency vets the investment and the applicant, and the decision is taken by the National Migration Directorate (Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, DNM).

What is still missing:

• A Ministry of Economy resolution which, under Article 2 bis of Law 346, must define which investments count as relevant. Until it is issued, the USD 350,000 and USD 800,000 figures exist only in a press release.
• Bond terms: maturity, interest rate, redemption and transfer rules.
• The agency's procedural rules and an application portal. The Official Gazette (Boletín Oficial) for 30 September to 2 October 2026 contains no act on the program, and the press release cites no document number and does not mention the court rulings.

How much does Argentina citizenship by investment cost

For a family of two adults and two children under 18, entry costs USD 500,000, and that covers government contributions only. Spouses and children pay separately, and the applicant's parents are not mentioned in the announcement at all.

Sample calculation based on the announced figures. A single applicant: about $360,000. A family of four: from $510,000. This excludes fees that have not been announced yet, apostilles, sworn translations, police certificates and flights.

The USD 800,000 bond: cheaper only at first glance

Investors pick a bond to get their money back, but this bond's terms do not exist yet. The press release says only that the security will be created for the program. Caputo himself called it a zero-rate bond. A seven-year holding period has also been mentioned, but it appears in no official document. How the bond is redeemed, whether it can be sold or transferred, and what family members pay on this route have not been disclosed.

A sample calculation with an assumed yield. If USD 800,000 earned 4% a year in dollars for seven years, it would generate about USD 252,700. A zero-interest bond gives up that income, so the gap with the USD 350,000 contribution is narrower than it looks. Then there is credit risk: Argentina has defaulted on its sovereign debt nine times, most recently restructuring in 2020.

How vetting will work and who decides

Paying does not buy an automatic passport: the decision rests with the migration authority, and before that the file goes through state intelligence and the financial intelligence unit. Under Decree 524/2025 and the press release, the process looks like this.

1. Application to the agency. The Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programs receives the application and checks whether the investment meets the Ministry of Economy criteria.
2. Inter-agency checks. The agency requests reports from the State Intelligence Secretariat (Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado, SIDE), the Financial Information Unit (Unidad de Información Financiera, UIF, Argentina's financial intelligence unit), the ministries of security and the interior, the National Criminal Records Registry (Registro Nacional de Reincidencia) and RENAPER.
3. What is checked. Identity, the traceability and lawfulness of the source of funds, assets and finances, jurisdictional risk, criminal and reputational background, and travel history.
4. Recommendation. The agency sends DNM a detailed report recommending approval or refusal. If the investment does not qualify, or any consulted body objects, the report proposes refusal.
5. Decision. DNM rules by a reasoned act within 30 business days of receiving the report.
6. Documents. Under Decree 524/2025 the tax agency ARCA (Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero) must issue the new citizen a CUIT tax number, after which RENAPER issues the DNI national identity card and passport.

No overall timeline has been given. Only the last step, the DNM decision, has a deadline; the agency's due diligence stage has none. The government promises due diligence in line with OECD and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards, so quick approvals are unlikely.

Can you apply now?

No. On the day of the announcement, 2 October 2026, there was no form, no portal and no address to file with: the agency's pages on argentina.gob.ar did not open, and domains such as ciudadaniaporinversion.gob.ar do not exist. Private websites offering waitlists and pre-assessments are commercial and unrelated to the government, and there is no reason to pay anything through them: under the announcement, contributions go straight to the treasury.

Preparation still takes months, so it makes sense to start before the window opens. What will almost certainly be needed:

• Source of funds. A paper trail from earnings to the account: contracts, tax returns, bank statements, records of a business or property sale. We explain how to assemble such a file in our article on proving the source of funds.
• Police certificates from the country of citizenship and the countries of recent residence. The agency has not yet approved a definitive list.
• Apostilles on certificates and on birth and marriage records, obtained in the country that issued each document.
• Sworn translation. Argentina accepts Spanish translations by a sworn public translator (traductor público) whose signature is legalized by the translators' association. Typical paperwork for the country is listed in our guide to documents for living in Argentina.
• A paying account. Funds are accepted only through the formal banking system, so an account at a bank that handles US dollar transfers is needed in advance.

Do you have to live in Argentina?

No: the law expressly allows citizenship for an investment regardless of length of residence. By contrast, the general rule under Law 346 is two years of living in the country and a federal court application. Whether the program will require an in-person visit, biometrics, an oath or Spanish has not been officially stated. That is for the Ministry of Economy resolution and the agency's rules to settle.

What the program rests on and what could go wrong

The entire program stands on a presidential decree that at least four courts have already found unconstitutional or null. The courts' reasoning is simple: Article 75 of Argentina's Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate on naturalization and nationality, and Article 99 bars emergency decrees in electoral matters, where the courts place citizenship. Congress has neither approved nor rejected Decree 366/2025, and under Law 26,122 such a decree stays in force until both chambers reject it.

Court rulings apply to individual cases, and there is no general ban on the program. But the Electoral Chamber ruling covers the whole decree, which is the source of the investment ground, the ministry's power to set amounts and the agency itself. On top of that, the program has DNM grant citizenship, and handing that power to the migration authority is precisely what the courts struck down.

What could go wrong:

• The Supreme Court. If it upholds the Electoral Chamber, the program will need a law passed by Congress. The government has not explained how it will reconcile the launch with the court rulings.
• The opposition. On the day of the announcement, Deputy Agustín Rossi of the opposition Union for the Homeland bloc (Unión por la Patria) wrote that being Argentine has no price (Ser argentino no tiene precio) and promised a bill to ban the program. Argentina's next presidential election is in 2027.
• Schengen visa-free travel. Since 30 December 2025, EU Regulation 2025/2441 has made running a scheme that grants citizenship for a pre-set payment without a genuine link to the country a ground in itself for suspending visa-free entry for that country's citizens, in full or for certain categories. The European Commission has already told five Caribbean states to wind down such programs by 1 June 2028; see our article on the EU ultimatum to Caribbean passports.
• Revocation. Under regulatory Decree 3213/84, naturalization can be annulled by a court if it was obtained by fraud, for example with false statements about the money. There are no special revocation rules for this program.
• The bond. Repayment depends on Argentina's ability to pay, and the terms have not been published.

What an Argentine passport gives you, and what it does not

An Argentine passport opens 169 visa-free destinations; a Russian passport, for comparison, opens 114. The country-by-country picture is in our 2026 passport ranking.

• Schengen: visa-free. EU Regulation 2025/2441 has not been applied to Argentina so far.
• United Kingdom: no visa, but an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) is required; since 8 April 2026 it costs about $30.
• United States: visa required, as Argentina is not in the Visa Waiver Program.
• Canada: an eTA only for those who held a Canadian visa in the past 10 years or hold a valid US visa; everyone else needs a visa.
• China: visa-free for 30 days, a regime extended to 31 December 2026.

A naturalized citizen gets less than an Argentine by birth, and for passport buyers this is the main disappointment. The MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) Residence Agreement opens residence in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and other member countries only five years after naturalization. Spain grants citizenship after two years of residence only to nationals of Ibero-American countries by origin; a naturalized Argentine waits ten. Details are in our article on what an Argentine passport gives.

Dual citizenship. Argentina does not require applicants to renounce their previous nationality: in 2010 the Federal Civil and Commercial Court of Appeals removed that requirement from the application form. Whether the old citizenship survives is up to the law of the country of origin. Russian citizens must notify the Interior Ministry of a second citizenship within 60 days. Other countries' rules are covered in our article on dual citizenship.

Taxes. As a general rule under the income tax law (Article 116), an Argentine citizen is an Argentine tax resident and is taxed on worldwide income. For this program Congress carved out an exception in Law 27,802: citizenship by investment does not by itself create tax residence, and such a citizen is treated as a foreigner for tax purposes. Tax residence follows only if the person obtains permanent residence in Argentina or stays 12 months under a temporary permit; anyone who already held permanent residence before naturalizing remains a resident. Argentina takes part in the automatic exchange of account information under CRS (Common Reporting Standard), and the duty to declare foreign accounts and income in the country of tax residence remains.

Who Argentina citizenship by investment suits, and who it does not

The program is built for capital that can afford to wait and take risk: USD 350,000 is gone for good, and the legal foundation could still collapse in court.

It may suit:

• A family with transparent wealth of USD 500,000 or more that wants a second passport with visa-free Schengen and UK access without relocating.
• Investors prepared to wait for the Supreme Court ruling and the ministry resolution, and who will not pay before an official act appears.
• Those who want to keep tax residence elsewhere: Law 27,802 expressly allows this.

It will not suit:

• Anyone who needs a passport in 2026: applications are not open and no overall processing time has been given.
• Anyone whose money is hard to trace from earnings to account: UIF and intelligence vetting is the core of the procedure.
• Anyone counting on a quick move to Spain or neighboring MERCOSUR countries: for naturalized citizens those doors open only years later.
• Families with parents or adult children over 25: they are not covered.

Russian and Belarusian citizens. The official announcement does not bar any nationality. But vetting includes a jurisdictional risk assessment (evaluación del riesgo jurisdiccional), and intelligence and financial intelligence both report on every file, so each decision stays with the state. By comparison, the five Caribbean citizenship by investment programs have not accepted Russian and Belarusian nationals since 2022. Sanctions-related limits on transfers matter too: payment is accepted only through the formal banking system, so funds will have to move through a bank in a third country.

How Argentina compares with other citizenship by investment programs

Argentina enters the market with one of the highest entry prices: USD 350,000 against USD 200,000 to 250,000 in the Caribbean. In return, it faces no EU ultimatum, and its passport is stronger than most rivals'.

Amounts are the minimum government contributions under each program's 2026 rules, excluding due diligence and processing fees. The Caribbean programs have not accepted Russian and Belarusian nationals since 2022. How to choose between them is covered in our guide on how to choose a country for a second passport.

Lawful alternatives: Argentine citizenship in 2 years and other routes

The cheapest road to an Argentine passport still runs through the courts, not the treasury: two years of living in the country and government fees in the hundreds of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands.

The passive income threshold for Argentine residence is pegged to the minimum wage and rises every month; the calculation and every residence basis are on our Argentina residence permit page. Families should read our article on giving birth in Argentina: a child who is Argentine by birth gives the parents grounds for residence. For an honest look at daily life there, see is it worth moving to Argentina.

How we help with Argentine citizenship

Until applications open, the main job is not to pay too early and to build a file that will survive UIF and intelligence vetting. In parallel we work through the routes that already function. Representation before Argentine authorities and courts is handled by Murblz specialists together with locally licensed partners.

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