In Argentina, a tourist visa is good for 90 days. This visa can be renewed by leaving and re-entering the country however given that I find myself in the center of the country in Córdoba that’s not always an option.
Recently I extended my tourist visa at the immigration office in Córdoba using these 32 simple steps.
- Realize your 90 day tourist visa is expiring soon.
- Attempt to leave to Chile during a trip to Patagonia.
- Find out the Chile border is an 8 hour bus ride away and not feasible given your trip’s schedule.
- Research online to find immigration office in Córdoba, Argentina located at Caseros 676.
- Walk to the immigration office.
- Return home because the immigration office is closed at 4pm.
- Return to immigration office the next morning 8am.
- Enter immigration office to find a packed waiting room of people.
- Take a number and wait.
- Have your number called only to have another person sprint up and take your place.
- Return to seat and wait.
- Aggressively sprint towards the free chair once the next number is called.
- Be informed that the office to extend visas is actually upstairs and you waited for nothing.
- Head directly upstairs and knock on a few office doors until you find the right one. Door is labeled “Prórroga“
- Explain the situation, sign paperwork, and receive a document to take to the bank.
- Leave migration office to get photocopy of passport and pay the fee at the bank.
- Walk 7 blocks to Humberto Primo to find the bank to pay the 300 (edit: as of May 2017, 900) peso fee.
- Enter the lobby of the bank and be informed that the bank to make payments is actually around the corner.
- Find the bank and pay the fee.
- Walk back 7 blocks to migration office.
- Stop to buy a bottle of water (sin gas).
- Get Passport style photos with a white background from Kodak store around the corner from immigration.
- Photocopy passport and page with most recent entry stamp.
- Re-enter migration office and head directly to the second floor.
- Find a waiting room of 6 people.
- Smile at nice lady each time she leaves her office to indicate you’ve brought everything back.
- Wait.
- Read Che Boludo! to brush up on your Argentine slang
- Wait while playing blackjack on your phone.
- Lose $2100 fictional dollars playing blackjack.
- Get called into the office and be given the passport with a fresh 90 days as well as all other additional paperwork.
- Kiss nice lady on the cheek and leave to enjoy 90 more days in Argentina.
Simple as that really.
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Photo is from El Chalten on my recent trip to Patagonia.
22 replies on “How to extend your Argentina visa from Cordoba in 32 simple steps”
Thanks for the help! I’m from New York visiting my girlfriend’s family in Cordoba for 4 months but I realized I’m only allowed as a tourist for 90 days and dont have the money nor desire to leave the country. You’ve been very helpful.
Awesome! Glad the post was useful.
Great info. A few things have changed. You need a picture passport size, with a white background. Kodak store across from immigration will do that. They don’t want the passport photo copied. The price is now 900 pesos. Still payable at the National Bank on Humberto Primo. Walk out of the immigration office go back to the canáda across the river, go left (the way the water flows in the river) go down one past Cologn turn right. Go back to immigration. 2nd floor. Wait for the nice lady to take your receipt of payment. Get it returned then go downstairs and see the lady at the photo scanner. She will finger print you process the papers, give them back to you and send you back upstairs. Wait, give the papers to the nice lady, wait. Get you passport back and 4 sheets of paper that state all is in order and you have another 90 days of visa extension. Still way better than having to leave the country. 20 May 2017
Thanks for adding that info Jim. I’m gonna update the post.
I was told this process was not possible in country. But it is. The immigration staff was helpful. Don’t forget when you walk into the building to go straight up stairs!!
HI Damon,
One more thing I forgot to add was do not go on Monday, as you stated earlier, if possible. I went on a Thursday to check on the possibility of the extension and there were only 4 of us in there. Then my renew date was a Monday. There were over 30 of us in there! Also, could you just use Jim G for my name? Thank you
Yeah no worries. Thanks for that additional detail Jim.
Hola Jim / Damon!
Jim, you mentioned “Then my renew date was a Monday” – what does that mean? wasn’t the extension given the same day? or did you just mean that your original visa expired the Monday after you went?
Do you get 90 days more starting the end of your original 90 days, or do they start from the day you visited the office?
Saludos
Mark
wow, you really saved my butt as i entered the main hall, there were hundreds of people. i just whisked up to the elusive second floor where i calmly waited to begin my horrific day. to support your newer readers, below you will find my own update from April 2018 in which a few important (additional) steps have been added. (they are constantly and vigilantly prospecting for ways to make their process more cumbersome and inefficient). hope this helps.
1. Find 676 caseros between the as close to opening hours (8am) and note how this doesn’t at all seem like you imagined a national migracions office to look like.
2. Feel your heart thump in your chest as you waft into a swarm of over 100 waiting people in heats that are 15 degrees C higher than outside.
3. Disrobe as much as is culturally acceptable.
4. Remember the essential advice that you don’t need to wait for five hours in that crowd but rather want to go to the second floor.
5. Note, there’s no easy way to get to that second floor and it’s hard to even find it.
6. Note that there’s a short non-descript stairway on the left of all those people leading to a non-descript open door.
7. Push your way through nicely wondering if it’s Desculpe or Perdon or what towards a thin gap between the cashier looking guy (who’s getting finger prints actually, you’ll need to remember that for later) just at the base of the banister and squeeze through asking if its’ okay.
8. Note, no one cares what you are doing so just climb the stairs wondering if these are the correct stairs (they are).
9. Go up that short stairway and into the open door and then double back and continue further up another stairway to another waiting room.
10. Note that word “Prorroga” on the door to the left. Walk in and say hi and let them know you are there. They tell you nicely to wait.
11. Wait.
12. They call you in and you show them your passport. The tramites (paperwork) begins.
13. The nice man/woman tells you to get passport photos at the kiosk across the street and about 20 m to your right.
14. Meet the super funny old woman who has been working there for over 50 years with “carino” and relish in the fact that she’s been making people smile for decades.
15. Let her know how much you appreciate her as you get your 6 passport photos for 80 pesos.
16. Go to the Bank Nacion de Argentina. Recall that they gave you two addresses and circled one (San Jeronimo) and the other Humberto Primo 440.
17. (if you are a glutton for punishment and go to San Jeronimo, definitely go down to floor number -1 (that’s right, -1) and visit the utterly third-world bathrooms down there. Emerge shocked that a major bank has a floor named -1 with bathrooms like that.)
18. Otherwise, ignore the fact that he advised you to go to San Jeronimo (it’s a 2+ hour wait) and instead go to Humberto Primo.
18.5. If you do insist on San Jeronimo, ignore all the ticket dispensers (all of which give out tickets) and instead get the ticket from the policemen giving out tickets. those are the only ones that count. Note that the ticket you just got is E90 and they are calling B06. That means 94 more B, 100 more Cs, 100 more Ds and then 89 more Es before its your turn. Watch how the number changes about once every few minutes. Run the math and realize that you are not getting your visa today as the visa places closes at 2pm. Panic! and run to Humberto 440.
19. Wonder if Humberto really a bank when you get there… but trust that it’s a bank and stand on the 30 minute line. Recognize all the people from the migraciones waiting room and wonder how they all got there faster than you did.
20. Go in and pay the grumpy man your 900 pesos (if you are within 10 days of your visa deadline) or about half that amount (that is supposedly listed somewhere the migraciones web site but it’s impossible to find) if you have not procrastinated.
21. Note that its getting late and that the Prorruga closes at 14:00 (2 pm).
22. Get the bank receipt of payment loudly stamped by the grumpy man having fun with the stamper in classic third- and second-world fashion.
23. Hoof it back the 15 – 20 min walk to the migraciones office, go straight to the second floor like you own the place, and wait (like you don’t).
24. Note that everyone else “waiting” are really just swarming around the man/woman as he/she comes out of their closed door office.
25. Note that those swarming people get served before you do while you patiently silently wait.
26. Stop being patient and silent and instead join the swarm and push your papers to the nice people and have them take the paperwork you have (bank statement, photo, former paperwork they gave you, passport).
27. Wait
28. Have them call your name and go up hopefully that finally, after 4+ hours, this is all over).
29. Be told to go downstairs (to the guy next to the stairway, remember the guy at the bottom of the stairs?) and get your finger prints taken.
30. Marvel that they somehow need all 10 fingerprints. Sign the doc.
31. Get a new piece of paper and bring it back upstairs.
32. Wait.
33. Remember to be pushy and ignore all decorum related to waiting in lines etc. Swarm.
34. Hand everything to them.
35. Wait.
36. Watch some amazingly stupid show about cats from the US and then note that its far more interesting to watch the Bolivian indigenous folks faces watch the cats go to spas, therapists, get pulled out of trees by fire departments, and wear diapers.
37. Feel embarrassed to be from the United States or, just, feel embarrassed for people who are from the united states.
38. Have them call your name and hand you your documents that they tell you to quard (keep) safely as something dire happens if you lose it.
39. Leave the place and remark that its empty now… with only people cleaning the floors.
40. Wonder how it is that you were among the first to arrive and the last to leave.
41. Calculate the number of hours you just wasted in your life and decide that you will feel grateful for another 90 days easily bought (they don’t care what you do, did, or will do) and chalk it up to another second-world experience in which paperwork is king and efficiency is a concept still several years distant.
42. Walk over the Lo Que Jacinto to ease your suffering with some amazing vegi empanadas… only to arrive at 15:02 and be told by the sullen boludo that the place closes at 1500. Mention its only 1502 and watch as he pulls out his phone… struggles to turn it on, and then shows you without the slightest empathy for what you just went through that “No, Son las 15:03!! Estamos cerrados.”
43. Leave vowing to never eat at a Lo Que Jacintos again while thinking of nothing else but how good their vegi empanadas are all the way to the bus station.
44. spend the next five hours on busses and waiting and walking to get back home to a cold dinner.
Wow – that comment is like an entire blog post in itself. Nice work!! Lo De Jacinto – best empanada in town in my opinion.
hey damon, by the way, my ego is not attached to that comment. feel free to dissect out the redundancies or erase the whole thing or do what you want. i just got inspired by your brilliant humor and with all that time waiting, just organized my notes for next time i need them using your style. so, seriously, feel free to use it however you choose.
and i am sworn off of lo de jacinto…. never again going there… until the next time i pass an open one and then i am sworn to cave in and buy a few dozen.
So question.
I am going to embark on this journey in 3 weeks (wish me luck).
What are the things that can be done ahead of time?
I would imagine the passport photos can be, but can the tax be paid and the receipt received before going into the immigration office for the first time? Or do you have to go in twice?
Also is there any rule against making this a 2 day endevor? I’m less for “this has to get done today” as I melt from anxiety and more of a “fuck this, I’m going to my hotel to drink Malbec” type person
Good luck brotha! Passport photos could be done ahead of time. There are kiosks that offer the photo service on the same block tho so it really isn’t that much of a pain. No rule against splitting it up over 2 days.
Today, January 30, 2019, I extended my Canadian Visa and it cost 2,700 pesos. It appears that the price has gone up radically.
Makes sense. I wrote this post a few years back and Argentina inflation is like 50%
Hi! Short update. Being 2022, the only difference is that you don’t have to run to take a pass picture. It’s taken in the same building at the same time as they take your fingerprint ( yup, singular, it’s only the right thumb now) Butthe rest stays the same. No numbers, first come first served, trying to find your way in, or out… same old story. ( FYI, I was there with my husband from Belgium for extending his tourist visa)
and the price now is 4000 ARS which would be 10 € aprox
Thanks for the update! Cool to know its pretty similar as when I wrote this post!
TL;DR
1. Take ARS 4,000 plus passport to immigration office.
2. Go to window dealing with extensions (today #8, upstairs is a building site).
3. Get pay-in slip for bank and go to bank.
4. Go back to same window and get taken to the guy taking photo and fingerprints window #4.
5. Go back to original window and pick up passport, and letter of extension.
Under three hours. 90 day extension is issued from the date you apply NOT from the expiry of old visa.
Hey y’all. Thank you very much for your input! It helps a lot a lot. I will extend my visa in the upcoming days. @Damon: Chrome and Safari issuing a safety warning before entering the website. It would be a shame to not find this blog on Google anymore, could you check on it? Thanks for all your work guys 🙂
Thanks for the heads up! My SSL security had expired and I just updated it. Appreciate the comment!
Update: I went there today to extend. A few things have changed again:
The entrance is now the left door of the house. Ignore the line of people waiting, just enter, go the wooden stairs up, and turn left. Keep ignoring waiting for people until you stand in front of a wooden glass door. A staff member will come out and ask you what you want, “Prorrogar”, they take your passport and call you in once the paper is ready. (5 Minutes)
You now have to pay with “Cobro Express”, 4 blocks away, Avenida Colon. Price as of today (3.4.23) 4000 pesos. No line, no waiting. Come back with the receipt. In case the door is closed (which happened to me), wait until a staff member comes out to call people in the line, tell them you just paid your visa extension fee, they let you in, and you go to the same nice lady, give her a thumbs up through the glass door and she will direct you to the guy in the upstairs waiting hall to take a picture and take you fingerprints. After they have been taken, you have to wait until they hand you out the papers which confirm your extension (yes, they come out and look for you, be patient). Overall, super friendly and with everything exactly within 61 minutes. By the way, the extension counts from the date of the expiration of your old tourist visa.