Argentina · Visa required
Emigrating to Argentina
For Argentina you apply for a residencia temporaria at Migraciones, the migration service. You usually do that in Argentina itself, after you've entered as a tourist. With a pension of five minimum wages, about 1,150 euros a month, the residencia as a pensionado is well within reach. There are two treaties with the Netherlands, and they do a lot of good: your AOW comes along in full, even if you go alone, and your occupational pension falls to Argentina. But the latter only once you're a resident there, and with temporary residence that's after twelve months. There's no treaty for healthcare, so a policy of your own replaces the CAK.
€ 399 one-off · 38 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- A residencia temporaria at Migraciones, applied for in Argentina in RaDEX, then the DNI at RENAPER
- The clock
- 90 days as a tourist to apply, renew every year, and permanent residence after three years
- Note
- The tax treaty only works after twelve months; no CAK, and without permanent residence care in state hospitals only with insurance
Last updated: 15 October 2026
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Five phases, from entering as a tourist to permanent residence
This journey turns on one unit of account and three clocks. The unit is the Argentine minimum wage: 391,200 pesos from 1 October 2026, and it rises every month. The pensionado and the rentista show five of them. The clocks are the 90 days you have as a tourist to file your application, the sixty days before the end of your residencia in which you renew, and the twelve months after which you're a resident for tax. On top of that there's what the brochure doesn't mention: as long as you have no permanent residence, a national government hospital only gives ordinary care with insurance or against payment.
- Orientation
Three kinds of stay, five routes, and two treaties that help you
In this phase you learn how living in Argentina works, and what it does to your income and your healthcare. Argentina has permanent, temporary and short-term stay. Whoever comes with a pension gets a residencia temporaria as a pensionado at five minimum wages a month. Whoever lives on capital, also before the AOW age, can become a rentista at the same threshold. The 1996 tax treaty gives your occupational pension to Argentina and lets the Netherlands tax your AOW. The 2002 social security treaty lets your full AOW come along, even if you go alone. There's no healthcare treaty, so no CAK.Read more
- Your visa
Entering as a tourist, choosing a route, and an application in RaDEX
In this phase you apply for your residencia. You enter as a tourist, may stay 90 days and extend once, and in that time apply in RaDEX, Migraciones' online system. You first choose your route: pensionado, rentista, digital nomad, employee, or through an Argentine partner. Your papers get an apostille, and an Argentine sworn translator translates them into Spanish. A residencia temporaria costs a Dutch national 100,000 pesos. While your application runs, you can get a provisional residence title.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
A treaty that only works after twelve months, the full AOW, and no CAK
In this phase you work through the familiar list for closing down in the Netherlands. Under the treaty your occupational pension and your annuity fall to Argentina, and your AOW and a government pension stay taxed in the Netherlands. But the treaty only works once you're also a resident for Argentina, and with temporary residence that's after twelve months. Until then the Netherlands keeps taxing, without a tax credit, and after that you apply for the exemption. Your AOW comes along in full. There's no CAK: your policy must be accepted before you deregister. And whoever leaves before the AOW age can insure themselves voluntarily within one year.Read more
- The move
A guarantee on the household goods, and the car at most 480 days
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. With temporary residence your household goods come in temporarily, and you put up a guarantee for half of the levies; with permanent residence they're free. A used car may come along, but with temporary residence at most 480 days, without extension. Only with permanent residence, after three years, do you import it, free up to 15,000 dollars. Your dog or cat travels with a certificate from the NVWA, with a rabies vaccination and a deworming within fifteen days, and SENASA checks on arrival free of charge.Read more
- Arrival in Argentina
The appointment at Migraciones, the DNI, and renewing every year
In this phase you complete your stay after landing. After the appointment at Migraciones you apply for your DNI at RENAPER, for 20,000 pesos. Then follow your CUIL or CUIT, a free savings account in pesos, and your healthcare: a prepaga or your international policy. Your Dutch driving licence counts for at most a year; after that you get an Argentine one. A rent you agree freely, including the deposit and the currency. After twelve months you're a resident for tax. And you renew your residencia every year, until after three years you can stay permanently.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Argentina journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.2 of your plan
Know where you pay tax: the 1996 treaty, and the first year without
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours, depending on your situation
In this step you know which country taxes which income, and from when. With Argentina that's a special case: the treaty is there, but for most people it doesn't apply yet in the first year.
The treaty, as soon as you're a resident of Argentina. The treaty of 27 December 1996 has worked since 11 February 1998. The Belastingdienst puts it like this in its table of January 2026:
- Occupational pension and annuity are taxed only in Argentina (article 19, paragraph 1). There's no protocol provision on that article.
- AOW and other social security benefits the Netherlands may tax (article 19, paragraph 3). Argentina then gives a credit for the Dutch tax (article 25, paragraph 1).
- A pension from government service, such as from the ABP, is taxed in the Netherlands, unless you're a resident and a national of Argentina (article 20, paragraph 2).
- A lump sum for your pension or annuity the Netherlands may tax (article 19, paragraph 2).
The first year. The treaty only applies to whoever is a resident of one of the two countries. Article 4 adds: whoever only pays tax in a country on income from that country isn't a resident there. And the Argentine law says: a foreigner with temporary residence is only a resident after twelve months. With permanent residence you're one straight away. Until those twelve months are up, you're a resident of neither country, and Dutch law applies:
- Your AOW, your occupational pension and your annuity stay Dutch income. Your pension fund and the SVB withhold wage tax.
- You get no tax credit. Whoever lives in a country like Argentina is, according to the Belastingdienst, only entitled to the business deduction and the tax-free allowance in box 3.
After that you apply for the exemption. Once you're a resident of Argentina, you ask the Belastingdienst for an exemption certificate for your occupational pension and your annuity. With the form Verklaring belastingplicht woonland you show that you're a tax resident of Argentina. Only with that certificate does your pension fund stop withholding.
For the year you leave you file a Dutch return with the M form, online via Mijn Belastingdienst or on paper. Take this to a tax adviser and have them work out what you keep net, in the first year and after.
What this step rests on
- Belastingdienst — Verdragsstaten IB niet-ingezetenen, January 2026, page 10: Argentina — occupational pension and annuity in the ARG column (article 19, paragraph 1), AOW in the NL column (article 19, paragraph 3), government pension in the NL column (article 20, paragraph 2)
- Wetten.overheid.nl — the treaty of 27 December 1996, article 4 (who is a resident), article 19 (pensions, annuities and social security benefits) and article 25 (the credit in Argentina)
- Ley de Impuesto a las Ganancias, article 116 — a foreigner is a resident with permanent residence, or after twelve months with temporary residence
- Income Tax Act 2001, article 7.2 paragraph 2 under d and e — pension, annuity and public-law benefits of a non-resident taxpayer
- Belastingdienst — application for an exemption certificate for wage tax, with the statement of tax liability in the country of residence
- Belastingdienst — which deductions and credits you have if you live outside the Netherlands
- Belastingdienst — filing for the year of emigration: online or with the M form
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Argentina.
This is step 3.2 of 38. The other 37 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 38 steps for ArgentinaEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Argentina: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Argentina change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
What will your move to Argentina cost? Work it out →Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Argentina? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Argentina starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
In December we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Argentina
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in Argentina: no CAK, and since 2025 no longer free in the national hospitalThe Netherlands and Argentina have a treaty on taking benefits abroad, but not on healthcare: no CAK and no S1. Since Decreto 366/2025 a foreigner without permanent residence only gets emergency care free of charge in a national state hospital. For everything else you need an obra social, a prepaga or your own policy.
- The residence routes to Argentina: rentista, pensionado, digital nomad or workAnyone who wants to live in Argentina applies for a residencia temporaria at the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones. Retirees and people who live off their own assets must show a monthly income of five minimum wages: in October 2026 that is 1,956,000 pesos. After three years of temporary residence you can apply for permanent residence.
- Working in Argentina: as a trabajador migrante, self-employed or remotelyFor a job with an Argentine employer there is the residencia as a trabajador migrante: through RaDEX first one year, renewable; up to three years only through a consulate. Anyone with another temporary residence may also work under the migration law. As a self-employed person you usually work in the monotributo, one monthly amount for tax, pension and healthcare. You have a Dutch degree recognised at a public university.
- AOW, pension and tax in Argentina: two treaties, and the AOW goes with you in fullThe Netherlands has a tax treaty and a social security treaty with Argentina. As a result your AOW goes with you in full, also as a single person. The Netherlands taxes the AOW and an ABP pension; an ordinary occupational pension and an annuity are taxed only by Argentina. There, as a foreigner, you only become tax resident after twelve months.
- Car and driving licence in Argentina: 480 days on temporary residence, then standing stillOn a residencia temporaria your car may only be in Argentina temporarily for 480 days, without extension. Only with permanent residence may you import it, tax-free up to a customs value of 15,000 dollars. Your Dutch driving licence is valid for at most a year; after that you get an Argentine licence with exams.
- Pet to Argentina: the EU pet passport is accepted, provided the NVWA stamps itArgentina admits a dog or cat from the EU with an international health certificate or with the EU pet passport, if the official veterinary service has stamped it before departure. You need a valid rabies vaccination, a check-up within 10 days and deworming within 15 days. If the animal travels with you, the inspection is free.
All 13 articles about Argentina
- Household goods to Argentina: free with permanent residence, with a guarantee if you come temporarily
- Bank and payments in Argentina: an account even without a DNI, and buying dollars is allowed again
- The first weeks in Argentina: first RaDEX, then the DNI, the rest follows
- Buying a house in Argentina: free in town, not in the countryside or near the border
- Renting in Argentina: since late 2023 the contract decides almost everything
- Registration and numbers in Argentina: RaDEX, the DNI, the CUIL and the CUIT
- School in Argentina: compulsory from age 4, and a place even without papers
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Argentina: 38 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.