The step-by-step plan for Argentina

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Argentina. The migration law, Ley 25.871, has three kinds of stay:

• Residencia permanente. Permanent residence. As a Dutch national you usually only get it after three years of temporary residence.
• Residencia temporaria. Temporary residence, for among others the retiree, whoever lives on capital, the employee and the partner of an Argentine. You almost always start with this.
• Residencia transitoria. Short-term stay, such as for the tourist and the digital nomad.

The authority is the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, Migraciones for short. You apply for your residencia in RaDEX, Migraciones' online system. For that you must be in Argentina. With a Dutch passport you may enter the country without a visa for up to 90 days, and you apply from that stay. There's also a way in advance through the consulate, but it runs via someone who acts for you in Argentina.

The thresholds are in minimum wages, the Salario Mínimo, Vital y Móvil. From 1 October 2026 that's 391,200 pesos a month (Resolución 4/2026). It rises every month, to 437,000 pesos in April 2027, and the threshold rises with it.

Not retired yet? Whoever leaves before AOW age looks at the income that is there then.

• Pensionado only works with a pension you already receive. The AOW only counts from the moment you receive it.
• Rentista suits whoever lives on income from capital, such as investments or rental. Wages don't count.
• Nómada digital suits whoever keeps working remotely for employers or clients outside Argentina, for at most a year.

In this step you see what emigrating to Argentina does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare.

The tax. The Netherlands and Argentina have a tax treaty, in force since 11 February 1998. As soon as you're a resident for Argentina, your occupational pension and your annuity fall to Argentina. The Netherlands may keep taxing your AOW, and a pension from government service too. But the treaty only works once you're also a resident for Argentine tax. With a residencia temporaria that's only after twelve months. How that works out you'll read further on in the plan, at the step on the 1996 treaty.

The AOW. Argentina is among the 36 countries with which the Netherlands has a social security treaty. The 2002 treaty says you receive your benefit in full and without restriction. So whoever goes alone also keeps the AOW for single people.

Healthcare. Argentina isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. And since May 2025 the Argentine migration law says: in the national government's hospitals, whoever has no permanent residence only gets ordinary care with insurance or against payment. In an emergency you're always helped.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily at the SVB. The registration must be in within one year.

In this step you choose where you want to live. Argentina is large. Between Buenos Aires, the wine region near Mendoza, the north and Patagonia there are big differences in climate, distance and facilities.

Look at three things in every place:

• The climate and the seasons. The seasons are reversed: in July it's winter. Live a few weeks in the place you choose, in the season you'll really be there.
• Healthcare. Ask in every place where the nearest hospital is, and whether your insurance works there.
• The desks. You arrange your appointment at Migraciones and your DNI at an office near your address. Ask in advance where that office is.

Your scouting trip can straight away become your application. With a Dutch passport you may stay up to 90 days, and from Argentina you apply for your residencia.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. On the application side Argentina is cheap. A residencia temporaria costs a Dutch national 100,000 pesos, about 59 euros, and the first DNI 20,000 pesos.

The money sits in three other items:

• The health insurance that replaces the CAK, and that comes back every year.
• The move across the ocean. As long as you have temporary residence, you put up a guarantee for half of the import levies on your household goods.
• The car. With temporary residence it may stay at most 480 days.

In this conversation you decide together whether Argentina fits, and when. Three things come with this country that you need to see together.

• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see in passing. Agree how often you come back. With a residencia temporaria you may not be outside Argentina for six months or longer, or your stay lapses.
• The language. At Migraciones, the bank and the doctor everything is in Spanish. Agree who will learn Spanish, and how.
• The peso. Your income comes in euros, life and the thresholds run in pesos. Discuss how you'll deal with an exchange rate that can move fast.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands must be in, when you deregister and when you put your application in RaDEX.

Count two clocks. As a tourist you have 90 days, with one extension, to file your application. And you renew your residencia temporaria every year, in the sixty days before it expires.