2026-09-27Finding
Argentina's ancestry route reaches one generation, and a dead article still reads as live
The law recognises permanent residence for the child of an Argentine born abroad. The words for grandchild and ascendant do not appear in it at all.
Article 22 of the migration law, as substituted in 2025, recognises the condition of permanent resident for children of Argentines born abroad. One generation. Searched through the consolidated text, the words nieto, abuelo and ascendiente appear nowhere.
There is a second thing in the same place, and it is the more dangerous one. The 2010 decree that regulates this law still grants permanent residence to the spouse and the parent of an Argentine. The 2025 decree moved both of those to temporary residence. The older text is still published, still reachable, and reads exactly as though it were in force.
That is not a quirk of one country. It is what happens whenever a legal information service publishes an instrument at two addresses - one carrying the amendments, one the text as signed - and the instrument you need exists only at the second. A reader cannot tell from the page itself, and neither can we, which is why the record says which address each quotation came from.
Separately, and worth knowing before anyone counts on the citizenship clock: two years of continuous residence now means two years without leaving the country at all, on the wording of the 2025 decree. Not a funeral, not a work trip.
What the instruments say
«A los hijos de argentinos nativos, naturalizados o por opción que nacieren en el extranjero se les reconoce la condición de residentes permanentes. Las autoridades permitirán su libre ingreso y permanencia en el territorio.»Our translation - not official
Children of Argentines by birth, by naturalisation or by option who are born abroad are recognised as holding the condition of permanent residents. The authorities shall permit their free entry into and stay in the territory.
Two words do the work. 'Se les reconoce' - they are recognised - rather than 'se les otorga', they are granted: the status is treated as already theirs, which is why no temporary stage precedes it. And 'que nacieren en el extranjero', born abroad, is the whole of the ancestry test. It names a parent and stops.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's legal information service, published under argentina.gob.ar/normativa and still signing its editorial notes "Nota Infoleg". It maintains the text of a law as amended, annotating each article with the instrument that substituted, incorporated or repealed it and its gazette date, and listing superseded wordings under "Antecedentes Normativos". This is where Ley 346 art. 2 can be read as it stands rather than reconstructed from Decreto 366/2025, and where the repeal of arts. 3, 4, 5 and 11 is visible at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: One instrument has two addresses here and they are not interchangeable: /actualizacion is the consolidated text, /texto is the text as enacted and carries no amendment annotation whatsoever. Not every instrument has a consolidated text, and its absence is not evidence that nothing has amended the original - Decreto 616/2010 is available here only at /texto, so its art. 22 reads as live while Decreto 366/2025 has overtaken what it provides. The consolidated pages also carry no date of consolidation: there is no "as at" line, so the page cannot tell you whether an amendment published last week has been worked in yet. And consolidation is the Ministry's editorial work rather than an enacted instrument - where it and the gazette disagree, the gazette is what took legal effect.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«El extranjero que solicite su residencia permanente deberá acreditar:
a) Ser cónyuge, progenitor o hijo de argentino nativo, naturalizado o por opción; teniendo en cuenta principios de unidad, sostén y con el alcance del derecho de reunificación familiar establecido en la legislación pertinente y en el artículo 10 de la presente Reglamentación.»Our translation - not official
A foreigner applying for permanent residence shall prove: a) That they are the spouse, parent or child of an Argentine by birth, by naturalisation or by option; taking into account principles of unity and support and the scope of the right to family reunification laid down in the relevant legislation and in article 10 of this Regulation.
Read this against article 22 of the law as it now stands. The regulation still offers permanent residence to a spouse or a parent of an Argentine; the law no longer does, having moved both to the temporary list in 2025. Decreto 366/2025 does not mention Decreto 616/2010 once, and no instrument has amended this article since 2010, so the regulation was simply left where it was. The law prevails, and the directorate follows the law.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's legal information service, published under argentina.gob.ar/normativa and still signing its editorial notes "Nota Infoleg". It maintains the text of a law as amended, annotating each article with the instrument that substituted, incorporated or repealed it and its gazette date, and listing superseded wordings under "Antecedentes Normativos". This is where Ley 346 art. 2 can be read as it stands rather than reconstructed from Decreto 366/2025, and where the repeal of arts. 3, 4, 5 and 11 is visible at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: One instrument has two addresses here and they are not interchangeable: /actualizacion is the consolidated text, /texto is the text as enacted and carries no amendment annotation whatsoever. Not every instrument has a consolidated text, and its absence is not evidence that nothing has amended the original - Decreto 616/2010 is available here only at /texto, so its art. 22 reads as live while Decreto 366/2025 has overtaken what it provides. The consolidated pages also carry no date of consolidation: there is no "as at" line, so the page cannot tell you whether an amendment published last week has been worked in yet. And consolidation is the Ministry's editorial work rather than an enacted instrument - where it and the gazette disagree, the gazette is what took legal effect.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«2° Los hijos de Argentinos nativos, que habiendo nacido en pais estranjero optaren por la ciudadanía de origen.»Our translation - not official
2. The children of native Argentines who, having been born in a foreign country, opt for the citizenship of origin.
The nationality question, not the residency one, and the two do not line up. Residence is recognised for the child of an Argentine by birth, by naturalisation or by option; nationality by option is offered only to the child of a native Argentine. A child of a naturalised Argentine therefore has the residence and not the passport. The archaic spelling is the publisher's: this text dates from 1869.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's legal information service, published under argentina.gob.ar/normativa and still signing its editorial notes "Nota Infoleg". It maintains the text of a law as amended, annotating each article with the instrument that substituted, incorporated or repealed it and its gazette date, and listing superseded wordings under "Antecedentes Normativos". This is where Ley 346 art. 2 can be read as it stands rather than reconstructed from Decreto 366/2025, and where the repeal of arts. 3, 4, 5 and 11 is visible at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: One instrument has two addresses here and they are not interchangeable: /actualizacion is the consolidated text, /texto is the text as enacted and carries no amendment annotation whatsoever. Not every instrument has a consolidated text, and its absence is not evidence that nothing has amended the original - Decreto 616/2010 is available here only at /texto, so its art. 22 reads as live while Decreto 366/2025 has overtaken what it provides. The consolidated pages also carry no date of consolidation: there is no "as at" line, so the page cannot tell you whether an amendment published last week has been worked in yet. And consolidation is the Ministry's editorial work rather than an enacted instrument - where it and the gazette disagree, the gazette is what took legal effect.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLey 25.871 - Migraciones, texto actualizado
Normativa nacional / InfoLEG - Ministerio de Justicia
About this source
The Ministry of Justice's legal information service, published under argentina.gob.ar/normativa and still signing its editorial notes "Nota Infoleg". It maintains the text of a law as amended, annotating each article with the instrument that substituted, incorporated or repealed it and its gazette date, and listing superseded wordings under "Antecedentes Normativos". This is where Ley 346 art. 2 can be read as it stands rather than reconstructed from Decreto 366/2025, and where the repeal of arts. 3, 4, 5 and 11 is visible at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: One instrument has two addresses here and they are not interchangeable: /actualizacion is the consolidated text, /texto is the text as enacted and carries no amendment annotation whatsoever. Not every instrument has a consolidated text, and its absence is not evidence that nothing has amended the original - Decreto 616/2010 is available here only at /texto, so its art. 22 reads as live while Decreto 366/2025 has overtaken what it provides. The consolidated pages also carry no date of consolidation: there is no "as at" line, so the page cannot tell you whether an amendment published last week has been worked in yet. And consolidation is the Ministry's editorial work rather than an enacted instrument - where it and the gazette disagree, the gazette is what took legal effect.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source