Entering Argentina as a Tourist
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Chile on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Chile to Argentina · Visiting as a tourist
Argentina admits tourists for up to three months, extendable once by a similar period. Since Decree 366/2025 entry itself carries two conditions that did not exist before: a sworn declaration of why you are coming, and health insurance covering your medical needs. Whether you need a visa at all depends on your nationality.
At a glance
- Authorised stay
- Up to 3 months
The text says months, not 90 days
- Extension window
- The 10 days before expiry
Ten days for residencia transitoria, which is what tourist status is. The sixty-day window that circulates widely belongs to residencia temporaria, a different category.
- Once expired
- Cannot be extended
Only a habilitacion de salida, to leave the country
- Late but voluntary, within 30 days
- 50% surcharge on the fee
- Extension fee
- Tourists are excluded from the transitoria fee line
The fee table charges 'Residencia Transitoria, excepto subcategoria Turista'
- Habilitacion de salida
- 20 UMSM Mercosur, 40 UMSM extra-Mercosur
UMSM is the fee unit Decreto 584/2024 uses; the table's own note puts one UMSM at ARS 1,000, so the unit moves without the table changing.
- Health insurance at entry
- Requiredas of 2025-05-29
Requirements
- Stay of up to three months, extendable by one further period of the same length
- A sworn declaration of the purpose of entry, and health insurance covering your medical needs (Ley 25.871 art. 34, as substituted by Decreto 366/2025)
- To extend: a valid passport, or for Mercosur and associated nationals a Cedula de Identidad, Tarjeta de Identidad, DNI or Carne de Extranjeria under DEC CMC 37/14
- The extension must be applied for within the ten days before the current permission expires
- If your stay has already expired it cannot be extended at all - you must obtain a habilitacion de salida in order to leave
- Presenting yourself voluntarily within thirty days of expiry carries a 50% surcharge on the fee
In detail
Three months is not ninety days
The official wording grants 'hasta tres (3) meses' - up to three months - not ninety days, and the two are not the same. Arriving on 31 January and counting ninety days gives a different answer from counting three calendar months. Most secondary guides print 90 days because it is tidier. If your plans sit close to the edge, count from the stamp in your passport and treat the difference as real, because an overstay is an administrative offence whether or not it was arithmetic.
What changed at the border in 2025
Decree 366/2025 added two conditions to admission under any category, tourism included: a sworn declaration of the purpose of your trip, and health insurance covering your medical needs. The second is the substantive one. Travel insurance for Argentina used to be a sensible precaution; on the text of article 34 it is now a condition of entry. The same decree tightened what uninsured non-permanent residents can expect from public hospitals, so the insurance requirement and the healthcare restriction are two halves of one policy rather than separate developments.
Extending, and the thing people get wrong
The single most consequential detail on this page is the size of the window. Extensions must be requested within the ten days before the permission expires, because tourist status is residencia transitoria. The sixty-day figure that circulates in guides belongs to residencia temporaria, a different category in the same sentence of DNM's own text. Ten days is short enough that treating it as a formality to handle later will usually mean missing it. And once the stay has expired the route closes entirely: DNM states plainly that an expired residency cannot be extended, and the only remaining step is a habilitacion de salida, an exit authorisation, priced at 20 UMSM for Mercosur nationals and 40 for everyone else. Presenting yourself voluntarily within thirty days of expiry costs a 50% surcharge on the fee - a meaningful concession to people who come forward, and one worth using rather than hiding from.
Which document you need at the booth
Argentina accepts documents other than a passport from Mercosur and associated nationals, under DEC CMC 37/14: a Cedula de Identidad, Tarjeta de Identidad, national identity document or Carne de Extranjeria. That grouping is not identical to the one governing the residency-by-nationality route, and the two should not be assumed to move together.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Chile
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Turista: Es aquel extranjero que ingrese al país con propósito de descanso o esparcimiento, con un plazo de permanencia autorizado de hasta tres (3) meses, prorrogable por otro período similar.»Our translation - not official
Tourist: a foreigner who enters the country for the purpose of rest or recreation, with an authorised stay of up to three (3) months, extendable for a further similar period.
About this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Los pedidos de prórroga de residencia, así como la petición de cambio de categoría o subcategoría migratoria, deberán efectuarse dentro de los sesenta (60) días anteriores al vencimiento de la residencia temporaria y dentro de los diez (10) días anteriores al vencimiento de la residencia transitoria.»Our translation - not official
Requests to extend residency, and requests to change migration category or subcategory, must be made within the sixty (60) days before a temporary residency expires and within the ten (10) days before a transitory residency expires.
Tourist status is residencia transitoria, so the window is ten days, not sixty. Guides that print sixty days for tourists have taken the wrong half of this sentence.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Si el plazo de permanencia ha expirado, no se podrá prorrogar tal residencia. A fin de hacer abandono del territorio nacional, deberá solicitar una habilitación de salida.»Our translation - not official
If the period of stay has expired, that residency cannot be extended. In order to leave the national territory, you must request an exit authorisation.
About this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«El extranjero que se presentara en forma espontánea y voluntaria dentro de los treinta (30) días de vencidos los plazos previstos en el punto anterior, sufrirá un recargo del cincuenta por ciento (50%) del monto de la tasa prevista para el trámite de prórroga de residencia o para el cambio de categoría o subcategoría migratoria.»Our translation - not official
A foreigner who presents themselves spontaneously and voluntarily within thirty (30) days of the expiry of the periods set out above will incur a surcharge of fifty per cent (50%) of the fee for the residency extension or the change of migration category or subcategory.
About this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«| Habilitación de documentación al solo efecto de hacer abandono del país de extranjero residente irregular | 20 UMSM | 40 UMSM |»Our translation - not official
Clearance of documents for the sole purpose of leaving the country, for an irregularly resident foreigner | 20 UMSM | 40 UMSM
The table charges the Mercosur column first and the extra-Mercosur column second. This is the line a tourist whose stay has expired ends up on, since the extension line excludes the tourist subcategory.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Visa exemption is not modelled here yet: we have not pulled the official nationality list from a primary source, and we will not reproduce a list we have not read. Check with an Argentine consulate for your own nationality.
Tourist status is 'residencia transitoria' in Argentine terminology, which is why extension pages talk about extending a residency rather than a visa.
Entering as a tourist does not create a path to residency by itself, but residency applications are filed from inside Argentina, so arriving as a tourist and filing is the normal sequence rather than an irregularity.
- administersTuristas - Direccion Nacional de Migraciones
Direccion Nacional de Migraciones / Argentina.gob.ar
About this source
Argentina's migration directorate. It runs RaDEX, the online residency system, decides applications, and publishes the requirements for each residency category along with the fee schedule.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its service pages are the agency's own summary of the law it applies, not the law. They cite the underlying instruments - Ley 25.871, Decreto 616/2010, the relevant DNM Disposición - but paraphrase their content, and the agency can change what it asks for without any statute moving. Where the requirement matters, the instrument itself is the better source.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesDecreto 366/2025 - entry conditions
Boletin Oficial de la Republica Argentina
About this source
Argentina's official gazette. An act is not merely announced here, it takes legal effect on publication, which is why a decree carries the gazette's issue number and date as part of its identity. Decree 366/2025 appears here as issue 35.676 of 29 May 2025.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes instruments as enacted and does not consolidate them. What you read here is the amending act, not the amended law, so an article number in a decree is an instruction to amend and does not correspond to the article number in the law that results. An article number cited from a decree therefore needs translating into the article of the law it amends. The consolidated text is a different publisher: see `ar-infoleg`.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source