Australian, Canadian and North American citizens holding Ordinary Passports (not emergency, diplomatic, official or any other type of passports), who are going to Argentina for up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes, must pay a “Reciprocity Fee”.
Business purposes include employees and businessmen traveling for investment purposes, marketing research, taking part in commercial negotiations, exploratory business, customer visits or participating in business fairs or exhibitions.
Tourism or tourist visa: include leisure travel or visiting friends or family.
PLEASE NOTE THE RECIPROCITY FEE IS RESPONSIBILITY OF THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT OF ARGENTINA.
THIS EMBASSY HAS NO COMPETENCE WHATSOEVER IN ITS REGARD.
This “reciprocity fee” IS NOT A VISA.
Payment of the Reciprocity Fee
The reciprocity Fee can only be paid through the Argentine Immigration Department web-site: (www.migraciones.gov.ar), and it must be done before arriving into the country. Payments must only by made by credit card. Credit cards accepted are VISA; AMERICAN EXPRESS and MASTERCARD.
Once at the web-site (www.migraciones.gov.ar), please go to the US flag for English, or click in "Pague su tasa de reciprocidad/Pay your Reciprocity Fee". A page with explanations in Spanish and English will appear. Please read the explanations and click in "continue". You will be taken to the page of "Provincia Pagos" (Banco Provincia is the Bank collecting this payment). Go to "How to pay the Reciprocity Fee". A request for a user name and a password will appear. Complete them and you will go to a page requesting your personal data.
If your passport has letter and number, please remember that -when introducing your data- it is important to put the initial letter of your Passport's Number in the separate initial box, and then go to the box beside it in order to put its numbers. You must also take care of introducing your name as exactly is in the passport, and to follow the proper format (Month, Day, Year) of your date of birth. Failing to do all the above correctly, may make the system fail.
The system will then allow to introduce other persons on whose behalf you will be paying the Reciprocity Fee. Completed or discarded this last option, you will then have to introduce your credit card data, and pay. After payment, receipts will appear, one for every person. Please print all the receipts, since the receipts will be requested to be shown by the interested person at the Immigration Desk, in order to be admitted into the country.
Exemption: reciprocity fee for passengers arriving by cruise ship
Australian, Canadian or American citizens arriving into Argentina as passengers of a cruise ship, will remain exempted from the reciprocity fee until the last day of June of 2013. Passengers arriving in cruise ships on the 1st of July 2013 and afterwards, will have to pay the reciprocity fee online before their arrival into the argentine port.