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Having been here for 5 years whilst working for British Airways I made frequent flights into Ezeiza, and on several occassions I witnessed, heavy handed practices of customs officials to those passengers arriving in Argentina and not declaring high value electronic goods on entry. On one occassion a passenger arriving on a British Airways flight was held overnight the night at Ezezia, and had to fork out 800 USD in cash to be released - all for the sake of saving the duty on a new Sony Vaio laptop. From: Sean, September 03, 2006 Re: I can't bring my personal iPod with me for a month without being taxed? I don't have to declare that do I? Absolutely not – and if you are given any kind of hard time by customs in this regard, don’t forget to write name name, rank, and serial #, right in front of them if needed, In this rare event, you will see no problem in the end for what you described. From: Paul laver, September 03, 2006 You can bring personal goods under 300 USD free of duty. Anything else, not for re-export, strictly speaking should be declared. Electronic items such as laptops can be registered in the owners name to legally avoid duties, on subsequent trips to or from Argentina. From: Sean, September 03, 2006 Yeah but Paul in theory one should be able to bring a laptop or 2 , mp3 and/or ipod, mini-fax machine, mini dvd player, electric guitar, blackberry, and whatver other electronic products needed for personal/business operation and lifestyle, as long as properly declared, without paying duties – according to Arg customs, that’s they key to focus on here in my opinion… From: Sean, September 03, 2006 Re: Yeah, I got really screwed bringing in my TV. Showing them it was used, still got me very little. And their poor English, it was a total gringo hose job. My wife always intended to complain but never got around to it... I guess that's what they kind of expect. Then you are one of the percentages that let a customs wayward dude rule the situation – it’s not as hard as you think to relay in a written manner the obvious to them and avoid duties. Get receipts for anything you give in to paying and yeah it’s a hassle but normal to recoup. I offer my recuperation services FREE to anybody who took names AND got receipts and still had to pay on normal reasonable stuff like I described below, as long as they aren’t previously a confirmed smuggler or doing other funny stuff. As a tourist, you are entitled to bring and declare your personal items without paying duties, as long as you fill out the proper paperwork if they ask you to. From: John Borden, September 03, 2006 This is TRUE AND 100% LEGAL. You guys are virtually ALL coming in as tourists. When you LEAVE your country of residency BEFORE flying over here, all you need to do is to DECLARE all your electronics, and other valuables in the customs at the DEPARTING port. They always have an officer on duty (just like here, but you usually need to find where they´re dozing off here.) You can refuse to embark until you make your customs declaration. Once done, you get a receipt, itemizing each of your valuables, with make, model and serial numbers. When you arrive here all you need to do is SHOW THEM THIS DECLARATION, and you state you are coming as a tourist, with your own personal items which you will be taking back with you, the day you leave back home. Since you declared at point of embarking, you are showing your intention of taking your belongings back with you. (you can even bring in a car, temporarily) Now, legally once you enter the stuff, no one really cares if you actually do take it back out, and they can never even track you down UNLESS they make a note of it either on your passport, on your tourist card, in the computer system or something like that. In that case you would be bound to taking the stuff back out. But the chances of that are VERY rare, since all they want is to fine you (or bribe you) up front, right then and there. Once you get through with no written observation by them, you basically are scott free, since the US Customs, (or any other country) doesn´t care if you don´t bring the stuff back in, either. What they are avoiding is you taking new stuff in, that was not legally imported already, (just as they do here). Your items were already imported once, and had paid all duties already, so you taking them out and not back in means no loss at all to the Public Treasury. But if you need to take anything back, the initial departing declaration is technically REQUIRED, or they may charge you taxes for taking your own personal used stuff back home with you! So as you see you can use their own legal requirements in your own benefit,.... no bribes, no illegal manuvers, just another loophole. I don´t applaud Alejandro´s attitude but it is true that the items when smuggled into any country usually have already paid all legal import duties and sales taxes.... only TO THE WRONG COUNTRY!! The correct way to import things legally when they are for resale, is to declare them and pay all duties, as this also gives you the right to get reimbursed for taxes and duties paid in the country they came from. US sellers provide for reimbursing the sales tax you paid them, if and when you send a copy of your import taxes and duties paid here on entry. Another reason to import legally is to enforce international guarrantees. If you don´t declare a valuable item, if it fails under the warranty period, you will need to show all receipts including import duties. You may have your product rejected by the service shop, since they´ve had raids by customs officials confiscating all products not having proper import documentation. I for one would NOT purchase any large screen TV, or ANY electronics product for that matter, without legal import papers, because it´s not like in the 60´s thru 80´s where you could fix something yourself, like a blown fuse. Now its all micro-electronics, and even the service techs themselves can´t fix most items, they just replace them. Let´s put it this way... the lesser price Alejandro states is not worth the risk of having to throw it all away for lack of coverage. ONLY the original person bringing in the stuff may benefit from that risk, for at least they travelled on the difference. FYI, notebooks, cameras,etc bought in the duty free shops, in Argentine ships, and airports HAVE NO FACTORY GUARRANTY, but the Free Shop provides ITS OWN guarranty, i.e. they pay for repairs during their coverage period. I´ve seen a dropped and cracked notebook replaced, when even the factory warranty would not cover that damage. Back onto tax rebates, some Argentine and Uruguayan retailers are now doing a similar thing for tourists buying local products to take back home with them. Check out the info booth at Galerias Pacifico. Also at some hotels, tourists are exempted from paying local sales taxes, this is true even for Argentines in some hotels in Uruguay. - Joe From: Michael Waldrop, September 03, 2006 I've since learned that the only real mistake I made was bringing it in the original box, but I opened the box, showed the scuffmarks on the LCD, I've had it for 9 months, 6 of them before I got here, and had a letter from the Argentine Consulate saying that under the circumstances no customs were due, they basically told me to screw off, put an arbitrary value to my TV, and then wouldn't let my wife do any of the talking for me (as she was outside of the security checkpoint). From: Frances Perry, September 06, 2006 Used clothing for personal use is duty free. Are the clothes still in the packaging / with tags? If not, you can claim them as used. In the future remove all tags and wash the clothing before sending. It then becomes “used” and will be duty free. Be sure to note that on the custom’s form. (click here to return to topic heading) There are several large malls where you can find the bigger department stores. "Patio Bullrich" in Recoleta between Posadas, Libertador, Montevideo and Libertad, super expensive / upscale items, they also have movie theatres and a Buque Bus outlet to buy ferry tickets to Uruguay. "Alto Palermo" has more reasonable prices in the 3000 block of Sante Fe, right off the Estacion Bulnes "D" subway stop "Abasto Shopping" at Corrientes and T.M. Anchorena is right off the Estacion Carlos Gardel "B" subway stop, in a really cool restored building, they have a small area on the 2nd floor for "local artisan" stuff which is better then the stuff you see in the outdoor artisan markets. There is also a child's museum and huge video game area. "Galaria Pacifico" on Florida and Cordoba, also a very cool old building. From: Frank E. Almeida, September 05, 2006 The only "department" store similar to what you mentioned would be Falabella. There are two locations in Buenos Aires, one is downtown on Florida street near the intersection of Corrientes, and the other one is in the suburbs. The rest of the retail landscape come in the form of smaller retailers. Really, the only big box retailer is Falabella. You will not find too many similar brands / merchandise over here. I mean there are some things but it really depends on the specifics of what you are looking for. From: Roxana Alonso, August 20, 2006 Also "Paseo Alcorta" in Palermo: Salguero y Figueroa Alcorta. All of these are not dept. stores. We call them "Shopping Centers" and its the closer experience to a mall in Capital Federal. There are a couple of malls in the suburbs but I dont hang out there. From: Gaucho Gringo, August 21, 2006 Unicenter is located in Martinez, just north of BA. It´s only a 15 min taxi ride from the Obelisco, in light traffic. Take the Illia highway straight down 9 de Julio, towards the river and by following the traffic it will take you to the Acceso Norte where you take the toll-free "colectora" on the right, in order to get off either the winding Parana exit or the next Edison exit which is a better way to get in... 5 blocks to the right (river), and you´ll see it. (If you take the middle toll lanes, you will pass Unicenter) I take the 2nd exit, you can´t miss it, it shows up right after passing the tall Unicenter sign-post. It must be one of the largest malls in the world, I can´t imagine many others this big. It´s also very nice and comfortable, not as fancy and artistic as Galerias Pacifico though. The reason it´s so big, is that it was the first real mall in Argentina and they placed it smack in the middle of where most of the wealthier population lives. Since land was already scarce, they actually bought out an entire "barrio" of about 4 x 5 square blocks, and demolished the fairly new houses. If you notice on the corner of Edison towards the river, there´s still a home-owner who evidently did not sell out.!! (If I were them, I´d sell out now to a Mc´Donalds and get something 5 times better for the same money!!) Rumor has it that when a competitor -they say Walmart-, showed interest in a similarly big lot in Beccar near the train to Tigre, apparently it was bought up by Cencosud (owner of Unicenter, Jumbo, and Easy Home). So why would they themselves make another mall so close to Unicenter with no real competition in between? I can´t vouch for this, but it seems like another case of corruption benefiting only a select few selfish officials, while the general population suffers the consecuences. Even the "Villa La Cava" slum, next door would have gained from the new jobs, security, economic lifting that area could have seen. So the land still sits there unavailable for any other use. About 10 years ago the mall was expanded to about double it´s original size, so they added 16 excellent cinemas, and underground parking. They later even bought up neighboring factories and companies to have additional parking space, which can still saturate during school vacations, weekends, etc. School-day afternoons are the best to go, since it´s used as a playing ground for city kids. Week-ends are just chaos. May I recommend the Arabian King´s as the best deal in the food court? The Dragon´s chinese place lost it´s great chef, and now it serves "Argentina style rice", too bad. (click here to return to topic heading) A "guarantor" is someone who vouches for you to cover any kind of unpaid expenses if you move out and there are bills or damage. Usually for expats, this is the company that is relocating them here. When we first moved here in 2000 some owners were very leery to rent to us because we didn't have a guarantor, thus, no one to vouch for us or protect the owner financially. The place we ended up renting wanted 6 months rent as a security deposit. Our realtor friend Olga, (we love her www.geocities.com/barentals ) told us we would never get the deposit back, "You NEVER do" she said. She engaged a lawyer to write up a deposit contract to ensure we would get the deposit back, spread out over the 2nd year of the 2 year lease, to whittle away at the deposit each month as part of the rent. Brian From the BANewComers list: On apartments - (click here to return to topic heading) We are starting a new website: http://www.indextar.com/ba .It is going to to be a directory of businesses, products and services for expatriates living here in Buenos Aires. Not only big companies will be included but individuals as well, so you can put thereinformation about plumbers, electricians and hairdressers that you recommend. (click here to return to topic heading) To work legally here, you must obtain a D.N.I. (Documento Nacional Identificacion) number. To get a D.N.I. you first need to obtain legal residency (see appropriate sections on obtaining residency). The lawyers who helped us obtain residency wanted another $400 USA to get the D.N.I., we asked why so much and they said it’s because it takes so long, almost all day, to wait in all the proper lines. This seemed a bit excessive so we asked our Argentine friends. Ignacio offered to go to the office to help us obtain the D.N.I., he took us down there himself and we learned the story from the guard. Every day they have 350 numbers, they start handing out the numbers at 8 am, people start lining up at 6 am. Once the 350 numbers are issued, that’s it, you have to come back another day if you didn’t get one of the 350. They can only process 350 people a day. Once you get the number, you get in line and wait. You have to have all the papers that you used to obtain residency. Once inside (don’t have anything to drink that day, you don’t want to use the bathrooms, this is not as new and as modern as the Immigrations office) there are several different lines that you are directed through. The D.N.I. costs 15 pesos, a picture for the D.N.I. is another 5 pesos. You then wait 60 – 90 days for your D.N.I. After this wait period you have to return to the office and wait in another long line, but luckily this line is faster then the first. I got there at 7:30 am and was out by 11:30 am. They give you a phone number to call to see if your D.N.I. is ready, but unfortunately no one picks up this phone. The first time, Ron and I waited over an hour only to be told it wasn’t ready and to come back in a week. Ministerio del Interior From Pete, July 2005 We returned to renew our D.N.I. and they now have a phone number for appointments so you don't have to wait in line for hours. 0800-666-6767 for an appointment, General Information 4393-0566 From: Daniela Melton, April 04, 2006 Re: Can some one please tell me whether I will require a birth certificate to get my DNI and residency? If so, do you know whether I would need just a normal "tarjeta" birth certificate, or a long form one which tells about my parents? you need the long form, it must be apostilled by the country of origin*, then translated and legalized in Argentina. *if you were born in a foreign country, as I was- and residing in the U.S., you need to have the birth cert apostilled by the country of issuance. I speak from experience here- I had to send mine back to Germany. They did not accept the apostille from the U.S. that I presented to them. Its good to know and can save you LOTS of time. (click here to return to topic heading)
Dr. Alicia Gerardi comes highly recommended. She has a private practice and can be reached at 4962-2077. English speaking. From: blackwell218, August 22, 2006 Hi, Tania...I highly recomend Dr. Sergio Escobar in Belgrano. Here is a link to his website: http://www.dr-sergioescobar.com.ar/ Tel. 4771-6149. He has just moved to a new nearby office location, so I suggest contacting the receptionist for his new address. I bring patients from USA, Canada, and Europe. His english is very good, and he is highly credentialed and respected. I see him often as a patient myself and can't say enough good things about him. I have been very happy with the service from Sra. Perla Elena Bilkis, at Rodriguez Peña, 94, Oficina 8D. Telephone: 4382-6097. My Spanish is poor, but Sra. Bilkis is one of those people who I found easy to communicate with. In addition, perhaps their prices (being in Congreso) are lower than in more expensive areas. I am recommending an Odontologist. Phone: 54-11-4813-7731 DRA. PATRICIA S. CAVALIERI, ODONTOLOGIST University of Buenos Aires. Specialities: Surgery,Prevention, Periodontics, Endodoncia, All kind of Prothesis,Prosthodontics,. Esthetic, Cosmetic and Restoration Dentistry with the most modern technology. Experience with expatriates, and foreigners patients of Embassies. Email: drapatriciacavalieri@yahoo.com.ar (click here to return to topic heading)
From BANewComers Jvanka August 20, 2005 Many of you had mentioned before about charitable associations. Some of you may not be present in Argentina but still would like to help from abroad. There is an organization helping in get all out of country donations to the right venues in Argentina, check it out: http://www.helpargentina.org/aboutha.php (click here to return to topic heading) Don't worry about how you dress, you'll be spotted 2 blocks away as a tourist no matter what you do, believe me after living here almost 4 years I can spot them too. I still look like a tourist myself, but now I can pick them out. People tend to dress nicely here, but it's no sin if you're in blue jeans and TShirts. Wearing tennis shoes are a dead give away you are a tourist, comfortable walking shoes like “Eccos” are better because they can double duty for going to a restaurant at night. If you are from the northern hemisphere, don’t forget, the seasons are “reversed” from what you expect. Check http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/ARBA0009_f.html for seasonal temperatures. There is no “rainy” or “dry” season here, so bringing a compact travel umbrella is a good idea. (click here to return to topic heading) Argentina insists on a DNI and ability to take the test in Spanish, written, verbal, etc So you need the residency, temporary or permanent to apply for the DNI. For BA, here is the link for the driver’s license: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/obr_publicas/lic_conducir/ Somebody made a real good point recently, that if your insurance company doesn’t payout to a third party on an accident caused by you, because you don’t have your driver’s license, then you are open to law suits and other general mayhem. So check with your insurance company if they payout if you bought a car here and are using your International driver’s license or your home country driver’s license. I sure would like to see feedback here on this topic. From: Richard, August 24, 2006 You might want to take a Spanish speaker along to help you through the maze... the DMV process in Argentina can be incredibly confusing. But, I remember that all the tests (physical, psychological, and theoretical) were strictly individual. I opted for the professional license (called D2 for 8+ passenger transport) and had to do a two day course completely in Spanish with a written and oral exam. From BANewComers: Frances Perry August 17, 2005 I am now the proud owner of an Argentine drivers license and am writing down the process for those thinking of going through the process. This is valid as of Aug. 17th 2005: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/obr_publicas/lic_conducir/licencias.php?menu_id=182 1. You must have valid DNI and valid foreign driver's licenses for this particular process. http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/obr_publicas/lic_conducir/ This building is located well in the southwest corner of GBA off the same freeway that goes to Eze. (click here to return to topic heading)
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