Argentina visa requirements: who needs one, and who does not

Key takeaways

• US, Canadian, UK, EU, Australian and most Latin American passports enter Argentina for tourism without needing one, for up to 90 days.
• There is no reciprocity fee left to budget for. Argentina suspended it for the US in 2016, for Australia in 2017 and for Canada in 2018.
• A visa-exempt passport does not need six months of validity, only enough to cover the trip. That rule belongs to the visa application, not to ordinary tourist entry.
• Argentina does not stamp passports and does not hand out an arrival or departure card. There is nothing to fill in at the border.
• If your nationality is not visa-exempt, the process runs through an Argentine consulate and is worth starting weeks ahead, not days.

Argentina visa requirements: who is exempt

Argentina’s own tourist information page lists who can enter for tourism without a visa, and for how long. The exempt group is wide. It covers the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, most of the European Union and nearly every country in Latin America. All of them get up to 90 days per stay.

That matters at Iguazú, where the falls straddle a border. Argentina has made no change to its own visa-free entry. The country on the other side of the same falls has: our guide to three days at Iguazu Falls covers a separate e-visa that country has asked US, Canadian and Australian passports for since 10 April 2025. Crossing into Iguazú from the Argentine side needs none of that. It is only the far side of the same falls that changed.

Citizens of a country not on Argentina’s exempt list still need a visa. It has to be arranged through a consulate before travel. There is no visa on arrival, and no way to buy one at the border.

What passport you actually need

Exempt nationalities need a valid passport. Nothing more specific than that. The UK government’s travel advice and the US State Department guidance agree on this point, and neither mentions a minimum number of months of remaining validity for a tourist entry. The UK’s own wording is direct: the passport “must be valid for the proposed duration of your stay.”

That is worth knowing because the six-month rule is real, just not for this group. It shows up in Argentina’s own tourist visa procedure for nationalities that do need a visa, where a passport valid for at least six months is one of the consular requirements. If your passport is visa-exempt, that condition does not apply to you.

The reciprocity fee is gone

Argentina used to charge US, Canadian and Australian visitors a reciprocity fee, priced to match what an Argentine traveller pays for a visa to their country. For Canadian passports it was US$100. Nobody pays it now. The US exemption started on 24 March 2016, Australia’s followed on 1 July 2017, and Canada’s ended on 1 January 2018. A lot of advice written before those dates is still online. It will tell you to budget for a fee that has not existed for years.

There is no arrival or departure form

Argentina does not issue an entry or exit card to fill in. The UK government’s travel advice states it plainly: “Immigration authorities no longer stamp passports on entry.” Your crossing is recorded electronically instead. If you ever need proof of an entry or exit date, that has to come from the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, not from a stamp in the passport.

If you already hold a US visa

There is one narrow shortcut worth knowing. Citizens of a handful of countries that would normally need a full Argentine visa can instead apply for the AVE (Autorización de Viaje Electrónica) if they already hold a valid US visa in categories such as B1, B2, H-1B or O. The AVE is decided within 20 business days, and once granted it stays valid for three months from issue, with the same 90 days of stay as everyone else. It is not a substitute for the exempt list above. It only helps travellers who would otherwise be starting from zero at a consulate.

Argentina visa requirements if you are not exempt

Start at the Argentine consulate covering your country, not at the border. The visa procedure asks for a passport valid for at least six months. It also asks for a return ticket, proof of a hotel booking or an invitation, and a consular fee. An interview usually comes next, and holding the paperwork is no guarantee: the consulate can still say no.

Check Argentina’s own tourist information page too. It has a country-by-country tool, and it is the more current source than a blog post or a visa agency’s website. Rules for individual nationalities change without much notice, and the government page is where the change shows up first.

Before you book

For the passports this site’s travellers usually carry, Argentina asks for less than most people expect. A passport that covers the trip, no fee, no form. What still deserves planning is everything after the border: how you pay, what you book ahead, how the days fit together. Our guide to paying in Argentina covers the money side, and the Buenos Aires traditional 5-day tour package, along with the rest of the Argentina tour packages, covers the first week once the passport question is out of the way.