This guide walks the Pensionado route — Argentine residency through retirement income — from John's tourist stamp to a one-year permit, mapped to the weeks he has left.
New to this? Start with find your lane below to confirm Pensionado is your route — then work the milestones in order.
Most people assume everyone follows the same path — and that's where the information breaks down. These five routes share most of the same machinery: documents, apostilles, certified translation, the RaDEX filing, the DNI. They differ mainly in what you have to prove — income, investment, or enrollment. Confirm Pensionado is your lane before following the milestones below. MERCOSUR citizens and the immediate family of Argentine nationals have separate, simpler routes.
The official residency process runs almost entirely in Spanish. The RaDEX portal, government forms, the documents you sign at a notary, and the in-person Migraciones interview are all Spanish-only. Your US paperwork must also be translated by a certified Argentine translator (milestone 06).
You don't need to be fluent — but you do need a plan for the Spanish-only touchpoints:
Milestones below are marked Spanish when that step puts you in front of Spanish forms, offices, or people.
The work falls into four phases, shown as coloured tracks below. Urgent tasks start immediately. Paperwork — pension letter, apostilles, translation, insurance — runs in parallel. In Argentina covers local setup and the filing itself. The final steps come once your Precaria lands. Most milestones break into smaller checklist items — open any card to see them.