📝 usncan Note: A Game-Changer With U.S. Visa Waiver Potential
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The Nuevo Gulf, Valdes Peninsula, Argentina, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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When the Argentina golden visa program launches soon, it could become a significant player in the global market, because it intends to rejoin the U.S. visa waiver program, and because it offers visa-free access to China and the Schengen area (Europe), with favorable tax advantages for expats.
More Americans are keenly searching for ways to live abroad and how and where to obtain second passports, and Argentina is certainly one to watch. But what are the upsides and downsides to the Argentina golden visa program that is launching very soon?
Argentina Golden Visa—Its New Citizenship-By-Investment Program Will Be Launched Soon
Currently, Argentina offers one of the quickest citizenship-by-naturalization programs globally, allowing Americans the right to a permanent stay after two years of legal residency. Ideally, applicants should be employed or have ties to the country, such as property ownership.
However, Argentina is also launching a new citizenship-by-investment program, otherwise known as a golden visa, that is expected to roll out at the end of 2025 or early 2026.
Golden visa programs allow non-nationals to gain citizenship or residency in a country through investment. Critics believe that golden visa programs enable applicants to bypass the residency requirements that apply to the rest of the population, such as language proficiency and the need to be in a country for a specific duration before they can apply. There is also an argument that golden visas enable corruption and money laundering. Both of these arguments—fairness and corruption—have led to many golden visa programs being closed or reduced across the EU, and indeed, Portugal is one of the few thriving European golden visa programs. On the other hand, advocates believe that golden visa programs inject money into thirsty economies.
The Argentina golden visa program is expected to ask for an investment of $500,000 in sectors like technology, agribusiness, energy, or tourism in return for the immediate right to live there and seek nationality.
Someone who has Argentinian citizenship has the right to visit 172 countries without a visa, plus the chance to live in the Mercosur countries, such as Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, offering more avenues to live and work in more countries.
Argentina brought its citizenship-by-investment program into law in July 2025, just two months after its announcement, and now just needs to formalise investment ceilings and establish application procedures. It’s a quick turnaround, advertising just how keen the government is to open this door.
Jeremy Savory, founder and CEO of Savory & Partners, a wealth mobility firm, says of the program, “This would be a major development in the global citizenship landscape as the country offers no worldwide taxation for non-residents, visa-free access to 160+ destinations including the Schengen Area and China, and a fast-track to Spanish citizenship in just two years upon relocation. It is a powerful mobility and tax arbitrage play.”
Argentina Aims To Rejoin The U.S. Visa Waiver Program
Two months ago, at the end of July 2025, President Donald Trump and Argentine leader Javier Milei, announced that they were preparing the way forward for Argentinian passport holders to enter the U.S. without a visa. The Washington Post reported this as “an effort that both governments framed as a political reward for Milei ahead of legislative elections in the fall”.
The visa waiver program, orchestrated by the Department of Homeland Security as well as the State Department, allows citizens of 41 countries to travel to the U.S. up to 90 days without a visa for either work or pleasure. These include countries in the EU, Israel, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK. The only Latin American country currently in the Visa Waiver Program is Chile.
Argentina joined the visa waiver program in the 1990s but was removed by the U.S. in 2002. According to Congress.gov reports, one of the reasons was that a large number of Argentinians were entering the U.S. under the visa waiver program but were staying longer than the 90-day allocation and remaining in the country illegally.
Trump has reportedly called Milei his favorite president, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a trip to Argentina that “under President Javier Milei’s leadership, Argentina is becoming an even stronger friend to the United States—more committed than ever to border security for both of our nations”. Noem announced on this trip that fewer than 1% of Argentinians overstay their welcome by staying longer than the allotted 90 days. (This is technically true for tourist visas, but when all visas are taken together, Uruguay has a lower overstay rate.)
It should be noted that the process by which countries enter the U.S. visa waiver program can take years and there is a key data point highlighted by a State Department cable from the Argentinian embassy to Washington that suggests the process would be even more complicated; roughly 10% of Argentinians who apply for this sort of visa are rejected, and this is above the statutory 3% required to participate in the visa waiver program. There were 30 countries in 2024 that had visa refusal rates lower than Argentina, and the only Latin American country currently fulfilling this requirement is Chile.
The move would also obviously contradict the current rise in travel bans and the crackdown on illegal immigration by President Trump’s government.
But for Savory, the devil will be in the details of how Argentina structures its golden visa program, which their company has already seen a spike in interest in from U.S. investors. “If Argentina waives physical stay requirements and introduces a family-friendly structure, it will position itself ahead of Turkey and potentially fill the void left by Malta, after its program closure. At $500,000, this would be one of the most strategically-priced ‘Plan B’ passports available to serious investors. Especially if, as expected, Argentina rejoins the U.S. visa waiver program.”
Argentina Golden Visa—The Country Offers An Affordable Cost Of Living
A new study by Argentina Expat, a media publication for expats and Americans considering international retirement in the country, highlights just how far American dollars can go when starting a new life in Latin America.
The study looked at how long $1 million would last, declaring that “in most cosmopolitan hubs on our list, the same savings can support a retirement that spans decades, far exceeding what would be possible in most major U.S. cities.”
The study explains that a $1 million nest egg might last 95 years in Cuenca, Ecuador, but just 41 years in Panama City, Panama. Both are popular retirement hubs for Americans and global digital nomads, but they offer very different financial outlooks.
Incidentally, Argentina also offers a digital nomad visa of its own.
Argentina Golden Visa—There Are Other Considerations
Buenos Aires in Argentina came 74th in a 2025 study on the Happiest Cities in the World Index, and the country clearly offers everything for adventurous, cultural expats. Lonely Planet could not put it better when it says, “Blessed with the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean framing its east, the mighty Andes crowning the west, a subpolar ice kingdom to the south, the jungled beauty of the northeast and the tablecloth of the Pampas blanketing its center, Argentina stands as a titan of South America.”
This titan comes with some considerations, however. It can be tricky to start a new life overseas, and even golden visa programs require some time spent in the country to maintain residency. It can feel remote, requiring long-haul flights to stay connected to family, friends, and business, and it might not be considered politically predictable. In addition, one other factor might come into play when considering the Argentina golden visa; while Argentina allows dual citizenship, once you have citizenship, you cannot renounce it.
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