Some friends have informed me that the Argentine government has actually gone through with increasing the fee for overstaying your tourist visa from $50 pesos to $300 pesos for non-Mercosur residents and to $100 pesos for Mercosur residents. The change, which went into effect on April 21^st, 2009, affects all foreigners in Argentina on tourist visas.

Tourist visas expire after 90 days, and there are three common ways that most choose to renew their tourist visa and continue residing in Argentina. They are the following:

1. Go to the Migraciones office at least a day before your visa expires and pay $300 pesos to extend your visa for 90 more days.

2. Take the Buquebus ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay. (This option is recommended if you want to take a day trip somewhere, as it is a fun little excursion, but it isn’t necessarily the most cost effective.)

3. Overstay and pay the now $300 peso fine when you leave at the airport.

While option number 3 may seem like your best choice, I have heard of airport immigration officials warning tourists that overstaying more than 3 times can cause you to lose the right to enter Argentina. However, typically Argentine immigration can be pretty lax, so it remains to be seen if that is actually enforced. You may not want to risk it though…

Check out IMAS for more information.