One More Flag . . . .Planted! (Second Citizenship)
Arlean Displays Argentina Citizenship Certificate Outside the Court in Buenos Aires
My application for Argentina citizenship was approved two weeks ago. This week marked my court date and I appeared, along with my attorney, Gabriel Celano, in the court offices for the oath and presentation of the certificate, which you see in the picture. At the moment of this photo, I was a brand new citizen of Argentina.
Me with my attorney, Gabriel Celano, just outside the judge´s quarters.
This citizenship is one more flag successfully planted. It gives me the right to visit, work and/or live in the MERCOSUR countries as far north as Colombia and including Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, as well as to enter a myriad of other countries on this, my second passport.
For those who are wondering, you are not required to give up any another citizenship. Dual or multiple citizenships are lawful in Argentina, and many other countries. In fact, I am acquainted with one Argentina citizen who holds four other citizenships. One of them is from the United States.
That seems a little much to me but–to each his own. And as far as the United States is concerned, dual citizenship does not threaten your U.S. citizenship. In fact, if you decided to get rid of your U.S. citizenship you’d find that it can be done, but they will not give you up easily. You have to go through an application process.
American citizens do not lose their Social Security even when they renounce U. S. citizenship, but there are some government pensions that you can lose by renouncing so one would need to proceed with caution on taking that step,
And here is the judge who approved my citizenship and welcomed me as a citizen of Argentina. This man was gracious enough to pose for a photo. In case you wonder, the gift on the desk is chocolates from my attorney.
In my case, the entire process of citizenship in Argentina, from my attorney´s first filing to certificate was 8 months 12 days. The attorney himself said that has to be a record. Of course before you file, you must live in the country for one year and comply with the requirements for citizenship. The reason for filing after one year is that it normally takes about a year to complete the process so by the time your required second year of residency is complete, the citizenship process should also be complete.
And yet there is no guarantee. It is up to the judge. If he finds something that he does not like in your paperwork, he can always reject it. Then you have other recourse so it is not even necessarily over then. But if all is well, at present things are going smoothly.
It was very encouraging to be able to respond to the questions of the judge this week–in Spanish. Just a few short months ago I would not have been able to do that. What I am learning now seems cumulative. I continue just to spend a little time every day with the Spanish course. We heard from one reader last week thanking us for recommending it because he was finding it fun.
It is fun to me most of the time. I will be honest and tell you that some days I just don’t feel like doing it, and I skip if I really feel that way. But even then I try to do at least a little. For you who are taking the course, I am now in Module 9. Each module has several sets of lessons with it. I am always happy to have a new module to see what I will learn that I can use. When I first started I would work on one lesson until I had it perfect. I got bored with that so now I listen to all the new lessons (and participate), then go back and do it again from the start of the new module. A lot of it is new conversation only using words already learned, but adding in new words or expressions. At this point, it is surprising how easy it is to pick up the new words.
For our new subscribers, in this course you learn the language the same way you learned your first language—by hearing and repeating. No book study, no conjugations. You do learn to conjugate but by practice, hearing it used correctly, and by use. To get sample lessons and check out the Spanish course: https://www.fourflagsjournal.com/learn-spanish-fast/. The sample lessons are free.
For those of you who have said you would like to join us here in the Deep South but you don’t think you could learn a language at your age, most of us know that I am 75 years old so don’t tell me about your age! I don’t buy that one! But again, you can live here without the Spanish, but I am finding it fun to learn and to speak it. What an adventure! And it’s more convenient. If you just work a little every day on it, you will be surprised by your progress. Just take it a day at a time and you will be speaking very good Spanish. This week I laughed out loud at the judge. I asked him Por Favor desculpe me malo espanol. Please forgive my bad Spanish. He said, “Tu espanol es perfectamente.” You speak Spanish perfectly. What a generous and kind man.
As for that second citizenship, Mission Accomplished!
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Hello Arlean,
I was encouraged by your success and was wondering if you could answer a few question for me. This of course if you know the answers.
My wife and son andi are full time missionaries presently living in Costa Rica, we have been working here in the mountains with the poor villages for almost 21 years. Unfortunatelly for us we do not meet the needed capitol requirements of Costa Rica to nationalise as my SS is only $630 a month and they require $1000 just for me and my wife and an additional fee for my son.
The cost of living here in CR has been rising to the point that it is very difficult for us to make it month to month….mostly that is due to our having to eave the country every three months to renew our visas and for three people the total cost to us is just under $300. That requires me to put aside $100 each month to cover those expenses and leaves me with only $530 to live on. Not enough to barely get by these days!
I said all that to ask this….what is the minimum requirement for applying in Argentina? Do you know of anything I could do as a missionary that would help us to get settled in? We only come to help the poor and be a blessing to the country that we live in.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Possibly the name of your attorney and a phone number would be helpful as well.
Thanks for your reply!
God bless,
Ernie
Hi Ernie, that income would not work in Argentina either for three people. I am traveling right now without access to my records, but our attorney is listed in at least one article on citizenship in Argentina. It is possible you could qualify in Paraguay. You could try posting at http://www.totalparaguay.com and ask there. It´s a pretty good site for savvy people about what you can and can´t do there. In fact, you might like working with people in Paraguay, but you might have to learn yet another language, guarani. However, most missionaries have additional supporters. It is possible that could help you qualify if you are one of those. Good luck. Arlean