March 2013.

A few days ago we re-entered Argentina, this entry was the 10th time in the last
3 years we have entered Argentina with our british registered vehicle.
We crossed at 'Paso Jama' which is a busy border crossing north of Salta between
Chile & Argentina.
On entry the Aduanna officer was a little hesitant as his computer showed our
vehicle already 'in' Argentina, in fact his computer showed our vehicle 'in'
Argentina 3 times.
It appears that on 3 occasions we had exited and yet the temporary vehicle
permit had not be cancelled.
Now just to be clear all these exits were official and completely above board
with us submitting our permit on exit to the officer at the particular border
post.

The 'Paso Jama' officer allowed us entry but would only offer 3 months permit
(we usually receive 8) and he insisted we attend the office in Salta to get
these outstanding permits cancelled off the system.

The connection between all 3 permits was that each was an exit and one or the
other of the more remote border crossings. I assume that these remote crossings
do not have a connection to the main computer database and thus the permit does
not get cancelled (incidentally, the first one was a permit from 2011).
Now of course we have no way of knowing that they have not closed us off the
system, we have done all we are obliged to do and the issue only arises when a
diligent officer finally raises it upon a subsequent entry. At which point it
could well be a problem (entry refusal?).

Today we found the main AFIP office in Salta and easily located the 'aduanna'
department.
The staff here were both friendly and helpful and to be fair had no problem
about closing off these outstanding permits (our passports proving dates of
exit).

I would advise any other travellers to perhaps take a copy of their vehicle
permit and upon exit to ensure the exit aduanna stamps that copy with your date
of exit and then of course you can retain the copy as proof if needed upon any
subsequent entry.

A few other interesting points came up in our conversations with the AFIP staff.
1 ) LENGTH OF PERMIT TIME ?
The aduanna officer at point of entry is not obliged to any fixed term. They can
offer up to 8 months (8 out of 10 of our entries have been 8). However, certain
staff may only offer 3 months or even less! it is their particular discretion at
the time.

2 ) EXTENDING PERMIT LENGTH WITHIN ARGENTINA ?
This is easy but cannot be done until the exisiting permit has 15 days or less
to run. At that time just visit any aduanna office and they will extend the
permit for another 6 months. (not sure of any great advantage to this, but
there you are, that's the rules!)

3 ) ADDING AN 'AUTHORISED' PERSON TO VEHICLE PERMIT ?
Again, yes this is permissable, the vehicle owner AND the person wanted to be
authorised for driving must BOTH be in attendance at time of vehicle permit
issue (or amendment).
Now this could be of great advantage to anyone wishing to either 'transfer
ownership' or for 'lending' their vehicle to another. Obviously once another
persons name is added to the permit as authorised then the owner would not
necessarily need to be in attendance for the vehicle to be used within Argentina
or for that matter for the vehicle to be taken out of Argentina. interesting!

4 ) LEAVING VEHICLE IN ARGENTINA ?
No problem. This is permitted. however, the person is supposed to return to
argentina before expiry of vehicle permit.
I have heard, though not experienced ourselves when we left, that people have
been refused exit at the airport because they had an outstanding vehicle permit.
seems odd this ?? perhaps there was another reason involved in that particular
case ???


Phil & Angie

www.philflanagan.com

Hi Phil,

We have had the same thing, that remote borders controlled not by immigration and aduana, but by the military have had an enormous lag in entering data in the computers. Probably that's why. We couldn't even extend our visa due to a mishap like that.

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

Hey Phill & Angie, very helpful information, thanks.
Was the extra person supossed to be with me at the boarder crossing?
Do you know if it is possible to add an extra person, while in Argentina? If so
what office, organisation do i go to for such an amendment to my permit?

I went to Guayleguachu/Fray Bentos border today to extend my motorcycle visa to Argentina, expecting 8 month. The custom clerk decided to give 3 month and no argument would make him change his mind.

No problem, i crossed the border back to Uruguay, got another 12 month permit and found professional parking in Fray Bento for 25 USD/month (closed parking with roof). More convenient after all than the argentine 8 month. Everybody there seemed to be willing to host the vehicule, i just had to find the best price/security offer.

Fray Bento is the nearest border crossable by road from Buenos Aires (300km), a charming little town with low insecurity and very friendly population. I would recommend it for anybody thinking about leaving a vehicule in South America.