Lived experience of dealing with Argentine customs
 

I started my travel one year ago shipping my bike to Buenos Aires. Each time i entered Argentina again, i was given 3 month and my bike 8 month. In June i had to go back to France for 4 month and left it in Formosa at a local motoquero house i met there. Before leaving the country, i decided to visit Asuncion and while coming back i didnt see i only was granted 3 month for the bike. I noticed it the day after and didnt have time to go back to the border to get more.

Coming back, i had to understand how to solve the problem. My friend told me that a small bribe would certainly solve the problem. So we contacted a friend of a friend used to deal with papers from illigal bikes of Argentines. Weeks passed with sparse news and after 5 weeks we were told that it would cost 300 dollars to make new papers at distance.

I thought i had enough solid arguments to claim my good faith and decided to face the aduana. At the border, i first met the officer that gave me the 3 month transit allowance. He told me that since the owner has to leave the country with his vehicule, he couldnt give the bike more time that the time given to the owner. I replied that all other borders gave automaticly 8 month to which he reacted suspiciously saying that it sounded very strange.

I asked to meet the chief officer whose i had the name. After one hour, i met him and re explained my case. He said that since the bike overstayed he didnt have the authority to take a decision and had to contact the top chief officer who wasn t there. He phoned and got the reply. The bike had to be sequestred. The guy seemed to be sorry about it and did believe my statement about the other custom offices. So i left the bike in the office and went back to Formosa.

The day after i took the bus to Clorinda town to the AFIP local office. I was given to meet a secretary that explained i had to be fined because of the overstay. I asked to meet the boss but wasn t there. Since he was meant to come back in 2 hours i waited...for nothing, he never showed up. The secretary told me i had to go back the day after since they needed time to evaluate the vehicule. So i once again defended the case, talking about the 8 month, explaining that the law was done to penalise people living in Argenina trying to evade taxes not for travellers. She stood firm on the delictual case but replied that the fine was not a fix amount but graduable depending on the understanding of the good faith of the person.

Coming back the next day, i much more pessimistic that the day before. I finally got the news. The maximum fine was the customs value of the vehicule, 2800 pesos, but the fine was fixed to the minimum, 1% of that amount, so 28 pesos (7 Euros).

The conclusion is that it would have cost much more to do it the illegal way (200 Euros to 7 Euros). Never at the border was i offered to pay a bribe to solve the problem quickly. The tone of officers was generally polite and respectful. The case gave them a lot of work, a file of about 50 pages. They even gave me a ride in a private car to go back to the border and pick the bike. You cant even pay the fine in the customs office, you have to go to a bank, obviously to avoid any temptation...

In the car, the lady that was driving me back acknowledged that the officer did a mistake giving only 3 month to a foreigner, since this is the maximum time given to foreign vehicules driven by residents. So i paid for not resolving the problem before leaving but since i could prove with my passport stamps that i was truely travelling, the sanction was fixed to the lowest possible.

If you ever end up in a similar situation and are of good faith, the best solution, at least in Argentina, is to go to the border and explain the problem. It will certainly cost you some time (2 days for me) but from my experience they do not try to take advantage of the situation in an unsound way.

Honesty is the best policy
 

An interesting read Vorteks; you did well to stick with the honest approach and, after all, what is a couple of days when travelling distance.

You also gained some experience in meeting with and dealing with people, especially public officials in this case, which turned out well.

Good news!
 

Happy for you and your bike.Sometimes you hear horror stories of impounded bikes.....
Tres bien Phillipe
KH

Hola Philippe

Es una buena noticia para vos y para los argentinos. Parece que no hacemos tan mal las cosas o al menos tratamos de corregir los errores. Nos vemos pronto

Raúl

..A word of precautions for everybody... In general DON'T TRIED TO BRIBE GENDARMERIA ARGENTINA (argentinean patrol borders). That's guy generally are better paid than common locally LEO forces and they're very, very good trained for that specific situation.
If you tried to bribe you must look very suspicions and you can finish whit your bike impound and you in an eternal bureaucratic problem.
Because Argentinean border patrol must deal whit all kind of tourist and common smuggler in frontier they're very open to hear your problem and tried to fixed but rarely they can bend the law.:thumbup1::thumbup1:

There seems to be different opinions at the border sometimes they give the bike 3 months sometimes 8. At one border the officers had a big discussion because my bike was given 8 months. They took all my papers back and went in the back and were talking a long time. I saw a lady get a book and they start looking up the law. In the end the gave me 3 months. I didn't care because I was driving in and out of Argentina and Chile. Sometimes they gave me 8 months sometimes 3, more often 3.

..Let me clarified this point here..

Law say you can get a permit UP TO 8 MONTHS but don't say is automatically... what that means???
Sometimes depends you.. they can give you 3 months (90 days) or 8 months..Other point.. you can renovate that permit in any AFIP (tax institution) if you want to stay as tourist.
So.. if you get 90 days and you want to stay longer, don't worry.. just go at any AFIP place and present your visa (of course visa must be in order) and ask about renovate your permit.. I don't think they can give you more than 8 months total but if you can demonstrate your bike is not working and need more time or any no questionable reason, they can give you an extension.
Finally they don't want you left bike in the country.. DON'T DO THAT!!!:nono: Bike is registered in your passport and you can have problems in custom when your tried to return.
In that case if you're detected, you must pay a big fine (80% bike value under KBB book).:funmeterno:
SO.. if you want to sell your bike in Argentine, be very very careful.

I left my bike in Argentina, flew home, returned, no problem. No stamp in my passport. People leave bikes at Dakar Motors all the time and return months later. I always got 8 months, although I had to give a good reason- one time it took 1 1/2 hours but I was not leaving until I got it. Going into Ushuaia I was automatically given 12 months as are most bikers.

Argentina is indeed not the best place to leave your bike if you have to leave for a long time.

In Paraguay, for example, no vehicule transit permit is delivered at the entrance of the country. Bikes can stay as long as you want. The reason? A much more flexible, almost inexistent, tax system.