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Last week, during President Obama’s visit to Argentina, Argentina suspended the $160 fee required for Americans to visit.
While this is, for the moment, a temporary suspension of the fee (which you can check the official status of here), this is widely expected to lead to a permanent elimination of the fee.
This follows a series of sane decisions by the newly elected government, like letting the currency float freely to eliminate the black market for dollars and terrible distortion to the economy and possibilities for theft by well-connected people.
I paid the reciprocity fee, which is good for ten years, in February 2013. I have entered the country several times with that payment, so I feel I got my money’s worth. Of course, Argentina is smart to remove the fee, which will increase the amount of American tourism.
Use the $160 you’ll save for intra-Argentina flights like the one I took in November to Salta to drive through the Quebrada de Humahuaca.
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The temporary stay on the reciprocity fee expires a couple weeks before we’re due to arrive in Argentina. Luckily, I haven’t paid yet, but I’m worried that if the waiver is not made permanent, at least in time for us to be there, we only have a couple weeks. Did the payment of the fee grant instant approval to go into the country, or does it take some time for processing?
I remember it being instant. You pay. You print. Maybe it takes a few hours or days, but you have plenty of time. And this is 99.9% likely to become permanent.
I expect the suspension to become permanent, but it depends what happens with efforts to include Argentina in the US Visa Waiver Program. Australians and Canadians are still liable to pay the fee (though a smaller amount).