Argentine passports are issued to citizens of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

by the National Registry for People (ReNaPer). They were issued exclusively by the

Argentine Federal Police The Argentine Federal Police ( es, Policía Federal Argentina or PFA) is the national civil police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country. Until January 1, 2017, it also acted as the local la ...

up to 2011. Their primary use is to facilitate international travel. Argentine passports are valid for travel all over the world, but some countries require a visa. For traveling within

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

(except

the Guyanas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * G ...

), Argentines do not need to use a passport, as they may use their National Identity Document (DNI). On June 15, 2012, the Argentine Interior Ministry announced the immediate introduction of

biometric passport A biometric passport (also known as an e-passport or a digital passport) is a traditional passport that has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the pa ...

s. The new passports have unique numbers (alphanumerical combinations, with 3 letters and 6 numbers), a significant change from the previous policy, where passport numbers were the national ID number of the holders (with an N after it). Since December 2012, all new Argentine passports are biometric passports. As of 11 January 2022, Argentine citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 170 countries and territories, ranking the Argentine passport 19th in terms of travel freedom. The Argentine passport is the 2nd most powerful passport in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

after the Chilean passport and is the 4th most powerful overall in

the Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

, according to the

Henley Passport Index The Henley Passport Index (abbreviation: HPI) is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom enjoyed by the holders of that country's ordinary passport for its citizens. It started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions ...

Bureaucracy

In accordance with Presidential Decree 2015–66, in order to get an Argentine passport, a person must go to the nearest Civil Registry and present his/her National Identity Document, birth certificate and a proof of marital status (unless single). If the person is an Argentine citizen by

naturalisation Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

rather than by birth, a Citizenship Certificate (''carta de ciudadanía'') must also be presented. Citizens under the age of 18 may only get a passport with parental authorization. Argentines living outside the country must follow the same procedure at an Argentine Embassy or Consulate. Regular Passport price is 550 ARS. Applicants usually receive their passports via postal mail within 15 days. There is an express service (48 hours) for 1250 ARS and an ultrafast passport for 3675 ARS (550 ARS + 200 US$), only available at

Ministro Pistarini International Airport Ministro Pistarini International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini) , also known as Ezeiza International Airport owing to its location in the Ezeiza Partido in Greater Buenos Aires, is an international airport s ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, with the possibility of getting a passport in only 15 minutes, if there are any proofs (as a printed ticket) of an international flight for that same day. Since January 2011, in all cases, Argentine passports are valid for 10 years. Beforehand, they were valid only for 5-year periods. Passports are not issued to persons who are under arrest because of criminal offenses, or to those labeled 'dangerous' as per the South American Police Agreement of 1920.

Regular passport

In accordance with

Mercosur The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Argentina ...

regulations, it is blue-covered, with the legend ''MERCOSUR'' written on its top, followed by the country's name in Spanish (''REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA''), the

national coat of arms A national coat of arms is a symbol which denotes an independent state in the form of a heraldic achievement. While a national flag is usually used by the population at large and is flown outside and on ships, a national coat of arms is normally ...

and the word ''PASAPORTE'' (Passport). A biometric passport has the e-passport symbol at the bottom. It has a data page with a

machine-readable zone A machine-readable passport (MRP) is a machine-readable travel document (MRTD) with the data on the identity page encoded in optical character recognition format. Many countries began to issue machine-readable travel documents in the 1980s. Mos ...

and a

digital photograph Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is s ...

of the passport holder. All the information is written in Spanish and English. * Photograph * Type of document (''P'' for Passport) * Country code (''ARG'') * Passport number * Surname * Given names * Nationality * Date of Birth * DNI number (known officially in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as “personal number”) * Gender * Place of Birth (

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

and country code) * Issuing date * Expiration date * Signature * Fingerprint The previous version also included: * Passport copy (i.e. number of passports the bearer had before the current one) * Marital Status * Police-registry Number A map of South America appears on the back of Argentine passports, showing the country's location within the continent, with the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

and the Argentine Antarctic Claim (''Antártida Argentina'').

Passport message

Passports of many countries contain a message addressed to authorities of other countries identifying the bearer as a citizen of the issuing country, requesting that he or she be allowed to enter and pass through the other country, and requesting that, when necessary, he or she be given assistance consistent with international norms. In Argentine passports, the message is in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. The message is: In

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ::''En nombre del Gobierno de la República Argentina, la autoridad que expide el presente pasaporte ruega y solicita a todos aquellos a quienes puede concernir, dejen pasar libremente a su titular y prestarle la asistencia y protección necesaria.'' In

: ::''The Government of the República Argentina hereby requests all whom it may concern, to permit the bearer to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need, to give all lawful aid and protection''. In

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ::''Em nome do Governo da República Argentina, a autoridade que concede o presente passaporte roga e solicita às autoridades competentes, deixar passar livremente o titular e prestar-lhe toda a assistência e proteção necessária''. In French: ::''Au nom du Gouvernement de la République Argentine, l'autorité qui délivre le présent passeport demande à tous ceux qui pourraient être concernés, de laisser passer librement son titulaire et lui prêter l'assistance et la protection nécessaire''.

Other types of passport

The Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issues diplomatic passports (blue-covered) to Argentine diplomats accredited overseas and their eligible dependents, and to citizens who reside in Argentina and travel abroad for diplomatic work. The Ministry also issues official passports (blue-covered) to Government employees assigned overseas, either permanently or temporarily, and their eligible dependents, and to members of Congress who travel abroad on official affairs. Argentine Official Passport

Under special circumstances, if a woman is stateless but married to an Argentine citizen, the Federal Police will issue a ''Pasaporte de Esposa de Argentino'' (Argentine wife's passport) in order to leave the country. The same applies for persons under the age of 18 who were adopted by Argentine parents.

References

External links

*
Documentación Personal - Policía Federal Argentina

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120206205004/http://www.passportland.com/images/dealzaga-ricardo/dealzaga-ricardo.html Images of a well-travelled 1965 Argentine passportfrom www.passportland.com {{Passports