Argentina Sells Citizenship From $350,000 Amid Court Challenge

Argentina will sell citizenship for a non-refundable $350,000 contribution to the National Treasury, or an $800,000 subscription to a zero-interest government bond, with applications expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2026. Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli presented the programme in Paris on October 2, 2026, during Argentina Week. The promise carries a caveat that no marketing brochure prints: the entire programme rests on an emergency decree that two Argentine appeals courts have already found unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court has begun reviewing it.

What does the programme offer?

The principal applicant chooses between two routes:

• A direct, non-refundable payment of $350,000 to the Treasury.
• An $800,000 subscription to a government security paying zero interest. The government has not published its maturity or redemption terms; market descriptions mention a seven-year term, but officials have not confirmed this.

Family pricing runs lower per person. A spouse and unmarried, childless children aged 18 to 25 each require $100,000, and children under 18 require $25,000 each. A family of four with two minor children would pay $500,000 under the Treasury route.

All payments must pass through the formal financial system. A new body, the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programmes, will assess each application using reports from the State Intelligence Secretariat, the Financial Information Unit and the ministries of security and the interior. Checks will cover identity, the lawful origin of funds, assets, jurisdictional risk, criminal and reputational history, and migration history. The agency recommends; the National Directorate of Migration decides. The government says the framework follows OECD and Financial Action Task Force standards.

"We believe it will be among the best citizenships of this kind in the world," Caputo said. Santilli called it "Argentina opening its arms to citizens of the world who want to come and invest."

How competitive are the terms?

By market standards, the offer looks strong. The five Eastern Caribbean programmes agreed in 2024 on a minimum investment of $200,000, though family costs there often exceed headline figures. Argentina charges more but delivers more: visa-free access to the Schengen area and the United Kingdom, plus residence and mobility rights within MERCOSUR, from a large diversified economy rather than a microstate dependent on programme revenue.

At $25,000 per minor child, the pricing targets multigenerational families, a key segment for advisers to wealthy Latin American, Asian and Middle Eastern clients. Citizenship alone carries limited tax consequences, since Argentina taxes on residence, not nationality.

Why does the legal basis matter?

Decree of Necessity and Urgency 366/2025, signed on May 28, 2025, amended Argentina's citizenship law, which dates from 1869, allowing naturalization for a "relevant" investment regardless of residence, and moved the power to grant citizenship from federal courts to the migration authority. Decree 524/2025 set out the procedure in July 2025.

The courts have twice ruled against it. On June 18, 2026, a federal civil and commercial appeals chamber found no exceptional circumstances justified an emergency decree changing the citizenship regime. On June 30, the National Electoral Chamber declared the decree null, reasoning that citizenship is inseparable from political rights and that the Constitution bars emergency decrees on electoral matters. In September, the Electoral Chamber allowed the government's appeal, and the Supreme Court has begun its review.

Neither case involved an investment applicant; both concerned ordinary naturalization claims. Yet the reasoning applies to the decree as a whole. Opposition deputies Florencia Carignano and Paula Penacca have filed repeal bills, arguing that "citizenship cannot become an economic exchange."

What should applicants watch?

If the Supreme Court upholds the lower courts, the programme would need a statute from Congress to survive. If the government proceeds before a ruling, applicants would hold citizenship granted on a legal basis under active constitutional challenge. The market has seen this risk before: in April 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Malta's programme breached EU law, and the EU suspended visa-free access for Vanuatu passports.

The fiscal payoff also has limits. Even 1,000 Treasury-route approvals, an illustrative figure, would raise roughly $350 million before family contributions, a meaningful but small sum against Argentina's external financing needs. The bond route raises dollars at zero cost but creates a future repayment obligation. Over the next 12 to 24 months, the indicators to watch are the Supreme Court's ruling, any congressional action, the bond's published terms, and any EU response. In citizenship by investment, the passport is only as reliable as the law that grants it, and in Argentina that law has yet to be settled.