Registration, banking and utilities in Buenos Aires

The order it has to happen in

The sequence is regular entry, residence through the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, the DNI from RENAPER, then CUIL and CUIT, then a bank account, then utilities in your own name. Each step is gated by the one before it, since the bank asks for a DNI and a formal lease and utility contracts want a tax number. Work out which residence category you qualify for before you fly, because that choice sets everything downstream.

Which residence, under Ley 25.871

Residence comes in three shapes. Transitoria is a short stay of up to a year and does not give you a DNI. Temporaria, under article 23, runs up to three years and gives a temporary DNI; permanente, under article 22, is indefinite and gives a permanent one. There are 13 temporary categories, and the ones newcomers use are MERCOSUR nationality, rentista, pensionado, trabajador migrante, académico and estudiante.

• Rentista: regular income of at least 5 Salarios Mínimos Vitales y Móviles a month, derived from assets rather than from working, plus bank records proving the funds entered Argentina through authorised institutions.
• Trabajador migrante: a pre-contract signed by both parties covering the parties, the tasks, the hours, the duration, the workplace address and pay at the collective-agreement rate, with signatures certified by a notary or before a Migraciones official.
• Your employer must also produce its tax registration certificate and CUIT, be registered in the Registro Nacional Único de Requirentes de Extranjeros (RENURE), and file the alta temprana within 30 calendar days of the application being started. Check the RENURE registration before you accept the job.
• Temporary residence as a rentista or as a trabajador migrante is granted for one year, renewable.

RaDEX, and the documents

The application is filed online through RaDEX and there is no way to start it at a counter. You register as a user, complete the form and pay the tasas, upload the documents, and then receive an email giving the date of your in-person appointment. Every category also wants a valid passport or MERCOSUR travel document, proof of address in Argentina, evidence of regular entry and evidence of regular income.

• The Argentine criminal-record certificate from the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia is built into RaDEX and does not have to be obtained separately, and it is required only of applicants aged 16 and over. Pay the surcharge for a cita preferencial and it drops out of RaDEX: you then obtain it yourself and must bring it on the day.
• A foreign criminal-record certificate is needed only from countries where you lived more than one year during the last three, and again only from 16 upwards.
• Every foreign document needs consular legalisation or a Hague apostille, and anything not in Spanish needs a certified translation. Start that in the country you are leaving.
• Migraciones points to a cuadro de tasas migratorias for the fees. Ask for the current figures rather than budgeting from a forum post.

The DNI, from RENAPER

Book an appointment at a Centro de Documentación Renaper or a Registro Civil, pay the fee in advance, and attend with the payment receipt. At a Renaper centre the express, 24-hour and passport variants are paid at the moment of booking, through the mi Argentina app. A payment made by any method that is not online can take up to 48 hours to be reported to RENAPER, and the counter cannot start the trámite until the payment ID has been credited. Pay well before the appointment rather than the night before.

Numbers, the bank and the utility counter

CUIL is issued by ANSES, under the Ministerio de Capital Humano; CUIT and the clave fiscal come from ARCA, the tax and customs authority that replaced AFIP in late 2024 and answers on arca.gob.ar and on the old afip.gob.ar alike, so an old link still reaches the clave fiscal portal. The clave fiscal can be obtained, recovered or reset in the ARCA mobile app rather than at a counter. A caja de ahorro, the everyday peso savings account, is free by BCRA regulation, and you open it with your DNI, which evidences your name, your address and your place and date of birth. Electricity in the metropolitan area comes from either Edenor or Edesur depending on the address, and the regulator is now ENReGE, formed by merging the old ENRE and ENARGAS.

• Free by regulation: opening, monthly maintenance, the debit card, your own bank's ATMs, home banking, and one card replacement a year.
• Chargeable, and published on the bank's website: other banks' ATMs, ATMs in shopping centres and petrol stations, ATMs abroad, cheque deposits and international transfers.
• A bank may ask for additional requirements, but may not make you take a credit card or a loan as a condition of opening the account. Any change to the account's conditions must be notified 60 days in advance.
• ARCA answers on 0810-999-2722, Monday to Friday 09:00 to 16:00, and sees people in person only by appointment at the dependencia for your address. The city helpline, for anything the Buenos Aires government handles, is 147.
• The old enre.gov.ar and enargas.gob.ar addresses still resolve and now serve ENReGE, so either link reaches the right regulator.

In order

1. 1Pick your residence category and read its document list on the Migraciones site before you book a flight.
2. 2Collect foreign documents at home: criminal-record certificates from anywhere you lived over a year in the last three, legalised or apostilled, and translated.
3. 3Enter the country regularly and keep the entry record.
4. 4Register on RaDEX, complete the form, pay the tasas, upload everything, and wait for the appointment email.
5. 5Attend the in-person appointment, and keep any constancia de residencia precaria you are issued.
6. 6Book a RENAPER appointment for the DNI, pay in advance, and allow up to 48 hours for an offline payment to clear.
7. 7Get your CUIL from ANSES, and your CUIT and clave fiscal from ARCA using its app.
8. 8Open a caja de ahorro with your DNI, and refuse any attempt to tie a credit card or a loan to it.
9. 9Put electricity into your own name with Edenor or Edesur, whichever serves the address.
10. 10Create a miBA account at login.buenosaires.gob.ar; school enrolment, TAD and IVC complaints all run through it.