Guide
Debts before the move: what to close and what can come along
Debts don't block Argentine residency — the migration office looks at income, not your credit load. But an unserviced debt in another country quickly becomes a problem that's awkward to fix from ten thousand kilometers away. Let's sort out what to do with what.
The audit: three piles of debt
Before the move it pays to sort obligations into three piles:
- Close before leaving: expensive consumer loans and cards, small tails — fines, subscriptions, installments
- Service remotely: a mortgage and large loans with autopay set up from an account back home
- Restructure: anything that will slip into arrears if your income dips after the move
The mortgage and renting the place out
The classic mover's combo: the apartment is rented out, the rent covers the mortgage payment, and the difference adds to your income. Check two things: whether your bank allows renting out a mortgaged property, and whether the stream left after the payment is the one you plan to show the migration office — for rentista, what counts is the income you actually receive.
Set up autopay with a buffer in your home-country account: a payment missed over an exchange-rate gap is the most annoying kind of arrears.
Credit history doesn't relocate
Your credit score stays in your country: in Argentina you start from a blank slate, and it cuts both ways. You won't get local credit at first (and the credit market here is minimal anyway — the country runs on full payment), but old debts don't directly touch your Argentine life either. The key is not to pile up arrears back home: returning to a ruined history is unpleasant, and court-ordered collection can reach foreign assets too.