Official · 02.10.2026Argentina announces South America's first Citizenship by Investment Programme→
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The Programme

From decree to Paris: a dated history

Argentina's programme took 16 months to move from a line in an emergency decree to a price list in Paris. These are the dates that shaped it.

Updated 6 min readSourced from official announcements

Key facts

  • 29 May 2025: DNU 366/2025 creates the legal route to citizenship through investment.
  • July 2025: Decreto 524/2025 sets up the Agency and the procedure.
  • March–April 2026: a master-agent tender is evaluated, then cancelled.
  • June 2026: two appeal courts rule against DNU 366/2025; the government appeals to the Supreme Court.
  • 2 October 2026: prices and structure announced in Paris.

Most coverage of Argentina’s citizenship by investment programme starts in Paris. The real story began more than a year earlier, inside a broad emergency decree on migration. This timeline sets out the key dates, with sources, so that advisers and families can see how the programme reached its current shape.

The timeline at a glance

Date Event
29 May 2025 DNU 366/2025 published in the Boletín Oficial. It amends Ley 346 to allow naturalisation for a “relevant investment”, regardless of residence time.
31 July 2025 Decreto 524/2025 published. It regulates the procedure and sets up the Agency.
Late 2025 Ministry of Economy launches an international tender for a programme operator.
20 January 2026 Tender bids are opened.
6 March 2026 Trade press reports a four-firm consortium recommended with 88 points.
14 April 2026 The tender is cancelled by Ministry of Economy Resolution 522/2026.
18 June 2026 Federal civil and commercial appeals court (Chamber III, Volosh case) strikes down the decree’s transfer of citizenship decisions to Migraciones.
30 June 2026 Cámara Nacional Electoral declares DNU 366/2025 unconstitutional.
1 July 2026 Government says it will appeal to the Supreme Court.
2 October 2026 Programme announced at Argentina Week in Paris.
Q4 2026 Applications due to open.

May 2025: the decree

DNU 366/2025 was a wide-ranging emergency decree. It changed rules on migration, access to public health and universities for foreigners, and citizenship. For this programme, the key change was to Article 2 of Ley 346, the 1869 citizenship law.

The new text kept a route for foreigners over 18 with two years of continuous, legal residence. It added a second route: foreigners who show the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones that they have made a relevant investment, “regardless of the time of their residence”. A new Article 2 bis gave the Ministry of Economy power to decide which investments count.

The decree also moved naturalisation decisions from federal judges to Migraciones. That administrative shift later became the centre of the legal challenge. See naturalisation vs investment.

July 2025: the regulations

Decreto 524/2025 appeared in the Boletín Oficial on 31 July 2025. It set out the procedure:

  • Applications go to the Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión, a decentralised body under the Ministry of Economy.
  • The Agency consults the Ministry of National Security, the UIF, the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia (criminal records), RENAPER and SIDE.
  • Migraciones must decide within 30 business days of the Agency’s report.
  • ARCA, the tax agency, issues a tax identification number (CUIT) to each new citizen.

What it did not do was set a price. For more than a year, the thresholds and qualifying investments stayed undefined.

Late 2025 to April 2026: the tender

In late 2025 the Ministry of Economy launched an international tender to appoint a firm to design and run the programme. Bids were opened on 20 January 2026. Trade press reported that eleven firms took part at first and six submitted offers.

On 6 March 2026 IMI Daily reported that a consortium of Apex Capital Partners, AIM Global, Passport Legacy and Arton Capital had been recommended with 88 points. Tender documents projected up to 5,000 approved applications in the initial contract period.

On 14 April 2026 the Ministry cancelled the tender. The resolution cited relevant differences between the bidders’ approaches and the programme’s public-policy goals. We cover the details in who is advising Argentina.

Industry sources have described a later, unpaid collaboration agreement between the Agency and a group of firms, said to date from May 2026. We could not confirm it from any published source, so we leave it out of the timeline.

June–July 2026: the court rulings

On 18 June 2026 Chamber III of the Cámara Nacional de Apelaciones en lo Civil y Comercial Federal, in the Volosh case, declared unconstitutional the parts of DNU 366/2025 that give citizenship decisions to Migraciones.

On 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared DNU 366/2025 unconstitutional in the Liping Yang case. The court reasoned that citizenship is linked to political rights, and that Article 99(3) of the Constitution bars emergency decrees on electoral matters. It ordered citizenship cases to go before federal electoral judges under Ley 346.

The government said it would appeal to the Supreme Court and that the decree remains in effect while the ruling is not final. No Supreme Court decision had been found as of 2 October 2026. Our legal status page tracks the case.

2 October 2026: Paris

At Argentina Week in Paris, Minister of Economy Luis Caputo and Chief of Cabinet Diego Santilli announced the programme. The key points were:

  • US$350,000 non-refundable contribution, or a US$800,000 programme bond.
  • Family supplements: US$100,000 for a spouse, US$100,000 per single child aged 18–25, and US$25,000 per child under 18.
  • Due diligence aligned with OECD and FATF standards.
  • Applications open in Q4 2026.

Our announcement explainer sets out what was confirmed and what is still unknown.

What to watch next

  • The Supreme Court. A decision either way would change the programme’s legal footing.
  • The regulations. Fees, processing times, the application portal and the bond terms.
  • Congress. Deputy Agustín Rossi has said he plans a bill to ban the programme. No CBI law had passed as of 2 October 2026.

We publish each development on our news page.

Note. Dates for events reported only by trade press are marked as reported. This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

When did Argentina create citizenship by investment?

The legal basis is DNU 366/2025, published on 29 May 2025. It amended Ley 346 to allow naturalisation for a relevant investment, regardless of time of residence.

When were the prices announced?

On 2 October 2026, at Argentina Week in Paris: US$350,000 for the contribution route and US$800,000 for the bond route.

Why was the master-agent tender cancelled?

The Ministry of Economy's resolution of 14 April 2026 cited relevant differences between the bidders' approaches and the programme's public-policy objectives.

What happens next?

Applications are due to open in the fourth quarter of 2026. The Supreme Court must also decide the government's appeal against the June 2026 ruling on DNU 366/2025.

Next stepPrivate Briefing

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