The Argentine paperwork is a domino effect of tramites, so you need to have the baby's birth certificate and DNI before you can apply for the passport. You need an appointment for this step, though I requested an appointment the day Alex's DNI arrived and there were plenty of appointments to be had. We could have gone in the next day if we wanted, but both parents need to be present and the earliest appointment is 11am (yup, because that's what time they OPEN! What?!) so we had to wait a few days before we could both make it happen.
Before you go:
- Make an appointment. There are three locations in the city where you can apply for a passport, choose the one closest to you and follow the prompts online. After choosing a location, you need to choose the type of appointment, for a passport this is a "tramite regular" (the appointment explainations are a bit confusing). Two points: 1) The appointment will be sent to your email where you need to open and click on a button to confirm it. This email was hanging out in my spam folder for about a week before I thought to look there. 2) You appointment isn't truly an appointment, it's just a time slot that you are allotted to apply for a passport. When we went there were, like, 100 other people claiming to have an 11am appointment.
The day of the appointment, bring with you:
- A printout of your appointment confirmation (which is sent to you by email)
- The baby's official birth certificate (partida de nacimiento)
- Both parent's DNI
- The baby's DNI
- A debit or credit card
- Both parents
- The baby
We also brought our apostilled marriage license, our US passports and copies of everything, but only the bulleted points were requested by the agents. A list of items is also available on the guia de tramites website (Spanish only).
We arrived at the office at 10:58am, and waited outside in line with the 100 other 11:00am appointment people. Once inside, we were directed to the Mesa de Entrada where they confirmed why we were there (for a first-time infant passport), looked at all of the documents we brought and gave us a number. When our number was called, we passed to another desk which looked at all of these items again and gave us another number.
Our number was called by the banco this time. This is where you pay. No cash, the fee was AR$400 for the passport only. The bank ran our card, we signed and then were given - yet another number.
This number was the real deal. We waited just a few minutes (even though we've been through 3 desks already, it only took 10 minutes or so) and were called up to the Toma de Tramite desk. Here they asked us a few questions, nothing too complicated but it was helpful to have a basic understanding of Spanish. They took a picture of Alex, took his thumbprints (again a bit difficult given his age, but got it done with patience) and printed up a delivery receipt. We were told that the passport would be delivered within 15 working days, and if we aren't home for the delivery we can pick it up from this same location.
The delivery can be tracked or you can pick it up (bring with you your DNI, delivery receipt and baby's birth certificate if you have to pick it up). We have not received this document yet, but according to the tracking number it was dropped off at our local OCA on November 28. I guess we'll see when it makes its way to us!
***UPDATE*** Alex's Argentine passport was delivered on December 11. Ironically, Jon's DNI arrived on December 12. So that makes it 14 days to deliver a passport, 96 days to deliver a DNI.
***UPDATE*** Alex's Argentine passport was delivered on December 11. Ironically, Jon's DNI arrived on December 12. So that makes it 14 days to deliver a passport, 96 days to deliver a DNI.
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