moving belongings to Argentina
posted by R Graham in Argentina forum
Hello, Jacqui.
BE CAREFUL! You cannot bring personal belongings into Argentina until you have achieved residency status here. DO NOT USE TRANSPACK! I asked that my belongings be stored in the UK until I had residency here. My request was ignored. Transpack was managing the move in Argentina. They tried to contact me once via an email address that was only for UK use. I did not reply because I never received their message. Months later, Migraciones contacted me about my belongings being held in Buenos Aires in storage. My situation was complicated because. though I had purchased a property worth much more
than the minimum requirement for investors, fraudulent lawyers and notaries interfered and even had
migraciones lose my "residency file" for more than 6 months.I had to pay an extortionate "storage fee" at Aduanas for the months my crate was in storage. Also, Transpack did not explain clearly about what was required. Because i did not have residency, I had to extend my visa with migraciones every 3 months. Then, apparently I was supposed to pay Transpack to prove to Aduanas that my temporary visa was extended. Besides this fiasco, I had to purchase a "guarantee / bond insurance" where the company provides a legal guarantee that I will not sell any of the items I imported. You must pay for this insurance by the year. So, you are paying both the moving company to handle the negotiations with Migrations every 3 months, and also are paying the Bond company.
Transpack had a person managing my situation who did not notify me about needing to update the
visa extensions with migraciones and AFIP every three months. In the end, they apologised for the two
times they failed to contact me. The MD of the company is American and showed no remorse when
Transpack did not contact me via my mailing address in Argentina when they had no response to
the email they sent to England! Really bad news! I heard that a company that works through Chile
is better, but I have no idea.You cannot deal with Aduanas in Buenos Aires yourself when you extend your visa. There is a list
of "approved" liaisons who can provide proof of your visa extensions..but lots of luck trusting them.I have been dealing with this situation for 5 years. There is also the challenge of the condition your
goods arrive (mine were not in good condition.. broken, missing, and anything with "fabric" was ruined).
The insurance company would not deal with my losses because it was impossible to tell when the damage occurred .. before storage or after. Etc, etc, etc.If you are coming for a short time, I recommend leaving your goods in storage in your homeland.
Many items were also missing and I have no way to know who stole them. Impossible situation.