Argentina’s Just Unveiled a New $350,000 Golden Passport

Argentina has a new plan to reel in wealthy travelers.The country has just unveiled its new golden passport program, an economic incentive in which people who invest in or donate to the government will be granted citizenship—an idea that will likely be particularly attractive to foreigners in this case, given Argentina’s powerful passport, ABC News reported. The move also makes the nation the first in South America to bring such a road map into the fold.Under the program, an individual must either donate $350,000 to Argentina’s treasury or purchase a bond worth a cool $800,000; if the applicant wants their family to get their passports, too, even higher price tags are involved to the tune of at least an extra $100,000, according to a press release laying out the plan. Those fees, though hefty, may prove to be worth it: Argentina is set at No. 16 on Henley & Partners’s Global Passport Ranking for 2026. That means Argentine passport holders can visit 169 destinations without a visa, including Europe’s Schengen Area, China, the U.A.E., the U.K., and more. Plus, citizens can also live and work within South American countries that are part of its regional Mercosur bloc, such as Brazil, Chile, and Peru. “This will be one more channel through which we can sell Argentina to the world,” Luis Caputo, the economy minister of Argentina, said at a Paris summit where the program was announced, according to The New York Times.Applications for the new golden passport program are set to be opened later this year. And while Argentina may be the only South America country to have such a plan, there are plenty of others across the globe, such as in many a nation in the Caribbean. Elsewhere around the world, you’ll also find golden visas, a residency-by-investment program that allows foreigners to live and work in a country but stops short of granting them citizenship. Those nations include Greece, Switzerland, and New Zealand, which has proved to be a popular place for wealthy Americans looking to hang their hat elsewhere. With its new plan, Argentina may become a hit, too. Authors Nicole Hoey Digital Editor Nicole Hoey is Robb Report's digital editor. While studying at Boston University, she read, wrote and read some more as an English and journalism major. A class taught by a Boston Globe copy editor… Read More