Unión convivencial registrada con argentino

This route concerns acquisition of Argentine citizenship rights through a registered civil union (unión convivencial registrada) with an Argentine citizen, within the marriage-based family of routes. Under the Código Civil y Comercial 2014 (Civil and Commercial Code), a registered civil union may be assimilated to marriage for family-reunification purposes under Ley 25.871 (the Migration Law) — an administrative interpretation applied by the National Directorate of Migration (Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, DNM) case by case.

Statutory framework: Constitución Nacional Argentina (the National Constitution, 1853, reformed 1994), Art 75 inc 12 (the power of Congress to legislate on citizenship); Ley 346 (29-10-1869) — the foundational Argentine Citizenship Law; Ley 23.059 (22-03-1984) — restoration and reconstruction of citizenship lost during the military regime; Ley 26.957 (2014) — accession to the 1954 and 1961 statelessness conventions; Ley 24.071 (1992) — ILO Convention 169 on indigenous peoples; Ley 27.742/2024 plus DNU 366/2025 — the RIGI (incentive regime for large investments).

Constitutional layer: Constitución Nacional of 01-05-1853, reformed 22-08-1994; Art 75 inc 12 (legislative power over citizenship); Art 75 inc 22 (constitutional hierarchy of human-rights treaties — the federal block); Art 20 (foreigners enjoy rights equivalent to nationals — the foundation of the Cohelo and Hooft doctrines); Arts 89 and 91 (eligibility requirements for President and Senators).

Administrative and judicial authorities: Cámara Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Chamber — exclusive appellate authority in citizenship matters); Registro Nacional de las Personas (ReNaPer, National Registry of Persons); Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM); Ministerio del Interior (Ministry of the Interior); Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto (MRECIC — for consular registrations); and the Federal Courts with electoral competence in each district.

Core citizenship law: Ley 346 of 1869 establishes Argentine citizenship by birth in Argentine territory (broad ius soli with no diplomatic-status exclusions — a distinctive feature of Argentine law), citizenship by option for children of Argentines born abroad, and naturalization after 2 years of continuous residence plus good conduct. Art 1 extends ius soli to births on Argentine vessels and in embassies as well as in national territory.

Leading case law: CSJN (Supreme Court), Hooft, Fallos 327:5118 — established the principle of structural equality between Argentine citizens by birth and by naturalization for electoral purposes: naturalized citizens may not be arbitrarily excluded from elective public office. The doctrine invalidates discriminatory provincial exclusions.

Federal human-rights block: Art 75 inc 22 of the Constitution gives constitutional hierarchy to human-rights treaties, including the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San José de Costa Rica), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CEDAW, CERD and CAT. This block governs the interpretation of Ley 346 and Ley 23.059.

MERCOSUR: the MERCOSUR Residence Agreement signed in Brasilia on 06-12-2002 provides a 2-year fast-track residence accelerator for nationals of MERCOSUR and associated states (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela), combined with Ley 25.871 and its implementing Decreto 616/2010.

Interacting foreign-law windows relevant to people in Argentina:

• Italian Legge 74/2025 (Italian law): a temporal window from 01-07-2025 to 31-12-2027 for naturalizations of Argentina-resident applicants of Italian descent not tied to strict continuous residence; it directly affects an estimated ~1.5 million eligible Italian descendants in Argentina.
• Spanish Ley 20/2022 (Democratic Memory Law): a window open until 31-10-2026 for grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Republican exiles and for spouses of Spanish women who lost their nationality through marriage before 1978; the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires estimates roughly 80,000 eligible people in the Argentine-Spanish community.

Operational context for this route: the route operates under Art 75 inc 12 of the Constitution (which reserves the general naturalization law to Congress), Ley 346/1869, and the Art 75 inc 22 federal human-rights block. Key legal sources: Ley 346 Art 2 bis; Ley 24.951/1998; DNU 366/2025; Código Civil y Comercial 2014.

Cumulative criteria:

• (a) Being the spouse of an Argentine citizen OR being in a civil union with an Argentine registered under the Código Civil y Comercial 2014, Art 509 et seq.;
• (b) Exemption from the ordinary 2-year residence period, via Art 2 bis of Ley 346 (the Citizenship Law), introduced by Ley 24.951/1998;
• (c) After DNU 366/2025 (Decree of Necessity and Urgency): Art 23 inc ñ of Ley 25.871 — a maximum of 3 years of temporary residence on family-reunification grounds;
• (d) Marriage or civil-union certificate + DNI (national identity document) evidencing residence + clean criminal record + proof of means of living.

General eligibility framework in which this route sits: Argentina applies broad ius soli (Ley 346 Art 1) — everyone born in Argentine territory is Argentine by birth, with no exclusion based on the diplomatic status of the parent, a distinctive feature of Argentine law; ius sanguinis operates through a consular option for children of Argentines born abroad (Ley 346 Art 1.II); naturalization under Ley 346 Art 2 requires 2 years of continuous residence plus good conduct and lawful means of living, before the competent Federal Court (Juzgado Federal). For marriage specifically, Ley 346 as originally framed provides no spouse-specific reduction of the residence period; the exemption operates through Art 2 bis, added by Ley 24.951/1998.

Related frameworks:

• Restoration: Ley 23.059 (22-03-1984) — restoration and reconstruction of citizenship lost during the last military government (24-03-1976 to 10-12-1983); it applies to persons politically denaturalized, to forced exiles, and to prior arbitrary denials, and operates in combination with Ley 23.043 and Ley 23.118 on restitution of statuses from the pre-democratic military era.
• MERCOSUR: the MERCOSUR Residence Agreement signed in Brasilia on 06-12-2002 provides a 2-year fast-track residence accelerator for nationals of MERCOSUR and associated states (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela), combined with Ley 25.871 and its implementing Decreto 616/2010.
• Indigenous peoples: Ley 24.071 (1992) — accession to ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples; Argentina was the 7th country to ratify (after Norway 1990, Mexico 1990, Colombia 1991, Bolivia 1991, Costa Rica 1993 and Paraguay 1993). This is the framework for the indigenous-peoples route (AR-SPC-02): recognition, cultural autonomy and administrative bilingualism.
• Claimed territories: the First Transitional Provision (Disposición Transitoria Primera) of the 1994 Constitution declares that the Argentine Nation ratifies its legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the corresponding maritime and insular spaces — the constitutional framework for Argentines by birth in the claimed territories (route AR-EXT-01), which is NOT administratively operative while the de facto British administration continues.
• Bilateral dual-nationality cluster: twelve Ibero-American dual-nationality treaties (Convenios de Doble Nacionalidad, based on reciprocity and no renunciation) with Spain, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, permitting dual citizenship without renunciation and an amplified equality of status.
• Statelessness: Ley 26.957 (2014) — accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness; Argentina deposited its instruments on 17-09-2014 and 01-06-2015 respectively. This underpins the statelessness-prevention safeguard for children born in Argentina (route AR-BTH-04).

Filing channels:

1. The Federal Court with electoral competence for the applicant's domicile (for residents in Argentina);
2. An Argentine Embassy or Consulate abroad (descent and consular-option tracks);
3. The DNM, for the prior migration-status processing.

Step by step for this route:

• Phase 1 — Marriage/union documentation: marriage certificate (apostilled if foreign) OR registration of the civil union under the Código Civil y Comercial 2014 (Civil and Commercial Code), plus proof of cohabitation.
• Phase 2 — Residence-period exemption (Art 2 bis, Ley 346): marriage to an Argentine exempts the applicant from the ordinary 2-year residence requirement (Ley 346, the Citizenship Law, as amended by Ley 24.951/1998).
• Phase 3 — After DNU 366/2025 (Decree of Necessity and Urgency): Art 23 inc ñ of Ley 25.871 (the Migration Law) — a maximum of 3 years of temporary residence on family-reunification grounds as the migratory pathway.
• Phase 4 — Naturalization documentation: DNI (national identity document) evidencing residence + clean criminal-record certificates + proof of means of living + the marriage/union certificate.
• Phase 5 — Decision: issuance of the carta de ciudadanía (citizenship card) and the Argentine DNI.

Documentary compilation under Ley 346 Art 11 and its regulations: birth certificate (apostilled and translated by a certified public translator); valid passport; certificate of domicile (ReNaPer); good-conduct certificates (Federal Police, the country of origin, and every country of residence of 6 months or more); proof of means of living covering the last 12 months; and tax compliance with AFIP (the federal tax authority).

Adjudication flow: the Federal Court transmits the file to the Cámara Nacional Electoral (CNE) for automatic review → final judgment and oath of allegiance → registration with ReNaPer and issuance of the Argentine DNI.

Investment-regime note: the RIGI (Régimen de Incentivos para Grandes Inversiones, the large-investment incentive regime) — Ley 27.742/2024, promulgated 08-07-2024, with DNU 366/2025 as its implementing decree — establishes 30-year fiscal and exchange-rate stability for investments of USD 200 million or more in strategic sectors. It does NOT include a direct citizenship-by-investment pathway (unlike Portugal's Golden Visa), but it accelerates permanent residence leading to naturalization under Ley 346 via the reduced 2-year track for investors.

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Executive (operational) authorities:

• National Directorate of Migration (Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, DNM), under the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior) — following DNU 366/2025 it holds naturalization competence; the constitutionality of this transfer is contested as ultra vires of Art 75 inc 12 of the Constitución Nacional (the National Constitution, which reserves legislation on citizenship to Congress), and that legal question remains unresolved.
• National Registry of Persons (Registro Nacional de las Personas, RENAPER) — issues the Argentine DNI (national identity document) and handles late registration of the citizenship option for children of Argentines born abroad.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, the "Cancillería") — approximately 75 operating consulates handle descent-option registrations and administer the bilateral agreements with Italy and Spain.

Judicial authorities:

• Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación, CSJN) — its Hooft decision, Fallos 327:5118 (2004), is a pillar of pro-dual-nationality doctrine; amparo (constitutional protection) actions challenging DNU 366/2025 are pending before the courts in 2025–2026.
• Federal Naturalization Court (Tribunal Federal de Naturalización) — held judicial competence over naturalization prior to DNU 366/2025.
• National Chambers of Appeal (Cámaras Nacionales) — exercise review of Decrees of Necessity and Urgency under Ley 26.122 (the law on congressional control of DNUs).

Specialized agencies in the wider Argentine citizenship framework (relevant to related routes): for indigenous-peoples matters, the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (Instituto Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas, INAI), the National Registry of Indigenous Communities (RENACI) and the Territorial Survey program (RETECI); for investment-linked applications, the Citizenship-by-Investment Programs Agency (Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión) created by Decreto 524/2025; and for matters connected to the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, the Argentine Consulate in London together with the Cancillería's Directorate for Malvinas and the South Atlantic.

Key legal sources for this route: Ley 346 (Citizenship Law) Art 2 bis; Ley 24.951/1998 (the law that introduced that article); DNU 366/2025; Código Civil y Comercial 2014.