Working in Argentina

Work Visa? What’s That?

In case you haven’t noticed—maybe you have been too busy counting all your General Motors stock or investing in oil futures—the world is in something of an economic crisis. Faced with the worst financial times in decades, many people are now taking drastic measures. One of those measures is moving to foreign countries. The thinking is simple: If I’m going to be slugging through a crappy, low-paying job at home, why not test my luck at finding a crappy, low-paying job abroad? However, the more important question (for us at least) is this: is Buenos Aires a good place to hide out until the recession goes away? If I show up with nothing more than a passport and a prayer, will I be able to find work?

The short answer is: yes. The long answer is a bit more complicated. With relative ease, anyone can get under-the-table work in Buenos Aires. The trick is knowing where to find it. First of all, it helps to be able to stay in the country for some time. The Argentine government and their lax tourist visa policies make this very easy. It is common practice amongst expats to extend the free, 90-day tourist visas multiple times, either by going to the immigrations office or by leaving the country and coming back (thanks, Uruguay). This policy allows most anyone to stay in Buenos Aires for many months, or even years, and leaves plenty of time to search for work.

There are two types of work in Argentina, “In the white,” and “In the black.” “White” work is legitimate, on the books, and often requires proper documentation. Foreigners with extended tourist visas, however, will be looking for jobs of the “Black” variety. These types of jobs function without contracts or records. While this does leave the window open for employers to take advantage of their undocumented employees by refusing to pay for services—what are you going to do, go to the cops?—this danger is countered by the interconnectedness of the expatriate community of Buenos Aires. Employers know that one negative blog or forum post could greatly hurt their chances of finding cheap, paper trail-free work in the future. This may seem like an odd use of the honor system, but generally it works.

What kinds of jobs are available to foreigners without work visas? The most popular choice is teaching your native language (usually and most effectively English, though Portuguese and French are also decent options) in either private lessons or through language institutes. Though the demand for teachers isn’t as high as it was a few years ago, there’s still plenty of work to go around. While teaching certificates are nice to have on your résumé, many times the only real qualification you need is the ability to talk. Like most freelance work, it can often be difficult at first to pick up enough hours to live off of. The key to language teaching is continuity: the longer you are in Buenos Aires, the more people you know; the more people you know, the more referrals you get; the more experience you have, the more faith language schools and other institutions will have in giving you classes. For this reason, teaching is often a good idea for people planning to stay in the city for a longer period of time.

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