By JUAN PABLO ROJAS PASCUAL – ROJAS PASCUAL – Abogados – Argentine attorney focused on the legal structuring and design of Autonomous Companies, AI-Automated Companies, Argentina Citizenship by Investment, and related international legal matters.

Key Facts:

• Principal applicant: USD 350,000 non-refundable contribution or USD 800,000 public-security subscription, according to the Government’s October 2026 announcement.

• Spouse: additional USD 100,000.

• Child under 18: additional USD 25,000.

• Child aged 18–25: additional USD 100,000 if unmarried and without children.

• Example: principal applicant + spouse + two minor children = USD 500,000 under the USD 350,000 route.

• Family relationship: must be properly established through the applicable civil documentation.

• Residence: the investment route is separate from the ordinary two-year residence-based naturalization pathway.

• Due diligence: identity, source and traceability of funds, financial and asset information, jurisdictional risk, criminal and reputational background and immigration history may be reviewed.

• International documents: foreign civil and financial documents should be reviewed for apostille/legalization and translation requirements.

• Professional costs: legal fees, translations, apostilles and other administrative expenses should be considered separately from the announced investment amounts.

Argentina Citizenship by Investment for Families: Spouse, Children, Requirements and Costs.

For high-net-worth families considering Argentina Citizenship by Investment, the relevant question is rarely limited to the principal applicant.

International families need to understand how the program treats spouses and children, what additional contributions may apply, which family relationships must be documented, and how the family’s citizenship application should be structured from a legal and financial perspective.

Argentina’s Citizenship by Investment Program allows the principal applicant’s spouse and certain children to apply for Argentine citizenship under the family framework announced by the Argentine Government in October 2026, subject to proof of the relevant family relationship and the applicable additional contribution.

The Government has announced the following additional amounts:

• Spouse: USD 100,000.

• Children aged 18 to 25: USD 100,000, provided they are unmarried and have no children.

• Children under 18: USD 25,000.

The Government has also provided a practical example: a family consisting of one principal applicant, a spouse and two minor children could apply for Argentine citizenship through a total investment of USD 500,000.

For international families, however, the financial calculation is only one part of the analysis.

The legal relationship between the family members, the documentation proving that relationship, the source of funds, the family’s immigration history and the due-diligence process must also be considered.

The objective of this article is to explain how the Argentine Citizenship by Investment framework applies to families and what international investors should evaluate before proceeding.

Direct Answer:

Argentina Citizenship by Investment can extend to the principal applicant’s spouse and certain children, subject to the requirements and additional contributions established by the program.

The principal applicant may use either of the announced investment routes: a USD 350,000 non-refundable contribution to the National Treasury or a USD 800,000 subscription to a public security created specifically for the program.

The spouse may apply with an additional USD 100,000 contribution. Children between 18 and 25 may apply with an additional USD 100,000 if they are unmarried and have no children, while children under 18 may apply with an additional USD 25,000.

The family members must establish the relevant relationship with the principal applicant, and the family’s documentation and financial information may be subject to governmental review.

For high-net-worth families, the most important issue is therefore not simply calculating the investment amount. It is preparing the entire family application as a coherent legal and documentary file.

Who Is the Principal Applicant?

The family structure begins with the principal applicant.

The principal applicant is the foreign national who qualifies for Argentine citizenship through the relevant investment established under the Citizenship by Investment Program.

The Argentine legal framework provides that a foreign national who has made a relevant investment may apply for citizenship regardless of the length of residence in Argentina. Decree 524/2025 established that the application is submitted to the Agency of Programs for Citizenship by Investment, which evaluates the investment and subsequently submits a reasoned recommendation to the National Directorate of Migration.

The principal applicant therefore forms the legal and financial starting point for the family application.

From there, the spouse and qualifying children may be incorporated according to the family provisions announced by the Argentine Government.

Can a Spouse Apply for Argentine Citizenship by Investment?

Yes.

The Argentine Government has announced that the spouse of the principal applicant may apply for citizenship through an additional contribution of USD 100,000 to the National Treasury, provided that the marital relationship is properly established.

This means that a married couple using the USD 350,000 route would have a combined announced contribution of:

USD 350,000 + USD 100,000 = USD 450,000.

The legal analysis should not stop at the amount.

The marriage itself must be properly documented, and foreign civil-status documents may need to satisfy the applicable Argentine requirements concerning legalization or apostille and translation.

For families whose marriage was registered outside Argentina, this documentary preparation should ideally be completed before the citizenship application is submitted.

Can Children Apply for Argentine Citizenship by Investment?

Yes, but the applicable contribution depends on the child’s age and circumstances.

The Government’s October 2026 announcement establishes two relevant categories.

Children Under 18:

Children under the age of 18 may apply through an additional contribution of:

USD 25,000 per child.

This creates a significant difference for families with young children.

For example, a principal applicant using the USD 350,000 route, with a spouse and two children under 18, would have an announced total contribution of:

USD 350,000 + USD 100,000 + USD 25,000 + USD 25,000 = USD 500,000.

This is the family example published by the Argentine Government.

Children Between 18 and 25:

The Government has also announced an additional contribution of USD 100,000 per child between 18 and 25, provided that the child is unmarried and has no children.

This distinction is particularly important for international families with university-age or young adult children.

A family should therefore determine the age and civil-status category of each child before calculating the expected investment.

What Happens With Adult Children?

Adult children require particular attention because the announced rules distinguish between minors and children aged 18 to 25.

For children between 18 and 25, the Government’s announced conditions include two additional requirements:

• the child must be unmarried;

• the child must not have children.

If either condition is not satisfied, the family should not simply assume that the child qualifies under the same category.

This is an important example of why families should have their eligibility reviewed individually rather than relying on a generic «family package» description.

For an HNWI with children of different ages, each family member may need to be analyzed separately.

How Much Does Argentine Citizenship by Investment Cost for a Family?

The answer depends on the investment route selected by the principal applicant and the composition of the family.

The Government has announced two principal investment routes for the program.

USD 350,000 Route

The principal applicant makes a USD 350,000 non-refundable contribution to the National Treasury.

Additional announced contributions are then added for eligible family members.

USD 800,000 Route

The principal applicant subscribes USD 800,000 to a public security created specifically for the program.

Additional family contributions apply according to the family member’s category.

The following examples illustrate the announced structure:

These figures represent the announced investment contributions and should not be confused with professional fees, document costs, translations, apostilles, banking expenses or other costs associated with the application.

The Government’s published example confirms the USD 500,000 total for a principal applicant, spouse and two minor children.

The Family Application Is More Than a Financial Calculation

For international families, one of the biggest mistakes is to treat citizenship by investment as a simple multiplication exercise.

The family must be legally documented as a family.

That can involve:

• birth certificates;

• marriage certificates;

• adoption records;

• documents concerning previous marriages;

• evidence of changes of name;

• civil-status records;

• foreign identity documents;

• criminal-record certificates where applicable;

• and other documents required by the Argentine authorities.

For families that have lived in several countries, the documentary history can become considerably more complex.

A child may have been born in one jurisdiction, hold another nationality, attend school in a third country and have a parent whose marriage was registered somewhere else.

The legal challenge is not necessarily obtaining citizenship documents.

It is creating a consistent documentary record across jurisdictions.

Foreign Civil Documents: Apostilles, Legalization and Translation

International families should pay particular attention to the formal validity of foreign documents.

Documents issued outside Argentina may require the appropriate authentication mechanism, including an apostille or legalization depending on the country of issuance and applicable international arrangements.

They may also require translation into Spanish under the applicable Argentine rules.

This becomes especially important when a family has:

• multiple nationalities;

• multiple passports;

• marriages celebrated in different countries;

• children born abroad;

• adoption records;

• name changes;

• or civil-status records issued in different languages.

A discrepancy between two documents does not necessarily mean that an applicant is ineligible.

But it may create questions that should ideally be resolved before the application is submitted.

What About Families With Different Nationalities?

International families frequently have more than one nationality.

For example, the principal applicant may be a citizen of one country, the spouse of another, and the children may have dual nationality.

That fact does not by itself prevent the family from considering Argentina’s Citizenship by Investment Program.

But each family member’s documentary profile should be mapped individually.

The legal review should consider:

• nationality;

• country of residence;

• immigration history;

• identity documents;

• civil-status documents;

• criminal-record documentation;

• and the jurisdictions connected to the family’s financial assets.

This is particularly relevant for families who are globally mobile or who maintain residences in several countries.

How Does Due Diligence Apply to Family Members?

The Argentine Citizenship by Investment Program is not limited to verifying that the required money has been transferred.

The Government has stated that applications will be subject to rigorous due diligence involving identity verification, source and traceability of funds, financial and asset analysis, jurisdictional risk, criminal and reputational background and immigration history.

The procedural framework established by Decree 524/2025 also provides for reports from multiple governmental bodies, including the Financial Intelligence Unit, the National Criminal Records Registry, RENAPER, the Ministry of Security and the State Intelligence Secretariat.

For a family application, this means that the overall family profile should be reviewed before filing.

This is particularly important where family wealth is interconnected.

For example, the principal applicant may provide the investment funds, while the spouse owns shares in a family company and the family’s assets are held through entities in several jurisdictions.

The application should present a coherent explanation of the family’s financial structure.

Source of Funds for Family Applications

The source of the investment funds is particularly important for high-net-worth families.

The Government has expressly stated that funds must be channelled through the formal financial system and comply with applicable anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorist-financing and financial-transparency standards.

A family should therefore be able to demonstrate not only that the principal applicant has the required amount, but also where those funds came from.

Potential sources may include:

• business income;

• dividends;

• sale of a company;

• sale of real estate;

• investment portfolios;

• inheritance;

• family wealth;

• trusts;

• or other legitimate sources.

The more complex the family wealth structure, the more important it becomes to prepare the documentary explanation before the application is filed.

Can a Family Apply Without Living in Argentina?

The investment-based naturalization route is distinct from Argentina’s ordinary residence-based naturalization pathway.

The amended Citizenship Law allows a foreign national who has made a relevant investment to seek citizenship regardless of the length of residence in Argentina.

This is particularly relevant for international families who want the legal benefits of Argentine citizenship without first relocating the entire family to Argentina.

However, the absence of a two-year residence requirement should not be confused with the absence of other requirements.

The family must still satisfy the applicable investment, documentary, eligibility and governmental review requirements.

What About Tax Residency?

Citizenship and tax residence are separate legal concepts.

A family considering Argentine citizenship should therefore avoid assuming that obtaining citizenship automatically makes every family member an Argentine tax resident.

For HNWIs, this distinction is particularly important because tax residency can depend on factors separate from nationality, including residence and other circumstances established under Argentine tax law.

Before applying, internationally mobile families should coordinate their citizenship strategy with their existing tax, corporate and wealth-planning structures.

This is especially relevant when the family maintains:

• international investment accounts;

• foreign corporations;

• trusts;

• real estate in multiple countries;

• family businesses;

• or tax residency in more than one jurisdiction.

Citizenship planning should therefore be coordinated with international tax advisers when appropriate.

Family Citizenship by Investment and Wealth Planning

For a high-net-worth family, Argentine citizenship may form part of a broader international mobility and wealth-planning strategy.

But citizenship should not be viewed in isolation.

A family may need to consider:

Immigration

Where family members currently live and where they intend to reside.

Tax

How citizenship interacts with existing and future tax residency.

Corporate Structure

How family businesses and investment entities are owned and managed.

Estate Planning

How the family’s assets and succession arrangements are structured.

Banking

How funds will be transferred and documented.

International Mobility

How Argentine citizenship fits into the family’s broader travel and relocation strategy.

A legal adviser should therefore understand not only Argentine citizenship law, but also how the application interacts with the family’s international structure.

What Documents Should a Family Prepare?

The exact documentary requirements will depend on the final administrative implementation and the specific circumstances of each applicant.

However, a family should anticipate the need to organize documents such as:

Principal Applicant

• passport and identity documents;

• birth certificate;

• criminal-record documentation;

• immigration history;

• financial and patrimonial documentation;

• source-of-wealth evidence;

• source-of-funds evidence;

• investment documentation.

Spouse

• passport and identity documents;

• birth certificate;

• marriage certificate;

• relevant criminal-record documentation;

• additional documents required by the application procedure.

Children

• passports and identity documents;

• birth certificates;

• evidence of the parent-child relationship;

• documents establishing age and, where relevant, civil status.

Foreign documents should be reviewed for apostille or legalization requirements and Spanish translation before filing.

The final documentary checklist should always be confirmed against the official requirements applicable when the application is submitted.

A Family Application Should Be Planned Before the Investment

For an HNWI family, the optimal sequence is not necessarily:

Invest → collect documents → apply.

A more prudent legal sequence is:

Family assessment → eligibility review → documentary audit → wealth and source-of-funds analysis → investment selection → execution → citizenship application.

This order allows the family to identify potential problems before committing significant capital.

For example, suppose a family discovers after making the investment that a child’s birth certificate contains a different spelling of the parent’s name than the parent’s passport.

The issue may ultimately be solvable.

But it is much better to identify and address that discrepancy before the citizenship application enters governmental review.

Why Families Should Use Argentine Legal Counsel

International citizenship programs involve more than immigration paperwork.

For a family applying for Argentine citizenship by investment, the legal work may involve:

• Argentine citizenship law;

• administrative procedure;

• civil-status documentation;

• international document formalities;

• financial compliance;

• source-of-funds analysis;

• immigration history;

• family relationships;

• and international private-client considerations.

Argentine legal counsel can help coordinate these elements within the Argentine legal system.

For international advisers and family offices, this can also provide a local legal point of reference for questions concerning Argentine documentation, authorities and procedure.

The objective should not be to promise a guaranteed citizenship outcome.

The objective is to ensure that the family enters the process with a coherent and properly documented application.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can my spouse obtain Argentine citizenship through my investment?

The Argentine Government has announced that the spouse of the principal applicant may apply through an additional USD 100,000 contribution to the National Treasury, subject to establishing the marital relationship and complying with the applicable requirements.

How much does Argentine Citizenship by Investment cost for a family of four?

The Government’s published example is a principal applicant, spouse and two children under 18. Under the announced contribution structure, the total is USD 500,000: USD 350,000 for the principal applicant, USD 100,000 for the spouse and USD 25,000 for each minor child.

Can children over 18 be included?

Children between 18 and 25 may apply through an additional USD 100,000 contribution if they are unmarried and have no children, according to the Government’s October 2026 announcement.

Is the family required to live in Argentina?

The investment-based naturalization route is separate from the ordinary residence-based pathway and does not impose the ordinary two-year residence requirement.

Do family members need to prove their relationship?

Yes. Spouses and children must establish the relevant family relationship through the applicable documentation.

Are family members subject to due diligence?

The citizenship program includes identity, financial, criminal, reputational, jurisdictional and immigration-related reviews. The specific scope applicable to each family member should be assessed under the implementing rules and the individual’s circumstances.

Are professional fees included in the announced investment amounts?

No. The announced USD 350,000, USD 800,000 and additional family contributions are investment or contribution amounts. They should not automatically be understood to include legal fees, translations, apostilles, document procurement, banking expenses or other professional and administrative costs.

Family legal-planning exercise.

For international families, Argentina Citizenship by Investment should be approached as a family legal-planning exercise, not simply as an individual investment.

The principal applicant’s investment establishes the foundation of the application, but the family structure introduces additional legal and documentary considerations.

Spouses may apply with an additional USD 100,000 contribution. Children under 18 may apply with an additional USD 25,000, while children between 18 and 25 may qualify with an additional USD 100,000 if they are unmarried and have no children.

For a principal applicant, spouse and two minor children, the Argentine Government has announced a total contribution of USD 500,000 under the USD 350,000 route.

But the financial calculation is only the beginning.

For a high-net-worth family, the more important questions are whether the family relationships can be properly documented, whether the source of wealth and funds can be demonstrated, whether the family’s international structure is coherent and whether each applicant is prepared for the governmental review.

The strongest family applications are therefore not simply financially qualified.

They are legally prepared, properly documented and internally consistent.

Legal Assistance for Families Seeking Argentine Citizenship by Investment

At Rojas Pascual Abogados, we assist international investors and families with Argentine citizenship matters, including investment-based naturalization, family applications, eligibility analysis, international documentation and source-of-funds preparation.

For families considering Argentine Citizenship by Investment, the goal is not simply to calculate the required investment.

It is to structure the application correctly from the beginning.

Author: Dr. Juan Pablo Rojas Pascual.

Attorney at Law — Mendoza, Argentina

ROJAS PASCUAL – Abogados.  Argentine Legal Counsel for International Investors and Families