Wealthy Argentines flee their country: record number of applications for residence permits in Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguay did not open its borders to foreigners until November 2021, when entry was only allowed to Uruguayan citizens or foreigners residing in Uruguay.

In this context, 2021 ended for the country with a record number of applications for residence permits to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

What happened was, above all, an avalanche of residence applications from Argentines. The situation surprised even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs technicians, reports the newspaper El País. Thus, in October, they saw their most optimistic forecasts exceeded.

Last year, 14,926 applications for residence permits were filed in Uruguay. That’s more than forty per day and a 44% increase compared to 2020. According to data from the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of all these procedures, 84% were requested by Argentines.

“Currently, this immigration is a phenomenon that must be dealt with: We can expect a great economic weight in the main investment areas, even if (this record of settlements) does not affect the population growth of the country,” comments demographer Martín Koolhaas of the Population Program of the University of the Republic.

The situation would be different if about 14,000 new people moved in each year, says Koolhaas, adding that “migration is always uncertain and the pandemic has increased the uncertainty.”

However, the trend is evident in the January 2022 figures alone. The trend was 1,261 orders in one month, of which 862 were from Argentines.

In Uruguay, magazines featuring Argentine celebrities who have arrived in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic, such as Susana Giménez, Valeria Lynch, Mónica Gonzaga, Ricardo Darín, Oscar González Oro, are already widely distributed.

The same thing is happening in a neighborhood of Punta del Este called Manantiales, where locals say that the “Uruguayan Puerto Madero” is emerging because most of the owners of this area of farms, gated communities, and vineyards are Argentine.

“At the moment, there are no major signs of change in migration, and Uruguay will likely maintain its mixed profile: Those who come and those who leave complement each other,” the demographer said.

Those who leave Uruguay tend to go to countries with higher incomes. Koolhaas agreed, saying it is “likely” that there are still “Uruguayans who have just enough to live on or want to advance economically and are tempted to go to countries like Spain or the United States, where there are already consolidated networks.”

Nevertheless, Uruguay “maintains a series of migration policies that are friendly to newcomers and make Uruguay a safe destination for immigrants.”

For this reason, the influx and outflow of people are expected to continue.