Originally Posted by
Gaucho100K
Folks.... you can agree with the rules, you can like them or not... alas, the rules are the rules. While I can may have some sympathy for the odd case and the special circumstance, visitors from OECD/G7 and the likes developed nations that understand what rules are and follow them (back home), should also do their homework and realize that if you dont follow the rules, you have to face the music.
Yes, Argentina is not a Developed Nation and our Institutions are nothing like what you have at home, but that doesnt mean that you have the right not to follow the rules as they exist. This reciprocity fee has been around for ages... so there is very little room for excuses.
I need not to remind you what would happen to an Argentine passport holder if he/she tried to enter the US or Canada without all the valid documentation and entry permits (whichever those may be according to each individual circumstance)....
This is very true, and I agree with you 100%. However, there is significant difference in international law between a proper Visa and a "reciprocity fee." Argentina is behaving as though the reciprocity fee were a Visa, with all attendant penalties on passenger and airline, without actually going the full step
of causing the diplomatic headache of imposing a Visa requirement.
Turning people around upon arrival is a problem that can be easily solved in letting the passenger connect to the internet and pay the fee on the spot if they failed to do so before boarding. Five minutes of wi-fi access and the problem is solved for passenger, airline, government and tourism promoters.
To me, it seems Argentina is purposely seeking to penalize for reasons I don't quite yet understand. (Forgive me, I've only lived here for 3 years...) No one loses by letting the person pay on the spot via the internet, yet the article linked above suggests this is actively prevented.
But Alex, you're absolutely right: at this point passengers, and especially the airlines, should know better. The fee has been in place for years, and the requirement to do it online prior to departure has been in place for a few months. However, in my opinion the government needs to stop playing this silly game and just impose a proper Visa requirement, if they're going to start behaving like a proper Visa is being issued. At the moment a "reciprocity fee" carries no real weight at all in international law anywhere. Deporting people on these grounds is very shaky, and airlines might be well within their rights to start pushing back soon. Once the airlines' lawyers have decided they have charged enough hours for "research," you'll start seeing some push back on this.