Looks like Argentina is not making any exceptions for people who have not paid their reciprocity fee in advance...

http://www.infobae.com/notas/702352-...-turistas.html

People are not being allowed to enter the country and being sent home or to another country if they have not paid the fee in advance. Seems like most of these flights are coming from places other than the visitor's home countries as those airlines should not allow them to board without proof of payment.

In other news, seems like some airlines do also not understand that the visa was good for 10 years and if you paid before you do not need the proof of payment, just your visa stamp. Some people have been forced to buy another visa and others had to go up several levels before they were allowed to board.

Oh, you need proof of the payment. I've been entering on a new passport for over a year (with my receipt sticker in the old passport) and each time they (Argentina immigration) enter the receipt data into the computer. The "Visa Stamp" discussion doesn't make any sense because you could enter Argentina from anywhere except EZE (then later, AEP) without paying any fee, yet have plenty of AR entry stamps in your passport.

Although passengers from fee-requiring countries really shouldn't be getting successfully onto a flight to Argentina without proof of payment, it does seem like something that should be able to be sorted out in cooperation with the arriving carrier on arrival... after all, payment is taken online, and proof is a printout, so all that should be needed is access to an office and a credit card.

As an airline can be fined (and/or have to incur cost to carry a passenger back) in cases where entry is refused and documents were not checked prior to accepting the passenger, I would think any carrier with such a passenger on their manifest would find it in their interest to get them to a transit passenger area, sort out payment of the fee, and eventually get them on their way.

But that would require common sense.

Ahh, you're quite right. And that is very strictly forbidden entry at all borders to this beautiful country - fees, visas, or bribes notwithstanding...

Bureaucratic idiocy is ubiquitous.

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)....

For the millionth time, the full-page sticker in the back of our passport should be ALL we need, both to: (1) get on board our flight in the US, and (2) get through immigration at EZE? This is the thing I'm talking about:

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.

Can the Portenos here shed some light on why there is this rather arcane requirement to purchase the fee online rather than pay on arrival, as was done in the past? Were agents at the airport stamping passports and forgetting to log the fees? If this is the case, it seems like just setting up a few computers at the airport and charging 50 pesos to use them would have the doubly beneficial effect of getting people into the country, where they could spend money, and providing a lot of 50 peso revenue enhancements to the airport, government, or whomever.

It was a BUE only collection thing - I'm sure they didn't want to set up collection points at every point of entry when they decided to make it a uniform requirement.

I wouldn't take everything in that article at face value......I suspect there is some truth in it but nothing as serious as they're making it out to be.

At the end of the day it's really up to the traveller to sort these things out before travelling here....the fee has been in place for several years now so although the collection process has changed it's nothing new. Maybe instead of turning people away it would have been prudent of them to keep a pay on arrival system (with an added charge) at least for several more months.

Mine from late last summer looks different. It's just a plain white sticker with no indication of what it is. The information about me is entered in the same positions and there's a similar looking bar code at the bottom.

I assume DL let you board with no problems?

The fee is new for every point of entry but the BUE airports, so it is quite new in many respects.

As far as "prudent of them" well ... I'd say something, but then it would be a one-way ticket to /PR.