Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel made headlines when he decided to move his family to Buenos Aires earlier this summer, buying a mansion in an upscale neighborhood and meeting with President Javier Milley and senior government officials.
It turns out that this is exactly the plan – Argentina wants more people like him. Last year, the country was preparing to launch a full citizenship by investment scheme. In July 2025, Decree 524/2025 created the Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programs under the Ministry of Economy, which for the first time will allow foreign investors to apply for citizenship without the need for prior residence in Argentina. The exact parameters are still being finalized. Financial Times Reporting that wealthy foreigners could gain Argentine citizenship in exchange for a non-refundable donation of about US$500,000 or the purchase of US$1 million in zero-coupon government bonds, citing people familiar with the government’s plans.
By the sheer scale of the plan, it is unlike anything the citizenship-by-investment industry has tried before. ,%20%20founder%20%20Apex%20Capital%20Partners,%20who%20said%20he%20%20spent%20consider capable%20time%20in%20Argentina%20and%20%20aware of%20%20%20government%E2%80%99s%20processes.
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Katz pointed out several benefits for wealthy investors. The country is located in the Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s largest shale oil and gas deposits, which experts geologically compare to the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, along with major lithium, gold, silver, soybean, corn, beef and wheat industries. He cited Argentina’s roughly $22 billion-a-year trade with the European Union as further evidence of the scale of the opportunity.
The move comes on the heels of reports that the government is trying to lure prominent wealthy figures to what a former official called “a new land of freedom” for billionaires.
“I think this is going to be a serious contender and player in wealth migration and investment migration,” said Dominic Volek, who advises ultra-high-income families on residence and citizenship planning at Henley & Partners. Luck.
The demand for such an option is not hypothetical. Wealthy families in the US are actively seeking refuge. Katz’s firm’s own survey of 1,800 Americans found that 61% would consider moving from the United States within the next five years, a figure Katz called “incredibly shocking.”
For years, wealthy Americans have looked to New Zealand, Portugal, Greece and the Caribbean as fallback options. Now Argentina, long associated with inflation, capital controls and the risk of default, is trying to present itself as a Plan B for outsiders with money.
An Argentine passport already provides visa-free access to a long list of countries, Volek noted, but citizenship will have the added bonus of settlement rights in the nine-nation Mercosur bloc that includes Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador – similar to what an EU passport provides throughout Europe.
“You have more choices,” he said, explaining that Argentina’s distance from the United States and being in a similar time zone makes it “incredibly attractive.”
Katz also said that the flight to Buenos Aires, although almost as long as a trip to Europe, does not involve jet lag like traveling in Europe. “This is very, very important for someone, especially an American businessman, whose life is travel,” he said.
Katz also pointed to the broader security picture: South America is currently the only continent other than Antarctica that is not at war, and Argentina itself has not been at war with it in decades.
Thiel’s arrival is a signal, but the question remains whether Argentina can turn billionaire curiosity into lasting capital or whether it will sell a safe haven in a country still marked by instability. Volek’s firm expects Argentina’s citizenship-by-investment program to be up and running by the end of the year, and already has a list of clients ready to apply once it does.
“This will be a game changer for our business and for the investment migration industry as a whole,” he said.
Difference between safe havens and tax shelters
“There’s really no such thing as a golden visa,” Katz said. Luck. “These are temporary statuses and they may pass.” Only citizenship, he said, gives a person the confidence that he can stay in the country indefinitely.
Although the Argentine government views the program through a tax lens, advisers caution against viewing Argentina’s efforts—or the broader second citizenship boom—as primarily a tax game, at least for Americans. The US taxes its citizens around the world no matter where they live, so acquiring Argentine citizenship does not change anything for a client’s IRS account unless they go through the much more drastic step of renouncing US citizenship.
Instead, second citizenship applies the logic of rich people’s portfolio diversification to passports.
“Why on earth should you have one country of citizenship and only one country in which to live if you have the financial means to create a portfolio of options?” – Volek said.
David Lesperance, a leading international tax and immigration consultant with more than three decades of experience, advises American clients to consider citizenship and residency options as a hedge against whatever their personal “wildfire” might be—a hurricane, earthquake, political violence, anti-Semitism, mass shootings, or a punitive new tax.
“If you look at these alternative residences and citizenships as fire insurance, and people include them in a fire evacuation plan, they may not leave unless there is an actual wildfire,” Lesperance said. Luck. “But I recognize that it can happen, and I have the means to protect my family from it.”
It’s important to note that a move like Thiel’s doesn’t require moving money at the same time, Lesperance said.
“You need to separate where you live from where your assets are,” he said, describing how he considered moving his family to Buenos Aires before ultimately choosing Koh Samui in Thailand.
“If you’re going to physically move yourself and your family to a place like Argentina, that doesn’t require me to move my wealth to Argentina,” he said. A client may simply love Buenos Aires and consider it safe for his family, but make completely separate decisions about where to keep his money and pay taxes, he said.
Lesperance noted that the popularity of South America among his American clients has increased sharply over the past year (up to 18 months), along with long-term interest in Europe. But for now, both advisors and their clients are in a wait-and-see mode.
“Everyone is waiting until the program actually becomes available before making any decisions,” Volek said.