The government assures that no passports have been issued to Russian citizens who have entered the country since 2022

The waves of pregnant Russian women arriving in the country in recent months have forced immigration authorities to tighten controls. In recent days, several pregnant women They were detained at Ezeiza airport for various irregularities, although they were later able to enter the country with judicial authorization. The phenomenon has also prompted a judicial investigation, led by Judge María Servini, into the organizations that bring pregnant women to give birth in Argentina.

Justice’s assumption is that these companies use false documents to obtain permanent residence after having an Argentinian son or daughter. From there you can aspire to citizenship and then get the passport. This is the main attraction they offer to Russian women: a passport that does not require a visa to enter more than 170 countries.

Russian citizens can only obtain Argentine citizenship by processing it before a federal judge. The government has indicated that the National Register of Persons (Renaper) did not issue any passports to Russian citizens with a citizenship letter issued by the Argentinian justice to those who entered the country in 2022 and so far in 2023. “As a result of all that is done, there are still passports granted to those who are entered 2022 only with these intentions,” said the head of Migrations, Florencia Carignano.

According to data provided by the Migration Directorate, last year 10,500 Russian pregnant women entered Argentina, 5,800 of them in the last three months. In mid-2022, the authorities began to investigate this wave of migration from Russia, which exploded following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions to which the citizens of the aggressor country are subject.

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There was also the case of a 38-year-old Russian, Valentin Kazantsev, who arrived in the country with an orange alert from Interpol. Like the pregnant women detained, she presented a habeas corpus but it was rejected and she then decided to start an asylum procedure before the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE).

Kazantsev arrived in the country last Friday with his 33-week-pregnant wife and son on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

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The process of obtaining refugee status can take up to a year because other bodies such as the Ministry of Justice, the Chancellery, INADI and even the Ministry of the Interior are involved. But the sources consulted admitted that this case will have a resolution long before. In fact, this very week, you could be called for a personal interview.

Kazantsev is the subject of a legal investigation, although in principle he would not be linked to the illegal organizations which charge 35,000 USD to pregnant women so that they can give birth in Argentina and obtain false documents to obtain the Double nationality.

Given the controversy over these cases, the Government has specified that “Argentine citizenship for foreigners is granted by federal justice, this being a necessary condition for processing the Argentine passport at Renaper”. “The passport can only be issued after the Charter of Argentine Citizenship has been issued by the federal justice”, specified the same source.

In order for a foreign person to begin the citizenship process, the courts establish certain criteria. One of them has a son or daughter who is an Argentine citizen. From this moment, the procedures can be engaged so that Justice grants citizenship to the father or the mother.

Judge Servini’s investigation points the finger at the companies that profit from this wave of migration, but there are also suspicions about the Argentine authorities because it has already been determined that home checks presented to perform some 70 procedures before the migrations were faked. The survey aroused the interest of Homeland Security Investigations Bureau (Homeland Security Investigations). This United States government agency has already informally contacted the Federal Court in Servini.

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