Argentina Plans South American Golden Passport Program for Fourth Quarter 2026

Argentina will open applications for South America's first citizenship-by-investment program in the fourth quarter of 2026, Fortune reported. Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced the initiative in Paris. The golden passport program aims to combine a personal safe haven with significant business opportunities for international investors. [1]

Nuri Katz, the founder of Apex Capital Partners who helped design the initiative, told Fortune on Friday that he expects the program to become a major status symbol among high-net-worth individuals. Katz stated that the program will become so popular that wealthy Americans will feel embarrassed if they do not hold an Argentine passport. [1]

Argentina originally declared independence from Spanish colonial rule on July 9, 1816, before establishing its modern republic under an 1853 constitution that was updated in 1994. Although early twentieth-century prosperity was driven by agricultural exports and immigration, the nation has faced nine sovereign debt defaults and hyperinflation episodes exceeding 5,000 percent annually in the 1980s. [4]

The new citizenship initiative targets wealthy foreign buyers, including citizens from the United States, where an overseas diaspora already exceeds five million people. Applications for the program are scheduled to launch in late 2026 as Argentina seeks to attract foreign capital. [1][5]