Migrating from Argentina to Australia: documents, apostille & translation
General information about the Argentine documents and procedures that commonly come up in an Australian migration process — with links to the official sources.
This page gathers general information; it doesn't assess your case or replace the official sources. Every situation is different and the rules change — here's the overview and where to go to verify it.
Police certificate
Australia's character check (Department of Home Affairs) generally asks for a police certificate from each country where a person has lived 12 months or more (cumulatively) in the last 10 years, since the age of 16.
For Argentina, the document is the Certificado de Antecedentes Penales, issued by the National Recidivism Registry (Registro Nacional de Reincidencia, Ministry of Justice). It's generally requested online (for example, through Mi Argentina) and delivered as a digitally-signed electronic document; those without a digital credential can handle it in person.
Argentina is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. The competent authority is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship (Cancillería); in addition, the Colegios de Escribanos (notary associations) are authorised to apostille. The procedure can be done online through the Trámites a Distancia (TAD) platform.
Important: an apostille is not a requirement for lodging an Australian visa application. For the Department of Home Affairs, the usual requirement is a colour scan of the original document and its English translation (see below) — not an apostille. We include the apostille as general information on how Argentine documents are validated for official cross-border use.
A detail specific to Argentina: the criminal-record certificate can be apostilled via TAD only if the process is initiated within 90 days of the certificate's issue. This is a limit of the Argentine apostille process, distinct from any Australian rule on document validity.
The Department of Home Affairs asks for an English translation of any document that isn't in English. The rule depends on where the translation is done.
If the translation is done in Australia, a NAATI-accredited translator does it (the national accreditation authority for translators and interpreters). If it's done outside Australia, the translator doesn't need NAATI accreditation, but states their full name, address, phone, and qualifications or experience, in English.
The Australian Embassy in Buenos Aires adds that, outside Australia, official documents (birth, marriage or divorce certificates, identity document, record certificates, custody documents and military-service certificates) are translated by a traductor público (sworn translator); other documents accept an accurate translation; internet or machine translations are not accepted, and when in doubt the Embassy says to use a traductor público translation.
The Australian Embassy in Buenos Aires serves Argentina (along with Uruguay and Paraguay), but visa processing is carried out by the Department of Home Affairs at the Australian Embassy in Brasília. Applications are lodged online via ImmiAccount.
An important point: currently, per the Australian Embassy in Buenos Aires, applicants in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay do not need to provide biometrics when lodging. The embassy pages sometimes keep old content, so verify what's current at the official source before assuming a biometrics step.