Working Holiday Programme for Argentina

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible for an Argentina 6 Month Working Holiday Visa you must fit the following criteria:

• You must be aged between 18 and 30 (inclusive) when you apply for your Visa.
• You are not accompanied by any dependents or spouse.
• Have a valid Irish Passport
• Your passport must be valid for the entire period of your stay in Argentina.
• You must have sufficient funds to support yourself during your stay in Argentina
• Proof of flight ticket (USIT can book this for you)
• You need to provide a Police Certificate with your application
• You may extend your Work Visa by an additional 3 Months while you are in Argentina - contact us for more details.

Useful Information

A few useful things to know before you head off on your travels…

• Local time in Argentina is 3 hours behind GMT.
• Local currency: Argentinean peso. You can exchange your money in banks. Credit cards are accepted in most places, except for small stores. Always carry some coins on you as there are usually shortages of change in stores.
• Tipping is only expected at restaurants, usually 10% of the bill. In public bathrooms you may find someone providing toilet paper in return for some coins.
• Argentina's climate varies considerably along the regions. In general in the central area, the weather is temperate but can turn hot and humid during summer and cool in winter.
• The population is about 40.7 million. Almost 90% of the citizens are descendants from Spain and Italy.
• Opening hours for local stores are Monday to Friday 8am - 7:30pm and Saturdays 8am - 1:30pm. Banks are open Monday to Friday 9am - 2pm.
• Traditional dishes in Argentina are highly influenced by European cuisine, especially from Spain and Italy. Typical dishes include:
  • Empanada: Pastries with meat and different fillings. They can be friend or cooked in the oven.
  • Locro: A kind of stew with a mixture of corn, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd.
  • Asado: Barbecue served from a charcoal brazier, includes different meat cuts and is commonly called 'Parrillada'.  
  • Chorizo: A meat-based spicy sausage.
• Desserts and sweet delights include chocolate and the famous "dulce de leche"
• Traditional drinks include wine and beer that are very good and inexpensive. Coffee is also very common.

Argentina has not been insulated from the current international economic climate but the truth is that it has not been hitting as hard as many European countries. 

With a population of 42 million, the unemployment rate in Argentina at the end of 2012 was 6.9 %, being ARS 2900 per month (€ 430) its national minimum wage since January 2013.

The Working Holiday Visa will cover work of a casual or temporary nature only. For those young Irish travelling to Argentina and looking for a job, there are certain areas more popular than others such as English teaching, call centres or casual work. Bear in mind that although having fluent Spanish is not required, certain level of the language could be a plus for the job hunting.

Argentina is in a high demand of native English speakers. The salary average goes between ARS 30 – 40 approx per hour.  Probably the easiest way to find a teaching job is applying through Language Schools but you could consider others like teaching in-companies or one to one. Please note that “Buenos Aires Herald” has become a hopeful source of teacher job vacancies.

Call centres have become a key element in the growth of Argentina. Both local and multinational companies, most of them in the Telecom industry and located mainly in the cities of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, have substantial expansion opportunities in the country. TeleTech, Telefonica, Motorola, HP, IBM, Sony or Orange are some examples. Salaries in this area go from AR 3800 approx per month.

Nightlife in the main cities such as Buenos Aires or Cordoba is large and wide so there are plenty of work opportunities in this area. Picking up casual work in a restaurant or even in an Irish pub (over 40 in the city of Buenos Aires only) is certainly a good chance to make some money and pay the bills. The tipping policy in the service industry is minimum 10%.

For those sport lovers, working as a ski instructor (around 14 ski resorts along the Andes) or playing rugby (around 400 clubs in Argentina) in an amateur level could be other options to keep in mind.

The following job search websites could help you while job hunting:

• www.bumeran.com.ar
• www.computrabajo.com.ar
• www.zonajobs.com.ar
• www.jobisjob.com.ar

Also some of the main recruitment agencies are Adecco, Grupo Gestion, Randstad or Manpower.