Guide

Hosting international guests at an event in Argentina: registration, ID documents, names and the door

By SOMOS DER · October 30, 2026 · 6 min read

When guests fly in from abroad for an event in Argentina, the door rarely jams because of the QR code. It jams because of an ID document nobody expected, a surname filed differently from how the guest gives it, or someone who arrives an hour early because their calendar converted the time. All of this can be solved by email before the event. Ask only for the identity data someone will actually check, split first and last names, write every time as Argentina time, and set up a separate desk for special cases. At the door, a unique QR code per guest means nobody has to find a name on a list.

Before registration: travel is the guest's job, but the letter may be yours

Entry into Argentina is not the organizer's responsibility, but there is one point where the event comes into play. For travelers from countries that need a tourist visa, the Argentine government page on the tourist visa lists, among other requirements, a passport valid for at least six months from the date of entry, a round trip flight reservation, a hotel booking and itinerary (or, without a hotel booking, an invitation letter), and a consular interview. The same page states that meeting the requirements does not guarantee the visa.

The practical rule: in the invitation or the confirmation email, ask whether the guest needs a formal letter for their paperwork. You find out weeks ahead, not the day a consulate writes to you.

ID documents: ask for what someone will check, not for everything

The reflex is to ask every foreign guest for a passport number. Before you do, ask whether anyone at the door will look at it. If the venue (a hotel, a corporate building, a site with its own security) requires every visitor to be identified, yes. If not, skip it. Argentina's personal data protection law, Law 25,326, requires collected data to be accurate, adequate, relevant and not excessive for the purpose, and requires you to tell people beforehand what the data is for and who may receive it. A passport number nobody uses is excessive data. We cover the rest of the law in our guide to Law 25,326 for foreign organizers.

If you do need an ID, three precautions:

• Do not assume an Argentine DNI. Ask for document type (passport, national ID card, other) and number, without forcing eight digits or numbers only: many passports include letters.
• Brief the door team on the documents they will see. Not every South American guest travels with a passport. According to the official Argentina tourism guide for visitors from Brazil, Brazilians can enter with a physical Registro Geral (RG) in good condition, a state identity card with national validity or a valid passport, and digital versions of identity documents are not accepted at the border. If your door checks ID, a Brazilian guest will probably show an RG, and the operator needs to know it is valid.
• Decide what counts as a match. If you asked for a passport number and the guest shows a national ID card, the numbers will not match. Agree beforehand whether a matching name is enough in that case.

Names: accents, ñ and compound surnames

A guest named María José Pérez de la Fuente can end up on a spreadsheet as «Perez», «De la Fuente», «Pérez de la Fuente» or «Fuente, María José», depending on who typed it. A Brazilian or Portuguese guest may carry two surnames and use the last one, the opposite of the Argentine habit. Guests whose names use other alphabets should choose their own transliteration.

• First and last name in separate fields, and, if your form allows it, an optional field for how the guest wants the name printed on the badge. Print it exactly as given.
• Let each guest register themselves. When the host company keys in its foreign guests by hand, typos appear. Send the link and let each person fill it in.
• Do not depend on the name at the door. In PASE each attendee receives a unique QR code by email, together with a PDF badge, and the door scans the code instead of searching for a surname. The name matters for the badge, not for validating entry.

The QR email: make sure it arrives and is on the phone before landing

With guests from abroad, the confirmation email goes through corporate filters you do not control and lands on a phone that may have no mobile data after the flight. Four things help:

• Registration in the guest's language. The PASE registration landing page and the QR email are available in Spanish and English. The page follows the browser language and has a «View in English» button; add ?lang=en to the end of the link you send to English-speaking guests and it opens in English. There is no Portuguese version, so for Brazilian guests explain the steps in your invitation.
• Correct emails at sign-up. PASE detects common domain typos while the guest registers (gmial.com, hotmail.con) and suggests the fix, which is the most common reason a QR code never arrives.
• A way back for whoever cannot find it. With the «Resend my QR» option, the guest enters their email and gets the code again, without writing to anyone.
• Ask guests to save the PDF before they travel. The door needs internet to validate; the guest does not, if the badge is saved on the phone or printed. Say it plainly in the email.

Times: write them for someone whose clock has not changed yet

A guest reading the program from another time zone can turn up an hour early or an hour late, especially if their calendar converted the time (or did not). In the invitation, the confirmation email and the registration page, write each time followed by «Argentina time», and if guests come from only a few countries, add the equivalent for each. Use the 24 hour format or write a.m. and p.m. in full: «19:00» is clear everywhere, «7» is not.

If the event runs over several days or includes a transfer from the hotel, send a reminder the day before with the accreditation time and the full street address, not just the venue name.

The door: a desk for special cases and badges ready

The main line moves by scanning. International guests are usually few, but they bring more special cases: the email never arrived, an assistant registered them with another address, a companion nobody planned for. If those cases are handled at the same desk as everyone else, the whole line stops.

• A separate desk, staffed by someone who speaks English (or the language most guests share) and who has the authority to decide.
• A category of its own, by link. In PASE each attendee type registers through its own link (for example, «international guest» separate from «general»), so the door and the report show how many arrived without counting by hand.
• Printed badges. When guests will spend the day meeting people they do not know, a badge with name and company spelled right is worth more than with any other audience. PASE prints badges in several sizes, and anyone who shows up unregistered can be added manually at the door.

When a scan returns a duplicate or an unauthorized code, the operator sends the guest to that desk and keeps the line moving. That single rule removes most of the delays.

If you are producing the event from abroad, you will also need people on the ground. SOMOS DER, the company behind PASE, is an event production agency in Argentina; you can ask about local production when you request a quote.

A guest from abroad does not know the venue, the local habits or sometimes the language. Everything you can solve before they land, solve by email.

Frequently asked questions