The parents of Argentine babies are afforded residency rights and an accelerated process to apply for citizenship.
Elena’s youngest daughter, Severina, was born in Buenos Aires in May.
“We want to stay here and assimilate. Our residency application is in progress,” she said.
At the Sanatorio Finochietto clinic, there is a noticeable presence of Russian families and pregnant women.
Guillermo Capuya, who is in charge of the clinic’s institutional relations, says the arrival of pregnant Russians “began very slowly” about a year ago, around the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We did not imagine it would become a phenomenon, but in the last quarter it started to increase exponentially” to the point that in December a quarter of the 200 births in the clinic were to Russian mothers.
“IT’S AN AVALANCHE”
Most of the Russians do not speak Spanish and almost none have ever visited Argentina before.
But what is happening now “is an avalanche”, said Florencia Carignano, the migration agency director.
They mostly arrive on flights from Amsterdam, Istanbul and Addis Ababa.
Carignano says there are 14 or 15 pregnant Russians on each of those flights.
More than 5,800 have arrived in the last three months.
There is nothing new about Russians seeking dual nationality for their children, a man who created an agency to help expectant parents in Argentina told AFP under condition of anonymity.
Before, the preferred destination was the United States.
The “package” deal for giving birth in Argentina can cost up to $US15,000, he said.
“If you have a bit of money and are able to have your child born outside Russia, you will do it. It’s easy to acquire Argentine citizenship and you get treated a lot better than with the red Russian passport,” he said.
According to the federal police, some networks charge up to US$35,000 for birthing tourism.
Authorities are worried mafia organisations could be trying to get access to Argentine passports.
Police conducted a raid in Buenos Aires last week, seizing telephones, documents and several currencies, although no arrests were made.
The Argentine passport allows you to travel to 175 countries without a visa, around 50 more than with a Russian passport.
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