Aduana Villazon-La Quiaca | Customs and Immigration

Border crossing Arg-Bolivia

After reading all the horror comments we were a bit nervous about this crossing.
But the comments helped in a way of how to do what in which oder:

1. Park the Car - now 600 arg pesos
2. Arg immigration
3. Dayana arg
4.aduana bolivia
5.bring the car to the Aduana- they gonna check it briefly
6. Drive forward to the immigration Bolivia
Go inside and get you visa, which is just a pice of paper.

Done 🎉

The stuff was really nice and helpful.
It felt like they actually trying to improve or…
We’ve been just lucky.
It took us less than an hour.
They checked the car very briefly, we did have fresh veggies but they didn’t see them.
We didn’t have to pay more than the 600pesos for the parking.
So in the end it all work out quite smooth.

Good luck to everyone.
Hopefully it’s going to be like that from now on.

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FRANCAIS:
Passage Bolivie à Argentine à la frontiere de La Quiaca:
Arrivée 18h35.

1: garer la voiture dans les rues, mais pas devant la douane sinon un agent vous demandera de la bouger. Laisser la voiture pour les étapes 1 à 6 et y aller à pied.

2: changer l'argent bolivien en pesos argentins dans les bureaux de change juste avant la douane.

3: migration Bolivie. Pas de tampon dans le passeport mais un tampon sur une feuille. Durée: 2mn

4: migration Argentine (de l'autre côté du pont). Pas de tampon non plus sur le passeport (digital). 90 jours. Durée: 5mn

5: douanes Bolivie: saisir un QR code (affiché sur le mur) pour saisir les informations de sortie. On obtient un nouveau QR code, qu'on montre alors à l'agent. On reçoit un papier avec un tampon. Durée: 10mn.

6: douanes Argentine: donner les papiers avec les tampons.
Il faut présenter une assurance pour la voiture.
On obtient un TIP pour 90 jours. Durée: 10mn.
Durée depuis le début du processus: 40mn.

7: aller récupérer la voiture et se garer sur le pont en faisant la queue. Attendre qu'on nous fasse signe d'avancer. Durée pour nous: 10mn.

8: contrôle et fouille: rapide. L'agent a fouillé 2 ou 3 placards sommairement. Durée: 5mn.

Total: 1h00

9: chiens: les douaniers ont dû rappeler leur collègue SENASA qui s'était absenté pour qu'il fasse les papiers d'entrée (on a insisté sinon on aurait pu entrer sans papier...). On lui a donné le papier SENASAG de Bolivie (original) et un certificat de bonne santé (original aussi). Il a juste mis un tampon derrière la copie du papier SENASAG, et c'était bon! Gratuit. Durée (avec l'attente): 15mn.

Prix total: Gratuit pour tout.

On a eu la chance car il y avait peu de monde et aucun bus.

ENGLISH:
Passage from Bolivia to Argentina at the La Quiaca border:
Arrival 6:35 p.m.

1: park the car in the streets, but not in front of customs otherwise an agent will ask you to move it. Leave the car for steps 1 to 6 and go there on foot.

2: Change Bolivian money into Argentine pesos at exchange offices just before customs.

3: migration Bolivia. No stamp in the passport but a stamp on a sheet. Duration: 2 mins

4: Argentina migration (on the other side of the bridge). No stamp on the (digital) passport either. 90 days. Duration: 5 mins

5: Bolivia customs: enter a QR code (displayed on the wall) to enter exit information. We obtain a new QR code, which we then show to the agent. We receive a piece of paper with a stamp. Duration: 10 minutes.

6: Argentina customs: give the papers with the stamps.
You must present insurance for the car.
We obtain a TIP for 90 days. Duration: 10 minutes.
Duration since the start of the process: 40 minutes.

7: go pick up the car and park on the bridge while waiting in line. Wait for someone to signal us to move forward. Duration for us: 10 minutes.

8: control and search: rapid. The agent searched 2 or 3 cupboards summarily. Duration: 5 minutes.

Total: 1h00

9: dogs: the customs officers had to call back their SENASA colleague who was absent so that he could do the entry papers (we insisted otherwise we could have entered without papers...). He was given the SENASAG paper from Bolivia (original) and a certificate of good health (also original). He just put a stamp behind the copy of the SENASAG paper, and it was good! Free. Duration (with waiting): 15 minutes.

Total price: Free for everything.

We were lucky because there were few people and no buses.

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Bolivia to Argentina. Proceed to the bridge where you will find parking. Visit Bolivia immigration, Argentina immigration, Bolivia aduana (if you are handing in a TIP) and finally Argentina aduana (if you need a new TIP). The last step took the longest and included a brief inspection. The entire process took 1.5 hours. Thankfully, the bus line arrived just after us.

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Argentina→Bolivia

1. park your vehicle at the parking lot on your right, pay 500ARS. keep the receipt because you need it to get out.

2. walk to the first container on the left (migraciones AR) get stamped. (3min)

3. they’ll tell you got the one further on (No.3, migraciones BO) and get stamped. (3min)

4. Then move on to the aduana AR and get your TIP canceled. (30min)

5.cross the road to the aduana BO on the other side to get your new TIP for Bolivia. Scan the QR code in front of you and fill the form in while you wait. After this is done the guy (who also spoke English) will ask you to move your vehicle here. (30min)

6. Get your van checked (just a quick look, they didn’t step inside) (5min)

7. Drive on to the Bolivian side. You have to pay 20BOB and if you don’t have any BOB like us, there’s a place you can cambios(exchange) right in front of the gates. (10min)

that’s it! In total it was 1.5 hours for us. (Lunch time on a week day) Good luck!

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Argentina - Bolivia :
By far the worst border we had to cross in all South America!
It took us no less than 4 hours to get through it!
Everything is completely disorganized, no one (even the locals) understands what to do and where to go, there are no instructions. You have to park the vehicle, then do everything on foot and return to the vehicle to pass it…
Incompetent Bolivian staff (he gave us a TIP for a vehicle that was not ours… we spent half an hour redoing everything!)…
And to make matters worse, there is a charge for parking where you leave your vehicle!!! So if you haven't kept any pesos, you have to park further away at the YPF station!
In short, good luck!

Argentine - Bolivie :
De loin la pire frontière que nous ayons eu à traverser dans toute l’Amérique du Sud!
Nous avons mis pas moins de 4 heures pour la passer!
Tout est complètement désorganisé, personne (même les locaux) ne comprend rien à ce qu’il faut faire et où il faut aller, il n’y a aucune indication. Il faut garer le véhicule, puis tout faire à pied et revenir au véhicule pour le faire passer…
Personnel bolivien incompétent (il nous a donné un TIP pour un véhicule qui n’était pas le nôtre… on a passé une demi-heure à tout refaire!)…
Et comble du spectacle, le parking où laisser le véhicule est payant!!! Donc si vous n’avez pas gardé de pesos, il faut vous garer plus loin à la station YPF!
Bref, bon courage!

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Very unorganised /unprofessional border crossing. Hell.
Make sure you have some argentina pesos left!!
500 pesos for parking at Argentina side
1000 pesos to cross into Bolivia.
3200 pesos for i dont know.
Very unpleasant situation.

Worked out ok. No problems taking 60 liter of Gasolina from Argentina to Bolivia.

We spend 2 hours and we’re lucky. You can be unlucky if you have to wait for the other side vehicles to cross the border.

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turned up at nine on a Wednesday and it took 4hs queuing on all sides

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We started crossing from Argentina to Bolivia at about 8.30pm. no queue, all very straight forward (just make sure you first present your vehicle paperwork and then your passports, in other borders it works the other way round but here no. we didn't know and had to wait a few more minutes as they had to cancel from the system that we left Argentina and first unregister the van and then us....)
otherwise very easy.
we have a dog, they most likely saw her as they entered the van for general check (opened a few cupboards) but didn't ask for dog's papers (we had not done them).

in less than an hour we were in Bolivia

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We crossed here today with our Chilean motorbike and everything went well. We arrived late, around 10:30pm and the border closes at 11pm, so it was a great time to get everything done fast-ish. The whole thing took under 1 hour and everyone was very friendly. To speed things up, make sure to scan the QR code at the Bolovian Aduana office and fill out the online form which takes a few minutes per person. We also were told to do things in this order, compared to what we read here:

1. Immigration Argentina
2. Aduana Argentina
3. Aduana Bolivia
4. Immigration Bolivia
5. Final check from Aduana Argentina.

Overall a good experience we would advise to go towards closing time.

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Crossed this border today Bolivia to Argentina with a motorcycle
Very straight forward and helpful no charges or fees
Customs/immigration filled out all forms for us as we had no WiFi all very helpful
Money changing only on Bolivian side
In total took about an hour including changing money

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Bolivia --> Argentina
We got there around 1pm and it took us around an hour, there were not really any lines.
The whole area around the border control seems to be under construction so it took us some time to actually find the right road leading up to the border.
Also due to the construction there was no great place to park the car, so we went one by one through migration while the other stayed with the car (as we did with other border controls). The Argentinian migration officers got very annoyed that we didn't present ourselves at the same time, not sure why.
In the end they let us park on the bridge (between Bolivian and Argentinian migration).
At Bolivian Aduana we had to scan a QR code to fill out a form stating we had a nothing to declare.
At the Argentinian Aduana we had to take some bags out of the car to take through the XRay and they checked the car.
It was a bit of a confusing process but it didn't take too long in the end. It might just be advisable to go together if you are 2 (or more) people.

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Bolivia to Argentina: We are normally early morning border people, but based on the comments we showed up at 3:30pm. Worked out great! No lines, no waiting, entire crossing took an hour.

We navigated the construction zone and were parked directly on the bridge between the two countries by a Bolivian police officer. He charged us 5 Bolivianos and gave us a receipt.

We then proceeded through all 4 steps: Bolivian Migration, Argentina Migration, Bolivian Aduana, Argentina Aduana. Check of the truck by Argentinian Aduana was extremely cursory.

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They were working on the road right before the bridge, so the crossing was closed until 7pm. Not sure if just a one time thing.

When the border finally reopened, we saw people having to unload literally everything in their car, even a tyre was put through the x-ray scanner. We were kind of stressed as our tetris game is rather strong after almost two years of travel, but luckily we were just asked to open a couple of cupboards and let them have a look in the engine bay. All in all not the worst crossing.

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Crossed the border from Argentina to Bolivia today. Took a LONG time, maybe 4 hours? Seemed we were unlucky with some aduanas taking breaks. First, park you vehicles in the lot to the right of the actual crossing. Then proceed…

I am an American. Advisory to other Americans—go immediately to the Bolivian immigration office in the blue building across the river (on Bolivian side) to obtain visa as your first step. You need to do this before doing anything else. And you need to pay in cash. They agent made me change my USD to Bolivian at the nearby cambios because I used $20 dollar bills (they’re less liked then $100s and get a worse rate). So maybe pay in higher denomination bills. Wouldn’t accept CC. DOCUMENTS NEEDED: bank statement, hotel bookings, two passport photos, scan of passport, and a written out itinerary (really really basic) The agent gave me a paper application to fill at her desk.

Then follow the step outlined by others. Go to the various containers. First, Argentinian immigration, then Bolivian immigration, then Argentina aduana then Bolivia aduana then get your car/moto and you’re free to go!

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Bolivia -> Argentina (as a French couple with a chilean car).
It went very well (1h) : we arrived late (20h), no queue anywhere, no real search of the car (backpacks on x-ray, one of two boxes opened in the car : our car is quite full and messy, I think they didnt want to begin a thorough search this late).
We didn't have to show all our car papers (no international insurance for example), no questions asked (except where do we go after). We didn't get a stamp on our passeport (it's all digital).

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Bolivia-> Argentina.
Senasag papers not necessary on this border on either way (because we went out of argentina for less than 2 months and our argentinian form was still valid).

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this was a terrible crossing for me. the paperwork part, no problem, all 4 stops probably took 20 minutes. but crossing the bridge, they made me take everything out of the car to xray, then I had to leave all my stuff outside on the road while I followed them to have the car itself xrayed. incompetent, disorganized staff. dog owners, you will need your paperwork, they absolutely do check. they did not ask for proof of insurance. convert your Bob to ars on the Bolivian side, way better rate, but keep 5 Bob to pay the tax man on the bridge. all in all, 1 out 10 stars, horrible welcome to Argentina.

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Easy bordercrossing but a but confusing with different locstions. Previous descriptions are right. Not much traffic, took us 1.5 hours for the whole process. Just checked the frame number of the bikes.

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Crosse Argentina-Bolivia on foot (no vehicle) Wed April 12 around 12:30 PM. We arrived as some of the first who came from the bus in La Quiaca. Easy to get to the border.
Once there, we went to the first white storage unit (Argentina exit customs). 15 minute line, and about 5 minutes to check our two passports. Note Argentina does not have exit stamps anymore, it’s all digital.
We then passed one or two empty storage units (looked like AR exit customs for vehicles) then approached the Bolivian entry storage unit. Again 15 minute line, <5 minutes to process. They handed us a stamped white paper (no passport stamp); I assume that is what we need to exit the country.
After we went straight for the building with security scanners (left of the road), but they just told us to continue into Bolivia.
Overall very smooth process, we were quite hesitant beforehand. We were 2 Canadians, and a French family of 4 and a Dutch duo also had no issues. Passport was all that was needed (no photocopies of anything).

Giving it 4 stars because it is not super clear where you need to go.

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very smooth and very fast.

went from Argentina to Bolivia. took cca 1h in total. all the previous descriptions are accurate.

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Argentina>Bolivia.

Good border crossing. I got there @ 10:00, finished in an hour. Only 3-4 other vehicles crossing, rest were walking travellers.

Container #1 = Argentina Immigration stamp out
Container #3= Bolivian Immigration stamp in
Big white building glass doors = Argentina Customs release TIP
Container across from Argentina Customs = Bolivian customs get new TIP

All folks very friendly and efficient.

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Perfect description from @alyvanblake.we arrived at 3.30pm. we did everything as described. There were not many people but the staff was slow and in addition they had no connection for half an hour. it took us 4 hours. luckily the customs did a quick check of the camper by they also saw our dogs, but they didn't ask us for any documents of theirs.

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Argentina - Bolivia, a little slow and a little confusing.

Park your vehicle in the car park and on foot go to:
1. Migration Argentina (receive slip of paper with first stamp)
2. Migration Bolivia (no stamp in passport but individual slip of paper to keep in the passport, this should be stamped). You should also get a second stamp on the original slip of paper.
3. Ayuda Argentina - just the vehicle owner needed to give back the TiP you received when entering Argentina. Third stamp on the original slip of paper.
4. Ayuda Bolivia - receive a new TiP and collect your final stamp.

Go back to your vehicle and join the queue to cross the border. Some vehicles got checked by both Argentina and Bolivia Guards, we didn’t get checked by either.

Just as you’re crossing the Bolivia border one person needs to take the passports to the kiosk and they will ask a couple of questions about where you’re from/ where you’re going.

The whole thing took about 1.5 hours but I can easily see how it would take longer!

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1. stop at the Bolivian immigration building before the bridge(right next to the money exchange pin on here) and get a piece of paper with a stamp. they did not stamp out our passports. leave your car parked somewhere good here as you won't be able to join the line of the cars on the bridge until completing steps 1-4.
2. walk across the bridge to a shipping container building on the left for Argentina immigration
3. next building on the left to cancel the Bolivian TIP(this part easily took the longest time).
4.walk across the road directly behind you to get Argentina TIP.
5. you can now go get your car and drive onto the bridge to get in line for inspection.
6. get inspected. locals were having to pull bags and everything from the car to go through an x-ray machine here. popping hoods and trucks. pulling the car apart. when it was our turn they barely searched at all. didn't confiscate any of our food (or dog food). once you get your final stamp here you are free to go.
6. if you have pets, and they see them during the searching process, expect someone to confront you about them. very friendly but required copies of all of the pages received from SENASAG and the vet. this part took us only a few minutes.

we got here at 11 and waited for at least an hour in 2 different lines (step 2 and 3). my recommendation is to come after 1pm, like someone else said, by the time we finally made it through all of the steps there was almost nobody behind us. this border is open late so don't worry. took us 4:40 hours (with dogs) and could easily been half of that if we had come later... no one asked for our insurance here even though we read that you needed to get your tip.

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To exit Bolivia: Waited 4 hours exactly on a Friday morning- 10:20-2:20.
Through Argentinian side within 5 minutes! Btw Argentina no longer give entry stamps. :(

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Argentina to Bolivia on a Thursday Morning: Plan at least 4-5 hours

There is a huge construction site, so vehicles can only pass in one direction at a time. Trucks have priority.
Order:
1. Migration Argentina
2. Migration Bolivia
3. Aduana Argentina
4. Aduana Bolivia

Tip: If you are two or more: While the vehicle owner queues at Aduana Bolivia, the other one can already collect the vehicle from the parking, as this is the longest queue.

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Bolivia to Argentina
arrived at 8:30 am and leaving at 2:45pm
definitely would recommend coming in the afternoon. all busses showed up in the morning. immigration line up was over 2 hrs in the morning but now when leaving I see no one there.

you need to park the van on the street. do all the paper work of immigration and aduana at both countries. once done, talk to the traffic control agents at the bridge ( wearing florescent vests) they will let you know when you can bring the car over to the bridge for argentina aduana inspection

FYI, showed them insurance from home and they didn't ask for any other

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Tanke us 6 hours on a tuesday Morning. Afternoon would be better

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Nice staff but not really fast. We took 1h30 with a van. They checked the bags but not really the van but we saw some cars checked during long time before us.

Step to go from Bolivia to Argentina with a car:
migraciones boliviana
migraciones argentina
go through the aduana argentina to go to aduana boliviana
then go back to aduana argentina

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