Overview

• Argentine consulates in Brazil, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain and Australia are recalling recent passports for scanning and, if needed, replacement at no cost.
• The suspect booklets are from AAL serial ranges AAL314778–AAL346228, AAL400000–AAL607599, and AAL616000–AAL620088, which together exceed 200,000 issued passports.
• Officials attribute the failures to a defective German-supplied black security ink that is invisible to the eye and only detectable by passport readers at migration checkpoints.
• Renaper set up 24/7 review points at Ezeiza and Aeroparque and a post at Buquebus, activated a verification chatbot (+54 11 5126-1789), and is issuing immediate reprints or emergency documents.
• The government says confirmed defective booklets number in the low thousands and reports 15,000+ checks and over 2,230 reprints, while lawmakers Esteban Paulón and Mónica Fein filed information requests asserting a much larger impact.