When the State issues an act that affects a private party's rights — denying a permit, imposing a sanction, rejecting an application, or altering a pre-existing legal situation — the first step to challenge it is typically an administrative appeal. Argentina's federal system, governed by Law 19.549 (the Administrative Procedures Act, or LPA) and its Regulatory Decree 1759/72, provides three main types of appeal: reconsideration (reconsideración), hierarchical appeal (jerárquico), and appellate review (alzada). Each has its own deadlines, competent authorities, and specific legal effects.
Exhausting administrative remedies is, in most cases, a mandatory prerequisite for bringing a contentious-administrative action before the courts. The appeals strategy is therefore not a mere procedural formality: it is the first substantive line of defence, where the facts are established, evidence is submitted, and the legal argument that will be advanced in court is built.
Deadline: ten administrative business days from notification. Filed before the same authority that issued the act. It is optional: it need not be filed before proceeding to a hierarchical appeal, but filing it does interrupt the running of deadlines. Useful when there is a clear factual error or new evidence capable of persuading the same authority.
Deadline: fifteen administrative business days. Filed before the same authority but resolved by the superior in the hierarchy (within the central administration, generally the Minister). This is the principal appeal and, in most cases, its dismissal — or the administrative silence equivalent to a dismissal — opens the path to judicial review. Filing it is generally mandatory to exhaust administrative remedies.
Applies to acts issued by decentralised bodies (ANSES, AFIP, autonomous agencies). Deadline: fifteen administrative business days. Filed before the Minister to whom the relevant body reports. Whether it is mandatory or optional depends on the specific statutory regime governing that body.
Where the deadlines for formal appeals have expired, Article 1(e)(6) of the LPA allows the filing of an illegitimacy complaint. The administration may dismiss it outright or consider it on the merits, but a decision refusing to review the act does not open an independent judicial avenue. It is a limited instrument, but sometimes the only one available.
Administrative deadlines are counted in administrative business days. Proper notification of the act is the starting point for the deadline calculation: defective notifications do not trigger the running of time. Litigation over the exact date of notification is common. Deadlines may be extended on account of geographic distance or force majeure.
Documenting every filing is essential: obtain a stamped receipt from the registry, secure digital acknowledgements where an electronic window exists, and use the TAD (Trámites a Distancia) platform or equivalent systems for electronic submissions.
Each province operates under its own procedural regime (Law 7647 for Buenos Aires Province, Law 6.658 for Mendoza, etc.). The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is governed by the local Administrative Procedures Act (Decree 1510/97, ratified by Law 189). Municipalities have their own ordinances and infraction codes with their own appeals procedures. Correctly identifying the applicable regime is the first technical task in any case.