How to Immigrate to Chile

Some of you have probably wondered how legally can you move to Chile to live in Chile for some time or maybe stay forever, so this article presents your options. 


Tourist Visa

If you're coming to Chile for a short period of time as a tourist, it means you don't want to work. 
 
You don't want to study, then you can have a tourist visa. 
 
For many countries, there is no Visa at all required to go and see Chile. 
 
You can Google whether for your country it's required or not.  

People of many countries can stay for 90 days in Chile with no Visa.

Again, this type of Visa does not allow you to work or study. 

In Chile also an interesting fact about the tourist visa is that you can be inside the Chile, you can apply for the prolongation. 
 
For example, you belong to a country who are allowed to stay in Chile for three months (90 days) with no Visa.  
 
But one month before of this three months of your visa free stay, you decide to stay in Chile six months instead of three months. 
 
In this case, yo can legally apply for the prolongation which is going to be another three months. 
 
You stay in Chile for six months with no Visa. 

Students Visa

You can apply for the students Visa. Basically, if you apply to the University of Chile or any other University, inside the Chile, to get enrollment in some study program. 
 
It even can be a language course. But if they're like official long-term courses, then you can apply for your student visa.

Student visa does not allow you to work in Chile. 

But it allows you to have enough documents to apply for the Chilean identification. A temporary one. 

Why is it important? Because only with the Chilean ID, you can open bank account. 

Basically you get a number which indentifies you such as your passport number indentifies you.  
 
Only with this number you are able to open the bank account. 
 
If you are studying abroad, then having a bank account in this country might be a good idea. 

Students Visa doesn't allow you to work, but it allows you to open your bank account by applying to the Chilean identification. 

Work Visa

It is very simple. If you find in Chile a work and if you have a job offer, you can apply for the work visa. 

Work visa will count as the temporary visa so you will get your Chilean identification again. 
 
Because, obviously, where else you're going to get your salary if you are not opening a bank account. 

Obviously it allows you to work. You can study with the work visa and it only suits if you have a job offer. Without the job offer you cannot have a work visa. 

You want to work in Chile, so you are going to apply for work visa, then you will go to Chile and find a job. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. 

You need to have a job offer in order to have this type of visa and go to Chile.

Rantie

Basically you need to have a minimum passive income which is lequals to the minimum of the salary in Chile. 
 
It's a little bit more than 300,000 pesos.

If you can prove that you have this amount for each and every person moving to Chile in a passive income, then you can apply for this type of visa and go to Chile and live in Chile as long as you like. 

It is easy to do. For example, if you have some kind of apartment or a house that you rent out in your country, but you want to explore the world. 
 
You just need all the bank statements that you get the money without the work by just renting out the place and if it's enough to meet the criteria, just move and live in Chile.

Important 

Two important factors for all of these four types of visas that you cannot apply for them being inside the Chile. 

You cannot come to Chile as a tourist, then find a job, get a job over, and apply for a job being in Chile. Now t is prohibited. 

What you can do then?

This example with a job. 

- You can come to Chile as a tourist. 
- You find a job offer. 
- You get all the documents. 
- You need to go out of Chile.
- You can apply for the Visa from outside of the Chile. 
- Then come back to Chile.

Unfortunately, all these four types of visas you can only get them from outside of the country.

Another important thing is that you get most of them online. You apply for all this visas online. 

Same is for the job visa. 
 
If you have your work visa approved, then you go to the Embassy of Chile in the country where you're staying right now and there you get a stamp in your passport that you have the visa with the stamp. 
 
Then you can enter in the country.  

Another very important thing to know is that, apart from tourist visa, which is just like to come visit the country, you have visa of type temporaria and definitiva. 

Temporaria and Definitiva

What is the difference? 
 
The basic steps, when you go and you want to get the Chilean nationality, you're going to get the visa that is called temporaria. 
 
Why it's temporaria, because it's a temporary visa that is given for you for a year. 
 
You can get your Chilean identification with it and you can open the bank account. 
 
Then it depends on your visa, you can work or not work. It depends on the type of visa that you have.

Sometimes you need to have two temporarias. 
 
So you need to be two years in Chile before you apply for the next stage. 
 
Basically you have this visa for a year and a month before it's due you can apply for the renovation. 
 
You get the renovation and you can stay in Chile another year again on the temporary basis. 

After that you have enough grounds you can apply for the permanent visa which is called definitiva. 
 
It's also called Divinitiva Permanente sometimes.

Chilean Passport

It's a permanent visa that is being given to you for the rest of your life. 
 
Another thing is that, after living in Chile for five years with all this visas, temporaria y definitiva, only after that you can apply to be a Chilean and get a Chilean passport.

These are important things to know that there are temporary visa, and then definitiva, and then passport. 

Obviously with temporary visa you cannot like travel abroad. 
 
It's not a passport. 
 
It's just a temporary identification inside the country. 

Relationship with a Chilean citizen

Another two types of visas that you can receive already being inside the Chile also. 
 
All this process is online. 
 
The only difference is that you don't have to physically go and have a stamp in your passport and you don't have to be outside of Chile if you have some relationship close relationship with a Chilean citizen.  

You're married to Chilean or you have a child who is Chilean. 
 
If you have the documents to prove it, you can apply for visa already being inside the country. 
 
The steps are the same. 
 
You apply for temporaria first, then definitiva, then if you want for the citizenship.  

Refugee

Refugee visa you can get being inside the Chile already as a refugee. 
 
You don't apply online. 

You need to come in person with all the documents. 

You need to have a person or Chilean family who says that you are going to live with them and they're going to pay for your expenses while you cannot work. But once you receive the refugee visa, you're free to work. 

You have this visa for 18 months. 

Spanish language requirement 

Important things to remember when you apply for all this visas, except for the tourist one, is that you need to know Spanish language. 

No workers, no web pages, nothing, nobody is speaking English. 
 
You need to know Spanish. All you need to have somebody with you who speaks Spanish. 

Next thing everything is online. 

Documents For Visa

The minimum of documents for all of this visas that you need is: 

- Your passport
- If you're already in chile, you need to show when you arrived to Chile 
- Bank account yours or the person responsible for you. If it's somebody responsible for you, you are not earning anything in Chile, then you need to have that person having it in written that he is taking the financial responsibility of yours.  
- Education degree later when you apply for definitiva. 
- You will also need to have a paper that you have not been in jail. 

Times 

Many people think that coming to  Latin America, you can have the citizenship of the country very easy & very fast. It's not true. 

After three years living in Chile, you can apply definitiva, hopefully it gets approved which can take years. 

If you apply for temporaria, you can have it probably six months for it being approved. However, temporaria is for one year only. 
 
You apply for it, you wait for the six months it's been approved. 
 
It gets until one year from the moment you applied. 
 
Thus, only two months you enjoy your visa and then you have to apply again and do all the process again to renew your temporary. 

For definitiva, this process can take years. 
 
There are many people who are waiting for two - three years for their definitiva to be approved. 
 
And after that you apply for being a citizenship, which can take also years. 

Minimum from the moment you enter the Chile till the moment you get your citizenship is five years. That's the minimum. 

Thank you so much for reading the article.

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