Immigration

Residence in Chile

With its 157 non-visa countries, including US, EU, Canada and Australia, Chilean passport is one of the strongest in the world.

More than that, the process of becoming Chilean citizen is quite simple. Simple, but not fast.

Chlean passport is one of the strongest in the world

Surfing the web, you could find lots of ads like «Chilean passport in 6 months» — it’s a lie. The only legal way to receive Chilean passport faster than any other subscribers is to have a Chilean family member. But during the last 7 years, even this process is not that fast because the government is checking all your documents for a case of a fake.

The real process could take up to 6 years, and it took receiving first a temporary residence, then permanent residency, and only after 5 years since the first residence visa, you could apply for citizenship.

All foreigners who’re coming to Chile not as tourists should apply for a temporary residence. This residence gives its holder a permission to live and work in Chile for 1 year.

There are several ways to obtain a temporary residence. Here are the most popular ones:

• Rentier. The subscriber should have an ingress outside Chile, not less than Chilean minimal wage (240 000 CLP or 405 US$);
• Independent professional with diploma;
• Subject to contract.

For all these ways of obtaining a residence permit, the procedure is almost the same:

• Legalization and translation of a diploma of higher education (only for independent specialists);
• Collection of the package of documents, filling out a special form, sending this package by post;

Approximate time of the first respond from Immigration Department from the moment of sending documents by post is around 5 months. On the website of Immigration Department, you could check the status of your application. On the same page, there will be a notice about the payment of visa — it is different for every country. For independent professionals, it is possible to obtain a temporary work permit. This service is paid — the price is half the cost of residence permit.

Usually, the duration of the residence permit is one year, and if its owner has been in the country for more than 180 days per year, he has the right to apply for permanent residence.

How to obtain permanent residence:

• If the owner of the temporary residents permit fits into requirements for this status and all documents are collected, then it is necessary to fill out a special form and also send a package of documents by post not earlier than 90 days before the end of the temporary residence permit;
• The period of waiting for the respond is officially about 7–8 months.

This status is given indefinitely and the only thing that will distinguish you from the Chilean is the lack of a passport. All the other rights and freedoms will be exactly the same as for the citizens of Chile.

According to current law, any applicant who has permanent residence and who has more than 5 years from the date of issue of the first visa has the right to request citizenship (nacionalización). This petition also has its own terms and conditions. The application is considered within one year.
So, with this, the citizenship of Chile, under the best circumstances, can be obtained for 6 years from the moment of entrance into the country.

There are no official requirements for the knowledge of the Spanish language, but the applicant should demonstrate his availability of work or level of income (and paid taxes), determined by the basis for issuing a visa is mandatory.

In Chile, bribes and speeding up the process through acquaintances are excluded (speeding up the process is possible by legal means only for some categories of applicants).