Helping foreigners relocate to Chile since 2016. Expert in Chilean bureaucracy. Love filing visa applications and searching nice properties in Santiago.
Jérémie Le Pévédic is a French and Chilean citizen. After 8 years spent working for a large French investment bank, Jérémie relocated in Chile in 2014. He founded Expat.cl in 2016, to provide immigration and relocation services to foreign families looking to invest or relocate to Chile.
Jérémie is also running various other ventures in the immigration sector: immileads for immigration lawyers, and Visalpha and ExpatOnline, for people looking for information before relocating to a new country.
Overview of neighbourhoods One of the main criteria to take into consideration is your budget.
Buying procedure Buying real estate in Chile is a fairly straightforward process, even if you are not a citizen.
Do I have to live in Chile to be able to invest?
Can I rent an apartment or a house if I am a non-resident foreigner?
Can I sell an apartment or house as a foreigner / while living abroad?
If you decide to stay in Santiago for more than a few weeks or months, you will have to rent an apartment or a house on a long-term contract.
Overview of best neighbourhoods for houses in Santiago In this section, we give you an overview of the different neighbourhoods.
Local health insurance is the recommended solution for expatriates who are going to have a local contract with a Chilean company.
Expatriates have two main options regarding their health insurance in Chile.
International health insurance is the recommended solution for expatriates who are going to work in Chile, while maintaining their working contract abroad, for example with the headquarters of their company, in their country of origin.
Below our recommendations of hotels and short-term apartments for rent. We only recommend hotels or apartments-hotels run by companies with at least 50 units under management.
Current immigration laws in Chile The immigration law in Chile was updated in 2022, with a complete update of all the laws and decrees related to immigration :
The cost of living in Chile has nothing to do with neighboring countries such as Peru or Bolivia.
What driving license for what status? As a tourist, you can drive without problem with your foreign driving license in Chile.
How to pay for your visa? The Chile immigration service (Servicio de Migraciones) has implemented a new online platform for visa applications.
Is it possible to settle in Chile once you are retired?
Santiago has many international schools, representing a large number of nationalities and languages.
What is a work visa in Chile? A work visa is an administrative authorization allowing a foreign citizen to work in Chile legally.
Chile has an open policy on immigration (especially from Western countries), so visas are pretty easy to obtain and affordable most of the time.
What is permanent residency in Chile? Permanent residency is the authorization granted to foreign citizens to stay indefinitely in Chile and do any business as long as it is legal.
Do you want to transfer money to Chile from abroad? Or do you want to transfer money from Chile to another country?
Pros Safety Chile is the safest country and the country with the lowest crime rate in Latin America.
It is not always easy to choose where to settle for an expatriation.
Although living in a city on the other side of the world often makes people dream, an expatriation is also a source of anxiety because many factors remain unknown: the importance of the culture shock, changing your eating habits, dress code, lifestyle, and circle of friends.
Visa A visa is required if you stay more than 3 months in Chile.
How to obtain Chilean nationality? There are three ways to obtain Chilean nationality, namely:
Which animals are considered as pets? Any animal that cannot be at the origin of consumable or usable-by-man products (milk, eggs, skin, fur.
Do you want to buy a car in Chile? Or maybe a truck, or a van?
Temporary visas are the visas that allow you to stay legally in Chile.
Do you have a question about a visa for Chile? You may find the answer here.
There are around 15 large banks in Chile that serve private clients.
The currency used in Chile is the Chilean peso (peso chileno).
Do you need more information on the Chile investor visa? Do you want to know if your investment project is enough to qualify for an investor visa in Chile?
Are you looking to retire in Chile? Do you need more information on thn Chile retirement visa?
WARNING Expat.cl is a relocation agency, not a pharmacy or a laboratory.
To get internet and or television in your home, you need to open a contract with a provider, as these services are not available by default in most places.
School levels In Chile, school is divided into three levels:
Given the geographical situation of Chile, the country is subject to many natural hazards: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires, volcanic eruptions, risks related to the break-up of glaciers, etc.
Despite the fact that Chile is 4300km long, it is relatively easy to move within the country.
The province of Santiago is divided into 37 municipalities*. Below is an overview of some of them.
Economy Chile's currency is the Chilean Peso (CLP). Over the past few years, Chile has become one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America and is now deemed as the most stable country on the continent.
Renting a car is very easy in Chile. You just need to go to a car rental agency with your driving license, passport and credit card.
Santiago has a dense public transportation network. To use the public transportation network, you need to buy a "BIP" card first, at the counter in the subway.
Santiago is one of the most polluted cities in Latin America.
Where is located Vitacura in Santiago? Vitacura is a very posh area of Santiago, located on the north of Las Condes, and very popular amongst wealthy Chileans families (Like in El Golf, having a postal address here is a status symbol).
Where is Santiago Centro in the metropolitan region? Santiago Centro is where the city of Santiago started during the 16th century, at the very beginning.
Where is located Providencia in Santiago? Providencia is located on the east side of Santiago Centro, and on the south of the Cerro San Cristobal (Cerro = hill).
Where is located Lo Barnechea in Santiago? This the most northerly city, and most probably the poshest of all the metropolitan region.
Where is located Ñuñoa in Santiago? Located on the south of Providencia and the east of Santiago Centro, Ñuñoa is a pleasant city to live in, very safe.
The area "Manquehue/Parque Araucano" is a mix of residential and commercial buildings.
Escuela Militar is the continuation of the El Golf district. The organisation is the same: commercial buildings near the avenue Apoquindo, and residential condominiums in the small adjacent streets.
Between the 30s and the 70s, it was a residential area mainly occupied by the wealthy families, where you would find mostly mansions with big gardens.
Availability of contraception and sanitary products Despite Chile being a largely Catholic country, National Health programs have widely promoted birth control methods in the country.
Everyone knows how does a cheque work, so I am not going to explain again.
In Chile, you will hear about two indicators, UF and UTM.
A tourist visa is the easiest method to enter Chile. This visa is free for citizens of many countries, and you have nothing to do before coming to Chile.
E-commerce is strongly growing in Chile. Of course, the client service is not what you could expect in some countries where e-commerce is a more mature market.
Dialing a landline number, Calling a cell phone number Phones numbers in Chile A Chilean number contains 9 digits:
Chile has a good network for mobile telecommunications. In Santiago, you may notice that lots of people are using their mobile phone in the metro.
You have been accepted for a semester of study? Or you have found the internship of your dreams in Chile, and now you need to find some flatmates?
What is a CuentaRUT? The cuentaRUT is a specific account issued only by BancoEstado (bancoestado.
Opening a bank account in Chile can be difficult, especially if you are a foreigner without permanent residency.
What is a cuenta corriente in Chile? A cuenta corriente is the equivalent of a checking account.
Travelling to Chile is very easy for residents of most countries.
If you spend time in Chile, you will hear about the acronym RUT at some point during your stay.
Several types of cards exist in Chile: Debit cards, available with checking accounts (cuenta corriente) and also with the CuentaRUT of BancoEstado Credit cards, available on request Consumer credit cards, which all big retailers (Falabella, Jumbo) try to sell you Debit cards Debit cards allow you to: