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Last updated on 22/06/2026
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Short stay or long stay?
Visiting for up to 90 days (tourism, business trips, scouting your future move): most Western nationalities need no visa at all: you get a free 90-day tourist permit stamped at the border. A few nationalities need a consular visa or e-visa first. This is what the rest of this page covers:
- Chile tourist visa: stay limits, extensions, the tourist work permit
- Visa requirements for US citizens
- Visa requirements by nationality: who needs a consular visa or e-visa
Staying longer than 90 days (to work, retire, invest, study, or join family) is not handled by any of the above. You need a residence permit, applied for online before you travel. That path has its own hub and guides:
- Residency in Chile: all residency permit types compared
- The main routes: work visa, retirement visa, rentista visa, investor visa, working holiday, family reunification
- Later steps: permanent residency and Chilean citizenship
Since the 2022 immigration law (Ley 21.325), you can no longer arrive in Chile as a tourist and apply for a residence visa from inside the country, except for the family reunification visa and humanitarian visas such as the pregnant women visa. Some outdated websites still say the contrary. Be careful, this mistake can cost you months.
Do I need a visa for Chile?
For short visits, probably not. Citizens of the USA, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, Japan, and most Latin American countries do not need a visa to go to Chile: you receive a 90-day tourist permit at the border, free of charge. See our Chile tourist visa guide for stay limits, extensions, and the work permit as a tourist.
Whether a visa is required for Chile depends entirely on your passport:
- US citizens and green card holders: check the specific rules in our guide to Chile visa requirements for US citizens.
- Indian, Chinese, and other nationalities that need a consular visa or e-visa: see Chile visa requirements by nationality.
- Everyone staying over 90 days: you need a residence permit, whatever your nationality. See residency in Chile.
Chile visa policy: is there an e-visa or ESTA for Chile?
Chile has no ESTA-style travel authorization for visa-waiver nationalities: if your country is on the waiver list, you simply board your flight and get your passport stamped on arrival. For nationalities that do require a tourist visa, Chile operates an e-visa platform alongside its consulates, and our visa by nationality page explains which channel applies to your passport.
Do I need to fill out a form to enter Chile? At immigration you receive a small entry slip (the PDI tourist card). Keep it. Hotels ask for it to exempt you from VAT, and you need it when leaving the country.
How to apply for a Chilean residence visa
If you only visit for up to 90 days as a visa-waiver national, there is nothing to apply for. This section is for the long-stay path. All residence visa applications are filed online, before you travel, on the platform of the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG). The process:
- Gather your documents. For every category you will need a passport with 12+ months validity, a criminal background check from your country of residence (apostilled, or legalized through a Chilean consulate for non-Hague countries), and certified, apostilled translations of any document not in Spanish or English. Each visa type adds its own requirements (income proof, work contract, etc.).
- Create an account and fill in the forms on the immigration service website. The application, including payment, is fully online.
- Pay the visa fee by international credit/debit card. Filing for a family? Submit and pay the main applicant first, then tick the grouped-application box to add your partner and children. Children under 18 pay no fee.
- Wait for the decision. If the immigration service asks for more documents, respond quickly. You have a deadline (usually 60 days).
- Once approved, book an appointment at the Registro Civil within 30 days of activating your visa to request your Chilean ID card. The card takes 5-6 weeks to arrive, and you will also want to understand the RUT and RUN numbers it carries.
Start apostilles, legalization and translation early, because they can take 4-8 weeks in total, while background checks are only valid 60 days. Sequencing these documents correctly is where most do-it-yourself applications go wrong.
For the legal background behind these rules, see our overview of immigration to Chile.
How much does it cost to get a visa in Chile?
Short stay: tourist entry is free for visa-waiver nationalities. Nationalities that need a consular visa or e-visa pay a fee that depends on reciprocity agreements.
Long stay: for residence permits, the immigration service charges a fee that depends on your nationality and the category (student, temporary residence, work). Our visa costs page has searchable fee tables for every nationality, plus the cost of the tourist work permit, permanent residency (138,974 CLP), and citizenship (38,697 CLP). If your application is denied, the fee is refunded, but you must claim it from the Treasury.
How long does it take for a Chile visa to be approved?
As of 2026, temporary residence visas commonly take 6-8 months, permanent residency around 18 months, and citizenship 2.5-3 years. These are observed averages, not commitments: processing times depend entirely on the immigration service's workload and vary case by case. Plan your move at least 6-8 months ahead, and remember that for most categories you must apply from abroad.
Need help with your Chilean visa?
You can handle the process yourself. The question is how many weeks you want to spend learning a one-off process on a platform that doesn't always send the notifications it should. We have been guiding expats through Chilean immigration since 2016. We determine the right visa for your situation, check every document before filing, and track your case independently. See our visa & residency application service, or book a consultation to review your situation.
Frequently asked questions about Chilean visas
Not if you qualify and your file is complete. Chile has around a dozen visa categories, each requiring 10-15 documents, translated and apostilled through the correct path. Rejections usually come from avoidable errors: wrong legalization route, expired background checks, missing translations, or applying under a category that is a dead end in the law. A single mistake typically costs 3-6 months.
For tourism, yes: US citizens enter visa-free for 90 days. For residence permits, US citizens pay the visa fees on our visa costs page. Details in our visas for US citizens guide.
For a short visit, most Western nationalities need nothing: just a passport, stamped at the border. For a residence visa, every category requires a passport with 12+ months validity, an apostilled criminal background check, and certified translations of documents not in Spanish or English, plus category-specific evidence such as a work contract or income proof. Everything is filed online through the immigration service before you travel.
Citizens of over 100 countries enter visa-free as tourists, including the USA, Canada, the UK, all EU countries, Australia, Japan, and most of Latin America: they receive a free 90-day permit at the border. A limited list of nationalities needs a consular visa or e-visa first. Check our visa requirements by nationality guide for your passport.
Each residence permit guide carries its own FAQ. See the work visa, retirement visa, rentista visa, investor visa, permanent residency, and Chilean citizenship pages.
