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Country guide · Chile · Living there long-term
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Chile, at your own pace.

Chile's residency routes are organized around the source of an applicant's money rather than offered as one general category.

Verified against the official serviciomigraciones.cl portal · 2026-08-29· Photo: Pablo García Saldaña / Wikimedia Commonsserviciomigraciones.cl

When rules change mid-way, the date your application is filed is what often decides which rules apply to you. Where are you right now?

Start here

Pick by how you live

3 routes, grouped by what Chile's system asks of you day to day — not by which visa is most talked about. Every figure below is what Immimaps has verified against Chile's official programme rules.

I'm retired, or nearly

A pension or other steady income from outside the country, and no plan to take a local job.

Residencia Temporal - Jubilados y Rentistas
$1,000/ month, shown — not held
Threshold, not at risk
The thing agencies don't say plainly

Most of these sums are shown, not spent.

On most remote-work and retirement routes, the figure is proof of means — it sits in your own account until it's checked, and nothing is transferred. Routes where money genuinely moves are marked below.

2

routes ask you to show a balance or income — once it's checked, it stays yours.

1

route places capital that is exposed until the hold period or conditions are met.

Staying on

What keeping the visa actually asks of you

Settling for good
Both open on every route

Counted from each route's own rules. Some routes lead to permanent residence or citizenship and some don't; the route cards below say which.

Issuing authority
Servicio Nacional de Migraciones
Official source
PR / citizenship pathway
Both open on every route
Who this fits
People ready to put capital directly into a Chilean business, with a government investment agency reviewing the plan before immigration processing starts.Retirees or people living on steady recurring income — a pension, rental income, or investment returns — rather than a salary.People moving to Chile for a confirmed job, where the employer plays a role in the application.
3 PROGRAMMES

Pick a route, see the real commitment

Every official figure below is what Immimaps has verified for that route against Chile's official programme rules — not a marketing minimum. Service fees are what independent firms publish for the route, shown only once five or more are on file.

Capital at risk
Investor Visa
$500,000one-time

Requires capital placed directly in a Chilean business, with approval from the national investment promotion agency built into the process before the immigration application itself.

2 years hold
Service fees on fileBenchmark coming soon
Check a proposal for this route
Threshold, not at risk
Residencia Temporal - Jubilados y Rentistas
$1,000/ month, shown — not held

For people living on a pension, rental income, or investment returns rather than a salary — the income has to be recurring and documented, not a one-off transfer.

Depends on the option chosen
Service fees on fileBenchmark coming soon
Check a proposal for this route
Threshold, not at risk
Temporary Residence Visa for Work
CLP 553,553/ month, shown — not held

Tied to a confirmed job with a Chilean employer, with the income floor for this route set by national wage law rather than a separate immigration rule.

Service fees on fileBenchmark coming soon
Check a proposal for this route
COST, STAGE BY STAGE

What each route costs, stage by stage

Added up from the official figures on file for each route — split into money spent for good, money locked and returned later, and money shown but never transferred. Not a modelled estimate.

Investor Visa▾

At application

Decision — reported: 3 months.
  • Spent for goodEstimated government fees, shown not graded: $64, paid to the government for the initial application.
  • Locked$500,000 placed as capital — recoverable in principle, exposed in practice.
$64 spent for good$500,000 locked
Residencia Temporal - Jubilados y Rentistas▾

At application

Decision — reported: 6 months.
  • Spent for goodEstimated government fees, shown not graded: CLP 200,000 – CLP 250,000, paid to the government for the initial application.
  • Shown, never leaves you$1,000 shown as proof of means every month — nothing is transferred.
CLP 250,000 spent for good
$1,000 shown, never leaves you

3 ways to qualify — shown: the cheapest. Alternatives: $1,000 (shown) / $1,000 / $1,000.

Figures in more than one currency; not added together.

Temporary Residence Visa for Work▾

At application

Decision — reported: 6 months.
  • Spent for goodGovernment fees on file: $42 – $1,160, paid to the government for the initial application.
  • Shown, never leaves youCLP 553,553 shown as proof of means every month — nothing is transferred.
CLP 553,553 shown, never leaves you
$1,160 spent for good

Figures in more than one currency; not added together.

The Santiago skyline with the snow-capped Andes rising behind it.
Santiago, with the Andes behindPhoto: Pablo García Saldaña / Wikimedia Commons
HOW THE PROCESS UNFOLDS

The order Residencia Temporal - Jubilados y Rentistas follows

Processing
Servicio Nacional de Migraciones reviews the application and issues a decision.
reported: 6 months
Residency permit issued
Renewable.
reported: 2 years
PR-eligible
The residency permit becomes eligible to convert to permanent status.
reported: 2 years
Citizenship-eligible
Eligible to apply for citizenship, subject to the country's standard requirements.
reported: 5 years
This shows the order Residencia Temporal - Jubilados y Rentistas follows, not a promised timeline. Any duration shown is what the official source reports as typical — not a guarantee for any individual case.
Did the rules change in 2026?
  • 2026-06-22Chile's minimum monthly wage — the income floor behind the standard work-residency route — was raised to CLP 553,553 by Ley 21.830, published in the Diario Oficial on 22 June 2026 with retroactive effect from 1 May 2026. source
Check the serviciomigraciones.cl portal directly →
What would a year in Chile actually cost you?

The cost calculator separates money spent for good from money that's only shown or locked up.

Open the cost calculator
Been handed a visa package or agent's offer?

Upload it and Immimaps checks it against what Chile's official programme actually requires, and reads the contract clause by clause. Free, no account.

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Every official figure on this page is checked against Chile's official immigration sources. Service fees are what independent firms publish for a route — not an official figure, and never any one firm's price. Immimaps does not publish success rates, approval odds or any probability score — here or anywhere else.

Don’t take a life-changing move on someone else’s word.

Immimaps is not an agency and takes no placement fees. We show the real figures on every route, show the working, and tell you what it actually costs.

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