Visiting
New Zealanders need no visa to enter Chile. You get a stay of up to 90 days and can extend it once for up to 90 more for US$100 (about NZ$177), paid in Chilean pesos. The visitor permit does not allow paid work. Whether doing your own job remotely for a foreign employer counts as paid work is unknown, so ask SERMIG in writing.
- You must show lawful means to support your stay. SERMIG sets the minimum daily amount by resolution, and the amount is unknown.
- A narrow exception lets speakers, advisers and technical experts ask SERMIG for an authorisation to be paid. It costs 150% of the paid-activity residence fee for your nationality, which is unknown.
- Paid work without authorisation carries a fine of half to five monthly tax units.
- You cannot apply for residence from inside Chile on a visitor permit, except in listed cases such as family ties to Chileans or permanent residents.
Staying a year or longer
Decreto 177 lists sixteen temporary-residence subcategories and none is for remote workers. Chile has a Working Holiday agreement with New Zealand for citizens aged 18 to 35 who live in New Zealand, with a stay of up to 12 months. The paid-activity category covers a Chilean employer, a formal job offer or a self-employed contract with a Chilean or a permanent resident. Retirees and rentistas have their own category.
- Working Holiday needs no job contract before you arrive, and you may not travel with children. You need enough money to live on, which the authorities judge, and medical and hospital insurance for the whole stay. The fee and quota are unknown.
- You apply from outside Chile through SERMIG. New Zealand's foreign ministry describes an older process through the Chilean Embassy in Wellington, so ask which one applies to you.
- For retirees and rentistas, income must meet at least your basic needs by the Ministry of Social Development and Family's indicators. The decree states no amount, so the test is unknown. For scale, its September 2026 poverty line per equivalent person was CLP 255,422 (about NZ$465) for households that do not rent and CLP 378,098 (about NZ$688) for households that rent.
- Permanent residence generally needs 24 months of temporary residence, as little as 12 in listed cases such as pensions, rents and investments, and up to 48 if the regulation lengthens it.
More detail
Chile says a Working Holiday stay is renewable once under each agreement's terms. Whether the New Zealand agreement allows a renewal is unknown. Holders can enter and leave Chile during the permit and take short courses.
A job offer from a Chilean person or company gives a 90-day permit first, with 45 days after you enter to file the notarised contract. A self-employed contract must cover services lasting more than 90 days and be signed before the competent consulate before you enter. Whether an employee of a foreign company working remotely fits any subcategory is unknown.
A pension file needs a certificate of the pension's amount and duration and proof of the last payment. A rentista file needs a certificate of ownership, the contracts under which property income is paid, and proof of the income, apostilled or legalised unless the asset is in Chile. Whether NZ Super counts as a pension for this category is unknown.
Temporary residence lasts up to two years and can be extended for up to two more. Permanent residence is revoked if you are away for more than two years in a row, unless you ask for an extension first.
Documents, fees and timing
A temporary-residence file asks for a passport valid for at least a year, a criminal record certificate from your country of origin or the country where you lived in the last five years, and documents from public bodies issued no more than 60 days before you file. Foreign public documents must be apostilled or legalised, and English documents need no translation. The fee depends on nationality, and the amount for New Zealanders is unknown. Check it in SERMIG's portal before you pay.
- New Zealand's Ministry of Justice aims to answer a criminal record check within 20 working days, and an apostille from the Department of Internal Affairs costs NZ$37 and takes 15 working days (urgent service is NZ$120 extra and takes 5). Order the certificate last.
- Whether the Ministry's certificate can be apostilled directly is unknown. New Zealand Police say a police vetting result can be passed to the Authentication Unit for an apostille, so ask both offices which SERMIG will accept.
- The processing time for temporary residence is unknown. Before any refusal you have ten working days to answer the reasons.
- The Working Holiday fee and quota are unknown.
More detail
SERMIG may ask for more documents, and a Chilean consulate may collect further information for it, including an interview. The Embassy of Chile is in Wellington.
After a grant from abroad you have 120 working days to download the electronic stamp and then 90 calendar days to enter Chile. For the paid-activity subcategory the permit counts from the day you enter. Book the identity card within 30 days of the permit taking effect, and apply to extend between 90 and 10 days before it expires.
Tax
You become a Chilean tax resident on the day you pass 183 days in any 12 months. A new foreign resident is then taxed only on Chilean-source income for the first three years from entry, and on income from any origin afterwards. How this applies to pay for work you do in Chile for a foreign employer is unknown, so ask a Chilean adviser before you rely on the three-year rule. New Zealand keeps taxing your worldwide income until you have no permanent place of abode there and are away more than 325 days.
- The SII counts every day you are present, including arrival and departure days, and leaves out days in transit.
- The New Zealand and Chile double tax agreement has been in force since 21 June 2006. During the three-year window the SII says you are not treated as a resident for treaty purposes.
- A New Zealand parliamentary committee's summary says employment income is taxable only where you are resident unless the work is done in the other country, and that pensions are taxable only where you are resident.
- Employees pay a monthly tax that is exempt up to 13.5 monthly tax units and then rises in bands to 40%.
More detail
How the agreement applies if both countries treat you as resident, and how it fits Chile's three-year rule, is unknown. The rates of the annual global complementary tax on other income and of the additional tax on non-residents are also unknown.
Chile is not among the eleven countries on Work and Income's list of social security agreements, so no agreement removes double contributions. What applies to you if you work in Chile as an employee is unknown.
A student loan stops being interest-free from the day after you leave if you are in New Zealand 31 days or fewer in a 184-day period. KiwiSaver government contributions need you to live mainly in New Zealand, and after a year overseas you can withdraw most savings but not those contributions. NZ Super may continue in a country with no agreement, at a rate based on your months in New Zealand between ages 20 and 65, if you apply at least six weeks before leaving.
Setting up
The Civil Registry issues the foreigner's identity card, which carries your RUN, once you hold a residence permit. Health cover is either Fonasa, the public insurer, or an Isapre, a private insurer. New Zealand's public health system does not cover you in Chile, since its reciprocal agreements are with Australia and the United Kingdom only. Isapre plan prices are unknown.
- Book the identity card within 30 days of the permit taking effect or you pay a fine. It costs CLP 4,270, about NZ$8, and takes around 20 working days.
- Fonasa takes 7% of taxable pay up to a legal cap of 90 UF. What a New Zealander on a residence permit must show to join is unknown, so ask a Fonasa office. You cannot belong to Fonasa and an Isapre at once.
- BancoEstado's CuentaRUT needs a valid Chilean identity card, has no opening or maintenance cost, and charges 1.9% on international transactions.
- Chile's licence exchange agreements do not include New Zealand. Whether a New Zealand licence alone is valid for a visitor is unknown.
More detail
To start activities as a self-employed resident, you declare them to the SII within two months. The tax key is free and you request it on the SII website with a valid Chilean identity card. Once you have started, you can issue electronic fee invoices online.
An Isapre contract starts with a health declaration, which can lead to limits on cover or a refusal for existing conditions. The Working Holiday scheme requires medical and hospital insurance for the whole stay.
Living in Santiago
At the Santiago station, January averages a high of 30.1°C and a low of 13.3°C, and July a high of 15.3°C and a low of 3.9°C, with about 342 mm of rain a year, mostly from May to August. The Metropolitan Region holds 60% of Chile's foreign-born residents, and 48.8% of New Zealanders' temporary-residence requests from 2014 to the first half of 2024 came from people who declared a home there. Households there that pay rent or a mortgage spend CLP 462,078 a month on average (about NZ$841); the rent for a specific home is unknown.
- SafeTravel says there are high rates of petty crime and property theft in Santiago, and that violent crime such as carjacking and armed robbery has increased in recent years.
- Las Condes and Providencia are the two communes New Zealanders name most often, 14.3% and 10.8% of their requests. The New Zealand Embassy is in Las Condes.
- Chile is in an active seismic zone, and summer brings forest fires. Protests are regular in central Santiago, and Chilean law prohibits political activity by foreign nationals.
Other places
Viña del Mar and Valparaíso are the two coastal alternatives. Their region counted 100,655 foreign-born residents in Census 2024, 5.3% of its population, and households there that pay rent or a mortgage spend CLP 350,927 a month on average (about NZ$639). Valparaíso is the eighth commune on SERMIG's list for New Zealanders, with 3.1% of their requests. SafeTravel names both among the places with high rates of petty crime and regular protests. SERMIG's records also show Punta Arenas (6.6%) and Puerto Octay (4.2%). The rent for a home in either coastal city is unknown.
New Zealand
Chile