Visiting
US citizens need no visa to enter Chile. You get a stay of up to 90 days with no fee, and you can extend it once for up to 90 more for US$100, about CLP 97,300. A visitor may not do paid work. Whether doing your own job remotely for a foreign employer counts 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, technical experts and similar one-off workers ask SERMIG for an authorisation. 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 cases such as family ties to Chileans or permanent residents.
Staying a year or longer
Decreto 177 lists sixteen subcategories of temporary residence and none is for remote workers. The paid-activity subcategory 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 subcategory. Residence lasts up to two years and can be extended for up to two more.
- 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, the ministry's September 2026 poverty line per equivalent person was CLP 255,422 (about US$262) for households that do not rent and CLP 378,098 (about US$388) for households that rent.
- Whether an employee of a foreign company working remotely fits the paid-activity subcategory is unknown. Ask SERMIG.
- Permanent residence generally needs 24 months of temporary residence, and the regulation can shorten that to not less than 12 months in listed cases or lengthen it to up to 48. It is revoked if you are away for more than two years in a row, unless you ask for an extension first.
More detail
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 and its electronic registration. A self-employed contract must cover services lasting more than 90 days and be signed before the competent consulate before you enter.
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.
Documents, fees and timing
A temporary-residence file asks for a passport valid for at least a year and, for adults, a criminal record certificate from your country of origin or from where you lived in the last five years. Foreign public documents must be apostilled or legalised, and English documents need no translation. The fee depends on your nationality, and the amount for US nationals is unknown, so check it in SERMIG's portal before you pay.
- Documents from public bodies must be issued no more than 60 days before you file, and from private bodies no more than 30 days.
- Which US criminal record certificate SERMIG accepts is unknown, so ask SERMIG before you order it.
- The processing time for temporary residence is unknown.
- After a grant from abroad you have 120 working days to download the electronic stamp and then 90 calendar days to enter Chile.
More detail
SERMIG may ask for more documents, and a Chilean consulate may collect further information, including an interview. Before any refusal you have ten working days to answer the reasons.
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 foreigner who sets up domicile or residence 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. The US keeps its claim as well, since US citizens abroad generally file on worldwide income.
- The SII counts every day you are physically in Chile, including arrival and departure days, and leaves out days in transit.
- The United States–Chile income tax treaty was signed on 4 February 2010 and entered into force on 19 December 2023. It applies to taxes withheld at source from 1 February 2024 and to other taxes from tax years beginning on 1 January 2024.
- The 2026 foreign earned income exclusion is up to $132,900 per person. Foreign accounts that together exceed $10,000 at any time in the year, including Chilean accounts, must be reported on an FBAR.
- Employees pay a monthly tax that is exempt up to 13.5 monthly tax units and then rises in seven bands to 40%.
More detail
During the three years the SII says you are not treated as a resident for treaty purposes, because you are not taxed on world income. How the treaty's tie-breaker and employment articles apply to you is unknown.
The social security agreement covers Chile's old-age, disability and survivors contributions, its national health insurance and workers' compensation. Self-employed US citizens living in Chile do not pay US self-employment contributions on that income. Which country's system covers an employee living in Chile is unknown.
For 2026 you had to file a Chilean return if your 2025 income was above CLP 11,265,804, unless it was pay from a single employer, or you had more than one employer. The rates of the annual global complementary tax and of the additional tax on non-residents are unknown. The physical presence test for the foreign earned income exclusion needs 330 full days outside the United States in 12 consecutive months, and you cannot take a foreign tax credit for tax on income you exclude.
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, and Medicare generally does not pay for care outside the United States. Isapre plan prices are unknown.
- Book the identity card within 30 days of the permit taking effect. It costs CLP 4,270, about US$4, and takes about 20 working days.
- Fonasa takes 7% of taxable pay up to a legal cap of 90 UF. You cannot belong to Fonasa and an Isapre at once. What a US citizen on a residence permit must show to join Fonasa is unknown, so ask a Fonasa office.
- BancoEstado's CuentaRUT needs your identity card and has no opening or maintenance cost, but charges 1.9% on international transactions. Which documents other banks ask for is unknown, so ask the bank.
- A US licence is valid for your tourist permit, usually 90 days. Chile's licence exchange agreements do not include the United States.
More detail
To start activities as a self-employed resident, you declare them to the SII online 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 second-category activities you can issue electronic fee invoices (boletas de honorarios) online.
The State Department recommends supplemental health cover that includes medical evacuation, and says care in Chile may not meet US standards in remote areas.
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, roughly 270 mm of it from May to August. The Metropolitan Region holds 60% of Chile's foreign-born residents. Casen 2024 puts the average monthly rent or mortgage payment of its households that pay one at CLP 462,078, about US$475. The rent for a specific home is unknown.
- The US State Department says air pollution is a concern in Santiago and is most severe from May to August. Chile is prone to major earthquakes.
- It says street crime is common and that assaults, homicide, carjackings and residential break-ins are increasing.
- Demonstrations can disrupt buses and the metro with little notice. Public transport is the most used way of getting to work in the region, at 51.3%.
- By income fifth, the average rent or mortgage payment runs from CLP 290,711 to CLP 627,491 a month, and 33.1% of occupied homes in the region are rented.
More detail
Other living costs such as building charges, utilities, groceries and transport are unknown. For scale, the ministry's basic food basket was CLP 92,833 per person in September 2026, about US$95.
Other places
Viña del Mar and Valparaíso are on the coast. Their region counted 100,655 foreign-born residents in Census 2024, 5.3% of its population, and 24.5% of occupied homes there are rented. Households in the region that pay rent or a mortgage spend CLP 350,927 a month on average, about US$361. The rent for a home in either city is unknown, and so is the climate.
- The State Department names both among the places where street crime and residential break-ins are common.
- In the region, public transport is the most used way of getting to work, at 41.8%, ahead of a private car at 36.5%.
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