Registration, banking and utilities in Santiago

The application happens before you fly

Residencia Temporal is applied for online through SERMIG's Portal de Trámites Digitales, and for most of the fifteen subcategories it must be made from outside Chile. The ones a relocating professional meets are paid work, family reunification, study at a recognised institution, investment and associated staff, business management with multiple entry, retirees and rentiers, and the Mercosur reciprocity route. Once it is granted you have 120 working days to download the Estampado Electrónico that replaces the passport stamp, and then 90 days to enter the country. It is granted for a maximum of two years and renews for successive two-year periods, with seasonal work the exception.

• From inside Chile you can apply only on family ties to a Chilean or a permanent resident, on humanitarian grounds, or as an existing temporary resident extending or changing subcategory.
• The application needs a valid passport, a criminal-record certificate for everyone aged 18 or over, and a recent frontal colour photograph on a white background with a neutral expression.
• Foreign documents must be apostilled or legalised, anything not in Spanish or English needs an official translation, documents are uploaded as PDF and the photograph as JPG or PNG.
• The fee for Residencia Temporal is set by nationality rather than published as one figure, so read it off SERMIG's aranceles migratorios table; applying from abroad, you pay it through the Tesorería General de la República before the application is sent.

Permanencia Transitoria, and what it does not allow

Almost everyone enters on the Permanencia Transitoria, which allows up to 90 continuous days from entry and can be extended once by up to a further 90, provided the extension is started before the first period expires. Its validity is recorded on the Tarjeta Única Migratoria handed over by the Policía de Investigaciones at the border, so keep it. Holders are not authorised to carry out paid work, and SERMIG states plainly that a person on this permit cannot apply for a residence permit during the stay, outside the family and humanitarian exceptions.

The cédula, within thirty days

Once the residence permit comes into force you have 30 days to apply for the cédula de identidad para extranjeros, a deadline set by article 43 of Ley 21.325 and backed by a fine of half to two monthly tax units for missing it. You book through the Registro Civil website under “Primera obtención extranjero/a”, choosing the region and comuna where you want to be seen and booking an appointment there. It costs CLP 4,270 and takes roughly 20 working days to collect, and it carries your RUN alongside your name, nationality, visa, photograph, signature and fingerprint. Nothing downstream of it moves without it: no bank account, no health insurer, no ClaveÚnica.

• Under article 43 of Ley 21.325 the cédula stays valid while a visa or residence application is in progress, so a pending renewal does not leave you undocumented.
• It is valid for as long as the residence permit. Residencia Definitiva carries five years.

The bank account, and ClaveÚnica

The realistic first account is the CuentaRUT at BancoEstado, a cuenta vista with a debit card, built around the RUN. You apply on the BancoEstado website or app, then go to a branch or a BancoEstado Express to sign the contract and collect the card. Its terms are the part of this page that could not be verified: BancoEstado's own pages refused every attempt to read them, so the cost to open and maintain the account, the minimum age, the charge for using another bank's ATM, what transfers cost and what a replacement card costs are all unconfirmed here. Ask for the current tarifario at the branch, or read it on bancoestado.cl, before you rely on any figure for them.

• ClaveÚnica, issued by the Registro Civil, is the login for FONASA, the SII and the Registro Civil itself, and is generally the alternative to attending in person. Get it as soon as the cédula arrives.

In order

1. 1Pick the Residencia Temporal subcategory that matches your situation, and apply through SERMIG's portal from outside Chile.
2. 2Gather the file first: passport, criminal-record certificate for everyone aged 18 or over, recent frontal photograph on white.
3. 3Apostille or legalise every foreign document, translate anything not in Spanish or English, and upload it all as PDF.
4. 4Download the Estampado Electrónico within 120 working days of the grant, then enter Chile within 90 days.
5. 5Book the Registro Civil appointment and apply for the cédula within 30 days of the permit taking effect.
6. 6Collect the cédula about 20 working days later, and note the RUN printed on it.
7. 7Apply for the CuentaRUT online, then sign the contract at a BancoEstado branch.
8. 8Get a ClaveÚnica, then register with FONASA or an ISAPRE.
9. 9Contract the utilities last, once the cédula and the account exist.