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Pathway

Chile Self-Employment Temporary Residence

Chile Residency
Pathway overview

At a glance

Chile’s self-employed residence route requires a qualifying services contract lasting more than 90 days with a Chilean client or a foreign individual holding Chilean permanent residence. Complete the consular contract steps and apply before entering Chile.

Core contract
Qualifying services for more than 90 days
Client
A Chilean person or organization, or a foreign individual with Chilean permanent residence
Timing
Complete the contract before entry through the responsible Chilean consulate

Summary

If you have a qualifying contract to provide non-physical or specialized professional services for more than 90 days, you may be able to apply for self-employed residence in Chile. Your client must be a Chilean person or organization, or a foreign individual with Chilean permanent residence.

You must complete the contract before the relevant Chilean consulate before entering Chile, and apply from abroad. You also need proof that the client can pay. Overseas clients or plans to find work after arrival are not enough.

Complete the services contract before entering Chile
  1. Confirm the client qualifies The Chilean or qualifying permanent-resident client must meet the route’s requirements.
  2. Complete the required services contract Document the professional activity, duration, consular formalities, and client’s ability to pay.
  3. Apply from outside Chile After approval, maintain the required tax, invoicing, and activity records.

Foreign clients or a plan to find work after arrival do not by themselves support this category.

Could this pathway work for you?

Eligibility

You need to meet these requirements:

SERMIG publishes different supporting records for a nonprofit entity, a for-profit entity, and an individual contracting party. The file may need organization-registration and board records, the business-activity registration from Chile’s tax authority (SII), proof that the signer represents the organization, the services contract, and evidence that the contracting party has enough available funds to pay. More generally, SERMIG asks for the employer's or contracting party's Chilean tax folder when it is an individual or entity with registered tax activity. If there is no such registration, the party must show enough funds to pay under the contract.

The applicant also provides a valid passport, a current photo, and—if over 18—a criminal-record certificate from the country of origin or a country where the applicant lived during the last five years. SERMIG says an outside-Chile applicant's passport must have at least one year of validity and the criminal-record certificate must be no more than 60 days old.

Foreign documents must be apostilled or legalized where applicable. SERMIG requires an official translation for a document in a language other than Spanish or English. Its current rules also limit how old private and public documents can be when uploaded.

Professional immigration approval does not replace professional licensing. A doctor, lawyer, architect, engineer, or other regulated professional must separately check whether Chile requires recognition of the foreign degree, registration, or a local license before performing the regulated work.

What This Route Allows

An approved applicant may reside in Chile for the temporary-residence period granted and perform lawful paid activity. Once in Chile, the person may need Chilean tax registration and the appropriate invoicing records for the actual services. Immigration permission does not remove tax, business-registration, consumer, or professional rules.

Eligible family members may apply separately as dependents under Law 21,325 and Decree 177. Their files require current identity and relationship evidence; they are not automatically included in your own approval.

The permit may be extended if the self-employed activity remains real. Decree 177 requires a current civil or commercial contract, SII certificates showing that the person carried out the activity during at least 60% of the period for which residence was granted, and enough economic support for the next residence period. This makes recordkeeping after arrival as important as the original contract.

The category can support a later Residencia Definitiva application. The current baseline is 24 months in Chile for recent temporary-residence cases. SERMIG reviews actual economic activity, income during at least half of the temporary-residence period, absences, and legal compliance. More than two months of absence can lengthen the minimum to 30, 36, or 48 months.

What This Route Is Not

This is not an open digital-nomad visa for anyone with a laptop or a foreign employer. A foreign employment contract or a portfolio of foreign freelance clients does not replace the qualifying pre-entry contract with the Chilean or permanent-resident party.

It is not enough to show general income, savings, tax returns, invoices, a business plan, or a foreign company registration. Those records may explain the applicant's background, but the official route turns on the specified contract, service type, term, consular completion, and contracting-party evidence.

It is not the investor route. Owning a business or planning a Chilean company does not automatically make the owner eligible here, and a foreign-company investment leader may belong in the separate InvestChile-sponsored category.

SERMIG does not publish a fixed US-dollar monthly-income threshold for this self-employed branch. Private estimates should not be presented as government law. Nor should a person enter Chile as a visitor assuming an ordinary in-country conversion will be available; Decree 177 and SERMIG say this application is made from abroad.

Next Steps

  1. Identify the actual Chilean or permanent-resident contracting party and confirm its legal status. Decide whether it is a nonprofit, for-profit entity, or individual because the supporting checklist differs.
  2. Draft the civil or commercial services contract around real non-physical or specialized professional services lasting more than 90 continuous days. Keep the scope, payment, parties, and dates consistent across every record.
  3. Arrange completion of the contract before the responsible Chilean consulate before entry. Ask the consulate what signing, appearance, and copy formalities apply.
  4. Obtain the contracting party's SII tax folder or financial records showing the ability to pay and the organization records or proof of authority to sign required for that party type.
  5. Prepare the passport, photo, and time-sensitive adult criminal-record certificate. Apostille or legalize and translate foreign records under the live SERMIG rules.
  6. Apply from outside Chile through the SERMIG Digital Procedures Portal.
  7. After approval, set up the correct Chilean tax and invoicing process. Preserve the contract, receipts, invoices, SII certificates, and travel history so the 60% activity rule and later residence history can be shown.

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