Visas in Pichilemu, Chile (2026)

Overall6/10Easier visas than about 55% of cities

Good to know

Good to Know

Keep your Tourist Card (Tarjeta de Turismo) safe for your entire stay — hotels sometimes ask for it (it exempts foreigners from Chile's VAT on lodging), and you must hand it back to immigration when you leave the country.
If you're a citizen of one of the ~100+ visa-waiver countries and only staying up to 90 days, there's genuinely nothing to apply for in advance — no ESTA-style electronic authorization exists for Chile.
If you want to stay past 180 days total in a year for anything beyond tourism (working, studying, retiring), you need a residence permit applied for online via SERMIG before you travel — you can no longer convert a tourist stay into residency from inside Chile except for family reunification or pregnancy cases.
Rules changed significantly in September 2025 for a large batch of nationalities (Decree 359) — if you're not from a traditionally visa-exempt Western country, double-check your specific nationality's current status directly with a Chilean consulate rather than relying on older blog posts.
Online visa-guide sites disagree on whether Chile has a formally branded 'Digital Nomad Visa' (some say one launched in 2023/2024) versus routing remote workers through the general Temporary Residency system's remote-services subcategory — treat the 'digital nomad visa' name as marketing language rather than a distinct legal category, and verify current requirements directly with SERMIG or a Chilean immigration lawyer before applying.
Many remote workers stay legally simply by using the 90-day (extendable to 180-day) visa-free entry rather than pursuing residency, since enforcement against remote work on a tourist stamp has reportedly been minimal in practice — though this is not technically authorized and carries some risk.
The 3-year exemption on foreign-source income for new tax residents is a genuine planning opportunity, but the exact rules around losing/extending it are technical enough that a local tax advisor (contador) is worth the cost before your window closes.
Temporary residency processing has been running 6–8 months due to a post-2022 immigration law backlog, so start well before your visa-free days run out if you plan to stay long-term.

Visa Free Entry

Baseline Rule: Most nomads from the US, Canada, UK, EU/Schengen states, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Israel, South Africa, and most Latin American countries can enter Chile (and therefore Pichilemu, which has no separate regional entry rule) visa-free as tourists.
Max Stay Days: 90
Proof Of Funds: Border officers may ask visitors to demonstrate sufficient funds; commonly cited guidance is around USD 46–50 per day of intended stay, though this is applied inconsistently in practice.
Application Process: No pre-travel visa or electronic authorization is needed for waiver nationalities — you simply present a valid passport at the border. According to Chile's Migration Law (Ley 21.325, Article 27), no prior authorization or visa is required for entry and stay in Chile for holders of a Permanencia Transitoria (tourist) permit. On arrival, immigration issues a Tourist Card (Tarjeta de Turismo), now typically digital, which functions as your official proof of permission to remain and must be surrendered on departure.
Important Caveat 2025 Decree: Since September 17, 2025, Chilean Decree No. 359 introduced a mandatory prior authorization or visa requirement for nationals of 104 specified countries, under Article 27(2) of Chile's Migration and Foreigners Law, which allows added requirements for national-interest or reciprocity reasons. This does not affect the traditional default visa-free nationalities (US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, etc.), but travelers from other nationalities should re-check their status before booking.
Residency Note: Since a 2022 immigration law change, tourists can no longer switch from a tourist permit to a temporary residence visa while inside Chile, except in cases of family reunification or pregnancy — anyone planning to stay long-term must apply for residency from abroad, before entering Chile.
Stay Period Note: Citizens of over 100 countries can enter Chile visa-free as tourists, receiving a 90-day permit on arrival, including most European, North American, Australian, and many Latin American citizens. A smaller number of nationalities (some in Asia and the Caribbean) are granted only 30 days instead of 90 — travelers should verify their specific nationality's allowance.

Extension

Details: The 90-day tourist stay can typically be extended once, for a further period, by applying to Chile's national migration service (SERMIG) or the Extranjería department before the initial period expires. There is a fee, quoted officially as the peso equivalent of USD 100.
Available: Yes
Extension Fee: CLP 93,000
One Time Only: Yes

Official Sources

Digital Nomad Visa And Tax

Overview: Chile does not have a single universally-agreed 'digital nomad visa' brand name — sources disagree on this (see internal notes). In practice, remote workers who want to stay longer than the visa-free period use one of two Temporary Residency (Residencia Temporal) pathways run through Chile's Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG): a remote-services/independent-worker category for people earning from foreign clients or employers, or the 'Rentista' category for people living on passive income (pensions, rental income, dividends).
Visa Ease Tier: moderate
Visa Free Baseline: Most nomad-relevant nationalities (US, UK, EU member states, Canada, Australia) enter Chile visa-free for 90 days on arrival. This can be extended once, for roughly $100 USD (about 93,000 CLP), for a maximum of 180 days per year. No form of paid work — including remote work for a foreign employer — is technically permitted on this tourist entry, though in practice enforcement against laptop-based remote work has been minimal.
Visa Ease Tier Rationale: A generous 90-day (extendable to 180-day) visa-free stay and a genuine 3-year foreign-income tax holiday make Chile relatively nomad-friendly, but the absence of a single clearly-branded digital nomad visa, a service-contract/attorney-in-fact requirement for the remote-work residency route, and current 6–8 month processing backlogs add real bureaucratic friction for anyone trying to stay legally beyond visa-free limits.

Pathways

Name
Temporary Residency — remote/independent services category (commonly marketed by visa-agent sites as a 'Digital Nomad Visa')
Who It Fits
Freelancers, contractors, or remote employees with a service contract for clients/employers based outside Chile. Income must come from outside Chile; local Chilean-sourced work is not permitted under this category.
Key Requirement
A service contract (contrato de prestación de servicios) with a foreign company, which typically must be signed by a Chilean or foreign attorney-in-fact resident in Chile — salaried employees of a purely foreign employer without any Chilean presence generally do not qualify under this specific subcategory.
Processing Time
Currently running 6–8 months due to backlogs following Chile's 2022 immigration law overhaul — apply well before any visa-free stay expires.
Income Requirement
CLP 1,395,000
Duration And Renewal
Valid up to 2 years, renewable, and leads to permanent residency (Residencia Definitiva) after 2 years of continuous legal residence.
Fees
Application Fee Example
CLP 199,950
Documents Required
Valid passport
Proof of income (pay stubs, employer/client letter, last ~3 months of bank statements)
Health insurance valid in Chile
Apostilled clean criminal background check (certified Spanish translation if not already in Spanish)
Service contract with foreign client/employer
Rentista Visa (Passive-income Route)
Income Requirement
CLP 930,000
Duration And Renewal
Valid up to 2 years, renewable, with a path to permanent residency.
Documents Required
Proof of recurring passive income (pension statements, rental contracts, dividend statements)
Valid passport and apostilled criminal background check
Health insurance

Tax Notes

System: Chile uses a residence-based system with territorial features for new arrivals: non-tax-residents are taxed only on Chilean-source income.
After The Holiday: Once the 3-year window ends, Chilean tax residents are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates from 0% up to 40% (Global Complementary Tax).
Tax Residency Trigger: Tax residency is triggered once a person spends more than 183 days in Chile within any 12-month period (days need not be consecutive), or earlier if a person establishes their 'domicile'/center of life in Chile (e.g., moving with family, renting a home, enrolling children in school, signing a local employment contract).
New Arrival Tax Holiday: Foreign nationals who become Chilean tax residents are, for their first 3 years, generally taxed only on Chilean-source income — foreign salaries, freelance income, rental income, dividends, and pensions from abroad stay outside the Chilean tax net during that window. This period can sometimes be extended on request.
Double Taxation Treaties: Chile has double-taxation treaties with a number of countries, including the United States (one of the few in the region), Canada, the UK, Australia, Spain, and other EU member states, which can help prevent being taxed twice on the same income.
Practical Note: A RUT (Rol Único Tributario) tax ID is required for almost everything financial in Chile — filing returns, opening certain bank accounts, registering a company — and is typically one of the first things a new resident obtains.

AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026

Sources cited for this category

These are the sources cited in this visas research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.

More About Pichilemu

Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.