Chile · Latin America
Moving to Santiago
Santiago quick facts
Chile at a glance
Latin America & Caribbean
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Santiago
Can you move to Chile?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Chile — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in Chile
Residencia Temporal, the cédula, and why you must apply from abroad
Residencia Temporal is granted for up to two years and is applied for from outside Chile through SERMIG's Portal de Trámites Digitales. The employment subcategory requires a contract with an employer established in Chile. After temporary residence you can apply for Residencia Definitiva. The provisional RUT from the SII is what lets you function before your cédula arrives.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a Chilean driving licence
Licences are issued by your municipality's Dirección de Tránsito, not by a national agency, so the process and the fee vary by comuna. Chile has straight exchange agreements with Spain, South Korea, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay. From anywhere else you take medical, psychotechnical, theory and practical exams — all four must be passed.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening a Chilean bank account
Traditional Chilean banks are reluctant to open accounts for recent arrivals, with some effectively requiring a couple of years of residency plus income history. BancoEstado's CuentaRUT is the accessible alternative: it needs only a valid cédula, with no income or credit requirements. The trade is hard caps on balance and monthly deposits.
Read the full step-by-step guideFONASA, ISAPRE and the 7% contribution
Chile runs a dual system. FONASA is the public insurer; the ISAPREs are competing private ones. Every formal worker contributes 7% of taxable monthly income to one or the other — it is mandatory, not optional. FONASA also applies affiliation and contribution history thresholds that a first-time worker will not immediately meet, so international insurance is the standard bridge.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a Chilean mobile number
Entel, Movistar, WOM and Claro compete hard and Chilean mobile is cheap by regional standards. Prepaid SIMs are sold everywhere and are the sensible first move. A postpaid plan requires a RUT, a bank account and usually a credit check — which is another reason to get the provisional RUT early.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe three-year foreign income exemption, and how to make it six
For your first three years of Chilean tax residency you are taxed only on Chilean-source income — foreign salary, rent, dividends and pensions stay outside the Chilean net. That period can be extended to six years, but only on application to the SII, and only before the initial window closes. After it ends, Chile taxes worldwide income at progressive rates.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified July 2026.
Essential Spanish phrases
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What to know before you go
You must apply for residency from outside Chile
CriticalSince the 2021 migration law, applications for Residencia Temporal are lodged from abroad through SERMIG's Portal de Trámites Digitales. The old route of arriving as a tourist and changing status inside the country is closed. Arriving first and planning to sort it out later is the single most expensive mistake available here, and a great deal of older advice online still describes the abolished process.
Three tax-free years on foreign income — six if you ask in time
CriticalNew tax residents are taxed only on Chilean-source income for their first three years. Foreign salary, rent, dividends and pensions stay outside the Chilean net. It can be extended to six years, but only on application to the SII, and the application must be made before the initial window closes. Nobody sends you a reminder.
The RUT is the key to everything, and it comes before the RUN
CriticalYou can get a provisional RUT from the SII with a passport and visa using form F4415, which is what lets you transact. The permanent RUN arrives with your cédula from the Registro Civil once you have residency. Two numbers, two agencies, and doing them in the wrong order stalls your bank account and your phone contract.
Health cover requires residency — insure for the gap
ImportantYou cannot join FONASA or an ISAPRE without legal residency, and once employed you must contribute 7% of taxable income to one of them. That leaves a real uninsured window between arriving and having your cédula, which international insurance is the standard way to bridge.
Earthquakes are normal here, and the buildings are built for it
ImportantChile is one of the most seismically active countries on earth and has correspondingly strict building codes. Tremors that would make headlines elsewhere are shrugged off. Learn where the safe spots in your flat are, keep shoes and a torch by the bed, and otherwise take your cue from how unbothered everyone around you is.
Chilean Spanish is genuinely its own thing
Good to knowFast, heavily elided, full of local slang and with the final s frequently dropped. Fluent Spanish speakers from elsewhere routinely struggle for the first month. It isn't you, and it does resolve — but budget for the adjustment rather than assuming your Spanish transfers cleanly.
Top industries & employers
Mining & natural resources
Codelco, BHP, Antofagasta Minerals, Anglo American
Chile produces roughly a quarter of the world's copper and holds vast lithium reserves. Corporate and engineering functions cluster in Santiago even when the mines are a thousand kilometres north.
Astronomy & scientific research
ESO, ALMA, Las Campanas, Vera Rubin Observatory
The Atacama's skies are the clearest on the planet, and Chile hosts a large share of the world's major telescope infrastructure — a genuinely unusual specialism for a mid-sized economy.
Fintech & startups
Fintual, Global66, Khipu, Betterfly
Santiago's startup scene was seeded by Start-Up Chile, the government accelerator that has funded thousands of foreign founders and is still one of the easiest soft landings in Latin America.
Food technology & agribusiness
NotCo, Concha y Toro, Agrosuper
NotCo is Chile's best-known unicorn, and the wine and fruit export sector behind it is a serious global player with real technical depth.
Retail & logistics
Falabella, Cencosud, Cornershop
Chilean retail groups operate across the region, and Cornershop's Uber exit remains the local reference point for a successful Chilean startup.
Renewable energy
Colbún, Enel Chile, AES Andes
The Atacama has world-leading solar irradiance and Chile has become a serious green hydrogen and solar player, which is where much of the new engineering hiring sits.
Where to go in Santiago
Cerro San Cristóbal
Nature · Parque Metropolitano, Providencia/Bellavista
A 300-metre hill in the middle of the city with a funicular, a cable car and a view to the Andes.
Local tip: Go on a clear morning after rain, when the smog clears and the entire Andean front range is visible. On a bad winter day you will see nothing at all.
Barrio Lastarria & Bellas Artes
Culture · Central Santiago
Cobbled streets, the fine arts museum, bookshops and the best-preserved corner of the old city.
Local tip: The best of central Santiago on foot. Combine it with the GAM cultural centre and Cerro Santa Lucía next door, and go on a Sunday when the streets are quiet.
Mercado Central and La Vega
Food · Across the Mapocho river
The wrought-iron fish market and, over the bridge, the sprawling produce market that actually feeds the city.
Local tip: Mercado Central is largely for tourists now. Cross to La Vega Central — cheaper, chaotic, vastly better food, and where Santiaguinos actually shop.
Cajón del Maipo
Nature · 1–2 hours south-east
An Andean canyon of hot springs, glaciers and hiking, starting where the city ends.
Local tip: The Andes are genuinely 45 minutes away, which is Santiago's best-kept structural advantage. In winter the same drive gets you to ski fields at Valle Nevado and Farellones.
Barrio Italia
Neighborhood · Between Providencia and Ñuñoa
Restored houses turned into design studios, antique shops, cafés and restaurants along a few leafy blocks.
Local tip: Weekday afternoons are the move — weekends are packed. The interior passageways off Avenida Italia hide most of the good places.
Cementerio General
Hidden gemLandmark · Recoleta
An enormous 19th-century necropolis of mausoleums, avenues and the tombs of presidents — including Salvador Allende.
Local tip: Free, extraordinary and almost entirely tourist-free. It reads as a walkable history of Chile, and the Patio 29 memorial to the disappeared is the most affecting place in the city.
Emergency numbers in Santiago
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