Chile Forum

Purchase an International Drivers License. The AAA handles it in the USA. They're good for 12 months and they will date it the day you leave. Your regular license cannot expire in the interim. You need both to show the police. The auto rental companies just want your regular license.
Be advised; the white line in the middle sometimes means two way traffic.
Happy motoring!

The problem is that we live in Chile now. We are not US residents, and are not in Canada any longer, so I don´t believe we have the option of purchasing an international drivers license at this point. So I need to find out how long our current Canadian drivers licenses are good for in Chile.
Thanks,
Elena

Since no one comes around and checks, it would effectively be OK to use till expiration. Also, no legal need for the IDL in Chile for the police but possibly needed for insurance purposes (make sure this isn't in the fine print of the policy).

It's once again the Tuesday vs. Thursday syndrome. When we purchased our truck in Santiago with only a RUN (the RUT was not yet applied for) we were told by the dealer that we did not need a Chilean, or International Driver's license. Then, after money exchanged hands it became an issue until our attorney made some calls and got confirmation that we did not need anything but our passports and valid DL from our home country. We were then told that once we had our permanent visa's we could apply for our Chilean DL and not before. We were stopped at a checkpoint outside of Futa and got a finger-wagging from a Carabinero who said yes we did need a Chilean DL, and when I explained that we were in tramite for our permanent visas and told only after we got them could we get our Chilean DL, thankfully he agreed. Don't know if that's true or not, but there is one thing that is...there has been no consistency. My advice, do whatever you have to do to get your Chilean DL. And if it sometimes helps to have an International DL, why not. It seems that if the Carabineros see you have made efforts to comply with laws and rules and regulations, they appreciate that and might give you a pass.

I'd really love to see the actual rules and laws for DL's in Chile so that when push comes to shove, we'd all know we had a leg to stand on when applying for, or waiting to apply for a DL.

elena.garde wrote:The problem is that we live in Chile now. We are not US residents, and are not in Canada any longer, so I don´t believe we have the option of purchasing an international drivers license at this point. So I need to find out how long our current Canadian drivers licenses are good for in Chile.
Thanks,
Elena

Elena,
To answer your question, unfortunately your guess is good as mine.It's unknown, if you ask the same to 10 people you'll get 10 different answers therefore my suggestion would be for the meantime use your Canadian DL.You´ll find some checkpoints once in a while and usually on holidays at the entrance or exit of Valdivia and carabineros will ask to show documents and because they don't know english they will confuse a foreign DL for an international and they won´t question it and IF they do make believe that you don´t understand a word of spanish and they will let you go. With time you'll eventually have to get a chilean DL and you need to go to the Municipality in Valdivia on the main floor to the left. The easiest and most relaxed is the one close to us in Mafil.

i got my chilean license back in 2008 before my temporary resident visa expired. The chileans made it valid only until my visa expired which was two months later. Well a few months back my permanent residence came through and so one day I went beack to see about my chilean license renewed figuring it would be another episode. Nope. I walked in and explained what happened, showed my new carnet and my old license, the chilean told me I needed to pay something like 3500 pesos to get a new license. I got new fotos in the DMV (another 1500 pesos), and paid the fee. I went back in the afternoon and picked up my new license. Not a single test required!!

The funniest part was when the chilean was trying to decide what expiration date my new license should have, it was kind of like he was guessing. In the end, the new license is valid until 2014.