Chile Forum

The retirement and periodic income visa sounds good but I need to ask you this. I don´t have an income right now because I stopped my work in the states to be here with my fiance, I don´t have much money because my recent divorce cleaned me out. So lets say for a theoretical example, if I showed them I had only somewhere between 5 and 10k usd, living here rent and utility free, do you think I could get this visa? Will I have permission to work with this visa or do I need to have other credential? My plan is to work with my fiance in the business I have invested and I need a realistic idea of what my options are. And of course, I dont want them to reject my visa next year because I failed to satisfy their requirements.

Thanks

That would be a very hard sell to immigration in terms of resources to support yourself. You might very well need to come up with more means. Not impossible, just expect them to come back requesting a lot more paperwork.

des anyone have a link to post for the requirements on this visa as i cannot find it anywhere in the chile gov site...many thanks if you can?

Wedding Photographer wrote:des anyone have a link to post for the requirements on this visa as i cannot find it anywhere in the chile gov site...many thanks if you can?

If you are talking about how much money, that is a secret they don't like to let loose.

I have a friend who lives on a parcela in Colina which he owned before he retired and has $1200 Canadian total in pension and old age security, he live simply but much better than in Canada, he is on a retirement visa. He had no work or family ties to Chile when he retired. So $1200 qualified.

nwdiver wrote:I have a friend who lives on a parcela in Colina which he owned before he retired and has $1200 Canadian total in pension and old age security, he live simply but much better than in Canada, he is on a retirement visa. He had no work or family ties to Chile when he retired. So $1200 qualified.

They say there are many ways to skin a chicken......you can also get at a notary public a statement that someone supports you financially as I did with my better half ( mantenido.... and I surely raised lots of eyebrows when I said it )

Our general safe calculation we use is expect $1,000 US per person when living in the Santiago area a month (about 500,000 pesos), and then slide that down to about as low as $500 a month (250,000 pesos) per person in rural areas such as the Patagonia. Immigration has confirmed to us directly on many occasions it does depend on where you live. Also, the "periodic" part does not need to be your total resources. So for example, if you have $400 a month Social Security check, plus a big lump sum bank account or other none-periodic sources of income you will generally be fine.

Now, you can take a shot at immigration with less money, but those are tried and true numbers that we have used as a general guide. We have never had a rejections with periodic income in those ranges. Also, that is the amount of money you need to show for about 14 months during the temp to full residency application, with about 3-4 months of that recurring income happening before you start the process. It is not like you need to produce 10 years showing that much income being deposited every month.

I would like to add a related note on proving periodic income. Some advice to all the people that are the "get me out of the States or wherever because the sky is falling at any cost" about what they should not do before they leave. Don't liquidate everything you have in to one big account, a pocket full of Gold, or whatever, then move to Chile and try to apply for residency. It is leaves you with no source of periodic income and no way to document your financial resources. Put a little of it in something that pays regularly like an investment portfolio, annuity, rent your house for a year, get a copy of your employment contract before you quit your job, and so on. The hardest one for us to document is the guys that show-up in Chile with things like a big flat bank account at a new bank. I would also say keep all your bank statements, and don't go close your account you have had for 20+ years at your brokerage, your bank, or whatever before leaving. I don't know how many times we have asked people for a few months bank statements to add as supporting documentation to immigration (you know the ones that showed your former jobs deposits or whatever), and they tell us they have closed all of their old accounts as they left their former home and now have a brand new account, with a brand new mailing address, with no history or statements to show immigration that they are real people with real resources. It makes you look like some coyote just smuggled you over the boarder from Peru in their trunk, rather than you are a legit person wanting to move to Chile with a respectable normal financial history.

I have been in Chile for two and a half years and in Santiago for the last two. I have been trying to get a retirement visa for over 6 months. I have an abogado, but we keep getting turned back by immigration. It might have been better to go to Valpo, the office here seems very picky or maybe I gotten agents on bad days. I have money in the bank, a retirement account and now social security of over $1500 USD but still I get turned down. I want to stay here, but it hasn't been easy.

Not every lawyer is going to know how to apply for residency visas (most lawyers in fact do not do them, or have only done one or two). If you are being turned down, it is most likly that your attorney is not handling the application correctly. Very rarely does immigration reject someone because of their assets. It is normally because there is a problem with how the paperwork was submitted (e.g. improper legalization, failure to organize the letter correctly, and so on), and your attorney should know exactly what that problem is because they should be talking to immigration about the status of the application.

Our attorneys have almost weekly meetings and conversations with the immigration offices we deal with to track pending applications, and more importantly keep up on the gossip related to the over-all trends about what is being approved and what is not. If your lawyer in Chile is just filing an application and forgetting about it, then they are not earning their money.

admin wrote:Our general safe calculation we use is expect $1,000 US per person when living in the Santiago area a month (about 500,000 pesos), and then slide that down to about as low as $500 a month (250,000 pesos) per person in rural areas such as the Patagonia.

Hi Charles and others. We've been living in Santiago (Ñuñoa, Las Condes and Providencia) since december 2008 and no way we can live here on $ 1,000 p.p.. That is if you want to have a relatively comfortable house/apartment (i.e. approx. 120 m2, central heating, reasonable location), drive a car and buy in normal supermarkets like Lider/Jumbo and so on, and since we like to cook ourselves we only spend about CLP 40,000 a month on restaurants. Maybe you mean that the government uses the $ 1,000 p.p. to see if you are eligible to get your permanent residence? Where do 'your' people live in Santiago and what do they spend in the shops to get by of $ 1,000?? We do not have the most expensive rental apartment (not exactly cheap either but this is Santiago!) and we pay aprox. CLP 560,000 gastos comunes incluydo. O yeah, we don't smoke and we drink very moderately some wine and an occasional cocktail....

We do not know the "deep" south of Chile but we do know O'Higgins and Maule and yes it is somewhat cheaper outside the V and RM region but not that much cheaper. And also we hear from friends who lived in Barriloche in Argentina (and who crossed the Chilean border thwere many times) that it is not that much cheaper in the south of Chile at least not if you want to be comfortable US of EU style.

Are the amounts you mention maybe for people who already own there own house, then we can understand the figures above a bit better. Or else.... what are we doing wrong ?

Hi Everyone,

I was just told that I have been approved and must obtain a "legalization" of my Social Security letter of benefits. I called the US Consulate to ask if they preform that service, and not being able to talk to anyone,sent an email, which remains unanswered. (Surprise! No one ever accused The US State Department of being efficient). Does anyone know if I can get this done in Santiago?

By the way, my benefit is only slightly more than 700 a month, so that doesn't seem to have been a problem.

Thanks,

Albert

Ellen-y-Rene wrote:

admin wrote:Our general safe calculation we use is expect $1,000 US per person when living in the Santiago area a month (about 500,000 pesos), and then slide that down to about as low as $500 a month (250,000 pesos) per person in rural areas such as the Patagonia.

Hi Charles and others. We've been living in Santiago (Ñuñoa, Las Condes and Providencia) since december 2008 and no way we can live here on $ 1,000 p.p.. That is if you want to have a relatively comfortable house/apartment (i.e. approx. 120 m2, central heating, reasonable location), drive a car and buy in normal supermarkets like Lider/Jumbo and so on, and since we like to cook ourselves we only spend about CLP 40,000 a month on restaurants. Maybe you mean that the government uses the $ 1,000 p.p. to see if you are eligible to get your permanent residence? Where do 'your' people live in Santiago and what do they spend in the shops to get by of $ 1,000?? We do not have the most expensive rental apartment (not exactly cheap either but this is Santiago!) and we pay aprox. CLP 560,000 gastos comunes incluydo. O yeah, we don't smoke and we drink very moderately some wine and an occasional cocktail....

We do not know the "deep" south of Chile but we do know O'Higgins and Maule and yes it is somewhat cheaper outside the V and RM region but not that much cheaper. And also we hear from friends who lived in Barriloche in Argentina (and who crossed the Chilean border thwere many times) that it is not that much cheaper in the south of Chile at least not if you want to be comfortable US of EU style.

Are the amounts you mention maybe for people who already own there own house, then we can understand the figures above a bit better. Or else.... what are we doing wrong ?

Those are not based on a foreign jest set gringo life-styles, but your average middle class Chilean's cost of living. People do live in Santiago on that much or less (not much less). Obviously, if you want to live the 5 star life-style, it will cost you and the sky is the limit as to what you can spend. On the other hand, people do live in remote parts of Patagonia on 200,000 pesos a month or less, simply because there is nothing to buy. Yes, if you live in a city in Southern Chile, cost will be adjusted accordingly. Those are not numbers intended for what it cost to live in any place, but what immigration will accept.

albertcscs wrote:Hi Everyone,

I was just told that I have been approved and must obtain a "legalization" of my Social Security letter of benefits. I called the US Consulate to ask if they preform that service, and not being able to talk to anyone,sent an email, which remains unanswered. (Surprise! No one ever accused The US State Department of being efficient). Does anyone know if I can get this done in Santiago?

By the way, my benefit is only slightly more than 700 a month, so that doesn't seem to have been a problem.

Thanks,

Albert

U.S. embassy does not do legalization, and there is more to it than simply going to the embassy. A signature from the U.S. government needs to be authenticated, and passed normally through the U.S. state department and the D.C. Chilean consulate before going to the Chilean foreign ministry. Some countries consulates in Santiago will do legalization now directly, but the U.S. is still one that does not.

Thanks Spencer, but now I'm confused. Where do I go to get the "legalization" of my SS payment? I have to go back to Washington DC?

Thanks,

Albert