Mercosur Reciprocity Residency in Chile
This replaces the general rule for you
Temporary Residency by Mercosur Reciprocity
For nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Chile opens a residence permit with no income test, no employer, no enrolment and no medical certificate. The file is three items: a passport, a criminal record certificate and a photograph. The permit runs up to two years, allows any lawful paid work, and leads on to permanent residency like the other routes. Bolivians get two extra concessions under a separate bilateral agreement - the identity document instead of a passport, and no application fee.
Bolivian Nationals: an Identity Card Instead of a Passport, and No Fee
Bolivia is the only nationality for which Chile relaxes the treaty residence permit further, and it does so twice. A current Bolivian identity document is accepted in place of a passport, by bilateral agreement - so the single most common obstacle to applying, not holding a valid passport with a year left on it, does not arise. And the migration agreement between Bolivia and Chile removed the application fee for Bolivian nationals, where everyone else on this route pays an amount that depends on their nationality.
By default this route does not exist for a given applicant: Chile's migration service opens it to nationals of five countries only - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. If you hold one of those nationalities, see the origin-specific entry below; the requirements are the lightest of any Chilean residence permit. If you do not, the fact that your country is an associated state of Mercosur does not help here, which is where Chile parts company with Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia.
At a glance
- Open to
- Nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay
- Associated states
- Not named by the Chilean migration service for this subcategory
- Statutory hook
- Ley 21.325 art. 70 N° 13, reciprocity and treaties
Ley 21.325 art. 70, inciso segundo, N° 13 is the reciprocity and treaty subcategory. The statute names no agreement and no country; what the subcategory contains comes from article 46 of Decreto 177 de 2022 and from the migration service's own list.
In detail
Five countries, not the whole bloc
Argentina's own Mercosur route, and Uruguay's, reach the associated states as well as the full members - which is how Chileans, Colombians, Peruvians and Ecuadorians get in. Chile's page for the equivalent subcategory names Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and stops. The asymmetry is worth noticing before assuming reciprocity runs both ways: a Colombian can use the Mercosur agreement to settle in Argentina, and cannot use it to settle in Chile.
Country-level policy
Chile's migration law and the decree that lists every residence subcategory do not name a single country between them. We searched both consolidated texts for every neighbour, for Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea, for Mercosur and for the Andean Community, and there are no hits at all. That is not the same as saying Chile treats everyone alike. It means every rule that turns on your passport has been delegated somewhere else: to a treaty, to the supreme decree that fixes which nationalities need a consular visa, to the supreme decree that sets permit fees on a reciprocity basis, or to the transport ministry's licence treaties. If you are looking for what your nationality changes in Chile, the law is the wrong place to look.
Every Chilean residence route runs through the same gate. Permanent residency normally needs 24 months of temporary residency in a subcategory that admits the application, and that number is not fixed: time spent out of the country pushes it up on a published scale that reaches 48 months, while family ties, a pension, an investment or a recognised contribution can pull it down to 12. Once granted it is indefinite, but it lapses by itself after two continuous years abroad. This is the fact that decides how long each of the residence topics on this page actually takes.
What applies to you
Temporary Residency by Mercosur Reciprocity
For nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Chile opens a residence permit with no income test, no employer, no enrolment and no medical certificate. The file is three items: a passport, a criminal record certificate and a photograph. The permit runs up to two years, allows any lawful paid work, and leads on to permanent residency like the other routes. Bolivians get two extra concessions under a separate bilateral agreement - the identity document instead of a passport, and no application fee.
- Nationality of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay or Uruguay
- A valid passport - Bolivians may present a current DNI instead, under the bilateral agreement
- Criminal record certificate, or equivalent, from the country of origin or wherever you lived in the last five years, for applicants over 18
- A recent photograph meeting the migration service's specification
- Applied for from outside Chile through the migration service's digital portal
- At renewal: documents showing the activities that grounded the original permit are continuing
Bolivian Nationals: an Identity Card Instead of a Passport, and No Fee
Bolivia is the only nationality for which Chile relaxes the treaty residence permit further, and it does so twice. A current Bolivian identity document is accepted in place of a passport, by bilateral agreement - so the single most common obstacle to applying, not holding a valid passport with a year left on it, does not arise. And the migration agreement between Bolivia and Chile removed the application fee for Bolivian nationals, where everyone else on this route pays an amount that depends on their nationality.
- A current Bolivian identity document, accepted instead of a passport
- Criminal record certificate, or equivalent, from Bolivia or wherever you lived in the last five years, for applicants over 18
- A recent photograph meeting the migration service's specification
- Filed from outside Chile through the migration service's digital portal
- No application fee
What the law says
«Extranjeros a quienes se les otorgue residencia temporal en virtud del principio de reciprocidad, o que, en virtud de otros tratados internacionales, debidamente ratificados por Chile y que se encuentren vigentes, tengan derecho a dicha residencia.»Our translation - not official
Foreigners granted temporary residency by virtue of the principle of reciprocity, or who, by virtue of other international treaties duly ratified by Chile and in force, are entitled to that residency.
The law creates a slot for treaty-based residency and names no countries. Which nationalities actually fall into it is decided by the treaties in force and by how the migration service applies them.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The National Congress Library's consolidated-law service. Publishes each norm as a dated, versioned consolidated text with amendment provenance in the margin and an explicit last-version date.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Holds the text and nothing about how it is applied - no practice, forms, fees or processing times. It also does not follow delegation: Ley 21.325 art. 27 hands the visa-required country list to a supreme decree, and reading art. 27 tells you nothing about that list. Beware the printing view, where margin notes interleave into the middle of sentences, so a quotation taken from a rendered page will not match the stored text.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Artículo 46.- Podrán optar a este permiso los nacionales o residentes, según proceda, de aquellos Estados partes de acuerdos internacionales celebrados por Chile y que se encuentren vigentes, en virtud de los cuales deba autorizarse a dichas personas a residir en el país. Los requisitos y efectos de los permisos en cuestión serán aquellos que se hayan establecido en el acuerdo o tratado que resulte aplicable al extranjero de que se trate. La misma regla se observará respecto de la posibilidad de solicitar el permiso desde el extranjero o en territorio nacional.»Our translation - not official
Article 46.- Nationals or residents, as applicable, of States party to international agreements concluded by Chile and in force, by virtue of which such persons must be authorised to reside in the country, may apply for this permit. The requirements and effects of the permits in question shall be those established in the agreement or treaty applicable to the foreigner concerned. The same rule shall be observed as regards the possibility of applying for the permit from abroad or within national territory.
The decree adds no requirements of its own: whatever the treaty says, including whether you may apply from inside Chile, governs. That makes the treaty text, not the decree, the thing to read.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The National Congress Library's consolidated-law service. Publishes each norm as a dated, versioned consolidated text with amendment provenance in the margin and an explicit last-version date.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Holds the text and nothing about how it is applied - no practice, forms, fees or processing times. It also does not follow delegation: Ley 21.325 art. 27 hands the visa-required country list to a supreme decree, and reading art. 27 tells you nothing about that list. Beware the printing view, where margin notes interleave into the middle of sentences, so a quotation taken from a rendered page will not match the stored text.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This entry records what Chile's migration service publishes for this subcategory. We have not read the text of the Mercosur residence agreement itself, so the statement about which nationalities are covered is a statement about the migration service's published page.
Chile has separate working-holiday arrangements under the same 'international agreements' heading, which are a different thing from the reciprocity permit.
- adjudicatesMercosur: Principio de reciprocidad internacional
Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (Chile)
About this source
The agency created by Ley 21.325 that grants, extends and revokes residence permits and decides nationalisation files. Its pages carry a per-page update date, which makes staleness visible without a diff.
Standing: Decides what it means
Cannot be cited for: Not the text of the law - its pages summarise and occasionally narrow it. Not fees, which sit on a separate schedule expressed relative to the minimum income. Not the visa-required country list, which it hands to the foreign ministry. Nothing on tax or health entitlement.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLey 21.325, Ley de Migración y Extranjería - texto consolidado
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Ley Chile)
About this source
The National Congress Library's consolidated-law service. Publishes each norm as a dated, versioned consolidated text with amendment provenance in the margin and an explicit last-version date.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Holds the text and nothing about how it is applied - no practice, forms, fees or processing times. It also does not follow delegation: Ley 21.325 art. 27 hands the visa-required country list to a supreme decree, and reading art. 27 tells you nothing about that list. Beware the printing view, where margin notes interleave into the middle of sentences, so a quotation taken from a rendered page will not match the stored text.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source