- Routes
- Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2))
- Dual citizenship
- Kept on every open route
The stamps assume no one in the line became a citizen of another country before the next person in the line was born. What changes each answer is below.
On this page›
- 01Who qualifies
- 02Dates that matter
- 03Mothers’ lines
- 04Keeping your citizenship
- 05The routes and the law
- 06The documents
- 07What it takes
- 08Where the records live
- 09Law changes
- 10Other doors
- 11Sources
01Who qualifies
Who qualifies, generation by generation
LIKELY
Can you claim Chilean citizenship through a parent?
Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2))
A child born abroad to a Chilean parent is Chilean if that parent, or one of your grandparents, was Chilean by birth in Chile or by naturalisation.
LIKELY
Can you claim Chilean citizenship through a grandparent?
Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2))
With a grandparent born in Chile you are Chilean: your parent is Chilean as that grandparent's child, and you register your foreign birth with the Civil Registry.
UNLIKELY
Can you claim Chilean citizenship through a great-grandparent?
Two generations from a Chile-born ancestor
The constitution reaches children and grandchildren of a Chile-born ancestor, not great-grandchildren, unless the intermediate generations were registered in turn.
What would settle itWhether your grandparent was registered as Chilean; if so, your parent qualifies, and then you.
02Dates that matter
The dates that matter
No date named in Chile’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.
03Mothers’ lines
How mothers’ lines were treated
Chile’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father. Where its reasons speak of mothers or fathers, they say:
04Keeping your citizenship
Dual citizenship with your home country
You keep your citizenship.
On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.
05The routes
Every route, and the law behind it
- LIKELY
Through a parent
- LIKELY
Through a grandparent
The law
- UNLIKELY
Through a great-grandparentThe constitution reaches children and grandchildren of a Chile-born ancestor, not great-grandchildren, unless the intermediate generations were registered in turn.
The law
What would settle an unsure case
- Whether your grandparent was registered as Chilean; if so, your parent qualifies, and then you.
06The documents
The documents, as the rule lists them
Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2))
Through a parent or grandparent
- Your Chile-born ancestor’s birth certificate
- Your parent’s birth certificate and Chilean registration
- Your birth certificate, apostilled and translated
Most countries also want proof that no one in the line became a citizen elsewhere before the next birth: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter that none exists.
07What it takes
What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides
Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2))
- Time
- A few weeks to a few months once the documents are in hand; the inscripción at the Registro Civil or consulate is the last step before a RUN and passport.
- Cost
- About $150–400: the inscripción itself is free; this is certified and apostilled U.S. records, translations, and the passport fee.
- The hard part
- Showing that a parent or grandparent was Chilean by birth in Chile or by naturalization, not merely Chilean by this same descent rule — the constitution caps the reach at two generations from that Chile-born or naturalized ancestor.
- Who decides
- The Chilean consulate for your address, which registers the inscripción de nacimiento with the Registro Civil in Chile.
- The first record
- Your Chile-born ancestor’s birth certificate, or their naturalization decree, from The Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (birth) or the Ministry of the Interior (naturalization). Request the certificate of birth online with the name and RUN if known, or write to the Registro Civil with the name and approximate birthdate; a few weeks. registrocivil.cl ↗
How it’s filed
- Where
- The Chilean consulate for the applicant's residence, in person. U.S. network: consulates general in New York (CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT), Miami (FL, AL, GA, TN, SC, PR, USVI), Los Angeles (southern CA, Clark County NV, AZ, CO, HI, UT, Guam), Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and the consulate in Washington (unverified: the last four's state lists). Alternatively at the Registro Civil's Oficina de Inscripciones Extranjeras, Huérfanos 1570, 2nd floor, Santiago. office list ↗
- How
- In person; you appear in person
- Fee
- No fee
- Decision
- 1–6 months
What goes in the file (8)›
- The applicant's original foreign birth certificate, apostilled (not returned), with an unofficial Spanish translation of it and of the apostille
- An updated Chilean birth certificate of the Chilean parent (and, for a grandchild, of the Chile-born grandparent, to show the line)
- The Chilean parent's valid cédula de identidad
- The other parent's passport or ID
- The applicant's ID, if any
- The parents' marriage or civil-union certificate, if any
- One 5x5 cm colour photo
- Form C-9 signed by both parents
What goes wrong (7)›
- Free (ChileAtiende). The consulate sends the inscription to the Registro Civil in Santiago; the RUN and a Chilean birth certificate follow, then cédula and passport can be requested.
- Both parents must attend for a minor, and a child over 6 gives fingerprints. The consulate's page describes the minor case; for an adult child, the adult files, and at a consulate the Chilean parent may have to make a sworn declaration there (ChileAtiende; unverified per post).
- Grandchildren: grandparents cannot file for a grandchild at a consulate. The grandchild's route runs through the parent: in practice the parent (child of the Chile-born grandparent) is inscribed first, then the applicant, citing the parent's inscription and the grandparent's Chilean birth certificate. An adult grandchild may instead file directly at the Registro Civil in Santiago (ChileAtiende 'hijos y nietos de chilenos').
- The reach stops two generations from a Chile-born (or naturalized) ancestor: a great-grandchild qualifies only if the grandparent or parent was themselves Chilean by birth in Chile.
- The Chilean parent or grandparent must have kept Chilean nationality at the time of the birth; see the naturalization archive note about pre-2005 loss.
- From CA, GB, AU, NZ, ZA, BR: the same inscription at the Chilean consulate or embassy for your residence; a Portuguese or English certificate needs an unofficial Spanish translation. From AR: Spanish documents need only the apostille.
- Only 1 of 7 U.S. posts has a confirmed address (New York, via WebSearch of consulado.gob.cl, not fetched directly; confidence: secondary, verified 2026-09-25); Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Washington remain unaddressed. Formulario C-9's field labels are from a WebSearch snippet of ChileAtiende ficha 2410 (confidence: snippet); a direct PDF of the form was not located.
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
Estimates are honest ranges from official fee tables and what families report; where a fee or time could not be confirmed, it says so.
08Where the records live
Where each record lives, and how to ask for it
birth1885–2026
Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (SRCeI)
Searched by the person's RUN (national ID number) or, for older records, by name, date and the circunscripción (registry office) of birth. A Chile-born parent or grandparent who ever held a cédula has a RUN.
- Fee
- 0 USD
- Takes
- 1–4 weeks
Good to know (4)›
- The birth certificate 'para todo trámite' downloads free from registrocivil.cl with the RUN, the cédula document number and an email; without those (e.g. a deceased grandparent), request it at a consulate or have a relative ask at any Registro Civil office.
- Consulates ask for an updated certificate of the Chilean parent's birth.
- registrocivil.cl rejects automated requests (bot protection); the download needs a human session.
- Civil registration began in 1885 (unverified); earlier births are only in Catholic parish registers (unverified: which dioceses hold them; many are filmed by FamilySearch).
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
naturalization
Chilean nationality status: Registro Civil (inscriptions) and the Ministry of the Interior for naturalization decrees (carta de nacionalización)
Needed if the Chilean ancestor was naturalized in Chile rather than born there (Art. 10(2) accepts either), or to check whether a Chile-born parent lost nationality by naturalizing abroad before the 2005 constitutional reform.
- Ask
- Through an agent, in Spanish
- Takes
- 1–6 months
Good to know (2)›
- unverified: before Law 20.050 (in force 2005), a Chilean who naturalized abroad lost Chilean nationality; the consulates require that the parent or grandparent 'kept Chilean nationality at the time of the birth'. A U.S. naturalization date before the next generation's birth is a red flag to raise with the consulate before filing.
- unverified: how to request a naturalization decree copy from abroad.
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
Translations
- Into
- Spanish
- Who may translate
- Any certified translator
- About
- $0–$50 a page
At a consulate, a certificate and its apostille that are not in Spanish need only an unofficial Spanish translation of each (consulado.gob.cl). Filed in Chile, the translation must be done by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' translation department or a Chilean consulate. The foreign birth certificate itself must be apostilled; the original is kept, not returned.
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
The passport
- Where
- The Chilean consulate for the applicant's residence, by appointment, after the inscription and a cédula (a valid cédula is required; if none, both are applied for together).
- Fee
- About $91
- Time
- 4–13 weeks
Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗
09Law changes
Recent and pending changes
The legislative watch has no pending bill or recent ruling recorded for Chile.
The watch re-reads the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person re-checks the rule before anything here moves.
10Other doors
If descent doesn’t reach you
2 residence programs lead to Chile without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.
11Sources
Every source on this page
2 laws and official pages behind the answers, then the offices and pages behind the records and filing. Records and filing checked 25 September 2026.
- LawPolitical Constitution of Chile, Art. 10(2): children of a Chilean parent born abroad, if the parent or a grandparent acquired Chilean nationality by birth or naturalisation · Art. 10(2)
- LawChileAtiende (Civil Registry): registering in Chile a birth abroad, for children and grandchildren of Chileans
- RecordsThe Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (birth) or the Ministry of the Interior (naturalization): Your Chile-born ancestor’s birth certificate, or their naturalization decree
- RecordsHow to file: Citizen by descent (Art. 10(2)) · checked 25 September 2026
- RecordsInscripción consular de nacimiento, with Form C-9 (order of surnames, signed by both parents) · checked 25 September 2026
- RecordsMinrel consular agenda · checked 25 September 2026
- RecordsBirth records, 1885–2026: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación · checked 25 September 2026
- RecordsNaturalization records: Chilean nationality status · checked 25 September 2026
- RecordsThe passport: where, the fee and the wait · checked 25 September 2026
Not legal advice. Postern’s rulebook is written from the statutes and tested against documented cases; where the law is unsettled, the answer says “possible” or “unsure” rather than guess.