POSTERN

Chile

Residencia Temporal – Rentista y Jubilado o Pensionado. Chile's post-2021 migration law kept a passive-income residence path, now called Residencia Temporal and issued by the national migration service.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

Residencia Temporal – Rentista y Jubilado o Pensionado

Temporary residence, 1–2 years.

Who qualifies

  • Accredit sufficient own passive income, rent, dividends, interest, or annuities, sourced abroad or in Chile; salaried remote work or freelance invoices do not qualify.
    MyLatinLife, Chile Rentista Visa Guide
  • Retirees and pensioners apply under a dedicated "jubilados y rentistas" subcategory through the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG).
    SERMIG, Retired and Rentiers

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

1

Does it fit your family?

2 questions, from the program’s own rules.

Steady monthly income, from any source?

Not legal advice.

2

What it takes.

Time
Several months for temporary approval; 2 years to permanent.
Cost
About $100 government fee plus document legalization costs.
The hard part
The 2021–2022 migration law reform renamed and reorganized categories, so terminology and portal names have shifted even though the door itself stayed open.
3

Citizens by 2033.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    2 years, renewable for 2 years at a time.

  2. 2029
    Permanent residence

    At least 24 months on a temporary residence that allows it (retiree, rentier and investor permits do). The regulation may lengthen this to up to 48 months for thin income, absences or infractions, or shorten it to no less than 12 months for pensions, rents, investments or family ties. Permanent residence lapses after more than 2 years in a row abroad.

  3. 2032
    Apply for citizenship
  4. 2033
    Citizenship
Time away
Five years of continuous residence counted from the stamping of the temporary residence that led to your permanent residence; you must hold permanent residence when you apply. The law sets no day count: the Interior Minister decides whether trips abroad broke the continuity, and the police report lists every entry and exit.
Two passports
Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.
  • Permanent residence after 24 months (the regulation may shorten this for pensioners and rentiers); the 5-year citizenship clock counts from this first temporary permit.
  • A bill to raise the naturalisation period from 5 to 10 years was approved in general by the Senate in January 2025 (https://www.senado.cl/comunicaciones/noticias/avanza-proyecto-que-modifica-ley-de-migracion-y-extranjeria); Decreto 5142 still read 5 years today. Check before relying on 5.
  • Decreto 5142 art. 2 still contains the old sentence requiring renunciation of the former nationality; the 2005 constitutional reform removed that requirement and it is not applied, but the decree text was never cleaned up.
  • Language and civics: no test appears in Decreto 5142 or SERMIG's page; whether an interview checks Spanish is not confirmed.
  • How the regulation weights pensions and investments to shorten the 24 months, and the exact permit length for each subcategory, were not found in an official text.
  • No official decision-time figure found.
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
The law behind these dates
4

Living there.

Time you must spend there
No fixed minimum days are published for the temporary permit; the 2-year continuous residence needed to reach permanent status is measured by not letting the permit lapse, not by a day count.
Tax
New foreign tax residents pay tax only on Chile-source income for the first 3 years, extendable to 6 on request to the tax authority.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

5

Start today.

  1. Submit the Residencia Temporal application under the Rentista/Jubilado subcategory through SERMIG's online portal.Open serviciomigraciones.cl ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • Proof of how you will support yourselves
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health cover for the move
6

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

17 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 4 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
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ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

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