Chile · Passive income
Temporary Residence for Rentistas
Open
Last verified July 2026
Residency here falls under art. 57 of Decreto 177. There is no statutory minimum income. Sufficiency is benchmarked against Ministry of Social Development indicators and assessed case by case.
This is the cheapest route into Chile's five-year naturalisation clock and its three-year foreign-income exemption. The absence of a published threshold cuts both ways. Nothing stops a modest applicant from qualifying, and nothing stops a consulate from turning one down.
Qualifying routes
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Periodic income from foreign sources
There is no published figure. The USD 1,500–2,000/month number that gets quoted around is practitioner folklore, not an official figure.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Roughly USD 3–10k in legal and government fees.
- Route type
- Income requirement
- Timeline
- 4–12 months (There is no published service standard.)
- Physical presence
- No quantified absence limit has been published for temporary residence.
- Family
- Spouse or civil partnerDependent children
- Permanent residency
- 24 months, reduced to 12 months for qualifying income or pension
- Citizenship
- 5 years from the first Estampado Electrónico
- Language test
- None at present.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- documented periodic foreign income sufficient to support the applicantclean criminal recordapplication generally from outside Chile
What can go wrong
- No statutory minimum means no certainty. Every figure you hear quoted is folklore. Over-document rather than aim for a specific number.
- The same 5-to-10-year naturalisation bill threatens this route. The Cámara passed it unanimously on 26 November 2024. The Senate approved it in general on 7 January 2025, by 42 votes, then sent it to the Comisión de Gobierno for detailed discussion. What happened after early 2025 could not be established.
- Chile has no digital nomad visa. Do not let an agent sell you the rentista visa as one. The qualifying income must be genuine unearned income, not remote work.
- Once the art. 3 window closes, Chile taxes worldwide income at rates up to 40%, with CFC rules in force. Think of the three-year shield as a runway, not a destination.