Chile for Digital Nomads

• Fast internet. Fibre at 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps is common in the cities, and 5G covers the big ones.
• Six-month stays. 90 days visa-free for most Western passports, plus one 90-day extension.
• Things work. Safe tap water in most cities, card payments everywhere, a good metro and long-distance buses.
• Nature. The Andes, wine valleys, lakes and volcanoes, the driest desert on earth and Patagonia, all in one country.
• Time zone. On US Eastern time or one to two hours ahead, with a short overlap with Europe’s afternoon.

Chile suits nomads who want a stable, well-organised base in Latin America with good infrastructure and outdoor life on the doorstep: hikers, skiers, climbers, wine lovers, and people who work North American hours. It’s a good choice for a three- to six-month stay.

It suits you less on a tight budget, if you want a big nomad scene, or if you need a simple long-term visa. Chilean Spanish is fast and full of slang, and outside Santiago few people speak English. Many houses have no central heating, so winter indoors is cold.

• Santiago: the capital, with the most coworking spaces, hospitals, flights and expats. Most foreigners live in Providencia, Bellavista, Lastarria or Ñuñoa.
• Valparaíso: a bohemian port of painted hills and street art, with Viña del Mar next door for beaches and an easier routine.
• La Serena: a mild, sunny coastal city in the north, close to the stargazing valleys of Elqui.
• Pucón: a lake town below Villarrica volcano, Chile’s outdoor adventure base.
• Puerto Varas: a tidy lakeside town facing Osorno volcano, with an airport nearby at Puerto Montt.

Our where to base yourself in Chile page compares them in more detail.

• Visa-free stay: citizens of the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries get 90 days on arrival, recorded on a tourist card (Tarjeta Única Migratoria) issued by the PDI (Policía de Investigaciones). Keep it until you leave.
• Extension: one extension of up to 90 days, applied for online with the National Migration Service (SERMIG) before your stay runs out, for a fee of $100 in pesos.
• No nomad visa: Chile has no remote-worker or digital nomad residence permit. Working for a foreign employer on a visitor stay is a grey area: it’s widely done, but visitors aren’t allowed to earn money from paid activities in Chile.
• Temporary residence: permits of up to two years, for work with a Chilean employer, study, family, retirement or independent income, investment and other reasons. Most must be applied for online from outside Chile.
• Working holiday: young people from partner countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, can get a one-year working holiday permit.

Our visas, taxes and money page explains the residence routes and tax.

A comfortable month for one person costs about $1,800 to $2,300 in Santiago, $1,400 to $1,800 in Valparaíso or La Serena and $1,400 to $1,900 in Pucón or Puerto Varas. A lean budget is about $1,100 to $1,400. A furnished one-bedroom apartment in Providencia or Ñuñoa rents for roughly CLP 550,000 to 800,000 a month, and a set lunch (menú del día) costs a few thousand pesos. These are ballpark figures. The peso trades at roughly 950 to 1,000 to the US dollar.

Costs that catch people out: heating in winter (gas or paraffin heaters), building fees (gastos comunes) on top of rent, the 19% VAT on most purchases, imported electronics, and domestic flights booked at short notice. Summer rents in Pucón, Puerto Varas and the coast rise sharply in January and February.

Mainland Chile is on UTC-4 in winter and UTC-3 in summer, with daylight saving from the first Sunday of September to the first Sunday of April. That puts Santiago on the same time as New York from April to early September and one to two hours ahead the rest of the year. The Magallanes and Aysén regions in the far south stay on UTC-3 all year, and Easter Island is two hours behind the mainland.

Chile is 4,300 km long, so the weather depends on where you are more than the month. Seasons are the reverse of the northern hemisphere.

Fibre from Movistar, Entel, VTR, Mundo and others reaches most city apartments, often at 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and many furnished rentals include it. For mobile, Entel, Movistar, WOM and Claro sell prepaid SIMs; Entel has the widest coverage in remote areas. Internet in small towns in the Lake District and Patagonia is slower, and mountain and national park areas can have no signal at all.

Santiago’s metro is fast and clean, paid with a Bip! card. Uber, DiDi and Cabify operate in Santiago, and Uber and DiDi in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar and other big cities. Comfortable long-distance buses (many with fully reclining seats) link every town, and LATAM, Sky and JetSMART fly to the north, the Lake District and Patagonia. A car is the easiest way to explore the south; foreign licences plus an International Driving Permit are widely accepted.

Private healthcare in Santiago is among the best in Latin America, at clinics such as Clínica Alemana, Clínica Las Condes and Clínica Santa María, and it’s good in the larger regional cities. Public hospitals are crowded. Get nomad health insurance, with evacuation cover if you will be in Patagonia or Easter Island. The emergency numbers are 131 for an ambulance, 132 for fire and 133 for the Carabineros police.

Chile is one of the safer countries in Latin America, but crime has risen in recent years. Phone snatching, pickpocketing and bag theft are common in central Santiago, on the metro and in Valparaíso, and car break-ins happen at trailheads. Keep your phone out of sight and use ride-hailing at night. Chile is earthquake country; buildings are built for it, and coastal towns have tsunami evacuation routes. Summer wildfires are a risk in central and southern Chile.

• Paid work in Chile needs a residence permit with work rights; visitors can’t take local jobs or clients.
• Food and plant products must be declared on arrival; the agricultural service (SAG) fines undeclared fruit, meat and plants.
• Drugs: dealing and public use are crimes, and penalties can be severe.
• Protests: demonstrations can turn violent; keep away from them.
• ID: carry your passport or a copy, with your entry record or residence card.