It was amazing to see the progress the entrepreneurs made by the end of the course and I’m really proud of all of our entrepreneurs who were willing to keep an open mind and improve their product each week.

But the best part, for me, was that each entrepreneur was working on a real problem. It was refreshing to see. Nobody was there because entreprneurship is cool. Nobody was there for the free food. Nobody was there for the free beer. Nobody was there to get famous. Nobody had the next photo sharing app or the next cat social network.

Everyone had a real problem they wanted to solve. Everyone was working on their idea because it was a problem they had. And that helped someone. By the end of the class, everyone found a niche where a customer was willing to pay them to solve the problem. There were no bullshit.

Our class follows a methodology we call EPIC. Luckily it works the same way in English and Spanish:

Enganchar – Engage

First, we break down the myths of entrepeneurship. You don’t need a ton of money. That it’s necessary to fail small in order to avoid failing big. That if you fail its not because you were stupid, lazy, stole the money or a combination of the three.

Poder – Power

Second, we empower the teams by giving them the tools they need to succeed. Entrepreneurship has become more scientific and we give the teams the best practices to be able to succeed. We force them to pivot to find a niche, simplify and find success on a small scale.

Integrar – Integrate

Third, we integrate our students into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We bring local and international entrepreneurs to Antofagasta to help mentor students. We force the students out of the classroom to speak with their clients and share their ideas with entrepreneurs and actually listen to their feedback.

Comunicar- Communicate

Fourth, students need to be able to communicate their value proposition to clients, to potential business partners and to potential investors. That’s the first step toward sales. We teach clear communication via multiple presentations that end in Demo Day.

While it was a bit of a long haul traveling to Antofagasta 8 times in 12 weeks, it was completely worth it. Our students are exactly what entrepreneruship should be, not the bullshit that’s permeating most entrepeneurial ecosystems. I have no doubt that a year from now all of our entrepreneurs will be successful in whatever they’re working on. Here’s some of our projects (spanish news story):

1st Prize – $5000

Veneno Detect – The world’s first rapid detection test for araña de rincón spider bites. The current test is to go to the hospital to wait for your flesh to start to rot. If it does, it’s araña de rincón, if it’s not, you’re safe.

2nd Prize – $3000

Ecocrea – Solar panel arrays for off the gird mining offices to replace diesel generators at lower cost.

3rd Prize – $2000

Standmat – 3d video animations to increase sales for companies wanting to sell to mining companies.

Other notable projects

Purorugby – Chile’s first online rugby store.

Maestroalaobra – A Chilean version of Angie’s List, a way to get handymen you can trust.

Melanie Stylo – Solo entrepreneur who makes custom made sheets and curtains. Her business supports her family and grew during the class.

Ludico – Online costume rental with offline store. Solo entrepreneur who is supporting her family with her business.

Rincón Sano – Food truck to sell healthy salads in Antofagasta to give people another option besides crappy fried food.

CleanSubZero – Machine that uses dry ice to clean mining heavy equipment.

                          

Entrepreneurship is not dressing in whatever clothes you want, coming in to work at whatever hour you’d like to work on your social app that’s going to be the new Twitter for Facebook for Instagram and if you could only get 5% of the market, you’ll be able to sell for $1.1b too! It’s not working on an idea in hopes that you can sell it one year later. It’s not easy.

It’s not getting out of bed at 12pm, going to networking events and drinking as much free crappy beer and eating lukewarm mediocre pizza and telling people you’re the CEO of the company when you’re the only one “working” on your “idea.” It’s not applying to countless incubators, contests and pitch competitions. It’s not talking about your idea that’s been in stealth mode for six months and won’t leave for another year. If ever. It’s not working on a problem that nobody has.

Real entrepreneurship solves a problem someone has…and they’ll pay you to solve it for them. Real entrepreneurship is hard. It’s a struggle. It’s like getting up each morning and walking into the kitchen and putting your hand on the hot burner. Ten minutes later, someone walks in an starts smashing your hand with a frying pan. All the while, they’re laughing at you. “You think you’re going to succeed with that product? You think you can execute that? You think you can beat the incumbent company with 1000x more employees than you?” And you just have to take it with a smile and go about your day proving the critics wrong.

But at least you get to wear the clothes you want.

Obviously there’s some days where you get to take your hand off the burner and the laughing and the smashing stop. But then you’re going to an office, convincing people to pay you for your product and shipping product. Iterating. Solving a real problem. And then you have to deal with a whole new set of laughing, smashing hurdles.

So if you’re getting into entrepreneurship to wear comfy clothes, drink free beer and eat crappy pizza at meetups and pretend you’re the founder of a $1b company when you just have an idea and think it’s worth more than a ham sandwich, you’re probably in the wrong business. And you just might be a #starthole.

                          

Startup Chile has become more competitive as the number of applications has grown. Round seven had applications grow from 1421 in round six to 1577. More than 1700 companies will likely apply to Round 8. More than 600 companies have already gone through the program since the pilot round in 2010.

It’s a great program, especially for entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping or already have developed a product but need more time to figure out the correct business model for their business. It’s a perfect fit if you’re looking to target the South American market.

My company, Entrustet, was part of the pilot phase of Start-Up Chile and I’ve been in Chile since November 2010. I blogged extensively about my experiences in the program and in Chile, along with advice on how to get selected for Start-Up Chile. I tracked down the stats from the pilot round companies a year later, which was published on The Next Web. I also wrote Startup Chile 101, the book that will tell you everything you need to know about living, working and doing business in Chile.

Since the third round, I’ve helped startups review their applications and prepare them to get accepted into Startup Chile. Overall I’ve now reviewed, 35 applications for prospective Startup Chile teams and 20 have been accepted.

Round 3 – 6/9 66%
Round 4 – 3/4 75%
Round 5 – 3/6 50%
Round 6 – 3/6 50%
Round 7 – 5/10 50%

Overall: 20/35 57%

In rounds five through seven, 6.4% of applicants were accepted into the program and 50% of the applications I’ve reviewed have made it. Three companies had applied two times previously and were accepted after we worked together. Another team needed to completely redo their video and we worked together to make it happen. I thought two more of the teams that I worked with completely deserved to make it in this round.

I can help you craft an application that emphasizes the criteria that the judges are looking for, correct your grammar into perfect English and give you the tips you need to have the best chance at getting selected.

If you need help with your application, please contact me. Editing, writing, review, advice. I charge a small flat fee to review and edit your application, plus a larger success fee if you are selected for the program after I’ve helped you.

Want help? Got questions? Want a quote? Email me: nate at nathanlustig dot com or fill out my contact form.

Note: I WILL NOT write paid letters of recommendation.

                          

USA – Wisconsin LLC, Federal Tax ID Number and Business Checking Account

LLC and Tax ID Number

1. Go to Department of Financial Institutions website
2. Fill out application form
3. Pay $130 online with credit card
4. Go to IRS website
5. Fill out forms
6. Click Submit

Total time: 10 minutes

Documents received: LLC registration paperwork from State of Wisconsin. Tax ID number (FEIN) from the IRS.

Bank Account

1. Walk into bank with LLC paperwork and Tax ID Number
2. Fill out four page form
3. Sign your name
4. Deposit a check for $55.00
5. Print your debit card in the bank

Total Time: 20 minutes, plus travel time.

• Total time – 30 minutes
• Total money spent – $130
• Deposit held by bank $55
• Bank Account Cost: Free

Chile – SpA, RUT and Business Bank Account

An SpA is basically a Chilean LLC, the RUT is the tax ID number.

SpA

1. Find an attorney, pay a retainer
2. Fill out paperwork with attorney
3. Wait for attorney to finish paperwork
4. Go to notary and sign paperwork. Fingerprint three places. Pay $200
5. Wait for notary to send paperwork to attorney’s office
6. Send attorney copy of Carnet (national ID card) and other identification documents
7. Attorney takes paperwork to SII (Chilean IRS) to apply for RUT (tax id number)
8. Get listed in legal Chilean business registry. Pay $50.
9. Wait for SII to process your paperwork
10. Receive confirmation, pay attorney

Total Time: Five weeks. Mine was a special case because of visa issues, but three weeks is totally normal.

Total Costs and fees: $2500. Maybe as low as $1500 without visa issues.

Bank Account

I needed a bank account to accept money from the US and use it to purchase goods in Chile. I didn’t need credit cards, lines of credit, loans or anything else. Just a place to deposit money and spend money. I went to five banks and this was the only bank that actually gave me an account. See end of post for each bank’s requirements.

1. Go to bank
2. Ask for account
3. You must have a personal account at the bank to get a business account
4. Fill out ten page personal bank account application form
5. Sign 8 times, 8 fingerprints
6. Show proof of income in Chile of at least $900 per month
7. Show an employment contract
8. Get a credit report
9. Show a business plan
10. Send in your resume
11. Send bank statements at other banks or foreign banks
12. Recommendation letter from bank with at least 5 years and $10,000 deposits
13. Wait
14. Wait some more
15. Send in more paperwork
16. Sign paperwork again
17. Put at $3000 untouchable deposit to securitize account
18. Wait two weeks to get checks, credit cards or be able to access online banking.

Total Time: 4 weeks.

Summary

• Total time – 9 weeks
• Total money spent – $2500
• Deposit held by bank – $3000
• Bank Account Cost – 10/month
• Documents Signed – 12
• Fingerprints – 12
• Trips to bank – 5

Conclusion

Chile’s banking and business creation system are both extremely bureaucratic, cost a lot and hold bank entrepreneurship. Asech, Chile’s entrepreneurship association, is doing great work to force the government to make it easier. They’ve taken on the notary lobby and passed a law that allows you to create a business in one day. In reality it takes at least a week the first time through, but it’s great progress. Right now only one type of business is available online, but more will be available shortly.

Asech is also working with a bank to allow an immediate deposit account for new businesses. This is still awhile off it seems, but when it’s approved, it will make Chile much more competitive. All of these barriers to business creation shield the elites and entrenched interests in power and prevent competition and entrepreneurship. Asech and the government are doing a good job to try to make things better, but its extremely slow. If you’re interested in seeing my attempts to open an account at multiple banks, read on:

Bank Requirements

Bank 1

I went for my first meeting after an introduction from a friend. The banker met me, was really nice, seemed very interested in my business. We met for 60 minutes. He told me that I had to open a personal account and then get a business account. I had to send a business plan, a resume, any press i’d gotten in Chile, my bank statements from US banks, my bank statements from my Chilean banks, a letter of recommendation from a bank where I had $10,000 and at least 5 years as a client, a contract or independent contractor payments of at least $2000 per month for the last three months in Chile, a deposit of $2000,

He told me it’d be ready in three days if I sent the information. I immediately emailed in all of the documents. No response. I emailed back the next day. No response. Next day, no response. Finally he responded and said he never got my documents. I sent them again. He confirmed receipt.

A week later, I still hadn’t heard back and emailed again. No response. Another week later I tried again. No response. Three weeks later, I’ve never heard back.

• Trips to bank – 1
• Documents sent – 34
• Minimum salary required – $2000/month in Chile
• Total time – five weeks
• Account cost: $20/month
• Result: Stopped responding to my emails

Bank 2

I went to this bank on a friend’s introduction. They told me I needed a personal account and asked me to fill out the forms. It was six pages of normal questions and two pages of very personal questions. They asked for every document imaginable, same as bank 2. I filled out the forms, send in the documents, but could not prove that I made sufficient money in Chile each month and they told me I was not approved for a personal or business account.

• Time spent: two weeks
• Forms Filled: 2
• Fingerprints: 16
• Minimum Salary – $2800
• Account cost: $15/month
• Result: Denied

Bank 3

I met with a private bank from one of the major Chilean banks. They told me they would open my account if I could prove I had $1m in net worth in Chile. I don’t. They kindly showed me the door.

• Time spent: 45 minutes
• Net worth required: $1,000,000
• Result: Denied

Bank 4

I met with this bank on an introduction. The executive was really nice and helped me fill out all the forms. I send in the same documents as bank 1. I didn’t hear back for two weeks, but finally was approved, if I could show $1500 per month in Chilean earnings and deposit $1000.

• Trips to bank – 1
• Documents sent – 34
• Minimum salary required – $1000/month in Chile
• Total time – three weeks
• Account cost: $10/month
• Result: No response for two weeks, then halfway approved

Bank 5 – Where I have my account

I was already a client at this bank, so I didn’t have to get a personal account. I walked in, talked to my personal executive, she took me to the banking executive. We filled out paperwork and they told me I was approved. I had to show business documents, a resume, my identification. And I had to deposit $3000 in a 1 month CD that is renewed each month in order to open the account. This bank was the nicest to me of any of the banks I met with.

• Trips to bank – 5
• Documents sent – 12
• Fingerprints – 12
• Forms filled – 9
• Minimum salary – $900/month
• Time spent – 10 hours
• Deposit held – $3000
• Total time – four weeks
• Account cost – $20/month
• Result – Approved!

                          

There are some clear cultural difference between doing business in the US and in Chile. I’ve taken to calling it Weonomics. (Gringo readers, weon is the ubiquitous Chilean word meaning anything from dude to asshole.) Clearly not all Chileans subscribe to the principles of Weonomics, but I run into enough Weonomics experts each week that I felt I had to write about it. I have a feeling that most foreigners in Chile will identify with this post, but I’m also interested to see the response from Chilean friends. Please enjoy.

Negotiation

A typical US negotiation.

• Seller asking price $45,000
• My offer price: $37,000
• Seller counteroffer: $43,000
• My counteroffer: $39,000
• Final price: $41,000

Pretty simple, right? A sales price, a counter offer and meet somewhere in the middle. You’d think negotiation would work similarly in any part of the world, but not with many Chileans.

Weonomics:

• Seller asking price $45,000
• My offer price: $37,000
• Seller counteroffer: $48,000
• My counteroffer: See ya!

Seriously? Who in their right mind thinks they’ll close a deal counteroffering by RAISING their initial price?  But this is a principal tenant of Weonomics. The worst case I’ve seen was when a friend was trying to purchase a house. The opening price was $140,000. My friend bid $120,000. The counter offer? $210,000. Weonomics at its finest.

Lowball/HighBall

Someone’s first offer is rarely close to a real offer. It’s almost always a borderline insultingly lowball offer, or a pie in the sky number that only an idiot would pay. A friend closed a deal with a major Chilean company that pays him $20,000 per month. Their first offer? $500 per month. Many Chilean real estate prices are listed above market value in hopes that someone will come along and just buy it. You’ll rarely find a business deal that’s priced to get a deal done quickly.

Meeting Cancellations and No Shows

I’ve been stood up more in the past six months that I ever have been in my entire life combined. I had a string of five meetings on monday and tuesday that all cancelled less than 30 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. Two didn’t even show up at all. One of the no shows told me it was my fault because “maybe I didn’t understand spanish fully.” The only problem? She’d emailed me the day before explicitly setting the meeting. It was impossible to mistake. That’s Weonomics.

No/Yes

You rarely ever hear a true yes or no in Chilean business. Each answer can mean multiple things. See chart:

One time I ordered sushi for delivery on a national holiday. The person who answered the phone told me I shouldn’t order because it would be an hour and a half wait for my food. I thought about it, but put the order in anyway and made myself a small snack to tide myself over. 20 minutes later, my sushi arrived, just as I was finishing my snack. Her no, it’ll take too long, was simply trying to get out of more work. Weonomics at work.

So what do you think? Am I right? Do you notice any of these too? Or any other ones? Do you do them yourself? Or am I just un gringo que no cacha nada?

Hat Tip: Skinner Layne for originally coining the phrase.

                          

The real reason is that its much harder to write now that it used to be. I used to be able to crank out a good blog post in 30 minutes. Now, I get started and nothing seems to flow. My main ideas are there, but they’re poorly expressed. I use too many words to get my point across. I reread what I’ve written and I realize it’s not as good as most of my older posts and I just delete it all and give up and work on something new. Or it just sounds dumb.

I’ve had a few periods like this over the past five and a half years of my blog, but they were mostly because of laziness, summer or work. This time is different. I didn’t figure it out until last week when a friend of mine sent me a few sentences to translate from spanish to english that he needed to use in marketing copy. I was happy to help.

I took a look at the first sentence and started to translate. My first crack was:

You’re invited to get to know our new b2b website, the new tool that will help us improve our sales process, give you more information about our products and create closer client relationships.

I finished, but knew two parts sounded wrong. Nobody says “get to know” or “give you more information.” I knew it was wrong. I sat there for five minutes wracking my brain, trying to figure out how to say it more clearly. I gave up and asked a friend from the states who fixed it for me. We ended up with:

You’re invited to explore our new b2b website, the new tool that will help us improve our sales process, deliver information about our products and create closer client relationships.

Much better. It dawned on me that my writing is worse because of spanish. So is my english. I say stuff in english that I know instantly isn’t right. Or just sounds funny. A while back, my Chilean friend and business partner Enrique and I had to give a short talk in english to 50 entrepreneurs. Enrique led off in english, then threw it over to me. I stumbled through my simple two minute talk. It was terrible. Enrique, a Chilean, clearly spoke better than me.

After our talk, we mingled with a few entrepreneurs. The first two were from Argentina and Mexico and we started out in spanish. After a few minutes, they asked where I was from, confused. They clearly knew I wasn’t a native speaker of spanish because my accent is still terrible. But they didn’t think I was a native english speaker either.

I’m out of practice and have been avoiding writing here because the finished product isn’t as good as it used to be. And it’s harder than it used to be. The goal of this post is to force myself to just keep writing and hopefully it’ll come back.

Have any of you struggled with this problem when learning a second language? If so, did you do anything that helped make it better? I’m frustrated here. I’ll take any ideas.

                          

Although LAN just added a new flight into Castro, I decided to fly into Puerto Montt to check out the city, then take the bus to Castro. I left on Friday, arrived into Puerto Montt, took the bus from the airport to the bus terminal and walked around the harbor. It’s clearly a port town, a bit run down near the bus station, but I had some good food. I’m not sure I’d spend much time there if I had more time in the south, but it was worth seeing. I got on the bus and settled into the four hour trek to Castro.

After about an hour, the bus reached the channel that separates Chiloe from mainland Chile. Apparently this straight has one of the strongest currents in the world, but I didn’t feel a thing on the ferry. I got into Castro late at night and walked from the bus station to Palafito del Mar, a newly renovated hotel built in a palafito, or house with stilts, right on the water. It might be a bit expensive if you book directly, but I found a discount on booking.com.

Church in Castro

Chiloe’s economy is based on fishing, potatoes and timber. In the summer its overrun with tourists, but when I went in April, there were hardly any tourists. The first day was cloudy and windy, but I ventured out anyway going to Dalcahue where I checked out the local artesental market and ate a traditional curanto. Curanto is a mix of sausage, chicken, pork and just about every kind of seafood you can think of cooked in broth and served with two potato based starches. The sunday lunch style meal is cooked by digging a hole in the ground, heading up stones, putting in the food, then covering it with thick leaves and left to cook. Unfortunately I was there on a Saturday so I had curanto made in a pan, but it was incredibly good. The fresh seafood was a welcome chance from Santiago’s cuisine.

I spent the rest of the day taking buses between Chilotan towns, exploring coffee shops, old town squares and the famous wooden churches. Chilotan houses are generally built out of wood and so are the massive, brightly painted churches. Everything is slower, people are nice and happy to chat for a long time. The coffee shop on the main square, right near the church, in Dalcahue is a welcome suprise. The level of cuisine in Chiloé is so much better than in Santiago and the service is impecable.

At night, I ate at El Mercadito, a locally sourced restaurant owned by some Santiagino translants. The food was great and left me wanting so much more in Santiago. Seriously, if you took Chilotan service and food and brought it to Santiago, the place would be full all the time and I’d be there a few times per week. The closest comparison is a few restaurants and cafes in Barrio Italia in Santiago.

I loved the arquitecture, the clean, crisp air, the incredible food and all of the people who are just happy to chat for as long as you’d like. I would have liked to stay longer, especially during the summer (outside of February) when the weather is nicer. But I could see spending a month there writing, hiking, eating good food and working on a new project.

                          

Exosphere is special because it’s not just another coworking space, although you can use it that way. It’s special because of Exosphere founder Skinner Layne’s overarching vision. He wants to change education, entrepreneurship and at the base of it all, empower people achieve their dreams and break free from having to work for a big company their entire lives.

His vision is the following: most people have the potential ability to create their own business, but most lack the tools and the entrepreneurial push to actually get started and then have success. He believes that you can teach entrepreneurship. That people will have success if they have real community around them. People to share ideas. People to share failures. To keep them motivated. To share contacts. To find business partners. And foster success.

I know it sounds like a massive goal, but I believe Skinner and his growing team can do it. I first met Skinner in 2010 when I first got to Santiago.  Skinner sent my business partner Jesse an email seeing if we wanted to meet another gringo who’d moved to Chile and we quickly became good friends, helping each other out with business challenges. When I first met Skinner, he was working on a ton of projects in parallel. About a year ago when he first got the idea for exosphere, I saw a change. He dropped all of his other projects. Our weekly meeting turned into brainstorming sessions about education, entrepreneurship, the future of work and empowering individuals. That’s when I knew he was onto something big. When he invited me to be on their board, I knew I had to do it.

Skinner’s persuaded his cofounders Antonio Manno and Amit Sonawane to come to Chile and a flood of foreign entrepreneurial talent has followed. The first entrepreneurs and mentors are already starting to work out of Exosphere. It’s opening as a coworking space this Friday. Foreigners are moving from multiple countries around the world just to be a part of Exosphere. Mentorship, community and entrepreneurial education will start next month.

Skinner, Antonio, Amit and the rest of Exosphere are trying to change the world. One life at a time. It’s going to be fun to watch them try. You can follow their progress on their Exosphere Blog, Facebook and read some of Skinner’s essays on his personal blog.

If you’d like more information, please contact me. And if you’d like to go to the party, post a comment at the end of this blog.

                          

In about minute 14, the program interviews Professor Veronique De Rugy from George Mason University who says government should stay out of entrepreneurship because they pick winners and create an uneven playing field. She cites examples like politicly connected Solyndra to pan programs like Ireland and Chile’s programs. I agree governments shouldn’t pick winners, but her examples are actually supporting Startup Chile.

Solyndra got $535m in guaranteed loans. The whole goal of Startup Chile is to not invest billons in loan guarantees, research parks and other investments that as De Rugy put it are “crappy investments,” but rather to invest in thousands of companies, change the ecosystem and attract smart foreigners to Chile.

For the Solyndra money, the US could have run Startup Chile for 130 years! Imagine empowering individual small entrepreneurs instead of big politicly connected companies. That’s not picking winners. As I said in the interview, “its one of the cheapest and most cost effective government programs out there” because nearly all of the money gets recycled into the Chilean economy.

                          

The entire process takes 6-7 months from when you first apply to when it’s granted or denied. They accept english applications, but in my opinion it makes sense to translate everything. If your spanish is bad, pay someone to translate your application.

Step 1 - Review Previous Visa Requirements

You must have already had a temporary visa for at least one year and have spent at least six months of that temporary visa in Chile. If you don’t meet this criteria, you must apply for another temporary visa. You’re only able to apply for a temporary visa twice, after that you must apply for a permanent residence. If you don’t meet the previous visa requirements, the extranjeria tells you you should apply for the permanent residence anyway and then appeal if it’s denied.

Step 2 – Review Application deadlines

You can first apply 90 days before your temporary visa expires. Do this as early as possible to minimize time you have with an expired carnet. More on this later.

Step 3 –  Go to Extranjeria website to pick your visa type

If you have your own business, Inversionista is likely the best one for you, but there are many other options. If you get confused or don’t know which one best fits your criteria, go to extranjeria in person and ask. They were very helpful every time I went and had questions.

Step 4 – Review the requirements.

Here’s the requirements for Inversionista. You can find the rest of the requirements for permanent visas here.

Step 5 – Fill out forms

Download the current Residencia Definitiva document (pdf) from Extranjeria and fill it out.

Step 6 – Get Certificado de Antecedentes from Registro Civil

You can do this online if you’ve already registered in the system or you have to go to a Registro Civil in person.

Step 7 – Get Certificado de Viajes from Policia de Investigaciones (PDI)

This document shows how long you’ve been out of the country during your last visa. Go to PDI offices at Morandé 672. This tramite costs CLP$800 and you usually have to wait at least an hour, sometimes more. It’s open from 830-1400.

Step 8  - Get all your paperwork

• Copy of both sides of your carnet
• Copy of certificado de registro. You can use your certificado from last year or pay another CLP$800 from the PDI to get a new one when you’re getting your certificado de viajes.
• Copy of your passport with all ID pages and any pages with Chilean visas or stamps. I just copied the entire thing.
• Three 3×2 color photos with your name and rut

Step 9 – Write your personal statement

You need to write a personal statement why you’d like to stay in Chile. I included my resume, everything I’ve done in Chile, any press clippings from Chilean newspapers and my plans to stay in Chile, plus bank information showing that I would not become dependent on the state if they granted me the visa. My packet was about 15 pages long and the clerk in Extranjeria told me it was more than enough. Most people write a page and that’s it.

Step 10 – Get business documentation (if Inversionista)

If you’re doing the Inversionista visa for your own company or if you are an independent contractor you need to prove you are making money and have assets in Chile. You’ll need:

• Copy of operating agreement (Escritura) of your Chilean company
• Certificado de inicio de actividades from SII
• Your company’s last 8 IVA payments
• Your company’s last “balance tributario”
• Your company’s last “declaracion de renta”
• Proof you’ve paid your company’s patente
• Proof that you actually own stock in the company

If you’re doing it as an independent contractor (emits boletas), you need to prove the same things as above, but with your own personal records.

Step 11 (optional) – Take everything to Extranjeria for a review

The clerks at Extranjeria are happy to go through your paperwork with you and tell you if everything is in order. I did this and realized I was missing a form, so for me it was worth it.

Step 12 – Mail all of this via Correo Certificado to:

SEÑORES:
SOLICITUD PERMANENCIA DEFINITIVA
CLASIFICADOR N° 8
CORREO CENTRAL
SANTIAGO

Step 13 – Wait for “Visa en Tramite” temporary 6 month visa.

Extranjeria says it will take 45 days and mine took exactly 45 days. If your old visa has expired (like mine did), you cannot reenter Chile on your old visa and must pay for a tourist visa if you enter before you get your “visa en tramite” paper work. You can check on your progress on the extranjeria autoconsulta website. Once you’re approved as “en tramite” you can print off your form which allows you to travel on your temporary six month visa.

Note: you must bring that paper with you if you travel, as your carnet will be expired. Make sure you have it on your person, not in your luggage. I made this mistake once and had to convince someone from my flight to get my backpack from baggage claim for me while I was waiting with a PDI agent who was mocking me the entire time.

You will get a letter from Extranjeria that says that your visa is “en tramite” and that you’re allowed to do any legal activity that you used to be able to do on your old visa, but no Chilean entity actually recognizes it, including:

• Entel
• VTR
• Movistar
• Claro
• SII
• Banks
• Anywhere that requires a valid carnet

Basically you can’t do anything in Chile with your letter because nobody recognizes it. This was the most frustrating part of being between visas. I was carnetless from Nov 15th, 2012 until May 17th, 2013. If you have any official business, get it done before your carnet expires or else you’re screwed.

Step 14 – Pay application fee

You have to pay a fee, depending on the visa your applied for, via bank check at any bank. Mine was ~$50.000 and I had to go in person to my bank to pay.

Step 15 – Wait for approval or denial

It took me another five months before I was approved. You can check again on the extranjeria autoconsulta website for news.

Step 16 – Go to Extranjeria with your visa acceptance form, carnet and passport and get your permanent visa

Step 17 – Go to PDI to register your address and get your certificado de residencia definitiva (CLP$800).

Step 18 – Go to registro civil to get your carnet (CLP$4.050)

Step 19 – Wait two weeks and go back to the registro civil to pick up  your carnet

Step 20 – Drink a piscola to celebrate being a Chilean permanent residence and being done with all of these tramites!

Once you have the visa, you must either visit Chile once per year or you must go to an embassy once per year to renew your visa. If you go the embassy route, you’ll need to come back to Chile once every four years to keep your visa valid, or else you lose it.

Note: please review each step on your own, this is the process I used in 2012/2013 and may change without notice.