Working in Chile?

Question

I'd like to move to Chile. Are there any requirements for getting a working visa there? I lived in the Dominican Republic for a year, so my Spanish is fine, but I'd like to know about the job market there.

Answer 1

One of the things you need to do is to contact a relocation agency. The one which helped me a lot is Hillside (www.hillside.cl) I went to Chile with a working visa, arranged by Hillside and I worked there (in Santiago) for 3 years. Although there is not a lot of people asking for working visas (unlike th US) it would help if you have a sponsored job, that is have a letter from a company offering you the job or at least someone who will sponsor you in Chile.

Just a word of advice; chileans have a very strong policy regarding jobs and if they think your job could be done by a chilean, they wont give you the visa as they protect their citizens very strongly. It is much better if your jobs requires the use of several languages, manily English as that helps a lot. But I would definetly hire a relocation agency who will take care of all the paper work which tends to be bureaucratic in Chile.

Answer 2

You will need to arrange the work beforehand to get a work visa (which runs for a maximum of 12 months). You send a letter confirming the work to the Chilean embassy and they will arrange it.

If you have not arranged the work, you'll have to fly out there with a tourist visa (once again from the embassy), and that's fine. Knowing spanish will only help for the application forms, but once again, the embassy will help you with that!

Contact Adecco or other international employment agencies for more information about jobs. (www.adecco.co.uk).

Buena suerte con todo lo que hagas. Bertie