Chile · Visa required
Emigrating to Chile
For Chile you apply online for a residencia temporal at the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, and as a retiree you do that from the Netherlands. Chile asks no fixed pension amount: your pension must cover your basic needs. What makes this country special are the treaties. The tax treaty lets the Netherlands tax your AOW and your pension, and for the first three years Chile only taxes a newcomer on income from Chile. The social security treaty keeps your AOW in full, and with a Dutch pension gives you access to the Chilean healthcare system.
€ 399 one-off · 37 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- A residencia temporal online at SERMIG, from abroad, then the cédula at the Registro Civil
- The clock
- A certificate of conduct at most sixty days old; ninety days to enter; within thirty days of arrival your cédula
- Note
- The Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and your pension, without a tax credit; Chile taxes your Dutch income from your fourth year
Last updated: 15 October 2026
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Five phases, from the online application to your permanent residence
This journey turns on two treaties and three clocks. Both treaties apply: the tax treaty lets the Netherlands tax your AOW, your pension and your annuity, and the social security treaty keeps your AOW in full and opens the Chilean healthcare system. The clocks are the sixty days your certificate of conduct may be old, the ninety days to enter Chile after the grant, and the thirty days after arrival for your cédula. On top of that there's what the brochure doesn't mention: for the first three years Chile only taxes a newcomer on income from Chile, and after that on everything.
- Orientation
A residence without a fixed amount, and two treaties that apply
In this phase you learn how living in Chile works, and what it does to your income and your healthcare. Chile has a temporary residence, the residencia temporal, of up to two years, and after 24 months permanent residence. Whoever comes on a pension becomes a jubilado; whoever lives on rent or investments, also before the AOW age, a rentista. There's no fixed amount: your income must cover your basic needs. The tax treaty lets the Netherlands tax your AOW and your pension. For the first three years Chile only taxes you on income from Chile. The AOW goes along in full, also if you go alone. There's no CAK, but with a Dutch pension you may join the Chilean healthcare system.Read more
- Your visa
Choosing a route, fresh papers, and an application online from the Netherlands
In this phase you apply for your residencia temporal, online, in the portal of SERMIG, the Chilean migration service. As a jubilado, rentista or employee you do that from abroad. Your pension certificate, your certificates and your certificate of conduct get an apostille, and an official translation if they aren't in Spanish or English. Your certificate of conduct may be at most sixty days old, a document from your pension fund at most thirty. The fee for Dutch nationals is 192 dollars, for work 321 dollars, and you pay it before you send the application. After the grant you download the estampado electrónico, and you have ninety days to enter.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The treaty lets the Netherlands tax, the AOW goes along whole, and a policy until FONASA
In this phase you work through the familiar list to close down in the Netherlands. The tax treaty puts your AOW, your pension and your annuity in the Netherlands column: the SVB and your pension fund withhold payroll tax, and you don't apply for an exemption. You get no tax credit. Chile only joins after three years, and then credits the Dutch tax. Whoever goes alone keeps the full AOW. There's no CAK: arrange an international policy until you've joined FONASA in Chile. And whoever leaves before the AOW age can insure themselves voluntarily within one year.Read more
- The move
Household goods free up to 6,750 dollars, and no used car
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. With a residencia you import your household goods free of import duties and IVA up to a value of 6,750 dollars; what exceeds that is taxed. For the car the answer is short: Chilean law only admits vehicles without use. You sell it here and buy another one there. The pet needs a certificate from the NVWA valid for ten days, or the European pet passport, with a chip, a rabies vaccination and a deworming between 5 and 30 days before the certificate.Read more
- Arrival in Chile
Thirty days to the Registro Civil, then healthcare, SII, bank, licence and the renewal
In this phase you arrange your cédula, your numbers, your healthcare and your bank after landing. Within thirty days of arrival you apply for your cédula at the Registro Civil, for 4,270 pesos. Then you join FONASA, with a statement about your Dutch pension, and pay 7 percent of your pension for healthcare, up to a ceiling of 90 UF. You create your SII account with your RUT. As a resident your Dutch licence isn't enough, so you get a Chilean licence at your municipality. A rental contract you sign before a notary. And after two years you renew your residencia, or apply for permanent residence.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Chile journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.2 of your plan
Know where you pay tax: the treaty lets the Netherlands tax
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advice hours, depending on your situation
In this step you know which country taxes which income. With Chile that's clearly arranged, and differently from what many people think.
The treaty. The Netherlands and Chile signed the treaty on 25 January 2021. It has been in force since 30 November 2022 and applies from 1 January 2023. In its table of January 2026 the Belastingdienst puts these incomes in the Netherlands column:
| Income | Article | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| AOW and other social security benefits | 18, paragraph 2 | none |
| Government pension | 18, paragraph 1 | if the build-up was tax-facilitated here |
| Occupational pension | 18, paragraph 1 | if the build-up was tax-facilitated here |
| Annuity | 18, paragraph 1 | if the build-up was tax-facilitated here |
What that means:
- The Netherlands keeps taxing. The SVB and your pension fund withhold payroll tax. You don't apply for an exemption from payroll tax.
- Chile may tax too, because the treaty says "may be taxed in the Netherlands", not "only". Chile deducts the Dutch tax from the Chilean tax on the same income (article 23). See step 3.3.
- The Dutch rates are capped. The Netherlands may not tax your pension more than it would ask of a resident (article 18, paragraph 8).
- No tax credit. Whoever lives in a country like Chile is, according to the Belastingdienst, only entitled to the entrepreneur's deduction and the tax-free allowance in box 3.
For the year of your departure you file in the Netherlands with the M form, online via Mijn Belastingdienst or on paper.
Take this to a tax adviser and have them work out what you keep net. You need that figure before you give notice on the rent.
What this step rests on
- Belastingdienst — Verdragsstaten IB niet-ingezetenen, January 2026, page 30: Chile, pension, annuity and AOW in the NL column
- Wetten.overheid.nl — the treaty of 25 January 2021, article 18 and article 23
- Treaty database — the tax treaty with Chile, in force on 30 November 2022
- SII — Chile's treaties: Países Bajos, in force from 1 January 2023
- Belastingdienst — which deductions and credits you have if you live outside the Netherlands
- Belastingdienst — filing for the year of emigration: online or with the M form
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Chile.
This is step 3.2 of 37. The other 36 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 37 steps for ChileEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Chile: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Chile change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
What will your move to Chile cost? Work it out →Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Chile? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Chile starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
In December we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Chile
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in Chile: FONASA or an ISAPRE, and what the treaty does for pensionersChile has two systems: the public FONASA and the private ISAPREs. Members pay 7% of their taxable income, up to a ceiling. Chile is not among the CAK treaty countries, so your Dutch insurance does not continue through the CAK. But the social security treaty gives anyone receiving a Dutch pension the right to join the Chilean system like a Chilean pensioner.
- Residence routes to Chile: retired, living on income, work or familyAnyone who wants to live in Chile applies online, from abroad, for a residencia temporal from the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones. Retirees and people living on income have their own subcategory, without a fixed minimum amount. The permit is valid for at most two years; after 24 months you can apply for permanent residence.
- Working in Chile: the work permit, the 85% rule and your diplomaAnyone coming to work in Chile applies from abroad for a residencia temporal for paid work, with an employment contract or a formal job offer. As a tourist you may not work. Employers with more than 25 staff must have at least 85% Chileans on the payroll. You have a Dutch diploma recognised at the Universidad de Chile.
- AOW, pension and tax in Chile: the Netherlands taxes, Chile gives creditThe tax treaty between the Netherlands and Chile has applied since 1 January 2023. The Netherlands may keep taxing your AOW, and your pension if it was built up here with tax relief. Chile deducts that Dutch tax from its own tax, and does not tax a newcomer's foreign income at all for the first three years. Chile is a treaty country for the AOW: you get the full amount.
- Car and driving licence in Chile: only new cars across the border, and a Chilean licenceSince 1985 Chile has only admitted cars without previous use: you cannot bring an ordinary used passenger car. The exceptions are narrow, such as a motorhome or a car fifty years old or more. Your Dutch licence is valid as long as you are a tourist. Anyone living in Chile gets a Chilean licence from the municipality; Dutch citizens cannot exchange theirs.
- Dog or cat to Chile: the SAG's new rules since July 2026Since 27 July 2026 Chile has new requirements for dogs, cats and ferrets. Your animal needs a microchip, a rabies vaccination at least 21 days old, a deworming 5 to 30 days before the certificate and a check-up within 10 days. The certificate is valid for 10 days. An EU pet passport counts, if it shows all the requirements.
All 13 articles about Chile
- Household goods to Chile: duty-free up to US$ 6,750, within 120 days of your arrival
- Banking and payments in Chile: first the cédula, then the CuentaRUT
- The first weeks in Chile: to the Registro Civil within 30 days, the rest follows
- Buying a house in Chile: what foreigners may do, the notary and the register
- Renting in Chile: notice periods, the lease at the notary and the deposit
- Registration and numbers in Chile: cédula, RUN, RUT and ClaveÚnica
- School in Chile: the provisional pupil number, placement and the school year
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Chile: 37 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.