Working from Chile as a France resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Chile

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Chile, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueImmigration and visa

   No digital nomad visa exists, and the USD 215 version sold online is a marketing construct

   Chile has never enacted a digital nomad visa. SERMIG publishes 15 temporary residence subcategories and none of them is a remote-worker or nomad category. Several commercial sites advertise a 'Visa Nomade Digital' at roughly USD 215 with a USD 1,500 monthly income test, but this is a marketing construct, not a Chilean immigration category, and every claim that Chile has a nomad visa is false.

2. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   No tax treaty with Germany means no Article 15 relief and a weaker foreign tax credit

   Germany is the roster's biggest treaty gap. Negotiation rounds date to 2002, with a fourth round in Santiago concluding 11 June 2022, but nothing has been signed and nothing is in force. Chile's foreign tax credit is unusually treaty-dependent, conditional in the ordinary case on a treaty being in force with the source country, so a German resident or German-source income stream loses both Article 15 short-stay relief and much of the normal double-tax relief mechanism. A German shareholder in a Chilean company also falls into the 44.45 percent non-treaty distribution bracket rather than the 35 percent treaty bracket.

3. Significant issueCrypto tax and legal status

   CARF reporting is live, and the SII is already auditing crypto cases

   SII Resolutions 113 and 114 of 2025 created two annual sworn declarations binding on crypto-asset service providers under CARF and Article 33 bis of the Codigo Tributario. DJ 1963 covers digital assets held by users with tax residence or domicile abroad, for exchange with their home jurisdiction. DJ 1964 covers digital assets held by users resident or domiciled in Chile, identifying users, controlling persons and transactions. The first filing deadline, assessment year 2026 for commercial year 2025, was 30 June 2026, and that deadline has already passed. Chile has been a CRS jurisdiction since 2017-2018, exchanging with roughly 91 jurisdictions. Enforcement is live, not theoretical, the SII announced on 22 September 2025 that it had audited 13 crypto cases yielding close to CLP 5,000 million.

4. Significant issueResidency routes

   No digital nomad subcategory, no golden visa, no citizenship by investment, no points system

   Ley 21.325 sets a minimum of 13 temporary residence subcategories by supreme decree, SERMIG currently publishes 15, and none is a digital nomad category, a golden visa, a citizenship-by-investment route or a points system. A pre-2021 job-seeker visa under the old Decreto Ley 1.094 was not carried into the Ley 21.325 subcategory list and no longer exists. Any claim that Chile runs a points or opportunities system, or a nomad or golden visa, in 2026 should be rejected.

5. Needs checkingTax residency

   Domicile can attach from day zero through the economic-centre test

   Domicile has no day count at all. The Codigo Tributario does not define it, so the SII imports Article 59 of the Civil Code, residence accompanied by the intention to remain, and in practice treats the economic element as dominant, meaning where the person's principal source of income or main seat of business sits. A person who arrives with a Chilean job and moves their family in can be domiciled from the date of entry, with zero days counted. Losing domicile is not symmetric with losing residency, someone who leaves but keeps their principal business seat in Chile stays domiciled and stays taxable on worldwide income.

6. Needs checkingRight to work

   Remote work on a tourist permit is unauthorized, tolerated, and not the real risk

   A Permanencia Transitoria holder may not perform remunerated activities. The only statutory exception covers public entertainers, sportspeople, conference speakers and expert technicians doing specific and sporadic paid work under a separate SERMIG authorization, at 150 percent of the temporary residence fee, and none of that covers a salaried remote employee or freelancer. Chile has never issued guidance saying online work for a foreign employer is lawful on a tourist permit, and has never prosecuted it either. Treat it as unauthorized but unenforced, not as permitted. The real exposure is tax, not immigration, because Article 10 LIR sources income to where the work is physically performed.

What tends to surprise people here

• No digital nomad visa exists, despite paid listings claiming otherwise
• Article 10 sources remote work performed in Chile as Chilean income, so the 3-year exemption does not shelter it
• Converting from tourist to resident status generally means applying from a consulate abroad, not from inside Chile

Tax treaty between France and Chile