Category: Startup Chile

How to Renew your Chilean Work Visa

Category : Startup Chile
Posted on by

I’ve gotten a bunch of questions lately about how to renew your Chilean work visa that you got as part of Startup Chile. You have three options:

  1. Let your visa expire. You must leave the country within 2 weeks of your visa’s expiration or else you must pay a fine. If you’re not sure how long you are going to be in Chile, you can always take a trip over to Mendoza and reenter on a tourist visa.
  2. Apply for a visa extension (prorroga de visa)
  3. Apply for permanent residency

Your original visa lasted for one year from when you arrived and will expire if you do nothing. This means your RUT will expire and you won’t be able to conduct much business in Chile. Also, if you stay in Chile past your visa, you will have to pay a fine as you are leaving.

The process to renew your Chilean work visa is not that difficult, but it can be confusing and time consuming. Here’s what I did to renew my visa in November 2011. I know a few other friends did the same process and had success. Please verify that this information is up to date before you rely on it, but I believe it to be current as of Oct 1, 2012.

You should start the renewal process 2-3 months before your visa is set to expire.

1. Review the information from the Chilean Extranjeria.

You must decide if you would like to extend your visa (prorrogar) or apply for permanent residency. It is much easier to apply for a visa extension, so I will be covering these steps in this article.

NOTE: Depending on your nationality, applying for permanent residency can have adverse tax implications, so consult with an attorney or accountant who will be able to advise you.

2. Review the Requirements to Extend (Prorrogar) your  Chilean Work Visa. You will need the following information:

  • Your completed application form that you printed off from the government website. Note: In box #9, check the “prorroga de visación” box
  • Three 2cmx3cm photos with your name and rut on the bottom. Any photo shop should be able to do this for you. Ask for foto carnet con nombre y RUT.
  • A photocopy of the front and back of your carnet
  • A photocopy of passport photo page
  • A photocopy of previous visa that is in your passport
  • 1 photocopy of Certificado de Registro, which you get from the Policía Internacional (Morandé Nº 672, Santiago Centro). You can potentially use a copy of the half page paper we got from the police when we first got here, but to be safe, go get a new one.
  • Certificado de antecedentes from Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación de Chile emitted within the last 30 days. There are many offices in Santiago where you can get them, including the one on Huerfanos. Go to registro civil and click oficinas for a full list.

Note: Los nacionales de Colombia deben presentar además un Certificado de Antecedentes Judiciales vigente y totalmente tramitado y los nacionales de Perú deben presentar un Certificado Consular de Antecedentes Penales vigente solicitado en su consulado.

3. Include additional supporting documentation

Chile wants to renew your visa. At its most basic, Chile prefers skilled immigrants and wants to make sure that visa holders won’t end up living in the streets, participating in anti-government protests, committing crimes or asking the government for money. In addition to all of that information, I included the following documentation. I suggest you think about including the same. All documents translated into Spanish:

  • My professional resume
  • A list of all of the things I’ve done in chile
  • Any press I’ve gotten in Chile or abroad
  • A one page letter explaining why I wanted to stay in chile
  • A copy of documents showing that you have either incorporated in Chile or plan to incorporate. If you have already incorporated, send documents showing that you’re up to date on your taxes and all fees. Showing an office address is helpful as well.
  • An executive summary of my business
  • If you are employed by a company here in Chile, include your employment contract.
  • If you don’t have a business incorporate here or an employment contract check the box “trabajando por cuenta propia.” I’ve heard that it’s harder to get renewed without a company or an employment contract, but it can be done.
  • A copy of my original startup chile invitation letter
  • An overview of my personal finances including copies of my Chilean bank statements and current balances in selected foreign accounts.

4. Send all of this by certified mail (Correo Certificado) to:

SEÑORES:
SOLICITUD TEMPORARIA
CLASIFICADOR N° 8
CORREO CENTRAL
SANTIAGO

Note: Some people have had success going to the office in your region where you are living and delivering the documents in person. If you are able to do this, it’s better than waiting for the documents by mail, but many have been turned away. It’s worth a shot to try it in person.

5. Wait for your visa en trámite confirmation

You will get a piece of paper that says your visa is “en trámite” and you’ll need to take this paper with you if you want to leave the country. Chile’s computer system is not connected together, so the only way to leave and enter without paying fines or paying for a new visa is to bring this paper along with you.

If you have more questions, check out the extranjeria website or feel free to ask in the comments! Hope this is helpful!

Looking for more high quality information about Chile? Check out my book Chile: The Expat’s Guide:

chile expat guide cover

Startup Chile Application Help Round Six

Category : Startup Chile
Posted on by

It’s that time again. Startup Chile is opening their sixth round of applications on monday September 24th.  This application period will be open until October 8th and the winners will be announced November 29th.  In the last application process 1509 startups from more than 60 countries around the world applied for a spot in this coveted program. 100 were selected and they’ll start to arrive in the next few months.  It has become more competitive as the number of applications has grown and this round could easily have over 2000 applications for 100 spots.

Startup Chile is a great program, especially for entrepreneurs who are in the bootstrapping phase or already have developed a product but need more time to figure out the correct business model to apply. My company, Entrustet, was part of the pilot phase of Start-Up Chile and arrived in Chile in 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 an ebook, Startup Chile 101, with everything you need to know about living 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,  18 applications for prospective Startup Chile teams and 12 have been accepted.

  • Rounds 2/3 – 6/9 accepted 66%
  • Round 4 – 3/4 accepted 75%
  • Round 5 – 3/6 accepted 50%
  • Overall: 12/18 accepted 66%

In round 5, 6.6% of applicants were accepted into the program and 3/6 (50%) of the applications I reviewed made it. One company 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 2 more of the teams that I worked with completely deserved to make it in, including one that I would have invested in myself.

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 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.  I reserve these only for people I have known for a long time and know their project.

startup chile 101

Startup Chile Pilot Round Companies: Statistics After One Year

Category : Startup Chile
Posted on by

Starting in late 2010, the Chilean government spent $880,000 ($40k/company) to initiate Startup Chile’s pilot round, bringing 22 startups comprised of 33 entrepreneurs to Santiago.  It’s been just over a year since the last company from the pilot round ended their time with the program.  Since then, 400 more startups have arrived over four more Startup Chile rounds.

So what happened to the pilot round companies? Did they leave Chile? Did they all fail? Did they create any jobs? And did they have any impact on the Chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem?  I got in contact my friends from the pilot round and asked them about their businesses today.  Here’s what I found:

The Data

  • 6 companies (27%) have at least cofounder living full time in Chile.
  • 10 companies (45%) have significant businesses still running in Chile.
  • 7 startups (32%) have raised a total of US$4,020,000 from VCs and angels
  • 16 startups (73%) are still bootstrapping full time, of which 5 (23%) are profitable.
  • Taken together 12 startups (55%) are either profitable or have raised significant money.
  • 2 startups (9%) are being run part time
  • 3 startups (14%) failed
  • 1 startup (5%) was acquired
  • Founders from 14 companies (64%) have returned to chile at least once or continue to live here
  • 19  companies (86%) still have business relationships in Chile
  • At least 16 jobs were created in Chile

Here’s a few company updates:

Aeternasol: George Cadena’s original solar energy company made significant progress, but could not find success in Chile. George decided to start another business and partnered with Juan Pablo Salas, a Chilean.  They now employ 5 Chileans and has built Studiosnaps, South America’s first open air photobooth company. They’ve gotten investment in Chile and intend to expand to other countries.

Cruisewise: The first company to arrive in Chile, they built a prototype and then raised money from both Bay Area and Chilean investors. They are in San Francisco, growing and generating revenue.

Piccsy: Piccsy aims to dethrone google as the king of image aggregation.  With over ~4 million visitors, 30 million pageviews per month and growing steadily, Piccsy is quickly gaining traction. They made big news for their innovative pitchdeck.

Entrustet (my company): The first Startup Chile company to be acquired. I returned to Chile to work as head off marketing at Welcu, a 500 startups company. Jesse is in NYC working at Appinions.

Jumpseller: Formerlly Vendder, Jumpseller makes it easy for small business to sell online. Based in Chile, they continue to grow all over South America and employee Chileans.

Popup Chinese: A profitable, quickly growing, online language learning platform based in Beijing.

Piehole: The founders have stayed in Chile and continue to work on Piehole, a profitbale voice over platform. They’ve also founded mineralrightsforsale.com.

Stagedom: Formerly Death Star Labs, Shahar’s company took alot of flack in the press while he was here. He ignored it all, built his product, raised money and launched Stagedom, a beautiful iphone app to discover music.

H2020: The founders returned to the US and are now providing support for organizations (mostly sustainability related) who want to use their technology for mobile surveying/crowdsourcing.  In April, H2020 received the NetExplo prize, which included going to Paris to speak about the project at UNESCO and have significant interest from UNESCO to continue working together.

Other pilot round startups to watch: Rocketrelief, Moviemouth, Exim Force, Assert ID, Knowledgestream.

Conclusions

You can draw your own conclusions from the data, but I think it’s clear that Chile’s initial investment of $880,000 has paid off.  The vast majority of startups are still in business and are having some amount of success. Companies have raised money and nearly all of the startups continue to have business relationships in Chile.  If you take this data and add in the fact that Startup Chile was the best public relations campaign possible for Chile, the program has been a win.  Although there hasn’t been a huge Facebook style success, these stats begin to confirm that Chile is getting its money’s worth.

Spanish report: Radiografía a la generación piloto de Start-Up Chile

Startup Chile Application Help

Category : Startup Chile
Posted on by

The newest Start-Up Chile period opens up June 25th.  Startup Chile will select 100 startups to invite to Chile as part of generation 5.  If this period is similar previous rounds, about 650 teams will apply.

Startup Chile is a great program, especially for entrepreneurs who are in the bootstrapping phase or already have developed a product but need more time to figure out the correct business model to apply.

My company, Entrustet, was part of the pilot phase of Start-Up Chile and arrived in Chile in 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 also wrote an ebook, Startup Chile 101, with everything you need to know about living and doing business in Chile.

I’ve written or reviewed 12 applications for Start-Up Chile teams and 9 have been selected for the program, including 3 of 4 in the last 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 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 letters of recommendation for money.  I reserve these only for people I know well.