The Chile Seasonal Worker Visa, Explained
Do you have seasonal or harvest work lined up in Chile? Chile's seasonal worker permit lets you enter to do paid seasonal work, but it is capped at 6 months per calendar year, and it works differently from most other Chilean temporary residence permits: time on it never counts toward permanent residency, however many years the permit itself stays valid.
What is the seasonal worker visa in Chile?
The Chile seasonal worker visa — officially Residencia Temporal para Trabajadores de Temporada (temporary residence for seasonal workers) — is a temporary residence permit for foreigners entering Chile to perform specific seasonal or recurring work, such as agricultural harvest work, for limited periods. It is subject to quota availability under Chile's National Migration Policy.
Warning
This permit does not lead to permanent residency, and time spent on it never counts toward the residence period required for permanent residency — even if you later switch to another work permit. It is also capped at 6 months of work or stay per calendar year, not 5 years: SERMIG can issue the permit itself for up to 5 years of overall validity when it sets limited annual stay periods, but within each calendar year you still cannot exceed 6 months of work or stay.
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Who can apply for a seasonal worker visa in Chile? Is the seasonal worker visa right for me?
This visa is for foreigners who intend to enter Chile to perform specific seasonal work for a limited period, and who qualify through one of two routes:
- Employer-contract route — you have a signed employment contract with a person or company that has started activities in Chile before the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII, Chile's tax authority) and has a domicile or branch there. The employer signs the contract before a Chilean notary; you sign it before the competent Chilean consulate.
- Bilateral-agreement route — you are a national of a country that has a bilateral labor agreement with Chile covering temporary or seasonal workers, and you have a formal job offer from a Chile-based employer whose activity requires temporary or seasonal staff.
Under either route, a permit is only granted if quota is available under the National Migration Policy, and the total time you actually work under this permit cannot exceed 6 months in any calendar year.
Who does not qualify for a seasonal worker visa?
The following situations do not qualify under this subcategory:
- You do not have a signed employment contract with a Chile-based, SII-registered employer, and you are not a national of a country with a Chile bilateral seasonal-worker agreement holding a formal job offer.
- No quota is currently available under the National Migration Policy for this subcategory.
- You need to work in Chile for more than 6 months in a calendar year — you would need the general paid-work permit instead.
- You are looking for seasonal work in Chile without a contract or formal job offer already in hand — a permit cannot be granted for open-ended job searching under this subcategory.
Chile seasonal worker visa eligibility
Every applicant needs:
- a signed employment contract with an SII-registered, Chile-domiciled employer, or a formal job offer under a Chile bilateral seasonal-worker agreement.
- a passport valid for at least one year at the date of application.
- a criminal background certificate from your country of origin, and from any country where you have lived in the last 5 years.
- not being subject to the imperative prohibitions on entry set out in Ley 21.325, Article 32.
Note
Documents issued by a foreign public institution must be legalized or apostilled. Documents not in Spanish or English need an authorized translation. Public documents must be dated within 60 calendar days of filing, and private documents within 30 calendar days.
Required documents to apply for a seasonal worker visa
- Criminal record certificate (last 5 years)
- Valid passport
Requirements come from the official eligibility rules; always confirm against the cited source before applying.
Specific documents for this visa
Apart from the passport and criminal background certificate above, you need documents matching one of the two application routes:
Employer-contract route
- Employment contract, signed by the employer before a Chilean notary and by you before the competent consulate.
- Proof the employer is registered with the SII and has a domicile or branch in Chile.
Bilateral-agreement route
- Formal job offer letter from a Chile-based employer, issued under the applicable bilateral labor agreement.
After entry (both routes)
- Notarized copy of the employment contract and proof of its electronic registration, filed with SERMIG within 45 calendar days of your entry into Chile.
Duration and renewal
The seasonal worker permit is capped at 6 months of work or stay per calendar year — not 5 years. SERMIG can grant the permit itself with an overall validity of up to 5 years when it sets limited annual stay periods, letting a single grant cover several seasons, but within every calendar year of that validity you still cannot exceed 6 months of actual work or stay. If you need to work longer than 6 months in a given year, Decreto 177 lets you switch, without leaving Chile, to the general paid-work permit (Article 17) instead — but time already spent under the seasonal-worker permit will not count toward the residence period needed to apply for permanent residency. See the visa renewal page for the general renewal process used by other temporary residence subcategories.
Chile seasonal worker visa fees and related costs
The seasonal worker permit is a temporary-residence permit, so its fee — like other Chilean visa fees — depends on the applicant's citizenship. See the Chile visa fees page for more information; SERMIG sets and updates the actual amounts on its own tariff schedule.
Seasonal worker visa complete application process
You start the application from abroad, through SERMIG's online platform, with your passport, criminal background certificate, and either the employer contract or the bilateral-agreement job offer. Once your application is filed, you may enter Chile. From your entry date, you have 45 calendar days to present SERMIG with the notarized employment contract and proof of its electronic registration. If you miss that deadline, SERMIG can reject the application and order you to leave the country. Once granted, work or stay under this permit is limited to 6 months per calendar year, and further grants remain subject to quota availability under the National Migration Policy. See the temporary visa application process for the general steps that also apply to this subcategory.
Does the seasonal worker visa lead to permanent residency or citizenship in Chile?
No. Unlike most Chilean temporary residence subcategories, the seasonal-worker permit does not lead to permanent residency or citizenship, and time on it never counts toward the residence period required for permanent residency — even the years covered by a multi-season, up-to-5-year permit grant, and even if you later switch to the general work permit. Decreto 177, Article 10 expressly excludes this subcategory from the permanent-residence pathway open to most other temporary residence subcategories, and Article 27 confirms the non-crediting rule for workers who switch subcategories. If your circumstances change and you can meet the requirements of a subcategory that does lead to permanent residency — such as the general work permit — you can apply for that instead; see the FAQ below.
Frequently Asked Questions about the seasonal worker visa in Chile
Seasonal worker visa application process
No. There is a single seasonal-worker temporary residence subcategory (Residencia Temporal – Trabajadores de Temporada), but there are two separate routes to qualify for it: a signed employment contract with a Chile-based employer, or a formal job offer under a bilateral labor agreement between Chile and your country of nationality.
You must start the application from abroad. Once your application is filed, you may enter Chile, but you then have 45 calendar days from your entry to present the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG, Chile's immigration service) with the notarized employment contract (or, under the bilateral-agreement route, the equivalent documentation) and proof it was electronically registered. Missing that deadline can result in the permit being denied and a departure order.
The seasonal worker permit is a category of temporary residence. You can find the current application time on this page, section "Reply Time" — SERMIG does not publish a fixed processing deadline for this permit, and processing is also subject to quota availability under the National Migration Policy.
No. Decreto 177's requirements for this permit (Articles 26-27) do not include a language exam or cultural course.
Decreto 177 opens this route to nationals of countries that have a bilateral labor agreement with Chile covering temporary/seasonal workers, but the regulation text itself does not name the specific partner countries — check the current list on SERMIG's official seasonal-worker page before relying on this route.
Seasonal worker visa conditions
Yes. You can apply together with your spouse or civil partner, children under 18, children with disabilities, unmarried children under 24 who are (or will be) studying in Chile, and minors under your personal care or guardianship, provided you can show you can economically support them. See the temporary visa page for more on family applications.
Up to 6 months of work or stay under this permit in any calendar year — not up to 5 years. Article 26 of Decreto 177 caps the seasonal-worker permit at 6 months per calendar year, regardless of the permit's own validity period. Separately, Article 72 of Ley 21.325 allows SERMIG to issue the permit itself with an overall validity of up to 5 years when it sets limited annual stay periods — in practice, a single permit document that authorizes repeated seasons over several years, each one still capped at 6 months of actual work or stay. If you see a claim that this visa is simply "valid for 5 years," read it as the multi-season permit duration, not as 5 years of continuous stay.
Yes. Valid temporary residents can enter and exit Chile without a limit on the number of trips, as long as the permit remains valid and the requirements set by law and its regulation continue to be met.
Yes. Unlike most Chilean temporary residence subcategories, the seasonal-worker permit is explicitly subject to quota availability under the National Migration Policy (Política Nacional de Migración y Extranjería) — SERMIG can limit the number of permits granted.
Yes. The end of the employment contract that founded your permit is not, by itself, grounds for revocation, and you can change employers without notifying SERMIG. Exceptionally, SERMIG can also grant the permit to a worker who presents a contract with an employer different from the one that made the original job offer, if the other requirements of this subcategory are met.
Visa renewal / Permanent residency
Yes. If you need to work in Chile for longer than the 6-month annual cap allows, Decreto 177 lets you apply for the general paid-work permit (Article 17) instead, without having to leave the country — both parties simply sign the employment contract before a Chilean notary. You must still separately meet that permit's own requirements. See the work visa page.
There is no ordinary "renewal" of this permit in the sense used for other temporary residence subcategories. Instead, SERMIG can grant the permit itself with a validity of up to 5 years when it sets limited annual stay periods, so a single grant can cover several seasons — each one still capped at 6 months of work or stay. Once your permit's overall validity ends, or if you need work authorization beyond the 6-month annual cap, you must apply again or switch to the general work permit. See visa renewal for the general process that applies to other subcategories.
No. The seasonal worker permit does not lead to permanent residency. Decreto 177, Article 10 expressly excludes this subcategory from the group of temporary residence permits that can apply for permanent residency, and Article 27 confirms that even if you later switch to the general work permit, the time you already spent holding the seasonal-worker permit does not count toward the residence period required to apply for permanent residency.
Note
This is a private immigration information service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by SERMIG (Servicio Nacional de Migraciones) or the Government of Chile, and this content is not legal advice. Official applications must be filed directly at serviciomigraciones.cl. For legal representation in a Chilean immigration matter, consult a licensed attorney in Chile.
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