One of two countries with 100 out of 100 for status security. And 506 days of waiting for residence against the six months the law promises.
On paper Chile is one of the most generous countries in our sample. The income bar is modest, residence is not tied to an employer, a spouse may work as soon as the status is granted and children go to school whatever their immigration status. There are no language or integration exams for residence or citizenship, and dual nationality is allowed.
Everything breaks down on queues. Applications are fully online, but decisions drag: 361 days on average for temporary residence from abroad and 506 days on the rentier route, against a legal limit of 6 months. Family reunification takes about 10 months from abroad and about 16 from inside Chile. At least 150,000 citizenship applications are waiting. The state does not publish refusal statistics.
Since March 2026 the new government has been taking a harder line: a border protection plan, record removals (1,270 by July 2026) and a bill to criminalise irregular entry. All of this targets irregular migrants, and we found no retroactive revocation of legal status. Still, targeted administrative measures reach legal residents too: in 2025 the agency added document requirements for dependants' permanent residence, and in May 2026 health and education bodies were told to share data on migrants.
Status is solid. Rentier residence does not depend on a job, and while a renewal is pending you may live and work in Chile legally. The income condition is checked at renewal.
Day to day, banks are the bottleneck: accounts are opened with a foreigner's ID card, and the Civil Registry takes months to issue it, even though you must register there within 30 days of arrival. Before you have the card an account is nearly impossible; with it, the basic account at state-owned BancoEstado is open to almost everyone. Recognising a foreign degree through the University of Chile takes at least 6 months.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
Visa-free entry for up to 90 days. After that, the same residence procedure as for everyone.
Under the Mercosur residence agreement they get residence on the basis of nationality alone.
Visa-free entry for up to 90 days. After that, the same residence procedure as for everyone, applying from abroad.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no direct nationality restrictions on rentier residence. Visa-free entry for up to 90 days.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no direct nationality restrictions on rentier residence. A visa is required to enter: $60 for a single entry of up to 30 days, $128 for multiple entries of up to 90 days. Holders of permanent residence in Colombia, Mexico or Peru are exempt.
The place interval 9-16 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Status security: 100 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 57.9. The weakest is Agency processing: 50 against 48.7. Above the world average: 6 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
Up to 6 months by law; in practice, official 2025 data show 361 days on average for temporary residence from abroad and 506 days on the rentier route. While a renewal is pending you may keep living and working in Chile.
Yes, if your income is passive: a pension, rent or income from financial assets. Salary and freelance income do not qualify for this route, and Chile has no remote-work visa.
There is no fixed amount: the income must cover basic needs under Ministry of Social Development standards. That is roughly subsistence level, well below most countries in our sample.
Rentier residence does not depend on a job, and we found no retroactive revocations of legal status. The income condition is checked at renewal; a bill adding new grounds for revocation has not passed yet.
Permanent residence after 2 years of temporary residence, or 1 year with Chilean relatives. Citizenship after 5 years, keeping your previous nationality and with no language exam, but the application takes 3 years on average.
Rules for legal residents are among the mildest in our sample; the main problem is agency queues. Since 2026 the state has been tougher on irregular migration, and some measures reach legal residents too.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.