I couldn’t recall if I had read that Chile offered a ninety-day free tourist card to Indian citizens, too. I didn’t think about the Chilean visa even once during those three days.īut I was getting anxious now. While driving around in Salar de Uyuni with our stout guide-cum-driver Juan, Alison and I climbed giant lava rocks, hurled salt balls at each other, posed for reflective photographs, and gazed at the star-studded sky. I was trying to get back to my host mother. From San Pedro de Atacama, I was to make my way down to Castro to say goodbye to my host mother and friends and then travel to Santiago to board my homebound flight to Mumbai. That tour was the last leg of my post-volunteership three-month backpacking trip through South America’s Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. I was crossing into Chile after touring through the vast salt flats near Uyuni town in the south of Bolivia with Alison, another volunteer from the program, and more like a chuddy-buddy by then. The border control officers stamped the strong, colorful passports of other travelers in a few seconds without asking for any other document. While I sat on the small bench outside the immigration center, cars and vans studded with tourists came and left. The officer took my RUT, calculated some dates, and then asked me to wait outside the office. Ignoring the hundred doubt that sprouted in my head, I rummaged for the RUT in my NorthFace rucksack with my sweaty hands. I was given a 180-day Chilean residentship by a government program when I had traveled to Chile to teach English as a volunteer in Castro, the capital of a Southern Chilean island Chiloé.īut why was the officer asking for RUT? I wondered. Why didn’t he just give me a 90-day free Chile tourist pass that most tourists receive at the immigration? The RUT wasn’t of any use as I had already stayed in Chile for 180 days along with an added grace period. The RUT is a temporary residentship card issued by the government of Chile. When he found my Chile temporary resident visa stamped on one of the passport pages, he asked for my RUT. Instead of handing me a green card as he issued to other tourists, the officer turned the pages of my passport and squinted to read the various visas and immigration stamps I had collected over the years. I slid my blue passport through the gap under the glass that stood erect between us. The young immigration officer looked at me and gestured me to come closer. Fanning herself with the green Chile tourist card that boasted her free entry into Chile for ninety-days, she smiled. My cheeky Canadian friend Alison walked towards me from the immigration counter at the Bolivia-Chile border in San Pedro de Atacama. When I Couldn’t Get a Chilean Visa at the Border and Bolivia Wouldn’t Take me Back. My guide to Chile visa would be helpful for Indian citizens. Don’t forget to read the government’s rules to be followed in public spaces here. Visit the Chilean government’s official website for travel-related information and regulations. Covid-Related Travel Update, July 2022: Chile is open to international tourists.
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