Your Expat Community in Santiago de Chile

According to our Expat Insider, Santiago de Chile landed in 33rd out of 57 overall, since expats have a hard time feeling at home due to the language barrier and the importance of having personal connections. The environmental issues can be just as frustrating, and gang-related organized crimes add to the worries in daily life.

On the other hand, expats experience competitive salary packages and job satisfaction. To top it off, Santiago has a perfect climate for outdoor and social activities, along with a quality public transport system, making it easier to fulfill the needs for leisure whenever you can.

So, if you are prepared to put up with the negative factors and focus on the positives the city can offer, it can be your ideal destination.

The reason behind high salaries is the wealth in natural resources of Chile and global tech integration. In the tech sector, data architects and cybersecurity experts earn higher than in other roles. In the engineering field, the market is heavily concentrated on mining, lithium, and green energy engineers with project management skills.

The finance sector is also in demand, recruiting expats for cross-border transactions, international compliance, and global trade. While the education sector doesn’t pay as much as in other sectors, there is demand for native English speakers as corporate language instructors and international school teachers. In the table below, you’ll see the income figures for the in-demand job sectors in Santiago.

Living comfortably in Santiago is expected to cost between 1,300,000 and 1,600,000 CLP (approx. 1,400–1,800 USD) per month for a single person. The total expenses are honestly dependent on lifestyle choices and dining habits. There is also a standard building fee called gastos communes, which is basically a building maintenance fee and can add extra cost to your rent.

Below is a table with the estimated monthly costs of living in Santiago de Chile.

The first step is getting the temporary residence (Residencia Temporal) online in your country. The most common visa types are the Work Contract Visa for local employment and the Rentista Visa for remote workers or retirees.

However, you must meet the salary thresholds for a guaranteed visa approval. The Work Contract Visa requires a minimum of 539,000 CLP (approx. 590 USD), while the Rentista Visa requires a steady income of at least 950,000–1,450,000 CLP monthly (approx. 1,050–1,600 USD).

Upon arrival at the airport, you must pass the SAG agricultural checkpoint to declare the organic items you bring via the Servicio Agricola y Ganadero Entry Portal, and then you’ll receive a paper receipt from the PDI police, which you must keep. You must register your visa and apply for the Chilean foreign ID card at the official Regsitro Civil within 30 days.

Chile has two different healthcare systems, and a mandatory contribution of 7% gets deducted from the monthly salary. Residents can choose to allocate this contribution to either the public system or the private system.

The public system is called FONASA with four coverage tiers, which is widely used by most residents because of its affordable cost and covers care at public hospitals, although getting an appointment takes a long time. Expats earning a competitive salary automatically enter Tier D, which covers 80% of the costs at public facilities and charges 20% co-payment.

The private system is managed by ISAPRE companies, providing faster access to the services at private clinics where language barriers won’t be an issue. These companies offer tailored plans that reimburse between 60% and 90% of the bills. However, there are extra monthly fees and out-of-pocket costs to secure maximum coverage. It’s also possible to claim Catastrophic Illness Coverage (CAEC), which steps in to pay 100% of major hospitalization costs after you meet a specific deductible.

There are a few ways to find accommodation in Santiago, such as surfing on real estate portals, agencies, or even asking around in community networks. One thing to note is that the local rental market moves very fast, and the popular properties in nice locations get rented within 48-72 hours. So, your best option is to use these dominant local online platforms:

• PortalInmobiliario
• Yapo
• ContactChile

Landlords usually ask for proof of your income being at least three times the rent, and the deposit is one to two months’ rent. Standard required documents include your Chilean card, an employment contract, the last three to six monthly pay slips, an AFP pension certificate, and a Dicom credit report.

It honestly depends on your lifestyle and budget. Vitacura and Lo Barnechea are expensive, with quality family homes and apartments near schools and parks. Providencia and Las Condes are also in the high-end tier, offering residential skyscrapers, offices, energetic social scenes, and metro connections.

Ñuñoa offers accommodation with mid-tiered pricing along with a bohemian culture vibe and trendy restaurants. Santiago Centro, the political and historical downtown, offers the most affordable housing but requires higher safety awareness when it’s dark.

While there are worries due to the rise in organized gang crime, it’s only concentrated in outskirt areas and downtown transit areas during the late hours. The realistic threats expats might face include pickpocketing and opportunistic car break-ins. Just staying alert and using common sense for safety awareness, especially at night, is enough to ensure your own safety.

The public transport network in Santiago runs air-conditioned metro lines, Tren Nos commuter rail, and clean city buses. You can buy a physical bip! card at any station or set up a QR code on the Red Metropolitana de Movilidad app to pay for the rides. The app is also useful for tracking real-time bus arrivals and calculating the fastest routes.

It costs between 730 CLP and 840 CLP (approx. 0,80–0,95 USD) per journey, which also includes 2 free transfers within a two-hour time frame. Using the QR in the app gives you a monthly cap called Dale QR!. Once the transit spending reaches 41,000 CLP (approx. 45 USD), the rides are free until the end of the month.

If you are traveling from Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, you can take an airport bus that can take you to the downtown terminal in 40 minutes for about 2,000 CLP (approx. 2.20 USD). Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Cabify are popular and safe. Santiago also offers an expanding web of over 500 km of bicycle lanes, meaning you can also do cycling for either commuting or sport.

According to Expat Insider, Santiago landed 33rd in Language, meaning that the language barrier is one of the significant hurdles that expats experience. While you can easily navigate with just English in environments such as international corporate offices, international schools, and hotels, daily life generally requires a basic command of Spanish. Additionally, Chileans speak fast by dropping “s” from the ends of words and use local slang known as chilenismos, meaning it’s hard to grasp what they are saying, even if you speak basic Spanish.

Administrative tasks are also conducted in Spanish, so you either hire a bilingual relocation helper or find a friend who speaks Spanish to come with you to these administrative appointments.

Locals in Santiago are known to be polite and helpful, but they are quite reserved and socially private. That’s why blending into local social circles is challenging for foreigners, ranking 38th for Local Friendliness and 42nd for Feeling Welcome. Most locals maintain their old friendships that were formed during their youth, meaning that they rarely build new, deep friendships with foreigners.

To ease social isolation, finding new connections in expat networks is common. Stick close to the expat community for your first half-year or so. It acts as an emotional cushion. That way, you won't feel completely isolated while you slowly learn Spanish and figure out how to make local friends.

The best way to meet people in Santiago is to join existing communities, instead of waiting for the locals to open up to you when they are reserved, and your Spanish is not good enough to have a deeper conversation with locals yet.

InterNations can be a great place to start. We are an existing global network with an international community in 420 cities worldwide. We offer multiple events regularly to help expats socialize and build friendships. Most people come alone to the events and make new connections without going through language barriers in a friendly atmosphere.

Some events are recurring, like the InterNations Santiago de Chile Newcomers’ events and Official events, where you can enjoy your welcome drink and more with fellow expats from different backgrounds. Interest-based groups, such as the Santiago de Chile Outdoor Adventures Group, the Santiago de Chile Wine Tasting Group, and many more groups, hold unique events all year round.

Platforms like Meetup and Facebook Groups are also another way to meet people. You can also join popular language mixers like Spanglish Exchange in Providencia or outdoor hiking clubs in the Andes to build lasting connections while exploring the city.