Visas are in!

After 6 months of waiting our visas are no longer "en tramite" (being processed).  They are finalized and approved.  This means we are now allowed to stay in Chile for 2 years since Steve is working.  Now comes the fun part (and we have 30 days to do this after our visas are approved)

(1) Send the passports to the magical visa office to get stamped and signed
(2) Take the stamped passports to the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (PDI) to register the Visa and receive a certificate that proves you went there to register
(3) Go to the Registro Civil office to show them the aforementioned certificate (along with copies of your passport and visa) to obtain a cedula de identidad para extranjeros (i.e., an ID card) and a RUT number (which you need for EVERYTHING, such as opening a bank account or even a Jumbo frequent shoppers card).

Last week we did step one.  Today, we did steps 2 and 3.  However, I'd like to take a moment to explain the process of how you can do the second step, because like all things in Chile, it seems crazy and very inefficient.

Every day the PDI opens its doors in the late afternoon (sometime between 3:30 and 4pm) and hands out anywhere between 60 and 100 numbers to the people standing in a make shift line.  Based on these numbers, you get an "appointment" to come back the next day at a certain time (there will be about 20-30 people who get the same appointment as you).  People start lining up outside the PDI at 8am.  So, let me be clear.  You have to go to the PDI on a given day and stand in line all day for HOURS in hopes that you are given a number to come BACK to the PDI on the following day to register your visa, then of course waiting for everyone else who has your "appointment" until you are called.  Now, you might be thinking, how can there be so many foreigners that it is so crazy EVERY day that there aren't always enough numbers handed out to those who need them?  Well, this is Antofagasta we are talking about.  Everyone is from Peru, Bolivia or Colombia.  Hardly anyone is actually Chilean.

The good news is that if you are a wealthy gringo you don't have to do that step (and, yes, you who are reading this would also be considered a wealthy gringo, trust me).  You can either (a) hire a lawyer who will just call a guy and get you an appointment on the day of your choosing, or (b) your company's HR department will call a guy and get you an appointment on the day of your choosing.  Thankfully, we did (b).  An HR rep even went with us to the PDI to help us through the process.  And, of course, the other thing that helped us was that we had a baby and a toddler with us, so we were chosen to go first in our group of 20-30 at our designated appointment time.

The PDI was just a large office with a bunch of desks and a very large waiting room.  I didn't take any pictures of the inside since I felt creepy and didn't want to get arrested (or something?).  However, it was fairly nice and in a really beautiful old building.  Pic of outside below.  Overall pretty easy at the PDI (shockingly!).  Thank goodness we didn't have to deal with the crazy line (that was already queued up when we arrived at 8:30am for our appointment, which we BARELY made by the way...)

The third step I mentioned above was not as easy, but not terrible.  We had to go to the Registro Civil, where of course no matter what you bring with you, it's never enough (in other words, someone told us to bring one photocopy of our passports and our visas with us, but when we got there the man demanded three copies of all of Steve's documents since he is the main visa holder, and then he wanted copies of the certificate we had just received at the PDI across the street, which of course we hadn't done that because no one told us to get copies and we had JUST received it!).  Anyway, we get the copies (convenient there is a copy place around the corner so our HR rep zipped over and did it), then we waited for our number to be called and went to a desk to fill out the paper work (just like the DMV).  And, we even had all our 10 fingerprints taken.  So, in one month, we will have to go BACK to the Registro in person to stand in line and pick up our ID cards. 

All in all, it took 2.5 hours at both the PDI and Registro Civil.  Not bad, but thank goodness I brought my Kindle for Sadie...

So if you are even in Chile and need to stay for more than 30 days, that is the process.  PHEW.