ArlingtonTraveler

So when I applied they said processing was taking 14 days which is exactly how long they took to process yours. Alas, mine was entered on November 20 and my flight is for December 3rd and 14 days would put on December 4th. I'm thinking about postponing until December 5th and cancelling hotel reservations now which often require a few days notice to be cancellable.

gcashin

Thanks for the tips.

Do you recall what the website said the typical processing time was when you submitted yours? I'd submitted one today and it said currently processing time was about 16 days. Just wondering how close your 14 day actual time was to the typical processing time at submission.

mimo123

Has anyone been able to add proof of their 3rd booster AFTER submitting their application? Any idea how to do this?

ArlingtonTraveler

It said 14 days when I applied last Friday. However, it time stamped my application as being complete last Saturday (the 20th) so 14 days from then will be next Saturday.

Travelchase

Has anyone actually been checked up on during their quarantine? Would like to be able to use hotel pool and/or gym.. seems pretty ridiculous to wait all this time when I am fully vaccinated!

TBD

"all this time" ?
It should only be a few hours.

Viajero Perpetuo

Back to my humorless bureaucrat comment, yes they do check and the fines are much more than in the developed world.

"all this time" ---- through November 30, quarantine ends when negative results entered into the system, currently 12 hours average; beginning December 1 with a mevacuno.cl approved vac AND booster, no PCR arrival test, no quarantine.

ArlingtonTraveler

Some updates from the Chile Official Tourism site (get your COVID booster or you pay for testing starting 12/1 AND apply early for your vaccine validation as they now state the reality of how long it takes to validate your vaccination ). One question for folks who understand how Chile's Health Ministry works. So it appears for foreigners who are resident in Chile and come from countries with easily forged COVID vaccine certificates (e.g. USA) they make you take a antibody test to prove you are vaccinated. But for us tourists from the USA with are easily forged (not me, I believe in vaccinations) vaccination cards, what is the point of validation in advance?

Wright SteveJude

Hi,

My husband and I recently applied for the mobility pass, but REDcap have responded to request our attached documents need to be legible. We took a photo and sent them. Does anyone know what format needs to be used to upload please? We have re sent them in a PDF format , but wondering if this is correct . Thanks

Viajero Perpetuo

Chilean citizens and residents have a right to enter Chile vaccinated or not. Those without a mevacuno.cl vac approval must go through a mandatory 5 day quarantine (7 day before December 1).

For tourists, except for the under 6, you must have a mevacuno.cl approved vac.

This site's info is new regarding paying for the test if no booster (after November 30). Need further confirmation. I will report back.

gcashin

I realize this is a total long-shot, but I've gotta say I'm really surprised at how cumbersome/lengthy this process is. It is common to need to upload/provide vaccine documentation in advance, typically between 1-3 days in advance. It is NOT common to have to take 14+ days to verify a routine vaccine document between highly vaccinated OECD nations, with no options for expediting or to have it reviewed on arrival as an alternative. It's crazy to think that people are having to cancel trips based on the difference of a day or two. Personally, I may have to cancel an important trip depending on whether a request takes 14 or 15 days to process. (I had reviewed the entry requirements in October, but they looked pretty reasonable at first glance and it wasn't abundantly clear that the processing time for vaccine verification was so long). I know bureacracy moves slowly, but I was thinking of a couple tweaks to the Mobility Pass that could make a huge difference and really help Chile's tourism sector, which I'd expect is hurting from last-minute cancellations:

1. Prioritize requests based on date of travel. There is no info on date of travel in the application, so they may be processing requests for trips >30 days away while people may have to cancel trips entirely because their Mobility Pass approval arrived one day too late. One simple way to do this would be to allow the Traveler Affadavit while Mobility Pass request is still pending (currently you need to have the Mobility Pass in hand before filling out the Affadavit). This could prompt a review of the Mobility Pass in the queue, as the travel would be imminent within 48 hours. This could save numerous cancelled trips by prioritizing the most urgent requests
2. Add an option to expedite truly urgent requests for those that cannot wait (e.g. perhaps with a ~$50-100 expediting fee to avoid frivolous requests for urgent processing)
3. Speed up average processing – average processing times of 14+ days is not practical or typical for an OECD country; this needs to be expedited to allow for improved tourism trade (realize this is fairly obvious)
4. Allow an option for verification of vaccine documents on arrival for those where the documentation isn’t screened in advance; this is common in many regions

I know it's not likely a quick fix, but a few minor tweaks could really make a difference. I'm planning to write my country's embassy in Chile as a long-shot to see if they're able to advocate for some adjustments to the process.

Viajero Perpetuo

You really think the Chilean government is monitoring this thread?

gcashin

No, definitely not. Again, a longshot, as mentioned, but thinking that someone, somewhere on the thread, may have a contact that may be able to send off some suggestions to someone (embassy, ambassador, etc) those influencing how the rules are applied and managed. Just incredibly frustrated at the process and wanted to throw out some potential solutions even if I'm just shouting into the wind.

ArlingtonTraveler

Here's what you have to understand with COVID. Most Latin American countries reliant on tourism, were always open like Mexico to tourist or opened pretty soon after the early shut downs ended in summer 2020. I've been to Columbia and Costa Rica this year, and neither requires vaccines (although without it you have to buy travel insurance for Costa Rica). Chile is not very reliant on tourism. Likely a combination of it's geographic isolation and it's expensive compared to all it's neighbors. Chile did open up during 2020 or early 2021 and they had a TERRIBLE surge. To the point that they just shut international passenger flights down for like 60 days and obviously shut down tourists for longer. They are not verifying your vaccination.. there's no way as they don't have the data unless you live in a place that provides a QR code that is verifiable with a third party app. The issue here is apparently you need a mobility pass and that's not issued until you are vaccinated and the Ministry of Health is doing the validation and likely has limited resources (e.g. Staff fluent in English). I'm in the same boat as you, and looked into going elsewhere, like say Argentina which doesn't require vaccine validation. The airfare was double the price to Buenos Aires vs Santiago (flights are leaving early as people are cancelling or rescheduling). So in effect, we are getting a deal on the airfare to account for the uncertainty of whether we can go.

behuman

Exactly, but strange that in my case a certificate issued on 29 September is still valid on their site, impossible to apply for another :-(. And it is connected to the passport number, so no chance to open another account.

There is absoultely no option to add a booster, the only thiing one can do is change passport number and correct names.