Employment in Viña del Mar

Work Permits for Viña del Mar

Whether you already have a job offer or want to look for work in Viña del Mar upon arrival, getting a visa for the city is straightforward. If you already have a job offer, you’ll apply for a work visa from the Chilean embassy in your home country. Your visa is tied to your employer, who will have to prove that their company is in a healthy enough position to hire international workers.

Alternatively, you can also enter Chile on a regular tourist visa and look for a job from within the country. If you do this, make sure you bring all the documentation you’ll need to get a job, including CV and any certificates that document your education and skills. It’s also advised that you bring enough money with you to tide you over until you find a permanent position. Once you’ve found a job, you can apply for a temporary work visa. This will be valid for 1–2 years, but can be renewed when needed.

Job Hunting in Viña del Mar

The economy in Viña del Mar primarily revolves around tourism, with many hotels, bars, and even a casino catering to the many tourists the city receives each year. If your aim is get a job as soon as possible, arrive during the peak tourist season and go into the tourist establishments with your CV. There are many other, non-tourist businesses, too, which typically provide a higher-paying and more long-term alternative. As is usual for foreign countries, you’ll need to learn the local language, Spanish, if you want to obtain one of the better paying positions.

If you plan on arriving without a job, try and network before you fly to Viña del Mar. A good resource is to scour LinkedIn, InterNations, or other business networking sites for contacts in your field of business and make contact with them. If they don’t have any available positions, they may have connections that do.

If you have a particular career in mind, sign up with a professional headhunting agency — this will make finding the right job much easier, especially if you have little or no connections of your own when you first arrive. Alternatively, you can of course always try looking for work in Viña del Mar online.

Income Taxation in Chile

Chile boasts one of the most attractive tax rates of all the OECD nations. Income tax is staggered, and depends on how much you earn. This is classified by ‘units’, a formula used to find out how much of your income is taxable. The more units you have, the more tax you pay.

This is often changing, and depends on many factors, but if you’re making a good income you will likely be somewhere between 25% and 40% tax. The upper bracket of 40% applies to individuals earning in excess of approximately  11,600 USD per calendar month. On top of this, you may also contribute 10% of your monthly earnings to the social security fund, the Sistema Previsional, which ensures everyone receives a state pension once they reach retirement age, which is 65 for men and 60 for women.