Bruce, I am also from Victoria, BC! Would you mind taking a minute to PM me, if you have time I'd love to meet and buy you lunch to learn more about your experience in Chile!

hello, send me a pm and help you with your queries.
regards

I'm just back from my 3 months trip, if any of you have any question just ask, I want just to notify you that in 1 day going at the SII you can have your RUT following these steps:
1) Go to SII, in Providencia and ask (in spanish) for a temporary RUT, they will provide you a list of all the things you need
2) Get someone who own a RUT to sign a paper for you, that says that he can guarantee for you in the next 3+ months, this document has a specific name that I forgot (could be a stranger, for me was a Colombian friends, who need to have a national RUT)
3) Go in a Notaria to have everything certified (everything is done in half an hour at the cost of 7€/8$)
4) Go back and get your RUT printed in a white paper

Than you can go to buy your motorbike.
Here I have to important suggestion:

People in South America, are very friendly but many times, they do things without paying too much attention to details. And it can be very boring and sometimes dangerous for a foreigner. So make sure they put your RUT and not your passport number when you buy the bike, otherwise you will not be able to sell it: it happened to me.
Second each time you cross the border make sure they stamp your passport and they give you back a paper that shows that your bike can circulate in the country. To be fast normally they only regularize you and not the bike, as such you'll be in serious trouble when you have to get out: it happened to me.
Finally, whatever happens bring with you dollars, you'll be always able to "solve" litigation with police with this currency

Hope it will help someone, as you helped me!
Since I enter this Forum rarely, for any question: luketzr at hotmail dot it

Suerte!

hello all
very useful information in the post
i want to ask if i want to buy a motorbike from a foreigner person and the bike is from Europe and i want to buy it in Chile to start my trip riding North ,
how i can have my name on the bike documents ?? so i can cross borders with ease ,thanks

This was posted on the AllChile.net Chile Forum by the web admin who knows a lot about this stuff.
Bad news for anyone who wants to buy a bike or car in Chile and travel around SA.
As always in Chile it may not be implemented in a uniform manner.

New regulation by Chilean aduanas in regards to the temporary export of cars and foreign owners.


This has NOTHING TO DO WITH FOREIGNERS WITH RESIDENCY IN CHILE!!!!! You can still come and go from the country with your Chilean registered car.


This only applies to people coming to Chile with tourist visas, and buying a car with a temporary RUT for foreigners, and intending to leave Chile with there car under a temporary export permit. We are still looking in to how this applies to the rental car industry, but that is a different problem.


O.k., the original regulation required a non-resident foreigner that owned a car, to just have a "RUT", without distinction between a resident with a permanent RUT number and a foreigner with a temporary tax payer ID RUT number, in order to do a temporary export of a car to say drive in Argentina, Bolivia, and so on.


Well, for all the neighboring countries, the benefit is by treaty to temporarily import a car, was in fact only meant to be extended to Chilean citizens or residents. It is essentially a temporary tax waiver between the countries. Chile has been very strict about enforcing this on foreigners. If you bring a foreign registered car in to the country, you have like 90 days and you either have to leave or formally import the car and register it.


Well, I guess it was not happening the other way around for years, due to that little blooper in the regulations. We get foreigners all the time that bought cars in Chile, say drove to the United States, and then are trying to sell the car. Cars were going out, under the temporary import benefit to neighboring countries, and for one reason or another never coming back. They essentially had an exit stamp, but no entry stamp, for the car papers.


So, for now, a foreigner that does not have residency in Chile must formally export the car in order to leave the country with it.


So, for all those tourist that were planning on buying a car in Chile, driving around South America, then returning to Chile to sell it. Sorry.


Is it stupid? yea. Will they fix this? Probably not any time soon. That is a very small part of the car market, with very specific circumstances. We are not sure what this means for the rental industry however; and, they might be the first to do something about changing this.


We are also looking for a legal work around, but also a very, very small part of our business too. So not a major priority.

That is sad news. Thank you Dmwbmw for sharing this information.

What is currently the best alternative to Chile for buying a motorcycle in South America?

I would say Peru is the most straightforward.
Which also makes a good central location to start your travels.

don´t panic guys.

you can still travel as a forgeigner with a chilean car/motorcycle over borders.

nothing really has changed, you just need one more paper of the notary. and the car/bike has to be back after 6 month, but this hasn´t changed.

also good news, i heard you do not need a chilean person or resident to get a temporary RUT.

Best wishes and save travels!

Hey, we just heard about this new law from a couple who decided not to buy a car after a local told them about it.
I'm in santiago with my brother and were actually planning to buy a bike here tomorrow.
Would you have more infos pickypalla? What kind of paper from the notaria?
We're going to go to the aduana tomorrow to ask but I'm not sure they'll know anything about it.
We also got our temporary rut last week at the registro civil of la serena and they first told us we didn't need any sponsor. But when we went back after having filled the forms, we suddenly needed a sponsor + poder and photocopies from a notaria so... Not sure what to do

ask the notary for a "promesa" it´s like a promisse.

everything should be done in a day inclusive the rut...

if you need help there a some people who of services for this in santiago.
ask me for a contact if you need.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this forum, it has been my bible for planning my trip.

I am in Santiago at the moment and got my RUT yesterday with no problems, i plan to buy a bike and take it into Argentina, so i guess i need to get the Promesa, the question is, do i need to get this when i get this when i buy the bike or can i get it anytime?

Also does the 6 months start from when you leave Chile or when you get the promesa from the notary?

Thanks in advanced guys!

It starts if you will leave the country.

To buy a bike you will be at the notary, so do it at the same time...

Thats great!

Thank you pickypalla for your help. I am picking my bike up on Monday fingers crossed.

I will post when i cross the border, hopefully everything goes to plan

Hi guys,

This news has rocked me slightly as I am planning a trip to drive from Santiago to Mexico starting in October.. The plan was to buy a bike in Santiago and sell it at the end of the trip before flying home but it looks like this may not be possible anymore.

Does anyone think there will be a way around this? If not I see my options being:

a) Buy bike here (London) and ship over to Santiago for the start of my trip
b) Buy bike in Santiago and sell it at the end without papers, and therefore sell cheaply
c) Buy bike in Santiago and ship it back to a buyer in Chile at the end of my trip (within 6 months).

I would appreciate any guidance from experienced travellers to Chile or anyone currently in the country!

Thanks, Richard

Go with a, and ship the bike back home. Continue to use the bike, with all it's stickers :-). I am still riding the bike I rode from Canada (2010) to south America and back to the UK. It has since round the World (northern hemisphere) and Morocco.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

__________________
--

http://www.ytc1.co.uk