🇨🇱 Criminal records for the Chile Working Holiday Visa

Volare Editorial | September 9, 2026

Proving an impeccable personal conduct is an unavoidable requirement for all foreigners wishing to obtain temporary residence in Chile under the youth mobility program. The National Migration Service (SERMIG) requests this document to ensure that participants do not have records that could compromise security or public order during their stay.

Obligation and origin of the document

The presentation of the Criminal Record Certificate is mandatory for all nationalities that have a Working Holiday agreement with Chile. This document must be issued by the competent official authority of the applicant's home country, but there are additional considerations depending on your recent travel history.

Applicant Scenario	Criminal Record Rule
General Rule (Home Country)	It is mandatory to present the certificate issued by the country of the passport you are applying with.
Residence in Third Countries	If you have lived in a country other than yours during the last 5 years, it is mandatory to also present the police certificate from that nation to cover your complete conduct history.

Summary Board Validity and Legalization Requirements

For the certificate to be accepted on the digital application platform, having a clean record is not enough. The document must meet very strict technical and diplomatic criteria regarding timeframes and international validity:

Technical Requirement	Official SERMIG Specification
⏳ Limited Validity (60 Days)	The document's issuance date cannot exceed 60 days of age at the time of submitting the visa application. Expired certificates will lead to the rejection of the process.
⚖️ International Validation	The original document must be duly Apostilled under the Hague Convention. If the issuing country is not part of the convention, it must be legalized through the corresponding Chilean consular route.
🌐 Language and Translation	If the certificate is issued in a language other than Spanish or English, it must mandatorily be accompanied by its official translation.

Operational management on the platform

It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to verify that the document uploaded to the digital portal is of high quality, perfectly legible, and that the apostille is easily verifiable. A blurry or incomplete scan will cause unnecessary delays in the analysis of the file by migration officers.

Volare Complete Guide

Having your criminal records apostilled and within the 60-day range will save you the headache of having to pay and process this document from scratch again. To get details about the format of the certificates according to your country and review the rest of the mandatory documents, we invite you to check our Official Chile Working Holiday Visa Guide.