TeachingChile supports Chile's English educational needs by matching an applicant's skills with reputable kindergarten through 12th grade schools, universities, and adult-learner language institutes. Our network of schools does not subsidize TeachingChile, nor does TeachingChile take a percentage of your monthly salary while you are in Chile.

The placement fee you pay covers a number of key services including, but not limited to:

• accepted applicants receive a job offer from a reputable Chilean school, visa processing arrangements, and preferred housing reservations, all of which are confirmed before the applicant boards the airplane to teach in Chile,
• screening of the best teaching opportunities for our participants with a monthly salary sufficient to cover your basic living needs at the local standard of living,
• assistance in finding affordable long-term housing during the first 12-30 of lodging prepaid by the Teaching Institution,
• secure and prepaid taxi transfer from the Santiago airport upon arrival to the prepaid lodging,
• experienced in-country coordinators to provide support and services during your stay,
• in-country orientation,
• pre-departure information to ensure you are prepared for your trip including resident visa advice and assistance, and other recommendations to be sure you are properly equipped.

Note: Please see the Schedule & Fees page for detailed information regarding Placement Fee values and Program Schedule.

With TeachingChile you are guaranteed a worthwhile teaching placement and a professional network to guide you through it.

TeachingChile encourages all interested candidate teachers to consider the options and make a decision that suits them best. However, recommendations and advice from Internet may not have all the appropriately correct considerations for the country of Chile. TeachingChile will assist in all of the factors for your consideration listed below.

The factors to consider include depend on the age category of students you desire to teach, but are not limited to:

• For paid (not volunteer) positions teaching to the two age category of students (kindergarten through 12th grade students and also university students), TeachingChile would politely discourage candidates to have confidence that an attempt to simply land on Chilean soil and seek employment on their own will have success. Why? First, normally these schools’ budgeting and employment scheduling for foreign native English speakers are six to nine months prior to hire date. Second, these schools many times require that English teachers have graduated from a Chilean university with the specific degree of English instruction. (However, the schools in TeachingChile’s network have worked through these legal issues with TeachingChile for exceptions to bring you into their classrooms without any problem). And third, in most cases these schools outsource their recruiting and/or utilize third parties, such as a TeachingChile, to manage all of the complicated visa processing management for their new hires.
• For paid (not volunteer) positions teaching at an adult-learner language institute, it is indeed possible to find a job without a recruiter — TeachingChile makes no claim to having a lock on every job in Chile! However, our cautions to those that choose to attempt this are the following, respectfully advising your extreme due diligence both before and after arriving to Chile:
  • most institutes will not hire and guarantee a job until the candidate is live and in person for the interview and sample class presentation review at the company’s premises
  • understand the hiring times of the year, as they vary, and normally do not align directly with northern hemisphere candidate availability
  • ensure the institute will offer sufficient hours to you
  • ensure that the institute will provide with legalized contract that will indeed subsequently be approved by the Chilean government
  • ensure the work contract has two very specific paragraphs that are required for foreigners to work at a Chilean organization
  • investigate that the institute you contact does not have cash flow issues, and has an impeccable reputation of paying their teachers on time, and for all services performed
  • ensure the institute provides a valid work contract and visa acquisition support that will allow you to work legally for an extended period of time—not averting the legal processes required by Chilean law
  • ensure you have the appropriate documentation from your home country, some of which may need to be notarized in your home country and then legalized by Chilean authorities prior to your arrival
  • consider budgeting your housing and food costs, temporary tourist visa costs, transportation for the time period while you search for the job
  • make sure you have a Chilean phone number printed on your resume/CV that will allow a hiring manager to contact you at their convenience
  • have some Spanish-language skills at hand, as calling and/or visiting these institutes will likely be screened by a non-English speaking attendant prior to meeting with the English-speaking hiring Director
  • understand the process of obtaining a Chilean identification number, and the three distinct government agencies that you will be required to visit in order to be legally employed and reside in Chile
  • secure a permanent postal address in Chile, pre-arranged prior to your arrival. The work visa contract processing by the Chilean government can take up to four months for finalization. The notification from the Chilean government will be sent only to a valid postal address.

In all of the issues and scenarios listed above, TeachingChile has applied extreme due diligence and has worked through the issues to ensure your job placement will be secure, guaranteed, and with valid visa residency to work in Chile.

Everything listed above, plus other items, will be arranged for you as part of the program placement fee.

TeachingChile’s placement fee is in fact just that: for the placement of a secured position and all of the associated processing that comes along with the position; the pre-paid housing is simply an added benefit we have negotiated for accepted applicants, to either accept or decline. TeachingChile does not offer a pricing smorgasbord of our services, including a discount from the placement fee for the first 12-30 days of housing.

Additionally, we have found that a beneficial camaraderie is established by all of our teachers initially living together under the same roof, even if it is for a short time. The sharing of new discoveries in Chile, best practices for teaching methods, and many other benefits (for both neophytes and Chile-experienced participants alike) have proven to be highly valuable to everyone.

In all cases, TeachingChile always ensures and assists our program participants to obtain a valid long-term stay resident visa, in full accordance to Chilean law and procedures, for the duration of their teaching tenure.

The Chilean government offers three types of long-term stay resident visas for foreigners: estudiante (student), sujeta a contrato (subject to contract), and temporario (temporary). Each of these three resident visas types can be obtained either in the applicant’s home country at a local Chilean Consulate or directly in Chile — thus six variants exist — and it is not your option to choose which one you want to have. Instead, the school that reviews your application and ultimately offers you a position will choose which type of resident visa they wish to sponsor and also whether you obtain that resident visa in your home country or in Chile. For this reason, it is not possible to answer this question with any precision until after your application has been received and an acceptance obtained from a sponsoring teaching institution.

The cost of the visa is the responsibility of the accepted applicant. Once an applicant has received an offer, TeachingChile will provide legalized sponsorship documents and step-by-step instructions on how to apply and obtain the visa. Applicants should not (and cannot) apply for the resident visa without these sponsorship documents.

The resident visa costs vary depending on your country of citizenship. The prices are set by the Chilean government and are based on a "reciprocity fee" established by the country in which you hold a current passport. For example, if you are a U.S. passport holder your resident visa cost will be what the U.S. government charges Chileans to obtain the same type of resident visa to enter the U.S. In a similar manner, if you are a British passport holder, your resident visa cost will be what the U.K. government charges Chileans to obtain the same type of resident visa to enter the U.K.

Your cost of the resident visa will vary, depending on all of the factors listed above. However, you should plan for the following (subject to change at any time by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations, and prices are quoted in US dollars):

Last updated: May 22, 2017.

The Chilean law, rules, and your payments required are not established by TeachingChile or your hiring institution. Instead, they are set by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile, “MINREL” for short).

For this reason, the prices that we have posted on our TeachingChile website are subject to change at any time, based on the discretion of MINREL. Website: www.minrel.gov.cl

Additionally, in some cases when the resident visa is obtained in Chile, there is an additional charge for a work permit ("permiso de trabajo" in Spanish).

The costs for this work permit is an additional 50 % of the resident visa cost listed in the table above, and payable to the Chilean Government.

To view our Cost of Living Guide, click here.

Note:While the information in our Cost of Living Guide is expressed in Chilean pesos, and conversions are extended into a number of different currencies for your relative understanding, it is important to recognize that you will be paid in Chilean pesos and spend your earnings in Chilean pesos.

Once your application is reviewed and accepted by a school in our network, we will provide you with a list of current and past participants to contact and ask as many candid and private questions as you want. However, as a manner of respect to those in our program, we do not provide a contact list to all of our current and past TeachingChile participants due to the high number of general inquiries we receive on a monthly basis. We will provide that same professional courtesy to you, once you have been accepted into the program.

You may submit a preference of teaching location with your application, but TeachingChile cannot guarantee that it will be able to honor your request.

Depending on the demand during a particular semester, most participants will be placed in Santiago, Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, Melipilla, Concepción, Puerto Montt, Rancagua, Rengo, Los Andes, La Serena, Talca and others.

TeachingChile will try to place travel companions within the same Chilean school or university or city if requested, but it cannot be guaranteed. Although every effort will be made to place friends together, please remember that this is not always possible.

The TeachingChile program is very flexible in terms of allowing its participants to live in locations and with whom they choose. In the urban centers, teachers may choose to live in residential neighborhoods near their school with a short commute, or may elect to live in a bohemian district (for example) that will involve a longer commute. The decisions are entirely up to the participant and the first 12-30 days of prepaid housing provides more than ample time to make the appropriate choice.

Historically, the following is an approximate breakdown of the living arrangement our past participants have chosen.

• 45% live with other TeachingChile participants in a fully-furnished shared housing arrangement.
• 45% live with local Chileans in a fully-furnished shared housing arrangement.
• 10% live alone in a fully-furnished apartment.

Absolutely! The TeachingChile program typically has 100+ participants resident in the country at any given time.

TeachingChile understands that, while our participants seek the full Spanish-language and cultural immersion, it is occasionally important to share the new learning with others in their native English language. For this reason TeachingChile organizes a number of optional free or low-cost weekend events through the year (e.g., mid-semester reunions, ski/snowboard trips, horseback riding, rafting, canopy, and surfing excursions, and more). Dates and registration details for these events are distributed to all in-country participants via a periodic email newsletter.

Yes, with today’s Internet technology, your family and friends will have very easy and low-cost communication options available. Aside from free email, Facebook, and WhatsApp connectivity, Skype's voice and video communication from your laptop, mobile device, or from most cyber cafés in Chile have all been great sources for our participants.

Additionally, upon your arrival TeachingChile will assist you in purchasing a low-cost Chilean "dumb" cell phone (or a SIM card for your SmartPhone/iPhone), and provide you with international dialing instructions that you can give to your family and friends to reach you on your personal cell phone.

In general, the teacher will conduct six classes per week, 1.5 hours per class taught twice per week; hence a total of 18 hours of face-to-face time with the students. Lesson preparation, review, and other necessary tasks are not included in the classroom hours’ calculation. Some schools provide more than our baseline requirement of 18 hours.

Participating teachers are not prohibited from doing freelance work, private tutoring, or volunteer work. However, given your visa will have been sponsored by the teaching institution, your primary responsibilities are with your sponsoring school’s schedule.

Our network of schools requires that all teachers must be native speakers of English.

Most all schools in which TeachingChile can place you do not require knowledge of Spanish, although recently only one university in our network has required an intermediate level of Spanish. (In most cases, as a rule, Spanish is not allowed in your English class). However, any knowledge of the Spanish language will certainly enrich your social experience in Chile. TeachingChile can recommend fast-paced Spanish language schools should you desire. See our Related Links section for recommendations.

Yes, our network of schools requires that all applicants must have completed a degree prior to entering the country. Note, if you are still completing your degree, you can still apply, as long as your graduation date will be prior to your planned arrival/teaching date.

No, but an interest in teaching is necessary.

Our first response, from experience, is “no”. Loan deferment is dependent on each person’s individual situation, loan type, lending institution, etc. Our best advice to you, is that if you are expecting to have a loan deferment based upon your teaching tenure in Chile, do not have expectations or ask TeachingChile or your hiring institution to assist with this.

Your partner may accompany you to Chile if they are able to obtain the proper resident visas on their own. Be advised that she or he does not have the right to work or attend school in Chile unless their visa documentation states they may do so. TeachingChile will only assist our accepted applicants in visa processing.

While culturally Chile is a very family-oriented country, the TeachingChile program is not set up to manage the important details needed to provide support for our participant’s children—both prior to leaving their home country and during their time in Chile. Many of the issues involved, but not limited to, include: long-term stay resident visas, medical assistance, free housing during the first 12-30 days, and enrollment and placement for your children in a local Chilean school.

We love our pets and understand they are important for you, too. However, past TeachingChile participants have brought their pet and it has been problematic. You will not be able to take advantage of the prepaid lodging during your first 12-30 days, plus most permanent housing options will not allow pets. Additionally, your pet may be quarantined prior to entering Chile and also when trying to bring it back with you to your home country. As difficult as it may be to endure, we suggest that your beloved pet remain at home with a family member or friend during your teaching tenure in Chile.

While we value the credentials that many persons arriving into Chile can offer to Chilean students, we reserve priority to meet and discuss opportunities only to those that have sent an application in advance to us following the instructions on our website. The hiring process with schools in our network for paid teaching positions is extensive and planned well in advance of the start date. With respect to those that have duly applied to the TeachingChile program, we do not provide assistance to last-minute drop-ins and/or independent arrivals into Chile.