Summary
After 8 bus rides, 4 visits to the customs office, a week of total elapsed time, and many, many consultations with our Spanish-English dictionary, Madrone is legally imported in Chile until February 2021.
Too Much Detail
All countries we’ve been to have different rules about how long a foreign-flagged pleasure boat is allowed to remain. In Canada the boat is allowed to stay in the country as long as you are (6 months on a tourist visa), while in Mexico the boat gets a 10 year import permit.
First stop at the Armada Office
The rule in Chile is that a boat may be temporarily imported for one year, with an additional year extension that can be applied for at the end of the first year. This sounded like a generous policy to us – we think we’re unlikely to stay in Chile longer than the two available years.
When we first arrived in Chile (in Hanga Roa on Easter Island), the local Aduana (Chilean customs) official dutifully filled out our Admisión Temporal form. Unfortunately, she made a mistake and listed the expiration date as one month in the future instead of one year in the future. No problem, we thought – we’ll just take care of it when we get to mainland Chile.
After arriving in Puerto Montt, we took a bus to the local Armada (Chilean Navy) office where we’d read the Aduana also has an office. The friendly Armada officer told us that there’s no Aduana office and that we should move the boat from the anchorage into a marina so that the marina staff could help us.
Aduana at the port
We took the bus back and moved the boat into Club Nautico Reloncaví. Once checked in there, we spoke with the marina manager about our issue. She looked alarmed, and immediately wrote an email to the Aduana asking for an extension to our import permit.
The following day, we checked back in with the marina manager. “Oh no,” she replied, “you shouldn’t expect an answer that fast. Check back in a few more days.” So, a few days later we checked in with the marina manager – she shrugged and said they’re often slow, but we could go to the Aduana office in the commercial port in town.
Happy to have some action we could take, we hopped on a bus to the commercial port. After a half hour of exploring, we located the small Aduana office. The friendly officer there explained that we needed to go to the main Aduana office downtown – of course, it’s only open until 2pm each day so we’d have to go the next day. We took the bus back to the marina.
Aduana downtown
The following day, we hopped on the bus downtown and located the main Aduana office. The friendly officer there actually had an extension form for Madrone! When she gave it a final review, however, she found an error – the expiration date was still wrong. The document would have to be retyped, she explained, and that couldn’t be done until tomorrow because the person who could do it was at the office in the commercial port. We took the bus back to the marina.
The following day, we again hopped on the bus downtown and headed back to the main Aduana office. Once there, the same friendly Aduana officer explained that the office in Easter Island had corrected our permit, but that we needed to go to the office in the commercial port to have it stamped to make it official – apparently there is no official stamp in the main office. Tired of the bus by this point, we walked to the commercial port.
When we arrived, the friendly Aduana officer there showed us our new form – it was a photocopy of our original from Easter Island, and the officer had crossed out the old date and written in a new one over the top. We could have done that ourselves, and we wouldn’t have had to spend nearly as much time on the bus!
Finally Madrone’s legal!
Still, we were very happy when the officer stamped the photocopy and passed it back to us – Madrone is legal again! We didn’t dare tell the officer that the date was still wrong – now they’ve imported the boat for 13 months instead of 12.
Hopefully that’s the end of our discussions with the Chilean Aduana.
