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Could Chile Unleash the World's #1 Golden Visa? · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Chile has a top 10 strongest passport globally.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: 175 visa-free countries, United States, Esther Access, trade deals covering 88% of global GDP, Mercosur residency rights.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yet while Portugal turned its golden visa into a 7 billion euro windfall, and Argentina waits to unveil its passport program, Chilean politicians are sitting on a gold mine.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maria Esperanza Shaw Donoso, a Chilean investment migration expert, calls this Chile's most expensive mistake.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why she argues a program is newly elected President Cast's imperative.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with the passport itself.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It allows Chileans to travel visa-free to more than 175 countries, including the entire Schengen area: the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, and, you guessed it, the United States.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Chile is the only Latin American country participating in the United States Visa Waiver and Esther program, which grants 90 days of visa-free entry for tourism or business.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Only nations with high security standards, strong international cooperation, low overstay rates, and documented credibility receive that privilege.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Shaw Donoso calls it a first-tier diplomatic asset, and she's not exaggerating.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The passport also passes down through family lineage and birthright, allows dual nationality, and carries an impeccable reputation for low fraud risk.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: That reputation is why the Chilean passport opens doors, other nationalities in the region do not.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the passport is only half the story.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Chile is one of the most open economies on the planet.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: It signed 33 trade agreements covering 65 economies, granting preferential access to 88% of global GDP.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In recent years, Chile cosied up to China, but newly elected President Cast is expected to tighten relations with the United States and the West.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Few countries can claim such a commercial footprint that wide and diverse.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Chile posted year-over-year inflation of 3.4% as of October 2025.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The regional average across Latin America and the Caribbean is 7.6% according to the International Monetary Fund.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Chile comes in less than half the regional rate.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the signature of a disciplined, predictable economy and government.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: On top of that, a regulated banking system, a transparent tax regime, double taxation treaties with more than 30 jurisdictions, and the ability to form a company in 24 hours, not 24 months.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The tax burden is moderate by European standards.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The legal framework is secure.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The institutions have credibility.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: None of this is marketing copy, argues Shaw Donoso.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, these are facts the world's existing investment migration destinations would kill to be able to claim.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now compare that profile and its attributes to Portugal, the country most often cited as the modern golden visa success story.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Portugal launched its program in 2012.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Since then, it has channeled more than 7 billion euros in foreign direct investment into its economy's innovation, financial, sustainability, and cultural heritage sectors.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the requirements for investors, claims Shaw Donoso, have been light.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Seven days per year of physical presence, then 14 days every two years.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Applicants can bring spouses, parents and dependent children, and a clear pathway leads to permanent residence and eventually Portuguese citizenship with full Schengen rights.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Portugal's current government is debating changes to its citizenship law, so the program that exists today and the demand for it may not exist in two years.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: But for over a decade, Portugal's formula has been one of the best in the world of investment migration.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, continuing her comparison, Shaw Donoso also says that Chile's passport is arguably stronger than Portugal's on raw travel freedom and diplomatic access.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Chile's economy is more stable than Portugal's was in 2012, and Chile has none of Portugal's legacy debt issues.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: On paper, Chile could outperform Portugal's program the day it launched.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: But that's just the issue.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's to launch and when?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Portugal isn't the only proof point.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: More than 50 countries now run some form of residency or citizenship by investment program, and the results are consistent.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Malta has grown its non-tax fiscal revenues by more than 15%, directing the money into education and technology.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Greece's program reactivated its post-crisis economy with a 20% jump in foreign real estate investment.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Italy's special tax regime attracted more than 1,000 high-paying tax residents in just three years.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: In Chile's own backyard, the same pattern remains true.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paraguay has seen a 40% increase in permanent residency applications since 2020, lifting industries in the country like construction, tourism, services, and banking.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paraguay's territorial tax regime only taxes income generated inside the country, which combined with easy company formation has made it one of the most attractive destinations in the Southern Cone.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Panama and Uruguay have both positioned themselves as regional financial hubs.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Both are pulling high-value capital from the United States, Europe, and across Latin America.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Legal certainty, banking infrastructure, attractive tax regimes, accessible residency programs, and predictable regulation are their modes.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Argentina is about to lap Chile on investment migration.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's actively preparing its own golden visa and citizenship by investment programs, designed to channel capital into clean energy, technological innovation, and productive economy projects.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: One of Argentina's stated goals is to eventually qualify for the United States ESTER program, the same one Chile has held since 2014.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Consider what that means.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: The single diplomatic asset Chile currently holds over every other country in Latin America, Esther Access, is now explicitly on Argentina's strategic roadmap, maybe even Uruguay's.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to see how all of these programs actually stack up against each other, IMI's Encyclopedia covers almost 300 residency and citizenship programs in 140 countries, where you can sort, filter, and compare those that match your needs.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: All this to say, the playbook is established.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Chile is one of the only Tier 1 regional economies still sitting it out.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Chile does currently have a residency by investment program, but it's priced at roughly the same level as Argentina's incoming CBI, which is expected to offer a more sophisticated value proposition.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: While IMI does not have accurate data regarding interest in the program, we can expect uptake is relatively low.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: It lacks the modernization, the marketing and the structural design that have made the leading global programs succeed.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the real barrier?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: According to Sean Donoso, it isn't reputation, stability or even connectivity, credibility or quality of life.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Chile has all of that in abundance.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: What's missing, in her words, is political vision and strategy.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: The frameworks exist globally, the best practices are documented.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The demand from American, British, and European estates looking for stable, tax-efficient jurisdictions is accelerating.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Every month Chile waits, another jurisdiction captures that capital and talent.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Shaw Donoso clarifies that she doesn't want a rushed commodity program.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: The design matters.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Chilean CBI program should be ethical, transparent, and aligned with best practices.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: The capital should be directed toward energy, tech, education, and tourism, which will generate employment, innovation, and talent transfer without compromising any reputation or values.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Chile has something most countries building these programs don't have: an experienced, intellectual, and professional class capable of designing a sophisticated program from scratch.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the expertise exists, the infrastructure is in place, and demand from international investors is accelerating.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Chile has every ingredient that made Portugal, Malta, Greece, and Italy into success stories.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing missing is the decision to act and monetize it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, Argentina will launch.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay are here already.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Others in the region will follow.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: The window in which Chile could lead Latin America's investment migration market, instead of chasing it, is narrow and closing.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: If that window shuts, Chile won't be the next Portugal.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be the country that watched Portugal happen, did nothing, and watched talent and capital flee.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, have you heard of Mercosur?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Chile already sits inside a continental bloc that offers the fastest and cheapest citizenship timelines on the planet.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We made a full video on the region's residence agreement, which unlocks the right to live and work across nine countries and 400 million people once you hold citizenship in any one of them.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Link is on your screen now.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: If Chile won't sell its best passport yet, four of its neighbors will.