Monday, May 7, 2012

Chile will pay you to move there

Damn, wish I had known about this sooner, but I found out that Chile will pay you $50,000US to move there!

Santiago, Chile
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Well, of course there's a catch, silly. You have to come up with an interesting idea for a startup business, one with a potentially global reach, and yes, the founder of the startup must move to Chile for the first six month of the project. The Start-Up Chile program is entirely in English, but you will be living in a Spanish speaking country. The program has been going on since 2010 and apparently is a success for Chile

Not only will you get $50,000 to bootstrap your company, you get a one-year work visa and plenty of business contacts to start with. And you can bring business partners with you. You can leave after you get your startup launched, but as the BBC reports, many Start-Up Chile businesses are making the choice to remain in Santiago (and that's a great article, by the way).






You'll need to move quickly, though. Round 2 of applications for 2012 starts on June 11th, 2012 and round 3 is opening September 14th 2012.

Check out all of the Start-Up Chile on Youtube videos to get a sense of what others are doing.
... and their Twitter feed
... and their Facebook page

On a side note, I've restarted a personal blog at blog.overseas-exile.com. Some things have leaked into this blog that should really be on a personal one. By having separate blogs, I can keep this more focused on "how to become an expat".
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4 comments:

  1. MichaelMay 7, 2012 at 10:34 AM

    I was definitely intrigued by this program. I'm in Amsterdam and had to stop by the local consulate for visa stuff, but speaking to an official, he was saying very high things about the program.

    And I just visited Chile for the first time and gotta say.....awesome!

    on another note....I kinda like the mix of personal and business things on one blog. It gives a sense of the author and I find it more personal. just my thoughts

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  2. Susanna PerkinsMay 7, 2012 at 6:59 PM

    Fascinating! I had no idea this program exhisted. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll pass the word along to my readers as well.

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  3. KyleMay 24, 2012 at 4:13 PM

    I'm in the program and I can say it has been a great experience. They actually give you $40,000 and you have to spend your own money up front (so you need to arrive with at least $10,000) and they will reimburse you each month up to the $40,000 amount for your specific living/business-related expenses. Chile is a great country to live in and the program is getting better with time so I encourage everyone to apply.

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