Prepping for the Move – Part 1: Getting Ready to Move/The Saga of the COVID Paperwork

Todd and I recently determined that in the 27 years we’ve been together, we’d moved a total of 11 times and lived in 5 states (Minnesota, Alaska, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington) and 2 countries (USA and Canada). So, we thought we’d gotten pretty good at the whole moving process.

…You go through your stuff and give away/sell/donate/throw a bunch of stuff that you haven’t used since the last move.

…You make sure to disconnect all your utilities, forward your mail, deep clean your house for the next occupants, and use up most of the stuff in your fridge and freezer.

…You do a last hike to appreciate the beautiful area you’re leaving behind.

…And, of course, you say goodbye to the few close friends that you’ve managed to make since you moved to that town.

Fairly straightforward, if not particularly easy. Even moving to and from Canada was fairly easy. No language barriers, no real cultural differences. Just a little more paperwork for the pets and learning to convert from imperial to metric.

Now try moving to Chile. During a pandemic.

On the positive side, Todd’s employer, AURA, has moved many foreigners to Chile over the years. So they have a decent system in place to help make the transition easier. They let you know what documents are required for traveling; keep up with the ever-changing COVID requirements for foreigners traveling to and within Chile; arrange the flights, hotels and transportation to get you to your final destination; provide housing and a vehicle for the first month; and help with you get a diplomatic visa and Chilean bank account. Plus, they pay most of the expenses for moving your possessions (by cargo ship) and bodies (by plane). Yeah!

Wouldn’t it be nice if that was it?

THE SAGA OF THE COVID PAPERWORK

Want to move to Chile during a pandemic? During the height of the Omicron outbreak in the US and right at the beginning of its rise in Chile? First, you have to have all of your vaccines and boosters validated online by the Ministry of Health in Chile. This lets you get the required Mobility Pass for moving around in Chile. But, since the validation is only good for a certain number of days, you have to time it correctly so you don’t get it validated too soon or too late. Ours were validated too soon, but then they extended the time limit from 45 days to 60 days. Whew!

Then you need have a negative PCR within 72 hours of the flight that takes you into Chile. Since we were flying on a Sunday, we ended up getting a stat PCR test on Friday with results within the hour. That didn’t leave any overlap if, for some reason, we couldn’t fly on Sunday. But it was the best we could do. Finally, you have to fill out an outline affidavit (C19) within 48 hours of the international flight. This affidavit is based on your vaccine validation and your negative PCR test and allows you to enter the country.

This was our major glitch. Our vaccines were validated and the validation website said we were approved to enter the country. Our PCR tests were negative. However, the C19 website said we weren’t approved! We found this out at 6 pm PST on Friday (11 pm Chile time) in the Seattle hotel. No one to call or talk with to fix it. After a sleepless night and an unsuccessful attempt to contact the Health Ministry in Chile at 3 am PST, we decided to take a chance and go to the airport. Fortunately, the nice Delta agent agreed with our assessment that we were approved to fly to Chile and could sort out the discrepancies once we got there. More on that in a future post!

OK, so the people are good to go. Now, the cat and our belongings…