Get ready to face many challenges with Covid requirements and new restrictions to get into Chile, as Omicron- Covid became a new health threat in January 2021.
Chile locked down very hard during Covid. We had to cancel our trip in 2020 as the world became unpredictable. After getting our vaccine shots, we decided to jump through all hoops to go! Our flights were booked in the summer, a few months before Omicron (Covid-19 variant) came to Earth. We couldn’t imagine the new variant would cause us so much trouble and stress!
Extra Paperwork Requirements!
Documents to enter Chile after November 2021 kept changing leading up to our travel.
1. Mobility Pass: applying to certify our Covid vaccines and identity paperwork. This is basically a Chilean Covid vaccine card.
2. PCR test within 72 hours before the flying to Chile.
3. Covid-19 Certification: declares negative test within 48 hours of entering Chile, which is required to get out of quarantine after entering into the country.
4. Travel insurance: including at least $30,000 coverage for Covid in Chile.
5. 2nd Covid test after entering into Chile: all the websites were very unclear about how we could get this test. So, we booked an appointment with a local healthcare provider who would come to our hotel to take the test!
All the bumps we have to jump through before our trip
We applied for the Mobility Pass as soon as we learned about it. I got denied because of my name! My Vietnamese passport is in my maiden name and the vaccine card is under my current legal name. I had to write a letter explaining the situation with the name change. Finally, after a stressful time on this government issue waiting game, I got accepted only 2 weeks before our flight. What a relief!
One week before the flight, they rescheduled and rerouted our flights due to the airline staffing issues. They changed us from the LA-Chile flight into 2 flights that stopover in Peru. It means that our PCR test appointment wouldn’t work anymore due to the change in timing of our flight! And it would be unlikely for us to get a chance to upload our test results for the Covid-19 certification. Jeff spent a long time emailing and calling to change our flight schedule to fit in with our test appointment. We then had a layover in New York instead! Later on, we learned that the 2nd Covid test upon arrival is provided for free at the airport. We cancelled our Covid test appointment in Chile and saved some money!
Our 1st Covid test was scheduled 4 months in advance through Kaiser. By the time this happened, they stopped accepting appointments for travel purpose due to the high volume of testing. It was impossible to book appointments elsewhere and get the results back in time without spending a small fortune! With our new flight schedule, we would get the tests within 71 hours before departing from New York. However, Jeff was so stressed out because of the time zone difference! He was so worried if the airline person would make an issue about the different time zone and wouldn’t let us in.
A few days later, my boss told me that I had close contact with a Covid case and that I needed to isolate! I was so stressed out with this whole situation. Well, at least I got paid to stay home so I packed everything and made sure I had my Vietnamese passport and the vaccine card to get into Chile!
Our test appointment date went well. Basically, there were no waiting at all! We got our tests at 4:55pm and a day later our test results came back negative. But the time on it said that we got tested at 3:30p. What the hell on earth! It means that by the time we check in on our last flight to Chile, it would be 72.5 hours! 0.5 hours more than the requirement for travel.
Are you kidding me?! Of course, we both had to call in to get Kaiser to correct the appointment time. It was very annoying as they complained about how we were able to get appointments for traveling purpose because they stopped accepting that. Duh, we had this appointment months before this stupid Omicron, that’s why! It took a while but then it was all good to go!
Travel Day
It’s happening!
The Uber picked us up at 4am. I got up at 3:56am. Just right after we got out of our neighborhood, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to get back in the US without my green card that I completely forgot about and left it at home. Immediately, we turned around for it.
For the longest time of my life, we couldn’t open the door inside our garage! Jeff had this “hundreds of keys” key chain and none of them worked! I was about to give up and told Jeff that we could be worried about going back into the US later and let’s just go! Well, I’m glad he didn’t give up. He picked the door in like 10s! I thought to myself why the hell would he lock the door if it was that easy to pick it 
. We hurried to the airport with an angry Uber driver that had to wait for us and was late for his second drive. Oops.
At the airport, they wouldn’t let me check in because of my name! Name problem, again!
My maiden name is on my main passport page. I have my new name declared on a different page, but the airline person still made it difficult! Jeff argued with them for a while and finally they “took care” of it! They even told us this would be a problem for us at Chile border! Guess what? It took me 5 mins to go through the border in Chile and no one asked about my name .
Before our final boarding to Chile, they checked all of our paperwork! The airline woman did look very confused about the time differences, but she seemed not to care much and believed what we said 
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Landing at Santiago International Airport
Once we got into the Chile airport, things seemed very organized. The whole Covid test process took us nearly 4 hours to complete.
Stop 1: they checked all the documents that we brought over one more time then gave us a pass.
Stop 2: we used kiosk to check in our information for Covid test.
Stop 3: Covid test! This is the most horrible swabbing job I’ve ever experienced! And I have done a lot of Covid tests in the last 2 years 
! They SWABBED MY MOUTH TWICE, then USED THE SAME STICK TO SWAB DEEPLY INTO BOTH OF MY NOSTRILS! I meant DEEPPPP! I teared up. It was so gross 
. Alright! It was basically all done. Finally, the custom only took us about 5 mins! What a crazy time to travel! All we need right now is waiting at our hotel for our test results back!
