Chilean Consulate

I applied to a tourist visa to Chile.
Positive:
— The visa application can be submitted online here —
(I had to email them to get it which I sincerely appreciate.)
— The consultant who worked at the office front was very friendly
— All the communication I had with applications over email were extremely responsive and made sure they asked me for all the documentation needed to process my VISA.
— Seemed to take about 3 weeks overall to finally get an appointment for a visa stamp which is reasonable and expected.
Negative:
— There is a section to submit supporting documents online — passport scans, countries visited, proof of income, bank statements, etc. and I submitted every single document but they requested me to send them again over email.
— The website is optimized for Internet Explorer ONLY and very buggy in any other browser.
— Since I am reviewing this particular consulate, I think it’s worth sharing the experience I had that I was disappointed by. I’ve applied for visa at various consulates (Spain, France, Philippines, Norway) in the last few years that require a VISA and never had a bad experience at the consulate, but there’s always a first and maybe not the last.
They have a suite in the Flood Building and to enter through their door, you need to press a buzzer. I pressed the buzzer/​door twice and received no response. I wasn’t sure if someone heard me, so I long pressed the button. Someone finally answered, opened the door but I was very unpleasantly greeted by this one man.
He asked me «Do you have any physical problems?», to which I answered No. He then started yelling at me saying — «Why did you press the button for so long? Are you crazy. It’s so loud, I won’t let you again into the consulate again.» I wished he noticed that the lady who was supposed to open the door was on the phone with someone else even after letting me in and ignoring my ring and held her accountable instead of THREATENING and YELLING at me. I obviously apologized profusely several times and he said, «I will let the consul know you are apologizing now.» I wondered for just a moment if they would deny me a visa for this!
I just hope my experience in Chile is a lot better than this.

Background: my friend and I are planning trip to Chile and we need to apply for Tourist Visa.
A lot of pleasant surprises:
1 — there are actually people who answers the phone call! I made about calls to 8 different consulate but this is the first one who picked up on my first attempt! Thumb up!
2 — staff is knowledgeable. Initially we thought we had to go through the VISA application process but the staff suggested recently there is a VISA waiver program for my country (China). Double Thumb up!
3 — To make the call even sweeter, the staff is helpful, I can tell this from her tone. Another major thumb up!

An absolute pleasure. Everyone here was very nice. I don’t know why others had difficulties. I’m looking forward to visiting Chile. Thank you.

Horrible. It’s been two weeks and I am still waiting for my tourist visa. My trip is in two weeks and everything has been bought and booked (as they requested).
They are incredibly slow with very lazy hours – you call at 9am when they first open and they tell you to call back after 3pm. You call back at 3pm and no one picks up. This is the kind of inconvenience and disregard you will face if you ever try to apply for a visa. We have been calling every week and each time, it is the same. The status on my visa application has still not changed since two weeks ago when I first applied.
I have applied for many visas elsewhere and this is the first embassy/​consulate that has been this unprofessional! Even Myanmar, MYANMAR, gets their visas done in one day. Why can’t the most developed country in South America do it in under two weeks?

We applied for a tourist visa to Chile. We were initially asked to drop off our paperwork and come back to collect the visa in a couple of weeks. The visa processing is done in Chile. The consulate sends the scanned copy of the documents to Chile for processing. We waited for nearly four weeks and called to check on the status and were told that the paperwork has not been sent to Chile yet. Since we had less than a couple of months for the trip and had to obtain other visas as well, we pleaded with the consulate staff to send the paperwork to Chile. Two weeks later we receive a call from the consulate saying we need to obtain visa to Argentina (our next destination) before we can get a Chilean visa. Over the course of the next weeks we scrambled to get a visa to Argentina. Finally, a few weeks before our trip we got the Chilean visa. However, not before they made us wait the entire day at the consulate to collect our passport. In all, we made 4 trips to the consulate and countless phone calls. No doubt Chilean patagonia is beautiful, but not sure if this is worth it.

Some people say its hard to get an appointment here, but I had no trouble at all. The front desk women is very nice and friendly. I was in and out with my visa in less than 45 minutes. The SF consulate is apparently much more relaxed than those in Chicago and LA, must be something in our delicious water that has everyone more calm and easy going!
Chi-​Chi-​Chi Le-​Le-​Le VIVA CHILE!!!

I totally agree with EVERYTHING Eric B. said.
He said it perfectly and Chile has every right to be proud.
Welcome back up Chilean Miners :)

REVIEW #2100!
«We are well and hoping that you will rescue us»
And so the cable pulls, the wheel turns, and the rescue capsule rises towards home…
Originally, this milestone review was going to be about Dachau, the fast and current loose use of Nazi terminology by both sides of the political spectrum, and life’s lessons that may never be learned. I was then going to end with a shameless plug to visit Manzanar and watch Le chagrin et la pitié.
Instead, an affirmation of life and the human spirit slapped me in the face, and live on the Fox News Channel. This is not my usual television choice, but who can resist a such a patriotic event! It certainly has had me emotionally engaged, impressed, and grateful as I kept my eyes glued to the TV off and on over that last 24 hours. And in these times of economic recession, political discord, and global conflict, I’ll take all the good news that I can get.
Luis Alberto Urzua has just come up after 70 days and 600 meters underground. He was the Captain of this ship that put the safety and well being of his fellow miners first. I’m sure that the finger pointing and political maneuvering will begin soon enough. But for now, all 33 miners are heroes, and Chile has every right to bask in the their most impressive rescue accomplishment. The technical details and thoughtfulness of this effort are mind boggling.
It’s also a teachable moment about leadership and the human spirit. Would I be up to the task if challenged this way?