Hi Eva,
My tourist visa is set to expire on April 9th and I have every document ready to go for work residency but am waiting on the ministry of labor to validate the work contract, the company’s accountant is doing everything she can to quicken the process, but I expect it will go through the week after my visa expires. What do you suggest? I almost wondered if it’s worth applying for the residency anyway and see if there is a way to update that document when it goes through. What do you suggest? I understand if the only solution is leave for 3 months then come back and apply but we are really trying to avoid that, but I want to get another opinion.
Thanks!
- This commment is unpublished.@Christopher Hello Christopher,
I’m not sure how long it takes the Ministry of Labor to approve work contracts at the moment, but you still have nearly two weeks. So, for now I would wait, pray and hope for the best.
If the approval of your work contract doesn’t go through in time, you have two options.
You could leave the country and return (already a few days) later. I usually don’t recommend this option as there is always a (in your case slight) risk of being denied re-entry. However, even if you end up at the counter of a grumpy immigration officer who’s trying to give you trouble, explaining calmly and friendly your situation and showing all your documents already prepared for your work visa application (Ficha de Canje from Interpol, criminal record check with Apostille and translation, work contract, …) should do the trick and you should get at least enough days allowing you to apply for your work visa. A week or so ago another foreigner, who as well had trouble with his work contract and left and returned a few days later, informed me that upon his return the immigration officer was super friendly and told him, as he has a valid work contract, he has the right to enter Peru. I don't know if this is true. Anyway, he got another 90 days.
If you leave, take your wife and son with you, so they get a new stamp in their passport as well hoping they give them another 90 days which hopefully is enough for your work visa to go through.
Another option is to apply for your work visa without the work contract which is only possible with playing the system a bit. Make sure that you apply for your work visa when your stay as a tourist is still valid!To understand the following, check out our Work Visa article under Step-by-step guide to apply for a work visa in Peru.Follow the steps as described until you are on the “2nd page of the work visa application”. Here you must fill in some data and/or upload all for the work visa application necessary documents as PDF.
The problem is that under one subpoint you must (!) upload your approved work contract. It’s an obligatory field. You can’t leave it blank as the system won’t allow you to continue with the application. So, you could upload your work contract without the approval of the Ministry of Labor. Then continue to upload all other required documents and finish the application process as described above.
At the end of the process, you get the Solicitud de Cambio de Calidad Migratoria with the “numero de expediente” (your file number), the "fecha de publicacion" (application date) and a "codigo de verificacion" (verification code) and your access to your Buzon. As soon as you get this your time as a tourist stops and you are safe.Now, depending how quickly Migraciones reviews your application there are two scenarios:
As you haven’t uploaded your work contract with the approval of the Ministry of Labor as required, Migraciones will send you a notification (can be as quick as a few days after your application or a month, two or three later) using the Buzon electronico requesting to upload, in your case, the work contract correctly approved. Be aware that these notifications are considered officially delivered. Usually, Migraciones only gives you a short deadline of 5 to 10 days to upload the requested document. So, check your Buzon regularly. You must react to the notification, otherwise your application could be canceled.
As by then you will have the contract with the approval just upload it as described in the notification (you do it on the main page of the Agencia Digital in the left menu under Subsanacion).
As you will have your approved contract shortly after your application and most probably before you hear from Migraciones and as Migraciones only accepts approved work contracts that are not older than 30 days when uploaded, you should try and upload it immediately after you get it.As far as I know, after your application you should find on the main page of the Agencia Digital in the menu on the left the point “Subsanacion” where you should be able to upload the contract even though Migraciones haven’t requested to do so yet. Another option is to upload it under Mesa de Partes, but I was told by other foreigners that this didn’t work for them or that Migraciones didn’t get the document and a few weeks later asked to upload the document again, this time under Subsanacion.
So, both options have their pros and cons. Which way you go is up to you.
Greetings
Eva - This commment is unpublished.@Sunflower Thank you so much Eva, that is very reassuring that the other gentlemen was able to get a new 90 days when reentering the country. I think we have decided to go that route which leads me to another couple of questions. Our passports expire in September, so we decided to leave the country by going back to the US in order to renew our passports and be back in peru after about 3 weeks to a month.My questions are:
- This commment is unpublished.