Argentina - Chile (only) Border Crossing | Customs and Immigration

If you are in a tall vehicle, you should/need to follow the bus route. Not sure the clearance for the auto ramp (and neither are the officials) so at 3.3m we went in the bus entrance. All vehicles go into a garage building and the auto ramp is covered so has limited clearance. Everyone is very friendly and helpful, but they did seem a bit confused as to how to handle us when we went inside, but it all worked out fine and very relaxed. Took about 90 minutes though, which is our longest crossing in S. America. They did a basic search of the camper and took some produce as expected, but not very detailed. We also have a dog and the permit we used originated in Chile which also caused some confusion, but all was fine in the end. Just seemed like we knew more about the process then the officials, but all worked out fine.

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We came here a sunday morning at 7 am and it was really quick. No queue nor waiting, but a really thorough check of the van. Maybe the more advanced we've seen in Chile. It is open 24/7 so my recommendation is going as soon or late as possible but not during the day, since we saw a lot of people saying they've been stuck for hours in the queue on google maps.

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Quick procedure but there’s currently (January 2024) construction on the road down into Chile with only one lane available and delays around an hour or so. Amazing drive though, despite the delays.

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it took us an hour on a monday. they asked for fruit and seeds but just searched a bit for it. our nuts and chia seeds were in the back of a box and they didnt found it. there is a dog for sniffing but he just wanted to play and didnt barked for our fruit rests in our bin. they found a salad in our fridge but only because we told him.

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This place is definitely open, it’s confusing because it’s only for when people are leaving Argentina and entering Chile, hence the confusion. Those reporting it as shut are heading to Argentina and are seeing the old buildings for exiting Chile which have now been integrated into the facilities in Argentina on the other side of the pass, with the entry into Argentina

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Ignore previous entries saying it is closed. Those who marked it as such were heading to Argentina and the facility for exiting Chile is indeed closed now, you need to travel to the other side of the pass to Argentina for this.

What’s open is the facility for exiting Argentina and entering Chile.

Border crossing facilities for Argentina to Chile only (integrated, formalities for both exiting Argentina and entering Chile in one place).

Do not stop here if you are going to Argentina. The facilities for Chile to Argentina are on the Argentina side, after the pass and the tunnel.

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This place is still open! Here you have to do all the paperwork when you're traveling from Argentina to Chile.

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This place is still open! Here you have to do all the paperwork when you're traveling from Argentina to Chile.

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Definitely still in this location and open.
Coming from Argentina going into Chile, they actually asked for covid vaccination certificate. Otherwise very chill vibe and quick& smooth process

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This place doesn‘t exist anymore!

It is closed.

Everything on the other side of the tunnel!

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Argentina to Chile: Plan a lot of time for this border!

Overall, it took us 5,5 hrs on a Monday noon. It was the longest line we’ve ever seen at a border crossing in all of our travels and it seems to be „normal“ as our taxi driver in Mendoza already warned us it’ll take 5 hrs minimum.

The process itself once you make it to aduana is actually very efficiently designed, as you drive into a huge building where you can find 12 or 14 counters that serve you in a kind of drive-through style (like large US border crossings for example). The problem is just that there is way too much traffic for 12 counters (they were all open).

The traffic jam already started in front of the tunnel, and then the following 3 or 4 kilometers leading to the aduana building. The waiting from the tunnel took us about 4.5 hours until we entered the drive-in building, then standing in the counter line for about 30min. The actual aduana process itself took only 20 minutes.

We have a US plated car which was confusing for them, they usually serve Argentinian and Chilean plates so we had to ask twice to make them cancel our Argentinian TIP.

They will search your car very thoroughly with dogs that can sniff fresh produce. Better be honest and tell them upfront what you bring. They asked for fruits AND veggies, even took onions. Did not bother about our milk bottle.

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Argentina -> Chile
there was a long line to enter on a Friday noon because of the holidays, 2,5h in total
the Argentinian and Chilean migration are done at the same window by the Chilean employee.
don't forget to cancel your Argentinian Tip, Argentinian aduana didn't have a window in our line so I had to go by foot to another window.
Don't forget to do it because the Chilean aduana didn't care and validated my TIP before I concealed the Argentinian one.

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Very helpful staff. Thorough search. Two dogs. Looked in every cupboard. Fruit and vegetables will be confiscated. Took about an hour, mainly because there were quite a few people crossing at mid-day on Sunday. However, the amazing switchbacks down the mountain on the Chile side make the wait worthwhile.

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We made the border crossing from Argentina to Chile in one hour. This border is very busy and they are very strict with the vegetables. They took also the dried beans, lentil and corn from us. The staff is very friendly.

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Argentina to Chile: All in one, you don't need to stop before anymore to hand in TIP, all is done in this building. Need to fill out the customs form per person while you wait in the car line and 2 forms for the car (they lie on the table or you can get them from one of the counters). They have a dog but it seems to be trained for fruits/veggies, not necessarily meat (2 fellow traveller cars both had salami that wasn't detected).

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Chile to Argentina: Stop here to cancel your Chilean TIP and turn in your PDI slip. Stamp out of Chile, keep your canceled Chilean TIP. Make sure to have Argentina health affidavit filled out to proceed to Argentina https://ddjj.migraciones.gob.ar/app/home.php

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We passed the border today from Argentina to Chile!
It is very busy but there are a lot of customs helping you.
We take 5 hours in total.
Be sure you have the right and all the documents. We printed everything and that saves time

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WARNING at present date the paso is CLOSED for tourism. No matter what they say on the argentinian government website. Locals said they might reopen on the first jan 2022, which is a possibility that needs careful investigation. Will you be in the need of a pcr test i found one at Calingasta village, Cekym clinic: Naty +54 9 2644 67-6069 for 8500 ar$. Also beware of some clinics scamming tourists selling antigenic test as pcr!

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From Argentina to Chile:

I've updated the coordinates to reflect the location of the new building. You will see the old buildings to your left; continue and follow the signs until you go up the ramp to the new location (where you will do everything). Be very patient though; we were there almost 2 hours because they didn't seem to know what to do with us.

1. You must fill out white form with your personal information for immigration; a white form for Coronavirus; and the BLUE form for your foreign vehicle. You may have to go to a different table to find the blue form, just remember that the white form is only for Argentinian/Chilean vehicles.

2. Be sure you cancel your Argentinian TIP at the window for Argentinian aduana. Do not leave without completing this step. Keep asking until someone knows where you're supposed to go. This step alone took us a long time because they kept saying we were "fine" and didn't "have to". We cancelled our TIP and took a picture of it with our cellphone.

3. You will NOT get an exit stamp for leaving Argentina. They now have an integrated system between Argentina and Chile so the computer will show you have left (but not your passport). You will only get a stamp entering Chile and a paper from PDI that you will need to keep.

4. They did a very thorough inspection of our van. They went inside with a flashlight to check everything. They kept our onion, tomato and lettuce.

The process itself is supposed to be easy. We unfortunately were there around 7:30pm and nobody knew what to do so it took us a lot longer than it should have.

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Customs control ok. I found very simple, the proceedings. Duration 1 hour and a half in total. They checked all the camper well. Even with dog. So it does not have to hide anything.

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New building to go to Chile. A little confusing because no signs like in the Atacama. Fill out form and go to the window at the line they put you.
Customs searches for fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese. You can eat there or they take it away.
Long line at wendsday afternoon, took us about two hours to cross.

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Indeed, everything is now concentrated in the brand new building. To summarise : follow the Autos/Livianos line and queue with all the vehicles to go up the ramp. There you will need to fill in the form for immigration (one per person) and the one for temporary importation of your foreign vehicle (two copies, one for you and one for the custom. The form has blue boxes, the white one is only for Argentinian and Chilean cars). When it's your turn, just go to the first window (immigration) and the second one (custom). They do immediately the check of your car right after. Took us 1h in total, we arrived at 08:00 on a Monday. They kept our bag of dog food because it was open.

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Smooth border crossing Argentina - Chile. No queue at all today, all in all 15min to cross.
All paperwork is done in the new building with a dark red roof. Paperwork was a bit confusing. We got our stamps for Chile and a TIP, without having an exit stamp for Argentina, nor our TIP canceled. When we asked to cancel our Argentinean TIP, the guy looked a bit confused and didn't know what to do... but finally succesfully canceled our tip. The check of the van was focused on fruit and veggies. Make sure you show them all you have, they asked us 5 times and looked everywhere. All in all friendly guys and after a 10min check we could go!

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They opened the new building for border formalities.
Right after the old one.
Changed the coordinates.
Fast forward border control.
Only asked for frutas, verduras, miel etc
and have a short look.

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No need to stop here if you are coming from Chile in direction of Argentina

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One way processing from Argentina to Chile.

Badly signposted border post. The offices are in what looks like the bus shed. Park up to the right and walk in.

Step one: Ignore the long queue of people it's likely they are bus passengers. Opposite the windows are some forms, one for immigration and one for customs. Fill in the forms and present with your passport at the windows.
Step two: walk round the opposite side for checking into Chile. Ignore the Cambio for ARS$ the spread was 8 for selling to them and 20 for buying off them.
Step three. move down to the end window to complete customs.
Step four: drive around the bus shed to what looks like a car park full of officials and submit to a search.
Step five: stop at the booth driving on the way out to hand over a copy of the customs form filled in at step one.

My dried mushrooms, dried sage and dried basil were confiscated. Peanuts hung in the balance but scraped through.

Took about an hour as I had to unpack the bike and repack again.

If you're stopping at a restaurant in Las Cuevas you could try to change currency with people travelling the other way.

Officials were friendly and it din't take as long as I expected.

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It took us about 30 min, they examined the van in details and open every bag or box we had. They just took the garlic. Be careful if your isolation is made with wood : they told us to put varnish on it.

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Excellent and efficient border station, as mentioned before everything is under one roof if you are going to Chile from Argentina, so you can stamp out of Argentina and cancel your Argentinian import permit as well as stamp into Chile and get a new Chilean import permit all in the same building. They made me eat my salami but cheese is okay. Only took about half an hour to do everything. If you are on a bike as I am, just pas all the qeues and go straight into the building.

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If you heading direction EAST you don't have to stop here. It totally confusing.

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We went to Aconcagua from Chile, after Aconcagua we wanted to go back to Chile again. So at the boarders there was no check, no fruit control nothing!!! I went to ask inside the boarder if it is ok to cross that we want to go just to Aconcagua and back and they said its fine. So no stamps to passports, no tip, no fruit control...At argentinian side at the end of tunnel we get a ticket with our plate and number of persons officer told us to go firstly to aduana (which is after the Aconcagua park!) and then go back to park. But that was too complicated so we skip this :-) second day when we return to Chilean border we just drive through the boarder houses and at the exit where you give the officer paper with all the stamps (from immigration, fruit control, tip..) we just sid to him that we have been only on montaňas and did not leave Chile, show him our passports with chilean stamps from earlier and he waved us away! Yayyyy!

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Our experience with a Big Rig: 1 h traffic jam before the border controll.
45 min confusion because they did not now where we should go with our truck. At the end we had to wait in the line with all the other normal cars (45 min). At the migration we need some minutes and the custom checked with a dog inside but even do not took the milk. All in all 3 hours.

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border crossing was a little bit cunfusing,
because we missed the argentinian checkpoint and only got the chilenian paperwork done for our motorhome.
because of construction work the argentinian building was not clear marked.
about 10 km further in Argentina came another police point and they asked us to return to the border getting the missing stamp.
we did so and passed another 45 minutes in the control area. mh was even checked by a dog.

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Easy crossing. We had fruits, veggies and packages of ham we hadn't eaten before hitting the border but wanted to see how it went so we declared stuff and let them go at it. They took the banana, onions, bag of walnuts , tomatoes...but strangely left our sliced apples (no seeds?! Because they were snacks for the kid?) and left the sliced ham and salami! Those were both taken at the Bolivian chile border. The dog didn't find the second bag of walnuts in my purse in the front seat :) guess they are not trained for that ;)

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didn't bring food: veggies, fruits, nuts, cheakpeas, frijoles, lentils or egs. they also took off a wooden box. friendly but verry strict. took us 30 min.

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If you check the Twitter page called “CFLosLibertador” you can see a daily update on the weather/road conditions of the pass. Super handy!

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Most thorough check whilst traveling in SA for 10 months. Don't bring fresh food, just don't!

To the occasional illicit drug users, don't even think of bringing anything. Not even a smidge. The guys next to me got into a lot of trouble for a little bit of weed, which the dog found after seconds. I had a good laugh, watching them explain themselves.

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Crossed over on a Tuesday at 9.30am. There are now ten border stations for all the car, we think due to the Pope visiting Santiago on the 15th. Beware if you cross around 15th of Jan there will be tens of thousands of Argentinians crossing to see the Pope. Right now it's fast and efficient and took half an hour for everything. Took the few fruit and veggies we had but didn't do a thorough check.

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A bit of a confusing border as order of process seems backwards from usual. Also you’re not stamped exit from Argentina on passport since it is a dual border. Busy border. Follow the lines. Declare and food you bring into Chile they had a cute dog who went crazy when he found an orange that fell under our seat.

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Chile to Argentina: we are European citizens with our own Chilean car, we did not have any problems passing this border,it was easy, we even did not show them documents from notary. They did not check fruit and vegetable.

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we crossed the border here from Argentina into Chile. Unfortunately it was easter weekend and around 400 cars wanted to do the same. So we had to wait in line for 4 1/2 hours. Both customs (argentinien and chilien) are here in one "box" together and they worked fast. So here job was done after 10 minutes. After this paperwork was ready, one other aduana officer checked our car very exactly and we gave him 3 vegis "to make him happy". There was also one dog in standby. All where very friendly .
By the way, if you like to make a good photo from the winding road down to chilie, then stop beside the road just 100 m before curve number 17. there is the best view down.

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we wanted to go from Argentina to chile. when we arrived in uspallata, there was a line and the border was closed!!
after 2hours waiting everyone was send away, the border was closed till the next morning!
we went to town for some groceries and to think what to do.... a hour later the same policeman that send us away came to us to tell us that the border was open....
so don't go to far when send away!
we passed the border around 15.30
there was a long line, but took us 1.5hours in totall.

the car control was easy. we forget to throw the potatoes away, but they didn't find it....

we've heard its normal for this border to close due to bad weather!
dont forget to bring 30 pesos for the toll road in Argentina. we also passed a toll boothin chile, but there was no-one there

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Argentina to chile: just Waiting in line with the car took over an hour. Immigration and Aduana quick. They searched EVERY car and took ALL our dog food (dry food). Apparently cause it was open, but another sag officer said cause there was carne in it. I'm sure they would have taken it either way. I'm glad they didn't see our spice and food box. There is also a toll of 30 pesos/car on the way. No one asked for snow chains, but it's no snow season right now.

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Nobody checked for the chains - though it said all over their website and Twitter page (up pasos fronterizos) that they were obligatory. You can buy them in Mendoza or Uspallata, although bigger sizes are hard to get by in the latter. Renting is an option if you plan to come back soon, there's no such thing as one way-rental. Really convenient crossing, took us only half an hour (afternoon) including a really extensive search of the car.

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easy border crossing. 20 minutes. but note: we had to buy snow-chaines for our car! befor they left us to the pass, they stopped every car to show the chaines. right there is a motel where you can buy snow-chaines in different sizes. we paid for size 16" (235/85R16) 80'000 chil.pesos. only cash in chil.pesos or us dollars.

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6 hrs!!!! If it wasn't for the other comments below, we would have thought this had something to do with the date! :-)

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very efficient all in one border.we arrive around 6 pm. one hour in total for border crossing. Remember you need to pay AR30 toll fee before leaving Argentina. don't spend all your money

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Very long queues in summer with many Argentinans going to Chile. Reports of other people waiting 5 hours or more.

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It took 5 hours!!! Holiday season! The queue reached up to the tunnel and the People were REALLY aggressive when other cars tried to snug in. We were shocked when we saw that. Anyway....the processing at the border was efficient. Be here early or late to avoid the masses in high season!!,

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This is a one-stop shop for all border formalities (Argentina and Chile), but only for those leaving Argentina and entering Chile. There is another similar building on the Argentinian side for those needing to exit Chile and enter Argentina (20kms to the east). Save yourself some headaches and do NOT stop here if you are exiting Chile.

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this is the border to enter Chile, all immigration and aduana here. no need to pass through the one at aconcagua. they confiscate quinoa

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