Set up your company in Chile in the right order
Most problems in a market entry do not come from breaking rules, but from taking decisions in the wrong order. We put the entry in sequence —structure, incorporation, capital, people and permits— and then stay on as your legal department in Chile.
Four questions that come before any filing
Structures that only half work, and contracts that have to be redone, almost always start the same way: the company was incorporated first and thought through afterwards. Our Soft Landing starts the other way round.
- 01
Will you start operating right away, or test the market first?
Setting up and exploring are not the same thing. If you are still validating demand, it is often better to start with a distributor, an agreement with a local partner or cross-border sales, and to incorporate once the decision is made. Incorporating too early creates maintenance costs and administrative obligations you did not yet need.
- 02
Who represents you in Chile, and in what capacity?
Every company needs representatives with clearly defined powers, and for tax purposes an attorney-in-fact resident in Chile is required. Deciding who signs, within what limits, and how the parent controls it is a governance decision, not a filing. Leaving it late is the most common source of friction with banks and authorities.
- 03
Which employment decisions come first, and which can wait?
Hiring your first employee in Chile triggers immediate obligations: a written contract, social security contributions, internal rules. If the initial team is coming from abroad, the order is visa first, contract second. And if you have not incorporated yet, how you engage whoever is already working the market is a decision that needs judgement.
- 04
Will your structure hold for the next 12 to 24 months?
The structure that works for invoicing the first contract does not always work for raising capital, bringing in local shareholders or repatriating profits. Thinking about scalability before incorporating avoids the most expensive part of a badly done setup: redoing it with the business already running.
From the decision to enter, to an operation that runs
Five stages, one point of contact. You do not have to take all of them: some companies arrive with the structure settled, and others start from the question of whether to incorporate at all.
Entry strategy and structure
We work out the right vehicle with you —an SpA, a branch or a subsidiary— based on your business plan, your corporate structure upstream and how you expect to scale. The SpA is the standard vehicle for foreign investment in Chile, but it is not the automatic answer: first we understand the business.
Incorporation
Incorporating the company, obtaining tax IDs for the entity and its foreign shareholders, registering the start of activities with the tax authority, granting powers of attorney, and support in opening the bank account. We prepare the complete file so that each filing goes through first time.
Employment and immigration
Employment contracts compliant with Chilean law, visas and permits for the team coming from abroad, the mandatory internal policies, and the design of the first compensation packages. The order matters: some decisions have to be taken before the first hire.
Compliance, permits and assets
Sector and municipal permits for your industry, trademark registration before INAPI before somebody else gets there, adaptation of your terms and contracts to Chilean law —consumer rules included— and preparation for Law 21,719 on personal data.
Ongoing operation
The Soft Landing ends where the operation begins, and from there we continue under the OGC model: Cubillos Lama becomes your legal department in Chile, with a predictable monthly fee and direct access to partners. Your parent company has a single legal counterpart in the country.
Why Cubillos Lama
A Soft Landing that does not end at incorporation
Incorporation is the easy part. What makes an entry work is the order of the decisions and what happens afterwards, once the business is actually running.
Sequence before checklist
Any firm can incorporate a company. The hard part is deciding what to do first: when to incorporate, how to be represented, what to commit to and what to postpone. A Soft Landing done well is not about speeding up filings, it is about entering with flexibility and not locking in the structure too early.
Business judgement, not just law
Our partners come from the legal departments of large companies. We know what a market entry looks like from the inside: what matters to the parent, what worries the bank, and what the commercial director needs to sign next week.
We coordinate, we do not just draft
A Soft Landing involves a notary, a bank, an accountant and sometimes a translator or a consulate, on top of the lawyer. We do not leave you with a memo and a list of pending items: we coordinate every front and tell you what is missing and who it depends on, until the company is operational.
We stay on after the setup
The Soft Landing ends where the operation begins, and that is where the real problems appear. Under the OGC model we continue as your external legal department from day one, without you having to build an in-house team until the size of the operation justifies it.
Start with the guide we wrote for this
Our fifteen-chapter guide to the legal, tax and regulatory framework for doing business in Chile: corporate structures, foreign investment, taxation, employment and immigration, personal data and more. Available as a web page and as a PDF, in Spanish and English.
Read the report →Frequently asked questions
What is a Soft Landing?
It is the process of establishing a foreign company in a new market: defining the legal structure, incorporating the vehicle, hiring the team and leaving the operation compliant with local rules. A Soft Landing done well puts those decisions in order so the company can start operating quickly without compromising its long-term structure.
How long does it take to set up a company in Chile?
Incorporating an SpA is fast —it can be ready within days— but the full setup takes longer: tax IDs for the foreign shareholders, registration of the start of activities and opening the bank account usually take a few weeks if the file is well prepared. Most delays come from parent-company documents that are badly apostilled or powers of attorney that are wrongly granted, and both are prevented by preparing the complete file before starting.
Do I need a local partner to incorporate in Chile?
No. Chile does not require local partners: an SpA can have a single foreign shareholder, whether an individual or a company. What is required is a representative resident in Chile for tax purposes, and that is solved with a local attorney-in-fact without anyone having to relocate.
Which is better: an SpA, a branch or a subsidiary?
In most cases, a subsidiary incorporated as an SpA: it limits the parent's liability, it is flexible to administer, and it is the vehicle banks and counterparties know. A branch keeps the parent directly liable for operations in Chile, and is usually reserved for industries where regulation requires it or the business justifies it. The right answer depends on your structure and your plan, and it is the first stage of the service.
Can I test the market before incorporating?
Yes, and often that is the right thing to do. You can sell through a distributor or a commercial representative, operate cross-border, or structure a pilot with a local partner, and incorporate once the decision to stay is made. Part of the Soft Landing is precisely deciding when to incorporate, not only how.
What happens after the setup?
That is your call. You can stop at the setup, or continue under the OGC model: Cubillos Lama operates as your legal department in Chile, with continuous coverage, a predictable monthly fee and direct access to partners. That is the substantive difference from a traditional setup: we do not hand you an incorporated company, we leave you with a legal operation that works.
Do you work in English with the parent company?
Yes. We work in Spanish and in English with boards and parent-company teams, and our Doing Business Chile 2026 report is available in both languages. Deliverables for the parent are prepared in whichever language your organisation uses.
If your company already operates in Chile, what you need is not a Soft Landing but our continuous coverage: the OGC model, where Cubillos Lama acts as your legal department with a predictable monthly fee. And if you are still weighing up the decision, start with Doing Business Chile 2026, our guide to the legal framework for operating in the country.
Are you weighing up entering the Chilean market?
Tell us what stage the decision is at. We will tell you straight what should be settled first, what can wait, and how long it would take to get your operation running.
Tell us what your business needs.