- Many people were left without a response to their requests for passport and apostille procedures | Photo: Agencia Uno
The closure of the Venezuelan Embassy in Chile affects thousands of Venezuelans residing in the country, especially migrants who entered through unauthorized crossings in recent years and who do not have identification documents.
According to Mary Montesinos, director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Proyecto Tepuy, there are at least 200,000 Venezuelans in Chile who entered through irregular crossings and who, in the hope of regularization, are processing their passports.
“(In addition) in order to leave through an authorized crossing, they must prove their identity in some way so that they can later pay the fine (for having entered through illegal crossings) and (the Chilean authorities) give them permission to leave the country,” Montesinos explained exclusively to The DiaryHe stressed that other affected people are those who need to carry out residency procedures in Chile, which requires having a valid passport.
What is Project Tepuy
The NGO of Venezuelans in Chile helps the migrant community in educational matters, through online training, such as diplomas and certified training.
Its members also actively participate in different activities related to Venezuelan migrants living in the southern nation.
These procedures were suspended indefinitely from July 29, 2024, after the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, announced the withdrawal of its officials from the consular headquartersfollowing President Gabriel Boric’s rejection of the July 28 election results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Among the Venezuelans whose paperwork was halted is Yessenia Santaella González, who arrived in the southern country in June 2018 with her two children. That year, she traveled in a hurry because her passport was about to expire in January 2019, which would prevent her from entering Chile.
“I was unable to update it (the passport) in Venezuela due to the high cost and the cumbersome process. I was hoping to do it here when the economic situation improved, as well as to apostille my university law degree. My appointment for the apostille was scheduled for August 8, 2024, now (due to the closure of the embassy) the plans to continue my studies are postponed for a longer time,” Santaella said exclusively for The Diary.
The Venezuelan woman considered the work of the Venezuelan Embassy in Chile to be “inefficient” given the difficulty in carrying out consular procedures. She recalled that in August 2023 she had obtained the request for a passport appointment for her mother (who arrived in December 2018) and her youngest son, but in October of that year she realized that there was no record of the procedure for her son on the website of the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Immigration (Saime).
“I went to the Consulate on the day of the appointment, November 28, with all the necessary paperwork, because it was also my mother’s turn. When they attended to my son, the Consulate official’s response was that he did not appear in the system and that the solution was to go to Caracas in person with the child and his father because they could not solve anything here (in Chile). The payment of 150 dollars that I made was not returned to me,” she complained.
A similar situation is experienced by Venezuelan Juan Pablo Ramírez, who reported irregularities in the processing of his document.
Ramírez attended the appointment to have his passport photo taken on June 23, 2024, and paid a total of $380, including the cost of the document and consular fees; however, before July 28, he realized that the Saime system had cancelled his application.
“(With the closure of the embassy) many Venezuelans are left in limbo and our right to a free nationality is being restricted. I was in the process of applying for Chilean nationality and (although) the Immigration Department gave the information to allow Venezuelans to carry out their procedures with expired passports, it does not mention the application for nationality,” said Ramírez. He added that he made a complaint to Saime, but has not received any response.
No response for the withdrawal of the passport already processed
Citizen Roberto Matos said in an interview for The Diary that “it is assumed” that his document is at the consular office in the southern country, and he was just waiting for the date to pick it up, but they announced the closure of the embassy.
“I had an appointment to pick up my passport on August 26. Now there is a lot of uncertainty. I have had the document expired for several years and I had to go through several procedures because the system did not allow me the opportunity to get it in Chile,” he explained.
Matos recalled that on several occasions when the appointment to process the passport was approaching, the system changed the date. As in other cases, he has not received any further response from the Venezuelan authorities.
Mary Montesinos mentioned that it is unknown how the delivery of the documents that were already available at the embassy will be carried out. The staff that is still working at the headquarters does not have the credentials to make the passport deliveries.
“I understand that all the consular staff left and the only one left is the administrative staff, who do not have that function (issuing documents). The only way is that they took them (the passports) to another country and sent them from there (…), we have to see how they are going to resolve it,” he commented.
The latest information from the Venezuelan Embassy in Chile
On July 29, the Venezuelan Embassy in Chile announced the indefinite suspension of all consular procedures, through a post on Instagram.
He indicated that the procedures carried out up to July 25 would be sent through the company Solvenex, while foreigners who were in the process of visas would be contacted for the delivery of their passports.
Children are also affected
Montesinos mentioned the case of more than 10,000 Venezuelan children living in Chile whose parents have not been able to regularize their immigration status, since they need to apostille their birth certificates. The process is carried out in person at the embassy.
“(Children) are the ones who are being affected the most, because they will be left without a document that the (Chilean immigration) service can confirm that they are the children of these people,” added Montesinos.
She said that there are parents who have been trying to complete the process to apply for a visa for children and adolescents in Chile for two years and have not yet been able to find a solution.
Requests from Venezuelan NGOs to Chilean authorities
On July 31, several Venezuelan NGOs in Chile asked the government of President Gabriel Boric to reinstate Resolution 2087 of April 2019, which extended the validity of Venezuelan passports for two years, with the aim of making procedures for migrants more flexible.
“Given the regime’s decision to leave Venezuelans in the open in Chile, we believe that the implementation of this measure could be of great help to the Venezuelan community, the largest in the country,” reads the letter signed by 20 NGOs addressed to Boric.
That same day, the director of the Chilean National Migration Service, Luis Eduardo Thayer, announced that Venezuelans will be allowed to leave the country with expired passports, regardless of their immigration status. This measure would only apply to trips to Venezuela.
On August 7, Thayer announced in an interview with the Chilean media 24 Hours Venezuelans who are carrying out any immigration procedure will be able to do so with their expired passport. However, NGOs have demanded that these measures be published in an official document that ratifies the announcement with details of the same.
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2024-08-14 18:27:29
