I originally entered Peru as a tourist with a 90 day visa free entry. And I’d read online that I could just extend the tourist visa for another 90 days. But that advice proved to be incorrect and completely worthless (thanks Google).
Searching for another visa with my local Peruvian lawyer, we stumbled upon the Student Visa while talking to the migration officers in Lima. Migrations actually recommended the student visa over all the other available visas.
The Peruvian student visa is cheap, easy to get and quick to apply for. Here’s everything you need to know to effect a ‘cambio de calidad migratoria‘ and apply for a peruvian student visa online from within Peru!
Applying for a student visa online in Peru
Why I Chose To Apply For A Student Visa In Peru
Having entered Peru as a tourist, with a 90 day visa free entry and having entered into a contract to buy an apartment in Lima, I needed to extend my stay in Peru. Yet, I’d made the mistake of believing what I’d read online.
I found out when I went to extend my tourist visa, that it’s not at all possible to extend your stay as a tourist in Peru unless you’re from Bolivia, Colombia or Ecuador. Unless your passport is issued by one of those three countries, you’ll need to find a different visa solution.
Because my passport is issued by Australia, I wasn’t eligible to extend my tourist visa in Peru. And unlike countries such as Argentina, a border run to renew the visa is somewhat sketchy. Peru is cracking down on tourists who flaunt their visa rules.
Taking a trip to a neighboring country in order to get a new 90 day visa free entry to Peru, can result in disaster. I was advised by migraciones in Lima, that if I did travel to another country only to return, I might be declined entry into Peru.
So, I sat down with the migrations staff and my lawyer to discuss my circumstances and the alternate solutions that were available to me. And what they recommended that I apply for was the peruvian student visa. Peru’s migration office recommended the student visa because it was cheap, quick and easy to apply for.
I was already studying Spanish in Peru anyway, so it was the perfect choice for me!
How To Apply For A Student Visa In Peru Online
Now, basically any course of study in Peru qualifies you for the student visa. With the only study requirement being that the institution at which you study must be recognized by the Peruvian Ministry of Education, known locally as SUNEDU.
To actually apply for the peruvian student visa you can’t just enrol in a random language class with any institution in Peru. Or with a private tutor. The institution at which you enrol, must be government accredited. And that disqualifies all of the small private school and institutes that you so often see all over Peru.
I’m enrolled at the language institute that’s a part of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) called PUCP idiomas, but I will be changing universities becasue PUCP is useless at maintaining courses. I’m enrolled in what’s called ‘español para extranjeros‘, or spanish for foreigners.
Now, there are a few universities that actually run the ‘spanish for foreigners’ type courses and that are government accredited. What you need to look for when choosing a school is the website address. It should end in .edu.pe.
From my personal experience with this process and all of these universities, I’d recommend the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) and Universidad del Pacífico over PUCP for students wanting to study spanish in Peru. PUCP will repeatedly cancel courses without warning.
Meaning you could get to the end of the first few lessons with PUCP and boom, the course is cancelled. Then you need to wait until the following month to use your credit and they might not run a course the following month. Basically, PUCP Idiomas is a poorly run institute and it shows in their loss of world rankings.
Yet no matter what school you choose, you should specifically ask the school to confirm to you that they are capable of issuing you with an enrolment certificate for migraciones. Called a ‘Constancia de Matrícula‘. If they don’t have a .edu.pe website address and they avoid answering yes to the question about issuing you with a certificate, avoid them and find another school.
Note: as long as the institution is approved and they issue you with the certificate of enrollment, it does not matter what you’re studying. When I first enrolled I needed the certificate quickly. And the only available course that day was basic english online. So, as a native english speaker, I enrolled in the basic english online course, got the certificate and I used that for the visa.
Who can apply for a student visa in Peru?
Anyone enrolled in a course with a government accredited university or institute in Peru can apply online for the peruvian student visa. If you’re in Peru and enrolled in a government accredited institution, you can apply online for a peruvian student visa via a ‘cambio de calidad migratoria‘.
The ‘cambio de calidad migratoria‘ is a change of migration status. And you have two options. You can apply for either:
- Cambio de calidad migratoria formación temporal (3 months)
- Cambio de calidad migratoria formación residente (12 months)
The main difference between the two different types of peruvian student visas is the length. The ‘temporal’ variant lasts 3 months. And the ‘residente’ version lasts 12 months and is extendable.
The second difference is the price to apply. The ‘temporal’ variant costs about s/22 and the ‘residente’ version costs about s/162. So, a s/140 ($38 USD) difference in price between the two student visa types.
Tip: I would recommend always applying for the longer variant. Even if you don’t think that you’ll need that long in Peru to complete your course of study. It’s better to have the added length and not need it, than to need the added length and not have it.
What you will need to apply for a student visa in Peru
To apply for the student visa you will need PDF versions of the documents that you’re going to submit for the particular peruvian student visa that you’ve chosen to apply for. And the only major difference between the paperwork for the two visa classes is the overseas (home country) police check.
If you’re applying for the migratoria formación residente 12 month student visa in Peru, you’ll need a police clearance certificate from your home country. Whereas the shorter student visa in Peru only requires a sworn statement that you don’t have a criminal record.
The documents that you’ll need to upload, in order to apply for either student visa in Peru, are:
- Passport (original and PDF copies);
- A copy of your TAM Virtual which is your digital visa stamp (available here);
- Enrollment certificate proving you are studying at an approved institution in Peru;
- Interpol Ficha de canje internacional that costs s/31.50 (available here);
- Home country police clearance or sworn statement (available here);
- Sworn statement that you have sufficient financial resources to fund your studies in Peru (available here);
- Receipt for the payment of your student visa application fee via pagalo.pe
Note: I recommend that you log into the Peruvian migration portal a week or two before your application and make a note of all the documents that you will need to upload. That way, you can have them all ready on the day that you log in to actually apply for the student visa.
Where to apply for a student visa in Peru
All applications for student visas in Peru are handled via the Migraciones Peru digital portal. It’s not a paper based process and you will need to apply online through the portal. The portal can be found on the ‘agencia virtual’ website.
How much does it cost to apply for a student visa in Peru?
With the application fee, Interpol fee, course fee for one month and the fee for the enrolment certificate to prove that I was studying, I paid about s/535 Peruvian Soles. Which at the time was equivalent to $143 USD.
My cost break down was as follows:
- Application fee – s/161.40
- Interpol clearance – s/31.50
- PUCP Language course – s/310 (per month)
- Certificate of enrollment – s/32.50
On top of the above fees, I paid $56 Australian dollars for my Australian Federal Police clearance certificate. Now, if you’re applying for the shorter 3 month formación temporal student visa in Peru, you don’t need the foreign police check. And the visa application fee is s/140 ($38 USD) cheaper.
Note: You will need to get an apostille for your police check and then have it translated into spanish. To get an apostille, contact your local embassy and have them do it for you. Once you’ve got the apostille, go and get a PDF scan of the certificate with the apostille and have it translated. Make sure that you use a translator that is registered in Peru.
How long is the Peruvian student visa valid for?
Depending on which of the two student visas you choose to apply for in Peru, you’ll be granted either 3 or 12 months. The two visas are:
- Cambio de calidad migratoria formación temporal (3 months)
- Cambio de calidad migratoria formación residente (12 months)
How long does it take to process a student visa in Peru?
My student visa took approximately 6 months to process. The timeframe from when I applied to when I was notified that my student resident visa was granted and that I could pick up my Carné de Extranjería, was about 6 months in total.
Yet, once the completed application was submitted for processing, I was legally allowed to stay in the country. So, in essence, I got an 18 month stay in Peru for the price of 12 months. Once you submit your visa application there are no daily fines for ‘overstaying’, because you’re legally allowed to be here in Peru!
It’s also worth mentioning here, that if you need to leave the country while they’re processing your student visa, there’s a seperate application you can apply for via the migraciones online portal.
If you make an application to leave and return, a week in advance of when you need it, you can leave the country and then return legally while they’re still processing your student visa application.
Do I need to do anything else once my student visa is granted?
You need to keep migraciones informed of any changes in your details or circumstances. For example, I changed addresses. And I needed to submit an amendment to my details via the migraciones portal.
The cost to change my address was s/22 ($6). And that included the issuance of a new Carné de Extranjería with the updated address on it.
If you fail to keep migraciones informed of any changes in your name, address, passport number or other details, this can lead to a daily fine. And it could jeopardize your future applications for extensions or residency. So, if you do change address or any of the other details that you’ve given migraciones do change, update them via the online portal.
When Applying For A Student Visa Be Aware Of This!
Now, when you’re applying for a student visa there’s two main things you should be made aware of. The first thing to be aware of is that the 12 month student visa called the formación residente comes with access to a Carné de Extranjería. Which is a sort of local ID card for foreigners and it’s very handy to have.
The Carné de Extranjería will make signing documents easier. And it will make doing things like opening a local bank account, getting discount cards for shops and a whole host of other daily life procedures both quicker and easier. And it will save you money in the longer term. So, do consider your potential future circumstances and whether you’d benefit from having a Carné de Extranjería when choosing which visa to apply for.
The second consideration is the Interpol clearance called the Ficha de canje internacional. On the day of your appointment, the Interpol Peru staff will likely task you with sending a printout of your fingerprints and a money order to your home country. This is unnecessary and is not required for the visa.
So, my advice when dealing with Interpol is to take a printed copy of the receipt for your home country police check with you, to the interpol appointment. That way, you can distract them with it and they won’t insist you run down the road to get a peruvian money order, to post with their copy of your fingerprints.
Note: I’m Australian and I know for a fact that the AFP won’t accept a request for a fingerprint check that’s on the wrong form. And I know they won’t accept a money order from Peru as payment. I avoided the problem by simply taking a printed copy of my Australian Federal Police receipt for payment.
Is There A Lawyer I Can Hire To Apply On My Behalf?
The lawyer that I personally use in Lima Peru is Dr Lara. He found the visa, helped me get all of my documents in order and was monitoring the whole situation. He even accompanied me when I was visiting each of the universities that I was considering enrolling in. Having a local lawyer, did make the process smoother.
Dr Lara is also handling my real estate transactions and company formation in Peru.
Where Can I Ask Questions And Get More Information?
Because I get a lot of emails about this process, I’ve created a facebook group for digital nomads, foreign students and others that is dedicated to this topic. If you want to ask questions about changing from a tourist visa to a student visa in Peru, and explore your options for staying longer than 90 days in the country, join the facebook group.
Digital Nomads and Residency Options: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalnomadslimaperu
