Truth in Visa: Peru

I was noodling around on the Arequipa Expat’s Facebook page yesterday, when I read a post one woman had written about having only been given a 90 day visa, when she came into the country, though she had received 183 day visa in the past.

Before coming to Peru, I researched as much as I could on-line and came away with the assumption, that my visa was good for a maximum of 183 days with in one calender year. Just to be sure I checked my visa stamp. and sure enough it was marked for 90 days.

I started asking others on the Expat page for information on what I could do. One person gave me links to the Migration website . I wasn’t able to make heads or tails of that. Another person suggested that I could leave the country and come back in to reset my visa. Someone else was quick to point out that border runs no longer worked. I was advised that if I just ignored it, I would be charged about $1 USD per day that I was over when I left.

I couldn’t do this, because I am leaving Peru for five days in February on a trip that has already been paid for. If I were to leave with an overage on my visa, I might not be able to get back in again. I started looking into how to renew my visa. Everyone just recommended doing it on line. As I wrote above, the governmental website was confusing.

To complicate things, for some reason I thought that I had come into Peru on October 15, and that I had already overstayed my visa. Several people told me that you cannot extend your visa if you are past your last day. I was advised that I needed to extend my visa in the 10 days before the expiration date. I was trying to figure out what to do when I realized that I had come into Peru on October 23, not October 15. I still had five days to get the extension through.

It was too late at night to do anything at the local Migraciones office, but I mapped out the route to get there, for the next day. I figured that since I didn’t have anything better to be doing I should do some more research about how to extend my visa. I didn’t find anything about going to the Migraciones office, but eventually I found a website, which gave me the guidance I needed to navigate the migration website. (Click here to access the website that I am cribbing a lot of this information from.)

I filled out the paperwork following website’s step by step directions. The only problem was that it didn’t explain how to pay for the extension in the bulleted list. I later found this information was one section above the one I was reading. Here is a step by step guide of how I got my visa renewed online.

How to Extend Your Peruvian Tourist Visa Online as of January 16, 2020

First make sure you are ready to pay for the extension. It only costs S/ 11.70 soles (about $3.50 US) to extend your visa. Which might be for cheaper than paying the fine as you leave. You can pay this at any branch of the Banco de la Nación. Tell them you need to pay for the Prórroga de Permanencia, which has the code 1857.

I walked down to the bank as soon as it opened on the day after I realized that had a problem. The line was very long. Luckily I had written out in Spanish what I needed, because I got rather tongue tied when it was my turn at the teller. Make sure the the receipt is for s/11.70. I paid in local cash for the receipt. Everyone at the bank was very nice and while I was in line, the ladies around me were making me practice my Spanish.

Keep the receipt safe. ( Before going to the bank, I tried to do the payment though the banks online service, but you can only set up an online account if you have a local phone number.) Once you have your receipt you are ready to fill out the extension request form.

When I got home, I filed for my extension and it was all done with it in less than 15 minutes. My landlady printed the extension letter out for me so I could put it in my money belt if I should be asked to show it. I am not keeping it with my passport because, I am always taking my passport in and out for ID, and am afraid of dropping the letter.

The website, which the Facebook posters sent me to was  Prórroga de Permanencia en Línea (PRPL) page at the Migraciones website.

First, click on the button that says Generar Prórroga (or click here). This will give you an online fillable form. If you manage to get a PDF form instead, keep looking until you find the fillable form

• Documento — Select the type of document you used when you entered Peru, probably your passport.
• Número de Documento —  Enter your passport number.
• Nacionalidad — Select your nationality from the drop-down menu.
  (This was difficult for me. I didn’t see Estados Unidos. Google to the rescue, search phrase: “what is the United States called in Peru.” What I needed to find was EE.UU. I guess that is to keep from confusing it with EU.)
• Primer Apellido — Your first surname. If you only have one surname, then enter it here.
• Segundo Apellido — Your second surname, not your middle name. Leave this blank if you only have one surname (it’s not a required field).
• Nombres — Your given name(s), exactly as they appear on your passport. (If you have a middle name, it goes here after your first name.)
• Fecha de Nacimiento — Your date of birth.
• E-mail– Your email address.
• Días Prorroga Solicitados — The amount of additional days you are requesting. This should be up to a maximum of 90, as long as you’re not exceeding the 183-day maximum. If you have asked for too many a red statement will pop up that will tell you how many days you can ask for. You might have to put in less than this number to get it to go through.
• Once you’re done, fill in the captcha and hit the Continuar button.

This will bring you to the page where you fill in your payment ifromation

Your extension letter can be printed out from the website, and you should also get an email with an attached copy, to the email address you provided.

Let me say again, if you need good information about Peru, check out New Peruvian, website. I have got it bookmarked. Another great resource is The Visa Project.