Border crossings Chile Argentina
 

Wondering what the border crossings are like for people riding the route south through Patagonia? Are they tough, long queue, can bikes ride to front or need to fall in line, just what I should expect when I ride and time I should allow for each one.

Generally very easy. Allow one hour and you should have time to spare. Process is very standard:
1. Go to outgoing countries immigration get passport stamped.
2. Go to outgoing countries customs hand in your Temporary Import Papers (TIP)
3. Cross no man's land (50m or 20km depending on where you are)
4. Go to incoming countries immigration and get passport stamped.
5. Go to incoming countries customs and get TIP (this is usually the slowest step as it involves checking your vehicle paperwork and if it is not in Spanish that takes time)

And yes bikes go usually go to the head of the queue.

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The main crossing near Santiago, The Christo Redentor can certainly be busy. And I tried to pass cars with my bike once but was not allowed to do that by the guards.

If it is long lines depends on which day also. I came from Argentina to Chile at the Osorno crossing but it was a public holiday and it was kilometers of argentinian vehicls lines at the border that day. But I was allowed to pass a good bit of vehicles that day but the crossing still took 2-3 hours.

But in general borders between the two mentioned countries are quite easy to cross and many places both countries have their offices in the same building so all is done a «4 in 1» operation.

As above, the key is to avoid holidays, some of which are fairly obscure. This can save a few hours per crossing, which adds up when making several crossings in a day (as you do in southern Patagonia).

It's also worth knowing in advance where the departure and entry offices are located. Yes, they're often in the same building, but when they're not it's easy to miss one or the other, and this might cause problems--including but not limited to having to backtrack for, in at least one case, a couple of hours.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Many thanks.

I will have a bike registered in Chile and will be using a minor crossing leaving going East from Pucon.

Sounds not too bad but I shall of course factor in some delays.