Peru Guide /Peruvian Visa Types /Peruvian Student Visa

Peruvian Student Visa

A Guide to Peruvian Visas

Foreigners planning to study at a Peruvian educational institution or to do an internship / apprenticeship (without payment!) at a Peruvian company can apply for a student visa to stay legally in Peru during their studies or training.

Depending on the length of your studies in Peru, a temporary or resident student visa is issued:

  • a temporary student visa, called Formación temporal, is intended for studies / (pre-)professional internships in Peru lasting less than 12 months; however, usually temporary student visas are only issued for 90 or 180 days and then can be extended for the same number of days.
  • resident student visa, called Formación residente, is issued for studies that take longer than 12 months; it is valid for one year and then can be renewed for another year.

But, be aware that in some cases, “short-term” students and participants of study abroad programs don’t have to apply for a student visa at all but can do their studies on a tourist visa. So, best check with the Peruvian university, the organization of your exchange program or nearest Peruvian consulate if this exception might apply to you.

Where to apply for a student visa

Officially, you can apply for a student visa if you are still outside Peru or if you are already in the country, for example, as a tourist.

However, while for decades Peruvian consulates abroad handled temporary and residence visa applications from giving information and handing out the right forms to fill in, to accepting the application and, if approved, issuing the visa, since August 2021, the Peruvian diplomatic missions abroad only handle tourist and business visa applications and refer foreigners, who want to apply for a temporary or residence visa, to Migraciones in Peru.

So, students and interns, who can enter the country visa-free (so, who don’t have to apply for a “real” tourist visa at a Peruvian consulate), should come to Peru as a tourist and then change their immigration status – make a so called Cambio de calidad migratoria (as opposed to a Solicitud de calidad migratoria if you apply from outside Peru) – at Migraciones.

Those students and interns, who cannot enter Peru visa-free (so, who must apply for a “real” tourist visa at a Peruvian consulate), officially must apply for a student visa from outside Peru; a complicated, lengthy, and sometimes frustrating process. We explain in detail how it’s done in our article “Peruvian residence visa application from abroad”.

Translation of foreign documents

If you apply for a resident student visa, you hopefully brought the criminal record check with Apostille/legalization from your home country that now needs to be translated into Spanish. Even though officially no longer required and a simple translation should be enough (see Decreto Legislativo 1272 about simplified administration procedures) we highly recommend to use a certified translator in Peru, a so-called traductor publico juramentado. You find lists of these government-approved translators on the Peruvian government website. Just click under point 3 on the language of your original document and the list of translators for your language appears.

If your documents have an Apostille and were translated by one of the certified translators on the list according to the above mentioned Decreto Legislativo Migraciones should accept them without problems. However, most translators are still recommending an additional legalization of the translation by the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RREE), as sometimes Migraciones doesn’t apply the simplified administration procedures, rejects documents without the additional RREE legalization and explicitly asks the applicant to upload the apostilled and translated foreign documents this time with another legalization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RREE) in Lima or a RREE branch in the provinces.

So, if you want to skip the additional legalization by RREE, we highly recommend to keep an eye on your Migraciones electronic mailbox for notifications from Migraciones (see below)

If your documents aren’t apostilled but legalized they must be legalized again after the translation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RREE) in Lima or a RREE branch in the provinces.

Interpol

And before you can even start any temporary or resident visa application process, you first have to get the so-called “Ficha de Canje Internacional” from Interpol in Peru. Find a detailed description of how it’s done in our article “Interpol – Ficha de Canje Internacional”.

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