eSIM for Chileans traveling to the USA — No roaming from Chile

In summary: To travel from Chile to the United States without relying on roaming from Entel, Movistar, or WOM, the most practical option is a Chilean USA eSIM that is installed before leaving Santiago and activated upon landing. You'll have local data from the first minute, your Chilean number will continue to receive calls and SMS, and you'll avoid bill shock upon your return.

If you're traveling from Chile to the United States—whether it's a shopping trip to Miami, an exchange in New York, or a West Coast road trip—you've probably already experienced (or know someone who has) activating your Chilean carrier's roaming "just in case" and getting a shock when you check your bill upon your return. International roaming from Entel, Movistar, and WOM is intended for occasional emergencies, not for ten days of daily Google Maps, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

The alternative that more and more Chileans are using is to install a specific eSIM for the United States before boarding the plane. In this guide, we'll look at how much sense it makes compared to roaming, how many GB it's advisable to buy, how to install it step-by-step from Santiago, and what details almost everyone misses the first time they travel.

Why your Chilean carrier's roaming isn't worth it in the US

Data roaming plans from Chilean carriers for the United States are usually charged in blocks of days or megabytes, and once the contracted block is used up, the price per additional MB skyrockets. If you don't control your consumption, it's easy to end up paying much more than expected for a few days of normal browsing. Added to this, many roaming packages limit speed once a certain daily threshold is exceeded, so you can end up with a slow connection just when you need it most—for example, uploading photos with saturated hotel Wi-Fi or trying to hail an Uber during peak hours in Manhattan.

If you want to understand exactly what you're paying for when you activate that service, we explain it in detail in what data roaming is. And if you're wondering whether to keep your carrier's roaming or switch to a travel eSIM, here's a complete comparison: eSIM vs. roaming.

With a data eSIM for the United States, the approach is different: you buy a block of GB in advance, you know exactly how much you're going to spend before leaving Chile, and you browse at the speed of the local network without relying on what your Chilean carrier has negotiated with a partner in the US.

What an eSIM is and how it frees you up in the US

An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a digital profile installed on the phone's chip itself, without a physical card to insert or lose at the bottom of your suitcase. It's downloaded by scanning a QR code and, once installed, coexists with your physical Chilean SIM: the phone can have both active at the same time and choose which one to use for data and which for calls and SMS.

For a trip from Chile to the United States, the typical flow is this: you buy the plan on purasim.com before leaving, you receive the QR by email, you install the profile from home using your usual Wi-Fi (it takes about five minutes) and leave it there, inactive. Upon landing in the United States, you activate the mobile data of that eSIM from Settings, and in seconds you have coverage from a local network—usually AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, depending on the provider your eSIM works with. Your Chilean number continues to receive calls and SMS normally; only where the data traffic comes from changes.

Is your Chilean phone compatible with eSIM?

Most iPhones from XS onwards, Samsung Galaxy S20 onwards, and Google Pixel from 3 onwards come with eSIM pre-installed. What many Chileans overlook is that a phone purchased with a plan from Entel, Movistar, or WOM might come with factory restrictions that, in some models and regions, block the installation of additional eSIM profiles even if the hardware supports it. Before buying your plan, go to Settings → Mobile Data (or Connections → SIM Card Manager on Android) and check if the option "Add eSIM" or "Add data plan" appears. If it doesn't appear, contact your carrier to confirm if the device is unlocked for eSIM; it's a quick process, but it's better to resolve it in advance than at Santiago airport ten minutes before boarding.

How many GB a Chilean needs for their trip to the United States

The amount of data to purchase primarily depends on the type of trip, not just the number of days. A shopping trip to Miami with Google Maps, social media, and an occasional video for the family WhatsApp group uses significantly less data than a business trip with daily video calls or an academic exchange where you use your mobile as your primary connection for classes and online procedures.

If you have doubts about how to stretch the GB you purchased—for example, by disabling automatic updates or limiting the streaming quality for Spotify and Netflix—check out these tips for saving data on a trip with an eSIM. And if your plan runs short halfway through your trip, most data eSIMs allow you to top up without reinstalling anything, so there's no need to overbuy "just in case" on the first day.

How to install and activate your eSIM before flying from Santiago

It's most convenient to get everything ready at home, calmly, instead of struggling with the saturated Wi-Fi at Santiago airport at the last minute. The complete process has five steps:

1. Confirm your device supports eSIM by following the compatibility point above.
2. Buy the plan for the United States on purasim.com, choosing the GB according to the table above.
3. Install the profile from home, with stable Wi-Fi, by scanning the QR code that arrives by email. If you have any doubts during installation, the detailed step-by-step is available at how to install an eSIM.
4. Give the line a recognizable name (e.g., "PuraSim USA") and configure it only for data, leaving calls and SMS on your usual Chilean line.
5. Activate it upon landing: you can keep it installed and inactive throughout the flight, and as soon as you touch down in the United States, go to Settings → Mobile Data and activate the eSIM data line.

Less than a minute after activation, you'll have coverage without having to find a phone store or wait in line at your destination airport.

Chile-USA flights: when to activate it

LATAM operates direct flights from Santiago to several US destinations, including Miami, New York (JFK), and Los Angeles, and American Airlines also covers the Santiago-Miami route. Whatever your flight, the eSIM remains inactive throughout the journey: there's no point in activating it while you're in airplane mode over the Pacific or Caribbean. The correct time is after getting off the plane, already in the immigration area or on the way to baggage claim, when the phone naturally starts looking for a local network.

An important nuance for flights with a layover (e.g., via Lima, Bogotá, or Panama): if the layover is long and you also want data in that intermediate country, you would need a different eSIM for that layover, because the United States plan typically does not cover networks in other countries unless it's explicitly regional.

Paperwork many Chileans forget before flying to the US

The eSIM is just one piece of the trip. There are a couple of procedures that are always left until the end and should be resolved in advance:

• ESTA: Chile is part of the Visa Waiver Program, so for short tourist stays, the ESTA authorization is processed online instead of a full visa. Do it several days in advance, not the night before: if there's any problem with your passport data, you need time to correct it.
• Notify your bank: many Chilean banks, for security reasons, block cards that start operating in the United States without prior notice. A message or call before you leave prevents you from being without a card in the middle of dinner.
• Be careful with public WiFi when doing banking transactions: airports and hotels are typical points for insecure open networks. If you're going to access your bank or make payments, it's better to do it with your eSIM data instead of the lobby WiFi, or add an extra layer of security; we explain it in eSIM, VPN, and privacy when traveling.
• Travel insurance: in the United States, any medical attention without insurance can be very expensive. It's not part of connectivity, but it's one of those procedures that is most postponed and most regretted not having purchased.

What almost no one tells you about eSIM in the US

Beyond the official step-by-step, there are details that are only learned by traveling or carefully reading traveler forums:

• Not all areas have the same coverage. In national parks like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, or rural areas of Utah and Wyoming, the signal of any carrier—including traditional ones—can disappear for long stretches of road. Download offline maps for these routes before you lose coverage, not when you already need it.
• The plan's countdown starts with the first data usage, not upon installation. You can install the eSIM in Chile weeks in advance without the counter activating; it only starts when you actually connect to data for the first time.
• If the phone doesn't connect automatically, try manual network selection. Sometimes the mobile takes time to automatically find the local partner's network. Going to Settings → Mobile Data → Network and manually choosing the available network resolves it in seconds.
• Keep your physical Chilean SIM even if you're not using it for data. If your device allows for dual physical SIMs, don't remove it completely: it's still your backup if something goes wrong with the eSIM and you need to call your Chilean carrier.
• Santiago airport's WiFi gets saturated during peak hours. This is the number one reason why people "struggle" to install the eSIM just before boarding. Install it at home the day before and arrive relaxed.
• Calling Chile doesn't depend on the data eSIM. To talk to family, use WhatsApp, Telegram, or FaceTime through the eSIM data: it's free and doesn't depend on whether your Chilean carrier has voice coverage in the US.

What if your trip doesn't end in the United States?

It's increasingly common to combine a trip to the US with a layover or a second leg in another country in the region—returning via Lima, stopping in Bogotá, or connecting Cancun with New York. In that case, you need to plan your eSIM in segments: one for the United States and a different one for the rest of the itinerary. If your route includes Peru, here is the specific guide for eSIM for Peru and Machu Picchu. And if you need data before leaving Chile because you're moving outside your usual coverage area, PuraSim also has eSIM plans for Chile.

When you DON'T need to buy a US eSIM

It's worth stating this as clearly as everything else: if your trip is a layover of a few hours without leaving the airport, you probably have enough with the airport's free Wi-Fi and don't need to spend on a data plan. And if you're going to be in a hotel with decent Wi-Fi the whole time and don't plan to move around much—a two-day conference, for example—a small backup plan of 1-2 GB is more than enough; there's no need to buy the large plan thinking "just in case."

Frequently asked questions

Written by Marc González Sáez Founder of PuraSim and a specialist in eSIM and connectivity for travelers. He has been helping people travel connected worldwide for years without overpaying for roaming, and personally tests eSIMs in each destination before recommending them.