Peru Guide
Entry requirements
Currently, EU, US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand citizens can all stay in Peru as tourists for up to ninety days without a visa. However, the situation changes periodically, so always check with your local Peruvian embassy some weeks before departure. All nationalities need a tourist or embarkation card (tarjeta de embarque) to enter Peru, issued at the frontiers or on the plane before landing in Lima. Tourist cards are usually valid for between sixty or ninety days. Unless you specifically ask for ninety days when being issued a Tourist Card on arrival, you may only receive sixty.
For your own safety and freedom of movement a copy of the tourist card should be kept on you, with your passport, at all times – particularly when travelling away from the main towns.
Should you want to extend your visa (between thirty and sixty additional days), there are two basic options: either cross one of the borders and get a new tourist card when you come back in; or go through the bureaucratic rigmarole at a Migraciones office involving form filling, taking a photocopy of your passport and visa (or tourist card) and a visit to the Banco de la Nación to pay the required fee ($20) to the State, where you get issued an official receipt (recibo de pago). This process is easiest in Lima, where it can be all done in the same building, but even there it can take a couple of hours or more, starting off at reception (for the forms), then to windows 4 to 6 in the Prórroga de Permanencia department (two floors above ground level). A further $4.5 is needed for legalising the Migraciones form (usually issued at reception), and you may also be asked to provide evidence of a valid exit ticket from Peru. Migraciones is also the place to sort out new visas if you've lost your passport (having visited your embassy first) and to get passports re-stamped.
Student visas (which last twelve months) are best organized as far in advance as possible through your country's embassy in Lima, your nearest Peruvian embassy and the relevant educational institution. Business visas only become necessary if you are to be paid by a Peruvian organization, in which case ask your Peruvian employers to get this for you, or, if working on independent business, contact the appropriate embassy or consular services in Lima or your home country. Alternatively, you can contact the related Chamber of Trade for advice (ask the embassies for details on this). Having a business visa means that you are eligible for taxation under Peruvian law and may not be allowed to leave the country until this has been accounted for, which entails obtaining a letter from SUNAT (the Peruvian State Taxation Agency) stating that all outstanding taxes have been settled. Journalist visas are obtained from the relevant Peruvian Embassy, usually for up to six months.