Latin American entrepreneurs are enjoying new freedom to network in the region following certain key developments which have facilitated mobility in neighboring areas and overseas.
The U.S. and Schengen Area in Europe owe part of their success to their open-borders policy, which allows workers to live and work in any of its member states. This policy opens opportunities for both companies and workers, minimizes the effects of brain-drain, and enhances international collaboration and new projects.
Similarly, several Latin American countries have been fostering mobility within Latin America with the Mercosur visa program, strengthening the tight-knit business community in the region.
Since 2009, any citizen from Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay—Venezuela too, with some restrictions—can apply for a two-year residence permit in any of these countries, with no stringent requirements to fulfill.
The Mercosur visa allows its citizens to work, live, create and register businesses in any of the participant countries. In most cases, the visa comes with an option to become a permanent resident, allowing entrepreneurs to grow roots in an area instead of using the old ‘grow fast, sell fast’ approach.
Tied together with the friendly travel environment within the region which allows for short visa-free trips to most of Central and South America, as well as the recent approval of visa-free travel to the Schengen Area for Colombian and Peruvian citizens, Latin American entrepreneurs have acquired competitive mobility that not only rivals but surpasses that of their northern neighbors.
Even with these advantages, digital nomads and other entrepreneurs face many hurdles whenever they decide to set up their business in a different country — a fact that Mario Paladini, co-founder of Globals, is hoping to change.
“You only have to look at the official Munich city registration website to see the problem we are tackling. The website states ‘Our Residence Registration Offices are currently facing huge queues, ongoing IT-problems and staff shortages,’” said Paladini.
With that in mind, his company developed an AI-powered residence registration assistant called AiRelo that turns a six-hour address registration process into a few minutes, overcoming both language and time barriers.
Globals is a German startup that aims to help entrepreneurs live and work anywhere. One of their latest concerns is the bureaucratic process other entrepreneurs have to go through when they arrive to a major city.
While AiRelo currently works in only Berlin, Munich, and NYC, the company is expanding to more cities soon, and is taking recommendations for the next city to offer its service in.
This technology could facilitate mobility within Latin America even more, so make sure you leave a mention of your next entrepreneurial destination here.
