How to Become a Commercial Diver in Chile

Two routes, not one: shellfish diving or commercial diving

The first confusion for almost everyone searching "how to become a diver in Chile" is thinking there's a single path. There isn't. DIRECTEMAR —the Directorate General of the Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine, under the Chilean Navy— licenses several categories of professional diver, which in practice fall into two routes towards different kinds of work.

The shellfish diver (buzo mariscador) route is aimed at harvesting hydrobiological resources and aquaculture: salmon farms, mussel farm sites, support diving in the fishing industry. It's the fastest way into the trade, requires less schooling, and is the door through which most people who end up working in southern Chile come in. The commercial diver route is aimed at a different kind of underwater work: welding, inspection and repair of vessels, port works, infrastructure. It requires more schooling beforehand, longer training, and generally a bigger investment.

Neither route takes you straight into saturation diving. We explain that further down, and also in from Chile to international saturation diving: for now, if your ultimate goal is saturation, think of the Chilean licence as the first rung, not the finished job.

Source: TM-035 regulation by DIRECTEMAR (categories and authorised work) and the ChileAtiende factsheet (ages and schooling). directemar.cl

If your plan is to get into a salmon farm quickly in Los Lagos, Aysén or Magallanes, the shellfish diver route is the one to look at first: we cover it in full in basic and intermediate shellfish diver. If your plan is underwater construction —welding, inspection, infrastructure— keep reading this guide, which is focused on that route.

The licence categories, in order

DIRECTEMAR doesn't issue a single "professional diver" title: it licenses by category, and each one qualifies you for a different type of work with different equipment. Here's the full list, from lowest to highest level of responsibility:

• Basic Shellfish Diving Assistant: support on the surface, doesn't dive.
• Basic Shellfish Diver: harvesting hydrobiological resources and aquaculture, with light semi-autonomous equipment.
• Intermediate Shellfish Diver: harvesting and aquaculture, with light and medium semi-autonomous equipment.
• Specialist Diver: scientific and research work, film and photography, with autonomous or light semi-autonomous equipment in shallow waters.
• Commercial Diver: underwater work, with any equipment needed to carry it out.

Above these are the Instructor, Contractor and Supervisor categories, each with four types. To reach supervisor you need to be 21; for instructor, 25 plus five continuous years of prior experience in the trade.

One thing TM-035 does not set out publicly: the maximum depth for each category. The text says that "the limitation on depth and on the use of the different types of equipment will be set by resolution of the Director General", so that figure isn't in the base document. The only depths that do appear are for mixed-gas diving: 90 metres with helium-oxygen without a closed bell, and 200 metres with a closed bell — a world apart from entry-level shellfish or commercial air diving.

Source: TM-035, Diving Regulations for Professional Divers, DIRECTEMAR (last update consulted August 2024). official PDF

For the full detail of requirements, documents and the application process for each category, see the dedicated guide at professional diver's licence in Chile.

Requirements: age, schooling and paperwork

These are the requirements DIRECTEMAR sets for getting your licence, according to the ChileAtiende factsheet and the FAQs published by the maritime authority:

• Minimum age: 16 for diving assistant; 18 for commercial diver and specialist diver; 21 for supervisor; 25 for instructor.
• Schooling: completed primary education for the basic level; a secondary education certificate or its technical-professional equivalent for intermediate and above, which includes commercial diver.
• Nationality: Chilean, according to the ChileAtiende factsheet.
• Documents: application form, photocopy of ID card, colour 3x3 cm photos, medical fitness-to-dive certificate, AFP (pension fund) certificate, criminal record certificate, up-to-date military service status, and a notarised sworn statement that you have not been struck off the maritime authority's registers.
• Medical certificate: only valid for 30 days from issue, so don't get it done months in advance.
• Licence validity: one year from the date of the medical certificate. It's renewed, not a lifetime licence.

Source: DIRECTEMAR, FAQs on professional diving, and ChileAtiende, factsheet 1240. directemar.cl / chileatiende.gob.cl

The exam: who assesses you and where

Not all categories are examined in the same place. This also catches a lot of people out:

• The Capitanías de Puerto hold the basic shellfish diver exams, both theory and practical.
• The Gobernaciones Marítimas hold the exams for intermediate, specialist and commercial, as well as instructor, supervisor and contractor — the latter mostly theory-only.

According to the maritime authority itself, there are three ways to prepare: study the regulations on your own, go through a state-recognised training body (the centres we look at below), or use the online simulations on the Capitanía Digital portal. Exam application dates are published every year on the DIRECTEMAR site.

The fees the State charges for the process, according to ChileAtiende, are: US$8.18 for the right to sit the exam, US$9.52 for granting the licence, and US$9.52 for its validity. These fees are adjusted every 1 January, so treat them as an order-of-magnitude reference, not the exact figure on the day you go through the process.

Source: ChileAtiende, factsheet 1240. chileatiende.gob.cl

Where to study and how much it costs

This is what we actually know, verified centre by centre, not what each school's marketing says. These are the public details we were able to confirm about commercial diver training and its training centres:

Source: each centre's website, consulted for this report. siscapacitaciones.cl / inmersionsubmarina.cl

There's no uniform price table for "studying professional diving" in Chile: only one centre publishes a full price at the time of this report. That doesn't mean the others are more expensive or cheaper, just that you need to request a quote directly before deciding. The centre-by-centre detail is in where to study commercial diving in Chile, and the full cost breakdown —course fees, equipment, exams, accommodation if you're moving region— is in how much a commercial diving course costs in Chile.

Also check the site's list of schools and what certifications exist before enrolling in any course: not all courses give you the same thing, and some include additional certifications (such as SIS Capacitaciones' NCh 2728:2015 welding certificate) that others don't offer.

The full itinerary, step by step

Putting all of the above together, here's what the route from zero to first job looks like for someone aiming at commercial diver:

End to end you're looking at a good half a year before you have your licence in hand — not counting the time it takes to find your first contract.

The first year of work: what to expect

With a freshly issued licence, your first job is most likely to be as a support diver within a contracting company, not running jobs. It's a trade where you earn experience by diving, with your first outings under the supervision of a diver with more years in the water.

On pay, the most complete figure available is the WageIndicator / Tusalario Chile projection for 2026: divers in general earn between CLP 755,051 and CLP 1,470,366 a month. Starting out, the range is narrower, between CLP 755,051 and CLP 1,187,083; after five years of service it rises to between CLP 817,538 and CLP 1,492,555, on a 44-hour working week. That's a market projection, not a legal minimum for the trade, and it's best treated as an order of magnitude.

As a one-off reference, not an average: a vacancy posted by STS Chile for a Commercial Diving Supervisor listed a gross salary of CLP 2,425,000 plus a taxable bonus. That's one specific offer for a role with more responsibility and experience, not what a newly licensed diver earns.

Source: WageIndicator / Tusalario Chile, 2026 projection. wageindicator.org

The full breakdown of pay by category and experience is in how much a commercial diver earns in Chile, and the map of where commercial and saturation diving work is found is in where diving and saturation work happens. To understand how the sector's job market works —vacancies, hiring companies, subcontracting— there's the site's jobs section and the list of commercial diving companies.

What needs to be said plainly: accident rates and subcontracting

This guide wouldn't be complete —or honest— without covering this. Aquaculture diving in Chile has a real, documented accident rate, not a theoretical risk.

According to DIRECTEMAR, 274 diving accidents were recorded at salmon farm sites between 2004 and 2026, of which 49 resulted in the worker's death. The Ecoceanos centre —citing its director, Juan Carlos Cárdenas— reports 90 workers killed in activities linked to the salmon farming industry over the last twelve years (2013-2026), most of them working under subcontracting. These are two different sources, with different methodologies, that don't agree on the exact figure — but both point to the same thing: the risk is high and falls mostly on those working subcontracted.

There's more background: between 2013 and 2026, 14 transport vessels linked to this industry sank, with around 30 crew deaths. And a case that isn't from a salmon farm but is worth knowing because it goes straight to the equipment issue: Katherine Pérez Moraga, 30, died on 22 August 2022 diving at around 30 metres in Alberto de Agostini National Park, near Punta Arenas, with equipment rated only to 20 metres.

Source: Ecoceanos, March 2026. ecoceanos.cl

This isn't meant to scare you off or talk you out of the trade. It's so you go in with your eyes open: ask about the state of the equipment before accepting a contract, check whether you're directly employed or subcontracted, and know that a life jacket and equipment rated for the real depth of the job aren't minor details. For the specific legal framework covering the aquaculture industry, see diving on salmon farms in Chile.

What changes with the Diving Act

The trade's legal landscape is changing. Law N° 21.789, the "Diving Act" (Ley de Buzos), was published on 17 February 2026 and comes into force on the first day of the sixth month after publication, around 17 August 2026. It's the first time a diver's employment contract has been regulated in Chile.

It covers harvesting, farming or processing of hydrobiological resources —mainly aquaculture and industrial activities using air diving— and excludes military and police personnel and recreational diving. Among its key points:

• Requires the employer to provide "adequate technical means" and maintain sufficient safety equipment, with "permanent supervision and support" at every stage of the work.
• Creates an electronic register of dives and safety conditions, subject to inspection.
• Promotes certification of workplace competencies.
• Strengthens protections around subcontracting and temporary work.
• Declares 18 December National Chilean Diver's Day.

A joint regulation from the Ministries of Labour and Defence has to set out, within that same period, the technical requirements, habitability standards, safe working methods, personal protective equipment and accident protocols. That regulation still doesn't publicly set depths or oxygen or chamber standards — so any specific figure circulating online today has no backing in the text of the law. SUSESO also has an open public consultation on a circular with a Safe Diving Guide and further preventive requirements.

Source: Diario Constitucional, 17 February 2026. diarioconstitucional.cl

The article-by-article detail of this law, and what it means in practice for your contract, is in Law 21.789, the Diving Act. And if you want the technical regulation that governs today, not the new law, you'll find it in DIRECTEMAR's TM-035 regulation.

Why there's no saturation diving in Chile (and what to do if that's your goal)

This needs saying plainly: there's no saturation diving training in Chile. None of the schools verified for this report offer that training within the country. If your ultimate goal is to work in saturation, a Chilean commercial diver licence is a useful starting point —it gives you a technical foundation, hours in the water, and a document recognised by the maritime authority— but the leap to saturation happens abroad, with international training recognised by bodies such as IMCA.

Nor is there any automatic recognition between the Chilean licence and international schemes such as HSE, IMCA or ADCI. If that's your plan, you have to check case by case with the employer and the school what equivalency they require: there's no official conversion table.

To understand exactly what saturation diving is and how it differs from the commercial diving done in Chile, see what a saturation diver is. And for the full itinerary on how to make that leap from a Chilean licence to the international market, the dedicated guide is from Chile to international saturation diving.

How much you'll spend in total

Adding up what we know for certain: the SIS Capacitaciones course, the only one with a full published price, costs CLP 2,900,000 in total (CLP 900,000 enrolment fee with equipment included, plus five interest-free instalments of CLP 400,000), for 6 months and 630 hours with welding certification included. On top of that are the DIRECTEMAR fees —US$8.18 for the right to sit the exam, US$9.52 for granting and US$9.52 for validity, adjusted every 1 January— and the medical fitness certificate, whose cost isn't in the sources we consulted.

It's not worth converting those dollar fees to pesos without fixing an exact exchange rate and date: better to check directly when you go through the process. The same applies to other centres: as you saw in the schools table, INSUBUCEO and the rest don't publish a price, so any figure circulating about them needs to be confirmed directly with the school.

See the full breakdown, with what each price does and doesn't include, in how much a commercial diving course costs in Chile. And before enrolling at any centre, also check what equipment you'll need to provide yourself, beyond what the course includes, in the site's equipment guide.

Frequently asked questions