Cancelación de la carta de nacionalización

Until a cancellation decree issues, a carta holder is a FULL Chilean national — with a single, time-limited caveat: 'Los nacionalizados en conformidad al Nº 3º del artículo 10, tendrán opción a cargos públicos de elección popular sólo después de cinco años de estar en posesión de sus cartas de nacionalización' (Art 14 inciso final; the 5-year post-carta window for standing for elected office, added by Ley 20.050, effective 2005-08-26). Cancellation is thus the DESTRUCTIVE MIRROR of CL-NAT-01 acquisition: the same presidential-decree machinery that confers the carta ('La nacionalización se otorgará por el Presidente de la República', DFL 5.142 Art 1) can, on Art 8 grounds, withdraw it. The naturalized person's status is otherwise indistinguishable from other Chileans — DFL 5.142 Art 11 even forbids identity documents from using terms such as 'nacionalizado chileno' u otros semejantes — yet Art 11 Nº3 marks them as the ONLY nationals whose status is administratively revocable. As of 2026-07-05, the 5-yr political-rights window has been in force since 2005-08-26 (Ley 20.050); the document-neutrality rule of DFL 5.142 Art 11 since the 1960 fixed text.

Cancellation is a loss route of RESTRICTED personal scope: it reaches ONLY foreigners who became Chilean by carta de nacionalización under Const. Art 10 Nº3 ('Los extranjeros que obtuvieren carta de nacionalización en conformidad a la ley'). Chileans by birth/jus soli (Art 10 Nº1), by descent (Nº2), and by special grace (Nº4) are NOT subject to Art 11 Nº3 cancellation — grace nationals instead face a distinct loss ground, revocation by law (Art 11 Nº4, route CL-LOS-04). Because it targets the naturalized-by-carta class alone, cancellation is a structurally asymmetric, INVOLUNTARY deprivation. It is triggered on one of the three grounds in DFL 5.142 Art 8: (1) the carta having been granted 'con infracción a lo dispuesto en el artículo 3.o de esta ley' (breach of Art 3; DFL 5.142 Art 3 now reads 'Eliminado' — struck by Ley 21.325 effective 2022-02-12 — but its historical impediments content is recoverable from the antecedent DL 747/1925 Art 3, and its current functional equivalent is the Ley 21.325 Art 86 impedimentos; see ); (2) 'ocurrencias que hagan indigno al poseedor de la carta de nacionalización de tal gracia' (supervening events rendering the holder unworthy of the carta); or (3) conviction 'por alguno de los delitos contemplados en la ley número 12,927, de 6 de Agosto de 1958' (the Ley de Seguridad del Estado / State Security Law). Unlike the Art 86 naturalization impediments (10-yr crímenes / 5-yr simple delito look-back windows under Ley 21.325), DFL 5.142 Art 8 fixes NO time-bar on cancellation. As of 2026-07-05, the grounds have stood since DFL 5.142's 1960 fixed text; the personal-scope limitation flows from Art 10 Nº3 (D.O. 24.10.1980).

DFL 5.142 Art 8 prescribes a heightened, executive-level procedure. The cancelling instrument must be a decree 'firmado por el Presidente de la República' and may issue ONLY 'previo acuerdo del Consejo de Ministros' (prior agreement of the Council of Ministers) — a collective-cabinet safeguard absent from ordinary administrative acts. The cancellation decree must be reasoned: Art 8's 'El que la cancele deberá también ser fundado' textually borrows the denial-decree guarantee of Art 7 ('El decreto que deniegue la carta de nacionalización será siempre fundado y firmado por el Presidente de la República'); the word 'también' ties the cancellation-decree reasoning duty to the denial-decree one. This parallels the grant side, where 'La nacionalización se otorgará por el Presidente de la República, en decreto refrendado por el Ministro del Interior' (Art 1) — so grant, denial, and cancellation are all presidential-decree acts. Under the current institutional map, the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG) instructs nationality files (Ley 21.325 Art 157 Nº8: 'Tramitar las solicitudes de carta de nacionalización para su resolución por parte del Ministro del Interior y Seguridad Pública'), and the procedure for 'la obtención, pérdida y acreditación de la nacionalidad' is that regulated in DFL 5.142 (Ley 21.325 Art 87). As of 2026-07-05, this procedure is in force; the constitutional grant of a reviewing remedy (Art 12) applies to any resulting cancellation act.

Chile's cancellation-of-carta loss route rests on a two-tier constitutional-plus-statutory basis. The Constitution (Art 11) opens a CLOSED list of loss grounds — 'La nacionalidad chilena se pierde:' — the third of which, in the current texto refundido, is '3º.- Por cancelación de la carta de nacionalización, y' (Art 11 Nº3). Art 10 inciso final expressly delegates the mechanics to statute: 'La ley reglamentará los procedimientos de opción por la nacionalidad chilena; de otorgamiento, negativa y cancelación de las cartas de nacionalización, y la formación de un registro de todos estos actos.' The implementing statute is DFL/DS 5.142 of 1960 (texto refundido on naturalization of foreigners), whose Art 8 fixes both the grounds and the form of cancellation: 'El que la cancele deberá también ser fundado en haber sido concedida con infracción a lo dispuesto en el artículo 3.o de esta ley, o en haber acaecido ocurrencias que hagan indigno al poseedor de la carta de nacionalización de tal gracia o por haber sido condenado por alguno de los delitos contemplados en la ley número 12,927, de 6 de Agosto de 1958. La cancelación de la carta de nacionalización se hará previo acuerdo del Consejo de Ministros y por decreto firmado por el Presidente de la República.' As of 2026-07-05, Art 11 has been in force since the 1980 Constitution (nationality chapter D.O. 24.10.1980) and DFL 5.142 since its fixed text of 13.10.1960; Ley 21.325 Arts 84/87 (effective 2022-02-12) expressly keep DFL 5.142 operative as the naturalization-granting and loss-procedure statute, so cancellation is not a historical relic but the live loss mechanism for carta holders.

Cancellation of the carta terminates Chilean NATIONALITY itself, and with it citizenship. By Art 17 Nº1 ('La calidad de ciudadano se pierde: 1º.- Por pérdida de la nacionalidad chilena'), loss of nationality automatically carries loss of citizenship and every political right — suffrage, eligibility for elected office (including the Art 14 inciso final 'cinco años' post-carta window for standing for popular election). Restoration is hard: Art 11 inciso final provides that 'Los que hubieren perdido la nacionalidad chilena por cualquiera de las causales establecidas en este artículo, sólo podrán ser rehabilitados por ley' — rehabilitation is available ONLY by a statute (route CL-RSP-01), never administratively or automatically. Where the cancelled person holds no other nationality, cancellation produces STATELESSNESS; DFL 5.142 Art 2's requirement that a carta applicant 'renuncie a su nacionalidad de origen, o a cualquier otra adquirida o que pudiere corresponderle' (if in fact enforced) heightens that risk. This engages ACHR Art 20.3's bar on arbitrary deprivation and the anti-statelessness policy the Constitution makes explicit in Art 11 Nº1 (voluntary renunciation 'sólo producirá efectos si la persona, previamente, se ha nacionalizado en país extranjero') — an asymmetry, since the constitutional text imposes NO explicit statelessness bar on involuntary cancellation. As of 2026-07-05; Art 17 Nº1 and Art 11 inciso final in force since D.O. 24.10.1980. Because renunciation-enforcement is itself unresolved, whether any given cancellation creates statelessness cannot be asserted in the abstract.

Primary (all T1, decoded native Spanish): (Constitución 1980 refundida vigente — Arts 10 inciso final, 11 chapeau/Nº1/Nº3/inciso final, 12, 14 inciso final, 17 Nº1); (Constitución 1980 original/intermediate — Art 11 Nº4 cancellation, Nº3 DEROGADO); (Ley 20.050/2005 — Art 1 Nº5 enmiendas al Art 11); (DFL/DS 5.142/1960 — Arts 1, 2, 3-Eliminado, 7, 8, 9, 11 — OPERATIVE); (DL 747/1925 — Art 3 impediments, the recoverable historical content of the Art 8 'artículo 3.o' cross-reference); (Ley 21.325/2022 — Arts 84, 86 impedimentos (current functional equivalent of the eliminated Art 3), 87, 157 Nº8); (ACHR / Pacto San José, Decreto 873/1990 — Arts 20, 27.2, 62). Evidence: -073, -075, -076, -101 (direct); -078, -079/-082, -091/-093, -055, -057, -084 (cross). As of 2026-07-05.