This is one of the most common questions I have from crews everytime they want to film a project in Peru or when they want to hire me to be their drone pilot.
First I have to clarify that there are 2 main different types of permits and depending on your project you will need to arrange both of them or just one.
- Permit to enter a drone into Peru
This is a mandatory permit for any company or person who wants to enter a drone into Peru. Not even tourists are allowed to enter a drone. Not even a small one.
You need to arrange this permit directly at the embassy of Peru from the country you are coming from. The permit is called ´Internamiento temporal de equipos para uso profesional´ or in some countries they call it ´journalist visa´
- Can a person in Peru do this paperwork? Yes, but it will be a total waste of time and money because this person will have to do the exact same thing you would do in your country, contacting the embassy in Peru in your country, which in many cases ends in a longer process being arranged from Peru. So my advice, do it from your country!
The process takes between 2 and 4 weeks, you have to call them from time to time to be sure that they are working on it! And the paperwork is free.
In the documents to fill, they will ask you for the fixer or producer you have in Peru. So be sure your fixer here writes you a letter for the embassy.
- What happened if you didn’t arrange this permit?
Well, this is not the end of the world. 2 things can happen:
First one, if your equipment is just a drone or something small, it is much possible that nobody notices at the airport and you just go out without any questions.
Second one, If they find your gear, you will have to pay around 20% of the costs of the equipment to customs, but they will give this back to you when you leave the country. The process is easy but because of the change of currency you will lose money anyway. This can be a good option for crews that decided to come to Peru at the last minute and didn’t have time to do this paperwork. This permit applies the same for any filming equipment that you want to enter to Peru. However be aware that 20% of total equipment can be a good amount of money on hold!
- Permit to film with drone on specific locations
After you enter your drone into Peru, you are pretty much free to film anywhere in the country with a few exceptions like National Parks, National reserves, Archeological places, etc.
For these cases there is another permit to arrange for these specific locations and has a cost per filming day depending on the place and the type of film. This process can take between 2 and 4 weeks and only can be arranged from Peru in Spanish language. So yes, in this case, you need to hire a fixer here to arrange this.
The main request is to have a valid drone pilot licence from your country or in my case, a Peruvian drone licence given by the Ministry of transport that I have.
There is no exception to film in these specific places if you don’t have this permit.
I hope this article solves your doubts about it and gives you this go ahead to film your project in Peru!!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! Apart from being a drone pilot, I am a fixer, also a documentary filmmaker and researcher of stories in Peru and in any part of South America!
Humana Films - Documentary Filmmaker & Fixer in Peru 