Have you thought of bringing your done to Peru for those sweet arial shots? Peru does not like drones. The process is a huge pain and that can often be enough to discourage people from bringing their drone. If you have time to kill at your point of entry/exit in the country, lots of patience, and 18% of your drone’s value, you’ll be good. Here’s how the process works:
Arriving into Peru
No matter circumstance, you need to declare your drone when you arrive in the country. If you’re flying into Lima, you’ll head toward baggage claim and notice two colored banners – a green one on the right for no good to declare (in which case, you’d walk right through) and a red one on the left for things to declare. Head to the left and tell them you have a done. Tell them how much it costs and be prepared to shell out 18% of that.
They’ll first inspect the drone, so pass it through the window and wait a little bit. They’ll make sure it’s under 249g which is the heaviest one you’re allowed to bring without additional paperwork. In my case, my DJI Mini Pro 3 is $909 and 249g, so the paperwork they produced included all that info. You’ll take that paperwork one booth over to the left to pay the 18% deposit — yes, it’s a deposit, not a fee, meaning you’ll get it back when you leave the country. Hold on to all the papers they give you! You’ll need them all when you’re back. Someone will grab you when you’re done, and you’ll be allowed to walk through these huge doors into the rest of the airport. Make a mental note of where this is, because it’s where you’ll have to be when you come back to collect the deposit.
While in Peru
You can use your drone as usual for personal, non-commericial reasons, but keep these factors in mind (some of these apply to more countries than just Peru):
- Don’t go higher than 152m
- Don’t go within 30 meters of buildings
- Don’t fly over large cities, or crowds of people
- Don’t go within 4km of any airport
- Don’t go faster than 160 km/h
- Don’t attach heavy objects to your drone or drop anything from it.
- If attaching objects to your drone makes it weigh over 249g, or if you plan on dropping things from it, you’ll need to fill out additional paperwork. Email rpas-dgac@mtc.gob.pe and wait around a month.
Here’s the official set of requirements from the Peruvian government: https://www.gob.pe/institucion/mtc/noticias/50511-mtc-conoce-los-requisitos-para-operar-un-drone
Flying over Machu Picchu or another historical site? You need to apply for an additional permit, which is likely to be rejected if you’re just filming for fun.
Leaving Peru
This is where the fun starts. You’ll be going back to the same booth you were at when you entered the country. The problem is getting there, because it’s behind that huge set of doors you originally came through, and you can’t just walk back inside. People entering into Peru come through those doors just like you did, so it’s one-way traffic. There will, however, be someone at a podium right next to those giant doors where people are spewing out from. Show your drone paperwork and passport to that person. At this point, you’ll be escorted into a creepy back room. The room is small and has your standard airport security xray and metal detector, except it’s in a random room in the back for some reason. Take your laptop and tablet out, otherwise they’ll make you put your stuff on the conveyer belt again. After that, they’ll unlock this military-grade looking door to let you out of the back room. It looks like it’s designed to keep people from running away. You’ll head back to the booth you originally declared your drone at. They’ll ask for the drone, so give it to them and let them inspect it. They’ll probably open the legs and poke at it a bit — just relax. They’ll give you a new sheet of paper at this point (probably acknowledging your drone passed inspection and that they owe you money). You’ll be escorted to the ticket counter to get your plane ticket if you don’t already have it. The person at the ticket counter looked super confused when the drone paperwork was presented to them. I asked the person escorting me if this was normal and she nodded.
You’ll walk between the customs booth (behind the giant doors), the weird security room, and the ticket counter a couple times. Be prepared for some repetition and a lot of time wasted. I was escorted all over the place because no one knew where I should be, and every time I headed in opposing traffic through the huge doors (where the customs/taxes booths are), I had to go into that weird security backroom first, as a formality of course. Eventually you’ll end up at the tax window where you paid your deposit. Show your paperwork, and you’ll be given your deposit back in raw cash. I asked if the amount could be placed back on my credit card (since that’s what they charged in the first place) and received a stern “no”, so yeah, just roll with it. When this is done, you’ll rejoin your friend who’s been walking you everywhere. They’ll be nice enough to walk you to the regular airport security that rest of us go through. This was my third time through airport security, except this time it was a less intimidating experience.
The whole process took an hour and a half, and I was constantly asked what time my flight was. I guess they were worried I’d miss it, but I had a whole 15 minutes to spare before boarding.
Thoughts
The whole process of taking my drone into Peru was a huge pain. I’d unfortunately go through this process again just to get nice shots in Peru. Maybe next time it’ll be a faster ordeal. If you have a friend who can hold your bags, then you won’t need to put anything through the xray in the backroom, so you can shave time off there. If I knew I had a tight connecting flight, I wouldn’t ever bother doing this again. If you decide to bring your drone into the country, I hope this post helps!
