We consider the minimal chiral Schwinger model, by embedding the gauge non-invariant formulation into a gauge theory following the Batalin–Fradkin–Fradkina–Tyutin point of view. Within the BFFT procedure, the second-class constraints are converted into strongly involutive first-class ones, leading to an extended gauge-invariant formulation. We also show that, like the standard chiral model, in the minimal chiral model the Wess–Zumino action can be obtained by performing a q-number gauge transformation into the effective gauge non-invariant action.