How long can a U.S. Citizen live in Colombia?

Pete E says on Jan 6, 2006, 09:14:

Time allowed in Colombia Without a visa you can stay up to 6 months out of any 12 months.
Entering the country DAS,imigration will give you 30 to 60 days to stay,ask for 60.I belive you need to show a return ticket.You will need to extend that twice by going to a DAS office and paying a small fee.If you over stay the time the fees go up.If you stay beyond the 6 months they can get really big.
A Colombian of course can stay indefinetly if he has a Colombian passport and Cedula,ID card.
Non Colombians can stay indefinely with a visa,but the visa will need to be renewed anually.I have a pensionado visa.You can get one by showing more than $1200 a month I believe the figure is in income.Its not age related.The other kinds of visas are a work visa,if you have a job here,student,if you are attending school here and business,if you will be doing business here.Being incorporated and stating what business you will do here will get you that.Docurapid in Coral Gables can help you on that.docurapid at yahoo.com

Pete

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MedellinViking says on Jan 6, 2006, 21:23:

Fees for overstaying your Tourist Visa December 2nd I was going to the States for a couple of weeks and in Bogota (After flying Med -Bog) the DAS computer discovered that I had overstayed my 180 day limit by 19 days. After a bunch of forms I was off to a bank to pay my fine, 193,000 or about 10,000/day. I'm thinking lucky the bank was open as who knows what happens when it is closed. Also happy that I had about 400k in pesos for just this sort of thing. A bunch of forms back at DAS to document my payment and an escort to the plane which was ready to push back. Total 3 hours.

I was a bit nervous upon my return on Dec 26th that there would be issues and possibly deny entry but smooth sailing at immigration in Medellin. Probably time for a Visa though now that I have been playing this game for over 3 years.

Live your fantasies because life is short and from all I've seen death is really, really long....

Live your fantasies because life is short and from all I've seen death is really, really long....

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Atrevido says on Jan 7, 2006, 19:31:

You can renew a temporal TS visa such as the pensionado visa anually for five years after which you can apply for a resident visa which is good for five years and renewable. How long that goes on before you don't have to apply/renew visa I don't know.

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dwmte says on Jan 8, 2006, 04:29:

the last time we were down... i was on a spousal visa--not sure how long they're good for--we stayed 2 1/2 years...way over the visa limit. had to go to DAS in bogota, hang out for two days and they charged me somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000 pesos (don't remember exactly), said don't do it again and that was that. i'm sure they check out to see if you are or have been a bad guy.

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bkelly says on Jan 8, 2006, 05:52:

The fine is steep the longer you stay The best bet is to try a get a VISA. Depending on where you work or what type of VISA it is, you can stay from one to three years (although the official maximum time for a VISA is one year). The last time I renewed my VISA they gave me three years because my contract was for that amount of time. Now that I have been in Colombia for 5 years I have resident status and do not have to renew.

--bkelly

--bkelly

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tomtom33 says on Jan 8, 2006, 06:40:

Resident status You have to do more than just renew an annual VISA five times to get resident status. I believe that you must also reside in Colombia for at least 10 months every year. Currently I only live here about 8 months a year.

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Gator says on Jan 8, 2006, 08:17:

Once You Have Permanent.... resident status there is no longer a need to renew.

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

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