Investment Visa: Summary

I thought i'd post this summary of my experience to help anyone who intends to buy property in Colombia in order to get the investment visa. It's not bullet proof, but it all helps.

DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO BUY
Find a good agent. Personally, I used a guy called Mauricio Uribe in Medellín. He was able to show me lots of properties in a short space of time. I thoroughly recommend him, though his English is still at basic level. Contact me for his details.

After a while, you will start to think about things that may not be a big issue abroad. For example, new developments are comparatively very expensive or do you really want to live in a building with 3 towers and 3 million inhabitants.

Finally, don’t put yourself under pressure to make a decision. Most agents probably only have to make 1 sale a month to make their money and you’re not their only client.

DECIDE HOW TO TRANSFER MONEY
Personally, I managed to open a bank account without a Cedular de Extranjero on the promise that I would deposit $100,000 US. Thereafter, I was able to write a cheque, which I gave to the seller when we signed the final contract. The only slight complication here was that my bank thought I couldn’t sign Form 4 as a result, as apparently, to use form 4 you are supposed to transfer the money directly to the seller. However, as you will read, throughout this entire process, what Colombians tell you to do and what you should do, are entirely different.

So… if you don’t have your own bank account, you will need to transfer the money directly to the seller’s account and make sure that he/she registers form 4 and not form 5 when the money comes in.

Transferring money is surprisingly simple, but don’t assume the bank in Colombia knows what it is doing. You will need to give your foreign bank, details of the seller’s bank in Colombia AND details of an ‘intermediary’ bank. The potential problem is that the Colombian bank doesn’t know this and insists that this additional information is not necessary. In my case, I was lucky, as my European bank managed to find out the ‘intermediary’ bank details without the help of the Colombian bank.

There is little or no charge transferring money... maybe 100 dollars. You should be more concerned of a sudden change in the exchange rate, though it’s basically out of your control.

Transferring money should take about 3 days.

Finally, despite a few rumours, I was never asked to produce any kind of paperwork to illustrate if the money was ‘clean’ or not.

If, like me, you transfer, $100,000 and this is going to be slightly different to the agreed sales price, apparently its common place in Colombia to trust the seller to reimburse you the change. Strange but true.

Note: if you are a little tight for money, you can pay a little less than the required $100,000 for the apartment and get a contract drawn up for work to be ‘carried out’ on the apartment. Regardless, you still need to transfer the full $100,000. If you do this, remember that you will need to send this contract when you send form 11 to Banco de Republica.

MAKE AN OFFER
Consider the following:

Most properties are over-valued so try to offer at least 10% below the asking price. If paying cash – lower your offer even more. That said, new developments will be harder to negotiate with. It’s like anything, who knows how desperate the seller is to sell.

If the seller is half-intelligent, he/she will probably tell you that your offer is lower than another he has received, and you need to raise it a bit. This happened to me, it was probably a lie, but I didn’t want to lose the apartment, so I paid up.

It’s common place in Colombia to register a much lower price than the real value of your property. This is mainly so that the seller incurs fewer taxes upon the sale. If like me, this makes you a little nervous, insist on registering the real value, but be prepared to pay a little more, maybe $1,000 US.

CHECK THE PAPERS
Basically, check the property belongs to the seller and that all taxes have been paid.

I don’t have a lot of information on this. For me, you either know what you are doing or at this point you put your trust in the agent. I did the latter.

SIGN PRE-PURCHASE AGREEMENT
Again, a good agent should ensure that an appropriate contract is drawn up. You will need to pay a deposit. This is slightly annoying. I had to go to the cash point over 3 days in order to cough up 3.5m pesos. Of course, if the deposit you pay is too small, and the seller receives a much better offer, you can lose the property.

SIGN FORMS 4 & 11
Having more-or-less secured the purchase its time to pay. Once your money arrives in Colombia you will need to sign both forms 4 and 11 at the bank.

REGISTER DEEDS
Go to the Notaria with your agent and the seller.. Pay taxes, sign contracts, etc. Again, a good agent should ensure this runs smoothly.

GET FORM 11 STAMPED AT BANCO DE REPUBLICA
Take form 11 to Banco de Republica and get it stamped. I also got a photocopy stamped just in case the lost the original.

A few weeks later you should receive the same form, with some kind of ID number in the top right hand corner.

REQUEST ‘CERTIFICATION’ FROM BANCO DE REPUBLICA
Now you have to write a letter to BdR requesting ‘certification’. Quite why they just don’t do this when you send them form 11 is beyond me. The letter should look something like this…

Jefe registro y procesos cambiarios
Banco de la Republica
Carrera 7 # 14 – 78 Piso 2
Cambios Internacionales
Bogotá D.C.

Asunto: Solicitud de Certificación.

Mi nombre es ***** ***** de nacionalidad ****** y tengo un registro de inversión extranjera radicada el 5 de octubre de 2007 con el # ********, amablemente le solicito sea expedida una certificación por parte del banco donde conste que en la base de datos aparece el registro de la inversión extranjera directa a mi nombre, por un valor de USD100.000 de los Estados Unidos de América. Esta certificación es con el fin de presentarla ante el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores para el trámite de una visa.

Agradezco la valiosa ayuda a mi solicitud.

Cordialmente,

NAME ******* *********
Pasaporte # *** ******
Tel. ********
Cel. ********

GO TO MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
You should receive a letter from Banco de Republic within 15 days. Once you have that letter, go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bogotá.

You will need the following:
Certification letter from Banco de Republica
Passport + photocopies
5 colour photos 3x3
Forms 4 & 11
Approximately $750,000 pesos
Cedular de Extranjero + photocopies or if you’re still on a tourist visa, i.e. you don’t have a Cedular de Extranjero – you will probably also need a salvoconducto del DAS. I have no idea what this is.

GO TO DAS
Register your Resident Visa with DAS within 15 days.

You will need the following:

Passport + seemingly lots of photocopies
Residency Visa + 2 photocopies
2 photocopies of your blood type certificate
3 or 6 photos 3x3 (blue background)

HORAAY.. YOU'RE DONE!

By usher127 on Nov 1, 2007, 13:27 in Visa & paperwork.

Grateful Dead says on Nov 1, 2007, 14:58:

Great post ,

On another Forum I used to hang out at they used to have "Sticky" threads, where instead of going over questions and answers over and over again they would just make a post like this one permanently "stick" to the top and then people could add or comment on the thread wihout it being pushed down.

It would be a good Idea here too, I think,.... but hey !

usher127 says on Nov 1, 2007, 16:01:

Yeah I got the visa. BdR rang me a few days after that post. They wanted to send the letter to me, but I requested to pick it up in Bogota. So I went to Bogota, picked up the letter and went straight to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs... got the visa and came straight back. I still need to go to DAS, but that will not be a problem.

I've missed some info out in the above post, so will update it later on.

Thanks again to everyone.

pedro says on Nov 1, 2007, 16:27:

Damn good summary, thanks. Congrats on finally getting the visa.

So they didn't give you any issue about the "investment within the first 6 months" thing? That's reassuring.

Now that you're done shuffling papers and standing in line for documents, what are you going to do with all that free time ahead of you?

que nota!

usher127 says on Nov 2, 2007, 08:58:

Well, I was asked about my entry date, but it seems it wasnt a problem... or I got lucky. There is some confusion as to whether 6 months refers to the actual entry date or the start of a non-tourist visa... it depends which lawyer you talk to. Frankly, I no longer care.

My next task is to start understanding the Colombian tax system... I apologise in advance for the next wave of boring posts on PBH.

Anyways, this whole process was masterminded by Robi. I knew nothing. Sorry, Robi, you may be bombarded with requests for help now.

A COUPLE OF ADDITIONS TO THE ORIGINAL POST:

If you want to open a bank account without a Cedualr de Extranjero, by promising to deposit a large sum of money, try to find an existing client of that bank... a good client, to help you.

Getting the right lawyer for some of the paperwork is essential. I can recommend somebody. Robi, surely she doesnt want me to post her details on PBH?

Form 11 is not signed at the bank. Only form 4. Form 11 is signed later on. Oops.

Apparently, its not the case that you have to wire directly to the seller's account in order to sign form 4. The reason my bank didnt want me to sign form 4 was because they were worried about the '6 month' issue, though ultimately it was my decision.

usher127 says on Nov 2, 2007, 09:00:

Btw, I agree with Grateful Dead.

PBH is great for discussion, but alot of information gets lost very quickly. I mean, as Peter suggested in the past, something similar to Wikipedia would be great for Visa Information, etc.

robi666 says on Nov 2, 2007, 09:52:

The name of the accountant is Janet Cristina. She is an expert and can help you filing forms and check your documents for a very low - unbelievable price. She is not a lawyer.

I got in contact with her after having read the whole Circular reglamentaria Externa DCIN - 83 and having "interviewed" a number of lawyers, all swearing they could follow the process and failing to answer the most simple tricky questions.
I talked about it to my accountant who files my tax modules and her, being a "contadora" (accountant in spanish) and not a lawyer, modestly admitted that she could not help me and found Janet for me.

About the 6 months rule, I do believe it is a problem.
When I filed my form 4, Janet Cristina called and checked it out with Banco de La Republica (without making my name of course). They say that after 6 months to have lived in the country (no matter on which VISA), you have to ask to be recognized as "Inversionista Residente" and you cannot file form 4. Which is the advantage of being a "Inversionista Residente"? They could NOT answer this simple question. It is just like a "medal"... ridiculous.

So, why Usher could register the investment as a foreign investment?
Because, when you file form 11 into Banco de La Republica, they do NOT ask and you are not supposed to file a copy of your entry stamps on the passport, nor they check it with DAS.

So, once you got the investment registered, you get a nice letter and you present it to MRE. They won't check if you were entitled to get that letter. It is not their business and I doubt that they know that small detail contained in Circular reglamentaria Externa DCIN - 83.

I wonder if they will review the whole process in the future. There are many more trick that you can use and I am not going to talk about it here...

Frankly, the whole fact of the 6 months rule is ridiculous. I mean, Banco de La Republica considers you a resident while DAS and MRE consider you a tourist.
What do they think you're doing the whole process for?
Do they think that a person come into their country a buy the first property in the first town that he visits?
I wonder if the pinheads already realized this and do not check the entry dates for this reason.

"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present."