Received my Colombian Pensionado Visa

famsearch says on Aug 17, 2006, 19:58:

congrats! congrats on getting the visa! hoping to hear good news about my wife's visa interview on the 30th.
dan

dan

0 funny, 0 helpful.

arthur brode says on Aug 17, 2006, 21:00:

Ken,Welcome to the Pensionado Visa Club! .

http://www.calirentals.net/

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Peter (Moderator) says on Aug 18, 2006, 02:35:

Looking forward to seeing a detailed post explaining how that works :)

Poor but snappy

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Ctg Bound says on Aug 18, 2006, 15:34:

elk Glad it all went well.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

arthur brode says on Aug 18, 2006, 19:25:

Peter feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding the Pensionado Visa.arthurbrode at aol.com

http://www.calirentals.net/

0 funny, 0 helpful.

elk says on Aug 19, 2006, 12:35:

Applying for the Pensionado Visa - Update The following reflects my recent experience applying for and receiving the Colombian Pensionado Visa. First, the rules are not written in stone and your experience might be different than mine. You will be required to visit three government agencies during the process. Your first stop will be at the U.S. Embassy in Bogata. According to this U.S. Embassy web-site they will provide you with a certified copy of your “U.S. Social Security Benefits� which you can use to apply for the Pensionado visa at MRE, unfortunately they neglected to inform the U.S. Embassy staff of this process and they knew nothing about providing me with any such document. You might want to print and take a copy of the information posted on there web-site. Again, nothing is written in stone and I shared with them the information on the U.S. web-site. I was asked if I had anything showing direct deposits to my U.S. bank from the U.S. Social Security department. I had attempted to prepare myself and had a folder containing several new and old bank statements downloaded from the internet. I also mentioned having another retirement benefit from the State of California and ask if they would please include this in the certified letter to MRE. I was never asked about the monetary amount of the retirement benefit and they were not reflected in the U.S. Embassy letter to MRE. The letter simply stated I was receiving retirement income from Social Security and “Sacramento, California�. (It was signed by the Vice Consul at the U.S. Embassy) You might want to obtain a copy of your Social Benefit letter in the U.S. before coming to Bogata.

The above might seem confusing and frustrating, but my experience was pleasant and took just over an hour. The staff person helping me was Colombian and “very� pleasant. It took just over an hour for the complete process and I had my certified letter in hand.

Information post by the U.S. Embassy:

“If you need a certification of your pension check, please come to the U.S. Embassy between 9:00AM and 10:00AM, Monday through Thursday. You will be asked to complete and sign a form; your certification letter will be ready the same day. If you live outside of Bogota, you may send your request by mail. Please list the name of the bank or financial institution and the address where you would like the letter to be sent.�
http://bogota.usembassy.gov/wwwsc133.shtml#English

Three steps required for the Visa:

First: Visit the U.S. Embassy in Bogata between 9:00 and 10:00 AM Monday through Thursday to obtain a certified letter of your Social Security retirement benefits. It will need to be legalized before presenting it to MRE.

Second: Take the certified letter and have it legalized. Legalizaciónes is located at Calle 100 and Cra 17. It might be difficult to find but it is located across and around the corner from Super Carulla. Legalizaciónes has two entrances and they are different. The one directly in front of Super Carrulla isn’t the correct entrance. Walk around the corner to the other entrance with a shorter line. If you don’t speak Spanish take a friend who does and ask questions. It took me about one hour from start to finish. The service is free and I would suggest you go directly from the U.S. Embassy to Legalizaciónes.

Third: Take your new legalized document to MRE (“El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores�) between 7:30 AM and 12:00 PM Monday through Friday. They are located around the corner from parque 93 at “Cra 13 No. 93-68. I would suggest arriving at 7:30 AM for a shorter line. You will be ask to fill out a form which you will present at the reception desk along with two 3 x 3 CM color photos, the certified letter and a copy of all used pages in your passport. You will be asked to have a seat and wait for your Pensiondo Visa. It took about two hours which gave me a chance to meet and talk with several people also applying for various types of visa’s. There is no visa fee for U.S. Citizens and the visa is valid for one year. I was told the exact process would have to be repeated in one year, but I suspect things might change during the next twelve months. You will have 15 days to apply for your Cedula at DAS.

Note: I can’t say enough about the pleasant experience dealing with the Colombian officials. It was so refreshing to meet such nice people. The only negative experience was accepting a Colombian invitation to a small party in celebration of my Pensionado visa. Colombians apparently don’t understand the words, “no mas whisky�. I had a great time in Bogata, but happy to be back home in Medellin.

A special thanks to Art Brode for sharing his Pensionado Visa experience with me, Gator and others on the PBH board.
Thanks also to Ctg. Bound for his advice and teaching me the proper use of the English language.

Ken

0 funny, 0 helpful.

smkaslow says on Oct 12, 2006, 09:36:

Pension visa Thank you for the most informative explanation of what is needed to get a pension Visa.

0 funny, 0 helpful.