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The onward ticket requirement

Officially you need an onward ticket to enter Colombia by plane. This means you can't enter with just a one way ticket.

However, it is only enforced by the airlines, almost never by the Colombian immigration authorities. This means airlines may refuse to take you on board if you don't have a return ticket. But if you arrive in Colombia without a return ticket, they will probably let you in without questions.

Here are some things to try if you are going to Colombia without a return ticket.

You could get an official looking certificate from your travel agent that you've ordered the ticket (in Spanish) and it will be sent to you in Colombia because of certain problems.
You could buy a two way ticket, cancel the return part straight away (even before you leave), get that part of the money back from your travel agent and show the cancelled ticket if asked for a return ticket. You could explain that you'll leave the country in 2 weeks by bus to Venezuela.

Be creative... But normally, just enter looking like a tourist and ask for your 3 months entry stamp and they won't even ask for any ticket.

However, if you're coming from say Panama, there may be a problem because some airlines will refuse to sell you just a 1 way ticket. In Belgium it's no problem I know, but I've heard in other places it is. So in that case you may be obliged to buy the cheapest return.

You could buy any ticket out of the country, say a ticket to Panama, and have it refunded when you get here, but get this in writing or they may give trouble refunding it... But I repeat, it's just the airline that gives you problems in that case. The officials in Colombia don't even check.

By Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) on Nov 19, 1999, 13:06 in Friendly Talkzone.

leiababe says on Jan 20, 2005, 12:08:

One way ticket from Panama My husband and I want to fly from Panama City to Bogota, Colombia and have found some places that will sell us a one way ticket. However, we want to try getting around the return ticket requirement. We already have a flight home from Bolivia for April, will the itinerary for this flight home be enough proof of an onward ticket? Should this satisfy the airlines and the officials?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!
-Angie

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Chriscraiger says on Aug 10, 2005, 19:49:

stupid return ticket requirement ok i plan to stay for a couple of months i leave orlando aug 25 what do i do to just use a one way ticket or can i cancel it when i get there for cash

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lacounte says on Aug 3, 2006, 12:34:

onward ticket? This question is not specific to one country but would apply throughout the western hemisphere, minus Brazil. I am going to retire next spring and intend on traveling extensively in Latin America. While we as U.S. citizens are fortunate to be able to travel w/o obtaining a visa in advance I believe that most countries do require proof of intent to leave in the form of a ticket out of the country. As an example, I might fly into CR or CO on a one-way ticket. I have no intention of overstaying the limits of my tourist visa but neither would I like to designate an exact day when I would leave. I would hope to travel around the country, stopping and going on a whim. AND on a whim continue on to Panama, by bus, boat or plane, doing the same thing there until I go on to Colombia, Venezuela, etc. The obvious problem is that upon entry to any one country I have no exit ticket. Am I likely to be denied a visa to enter at this point? Surely many people must do this and so there must be a solution - hopefully a simple one. Can some more experienced travelor show me how this is done? Thank you.

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