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Work visa for 2 companies

Hi everybody,

I have a question about the work visa. I currently have a 2 year work visa for an English institute but i am offered a second job at EAFIT university in the international business department. To start with it's just teaching one course (3 hours) a week.

I have heard that a work visa is just valid for one company. Does this mean that I have to go through the whole visa process again (Go to bogota, all the papers plus the US 205 fee) if i want to take this second job?

Or is it easier when you already hold a work visa and EAFIT just needs to supply the paper of proporcionalidad?

Hope anybody can help me out,

Cheers,

By HolandaPaisa on Jun 6, 2008, 15:51 in Visa & paperwork.

adrienne79 says on Jun 6, 2008, 18:59:

I asked this question at the MRE last time I was there and I was told they would only grant permission for work at one place and legally I can only work at that one place.

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HolandaPaisa says on Jun 6, 2008, 21:56:

Thanks for your reply Adrienne. Although I am not too happy with the info :) I would really like to give this course at Eafit but as it is only three hours a week it does not make sense to change my visa for it.

I don't think they are interested in doing it under the table but they might be able to arrange something with the MRE as they are a big university.

Anybody else that has a tip to solve this.

Thanks,

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adrienne79 says on Jun 7, 2008, 05:32:

I would still recommend you contact the MRE and ask them yourself. Here in Colombia it is common to get different answers depending on who you ask and their mood. Good luck!

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HolandaPaisa says on Jun 7, 2008, 16:54:

Yes Adrienne that's absolutely true, I will do that.

Is there anybody else that already has experience with this, or is actually working for two different companies on a visa.

Thanks again.

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pedro says on Jun 7, 2008, 17:15:

It's not too difficult or costly to open a company. If you do that, you could book the second job as consulting hours.

Imagine you have a sole trader Colombian company (empresa unipersonal). It's kind of implied that you as owner are going to be doing work for the company that generates income. No need to get a formal work permit in this case.

I never received formal legal advice about this idea. But conceptually, it makes sense to me.

que nota!

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HolandaPaisa says on Jun 7, 2008, 20:10:

Thanks Pedro, that might be an idea. I will look into that. Although there are a lot of requirements for the business visa. For example a minimum investment of 45.000.000 Cop, at least on paper. plus a lot of other paperwork. Not sure if Eafit will agree with this either, but well worth looking into.

Cheers,

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pedro says on Jun 8, 2008, 08:54:

Holanda, you could open it with less capital than 45mm. That figure is only relevant as the minimum figure to apply for a temporal especial - socio visa.

If I'm not mistaken, you don't require a visa by way of the new company. So you could open it with much less capital.

You're welcome to PM me if you want to chat further about the idea.

que nota!

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tigredelnorte2 says on Jun 8, 2008, 09:03:

Ask EAFIT university to pay you by ¨prestacion de servicios¨.

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HolandaPaisa says on Jun 16, 2008, 12:32:

Hi tigre,

Thanks for your repl. Could you elaborate a little bit on that? I know it means that you're not an employee of EAFIT but rather work as a third party for them. Is that correct?

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tomtom33 says on Jun 16, 2008, 16:50:

Careful about using logic in Colombia, Pedro. Logic was suspended here many years ago.

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