YES, you can get married on other VISA's

Munecabella says on Nov 11, 2004, 06:13:

So Dan.... it is possible to obtain a Visa while in Colombia????
I did not know that. Thanks for the great info. God job!

Dan says on Nov 11, 2004, 08:01:

I believe you can. The info is at the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores website at: http://www.minrelext.gov.co/

for the specific Trámite try copy/paste this link:
http://portal.minrelext.gov.co/portal/webdriver.exe?MIval=po_tr_co_solicitud_visa&id_tramite=2

For the Office of Visas, it is near parque 93 (where all the expensive restaurants are at). The people seem friendly enough and the one guy I talked to is knowledgeable. He also speeks English, French, and I heard German too. Just look on the web page and you'll find the address, phone numbers, and the hours (7:30-12:00).

Good luck,
Dan

God Bless America!

Munecabella says on Nov 11, 2004, 08:43:

Thank you just saved me a whole lot of trouble. I'll be in Bogota on the 30th. I'll try to go there then. Thnx a mil!!!!

Dan says on Nov 11, 2004, 15:50:

Just make sure you get the papers as neccessary that are stated on the website. Hopefully you won't run into any problems.

God Bless America!

Dan says on Jan 17, 2005, 05:03:

Bump Just bumping this in case others are interested in this type of info.

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 05:41:

Sure you can get married on other visas.
You can just not enter colombia as a tourist and then get married there.
If you go to Colombia, fall in love you have to leave the Country, go back to your own country, prepare all papaers and apostillas, also carry the certificates of your future wife with you and on basis of that you get a three month visa.
During this time you can enter Colombia, marry in Colombia and then apply for a consecutive visa directly in Colombia.

Once you got a visa (except tourist visa) you can apply directly in cColombia for your marriage but have to present all certificates, if needed apostillados.



UMM

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Dan says on Jan 17, 2005, 06:29:

I've been hearing that before. I found out about the document above because of my attempts to getting married. When I'm in Colombia, I don't work in Bogota. I only had a couple trips to Bogota but for very short times. The first time, I tried going to some Notaries with my documents in hand, only to be told that I have to get the Marriage Visa and said that the Offical Visa that I (still) have wasn't good. The second trip to Bogota, I went to the Office of Visas and they looked at the form I filled out and looked at my Visa and said that was ok and gave me the reference which I found online (listed above). When I found that out, it was too late. SO, Right now, I'm getting the papers AGAIN, and going to take some time off from work and return to Colombia to try it again. Hopefully it works out better this time.

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 06:56:

If you return on a visitor visa then you dont achieve anything.
You MUST!!! apply for a marriage visa OUTSIDE of Colombia first unless you have one of the visas above:
e.g. TT, TR, TE, TM, TS, TA.....
They wont give you any visa if you come on a visitor's visa to Colombia and want to marry in Colombia. So, which visa do you have to go to Colombia??

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ACBlessing says on Jan 17, 2005, 13:10:

I lucked out I went to Colombia on a tourist visa specifically to get married but at the time I didn't know I couldn't. My wife's family handled all the paperword but I remember the wife and I going to get the notary work done and we never had a single problem. I know this is the exception now after reading this forum but what luck.

Alex Blessing, Spokane, WA USA
alex at acblessing.com
www.acblessing.com

Just plain poor

utopiacowboy says on Jan 17, 2005, 13:12:

You're right, AC, it can be done. If my wife and I had married in Monteria, we would not have needed the visa because the notaria was a friend of the family. In Medellin, I had to have the visa.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 16:49:

Seems, to be a friend of the family, sometimes also bribes pays off.
That is the inofficial way and should not be supported, uness you too support corruption.

Dan, see, just buy your certificate and your done.
You are lucky that there is still so much corruption in Colombia. You couldnt do the same thing in THE US or Yurp.

I think you should not support corruption. It makes life easier but it helps noone.
UMM拉�人

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umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 18:15:

(Officially) Not on a tourist visa.
At some places they can get angry if you just bribe someone, get married and with that force the government to accept that.
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Dan says on Jan 17, 2005, 18:23:

I'm not one to do that... I'm more likely to do things the right way, no matter how tempting it may be. The closest thing I'm thinking of doing away from the "right way" is entering Colombia on a Visa/Passport that I have (thats good for marriage) even though I wouldn't be doing that particular activity. Still not sure if I will do it but sounding pretty good right about now, that way, no more time delaying it any further.

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 18:28:

Your visa for marriage would have an expiry date of three month. In these three month you would have time to think of something else if you dont want to marry.

Its good that you want to do it the right way.
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Dan says on Jan 17, 2005, 18:32:

I know But the visa I DO have is valid for a total of 1 year, so right now, still good until Aug 05

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 17, 2005, 18:52:

Then you can just marry in Colombia provided you have done all your paperwork + translations of your documents into Spanish (including apostilla)
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Dan says on Jan 18, 2005, 02:23:

hopefully, I'll be able to... The passport is from work. Normally I have to turn it back in when I'm not working in another country, but I hold on to it most of the time. I just hope that they don't tell me I have to turn it in when I go back to Colombia for my own travel/"vacation"

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 18, 2005, 02:28:

Why should they?
That has something to do with your employer and not with the Colombian government.
A valid visa is a valid visa. Guess if they want to get you visa back then they have to confiscate your passport.
Do you think they would do that?
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Dan says on Jan 18, 2005, 04:01:

My work... is in the US but I travel to Colombia sometimes. The passport and Visa are "Official" So if someone at work says that they have to have it, I have to hand it over and travel on my personal one

God Bless America!

umm says on Jan 18, 2005, 04:07:

Meaning????
That you have a work passport with the Colombia visa in it and a private passport without the visa????
Normally the visa is fixed inside your passport so that you cant remove it any more.
How would your company take it out of you Passport which surely does not belong to your company???

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Dan says on Jan 18, 2005, 04:18:

The Passport is an Official Passport, for government work. The visa's that I have are Official as well... hence Gov. property. They don't take anything out of it, they would take the entire passport.

God Bless America!

lpdiver says on Jan 18, 2005, 05:09:

Whether or not you can be married in Colombia Lies soley at the descretion of the notario/a. In some regions they are more lax than others. But why not gather the required documents and be assured of success.

In my case the most difficult document was my birth certificate. I was residing in Louisiana and born in Tennessee. I phoned Tennessee's office of vital statistics and turned on the charm, told my story of needing in for my Colombian marriage. In the end the lady hand carried my birth certificate from the office of vital statistics to the secretary of states office and Fed Exed it to me. I over did it on the Apostilles. I apostilled more than needed. But didn't want to return home unmarried.

I then faxed my documents to my fiancee and had her bring them to the notaria. There was one minor problem that had to be corrected! I then brought the originals and no problems. There were several errors on the offical marriage document and I pointed them out to the notaria.

It made her very angry to correct them (I suspect she was embarrassed that a Gringo with very limited Spanish speaking abilities found them). I insisted and she made the changes. Then I gave them my fingerprint.

Tony

"cook some rice!"