Edit history of Visas

By Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) on May 27, 2008, 20:30. Reason: New travelguide created.

Title: Visas
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You always need a passport when you arrive in Colombia. Officially, you need an onward ticket (so no 1-way ticket), but they often don't check.

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Tourist Visa

If you have a passport from a rich country (Europe, US, ...), you don't need to get a visa in advance. They will give you a 90-days stamp when you arrive in Colombia, if you ask for it. If you don't ask explicitly, they might give you only 60 or 30 days. One tourist was give 15 days only! So ask for 90 days!

If you are from one of these countries, you DO need to get a visa BEFORE leaving: Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Taiwan, Vietnam, and a few more including all African countries. In this case, call the Colombian embassy in your country before leaving.

Before your 90 days are over, you can go to the DAS office in one of the big cities and ask for an extension (best in Bogota). You can get extensions up to 180 days a year, but you are not allowed to stay more than 180 days a year in Colombia (although there are ways around it). The 180 days rule applies per Calender Year, beginning on the 1st of January. So if you were to come in July you could stay for the rest of the calender year. The following year you are granted another 180 day period so you could spend until end of June again.

When entering Colombia, they will give you some official looking cards, KEEP those with your passport as you'll need them when leaving.

The ministry that regulates visas has regulations posted (en Espanol):
http://www.cancilleria.gov.co