Need help getting a visa to work in Colombia

Hello zeze.

I hope you'll get some informations on visas from other members soon.

Concerning the job offer, you should post an advert in the Jobs in Colombia section. It shall help.

Thank you,
Aurélie

Hello young man.

I can tell you the exact process to start a business in Colombia and get you cedula extranjero since I have been through this exact same process myself.

But to get this visa you need to invest funds here in colombia and register yourself at camara de comercio. The bottom line is that you need to invest 100 times the minimum monthly salary here which I think is about 575k pesos per month. Reality is you will need approimately 25-30,000 US Dollars

Tell me what you think?

Best regards

Mark

hi mark
tell me is it easy to get a residence permit there we have british passports i would appriciate any help .
regards john

Hello John

Reality is that there are three ways:

1. Marry a Colombian
2. Have a formal job contract offer from a blue chip company or
3. As explained in a previous post start your own business if you can invest around 30,000 US Dollars.It's a process but achievable

Best

Mark

any new inputs, i would like the same. I have a GF but not ready to marry quite yet. Dont want to leave and i have seen many jobs i could have with american companies but they seem to have Colombian HR offices who tell me I need cedula or work visa and i cant get it from them??

Would like to know more about blue chip company jobs visa opportunities and more about investing the 30k, does it create a global tax liability or a Colombian tax liability? I heard investment properties work for this but can create tax burdens.

Anyone know about financing cars / stuff here w/o cedula? Does Miami have Colombian banks that would finance here?

handymantulsa wrote:

any new inputs, i would like the same. I have a GF but not ready to marry quite yet. Dont want to leave and i have seen many jobs i could have with american companies but they seem to have Colombian HR offices who tell me I need cedula or work visa and i cant get it from them?

Indeed, you need a cedula or work visa before they even think about to hire you, the only way you can get your work visa from them is if you are already hired with a formal contract, then you can go the consulate, apply for the visa and they change your status, but if you come to Colombia as a tourist and then try to work or get a job (while your visa status is tourist)  it will be denied your application and if they catch you working you will be deported because you are trying to work without the permision and it's not allowed in the immigration law, same around the world.
Now in the consulate, they cannot give you visa without the certain that you will be really hired. What If this company finally says: sorry pal we are no longer able to contract you. The immigration control here is stronger than you think.  That company will have to pay a huge penalty fee if they hire you without the permission, I'm sure that is the reason.

handymantulsa wrote:

Would like to know more about blue chip company jobs visa opportunities and more about investing the 30k, does it create a global tax liability or a Colombian tax liability? I heard investment properties work for this but can create tax burdens.

Well, if you open your own business you can get your visa without marry your gf. But you dont have to invest 30.000US : | to register a business you just need your passport, balance by certified accountant and check mark in all the requirements that chamber of commerce ask. It depends on what kind of business you are going to open.
But the minimun price to pay there is 90.000COP  if you register in category 1 with up to 1.400.000COP in assets (467US); of course if you are opening a restaurant and you are expending 30.000.000COP or 10.000US (equipment, location, etc) you can not register your business for 1.200.000 nobody will believe you, so you have to register in the category 35 and that is up to 38.361 .284COP and that register will cost you 700.000COP estimated cost plus what accountant charges you and what ever extra docs you can need.
All the cost in camera depends on the "assets" that you have in your business, more high  investment  more you have to pay there, and more taxes and fiscal responsibilities you will be charged with.

When you have your camera de comercio you can apply freely for the business visa

Recommendations, first and very important, patience! Colombia is winner involving you in a million of documents and endless list of things to do. Yes! it seems complicated but if you know the right steps you can do everything by yourself in less time that you though. Unless you are too lazy or you don't have the time to do all the process,  you don't have to pay to anybody, all the process are free and can be done by yourself.

*check very well everything what you need and have a clear idea about the business you want because of this it depends what you have to pay or not.

*If  everything is ok and you are ready for the next step, be sure there is somebody besides you who speaks spanish, understand well the process, and can translate inmmediately all what camara de comercio tells you, a person that doesnt have a clue about this is useless,  no matter if is native. Why I insist on this matter, because you will not find a bilingual employee in CC it's really rare if you do and all this can be really confusse for both sides of the conversation and you can end up been charged with unnecesary taxes or fiscal responsabilities only because the employee didn't understood well what you mean. Sadly, Colombians tell you aha, yes yes to everything  and you leave convinced that they understood completely, then coming the unpleasant surprises when you go to the next place: the tax office.

*Remeber where you are! Colombia has a huge problem with narcotrafic and money laundry, the first place where they check with magnifying glass are the business open by foreigners. So don't even try to create fake companies or paper companies, it's not worth the trouble. These days the tax office is really hard with this kind of business and seriously checking everything trying to find if there is a single spot of unlegal actitvity. And now Colombia has an agreement with many countries (USA included)so they can check if you are hiding assets in another countries or if you are evading taxes in your own country. Be carefull with that.

I hope this huge comment can help a little