Tourist Visa rules Colombia?

billyuk,

My understanding is that there are 2 simple rules:

A - You are allowed a Maximum of 180 CONSECUTIVES days on a given stay

B - You are allowed a Maximum of 180 days (not necessarily consecutive) in a given civil year.

When I entered Colombia at the Medellín Airport I was given 90 days, This number is hand written within the stamp that was put into my passport at that time.

In February, about 2 weeks before my 90 days come-up, I will apply for a 90 days extension.

When I leave at the end of April 2018 I will gave stayed in Colombia 154 CONSECUTIVE Days in total of which 115 will have been in 2018. Therefore I will have 65 remaining in 2018.

I hope that my example help.

Can someone confirm that my understanding is correct?

Cheers!

billyuk wrote:

Basically my predicament at the moment is that I am in Colombia on a tourist visa and am worried that my 90 days allowed stay will run out soon. I am going to apply for a work visa, as I wish to work and live in Colombia, however I am worried that the work visa will not come in time before my allowed stay on a tourist visa runs out. However I might be ok as I understand that the 90 day allowed limit (or is it 180?) refreshes on January 1st. However I am confused with the rules; Do you get 180 days? Do your allowed days refresh every time you re-enter the country? Do your days renew at the start of the calendar year, January 1st?

Dear Billy,

Welcome to the Colombia forum.

First, let's clarify that you do not have -- and do not currently need -- a visa to be in Colombia.

What you have is a tourist permit stamped into your passport. 

----

No, you do not get additional days when the calendar turns over to 2018.  Nor do the 90 days renew every time you cross an international border into Colombia .. or fly into Colombia.

However, you can renew for an additional 90 days.  I did it myself earlier this year.  Read on.

cccmedia in Depto. de Nariño

Hello Abitibi

Thank you very much for your reply, that is very useful!

So the clock resets on 1st January and you have another 180 days I understand it?

And also, i understand you get 90 days every time you enter the country? And so I have until 7th February (from the 10th November when I landed here a second time this year), despite spending 39 days here in August and September.

Many thanks for your help
Billy

The process to obtain a visa extension is easy, Billy.  There are no difficult documents to obtain or process if you have a passport that is not expiring in early 2018.  You will go to an Inmigración Colombia office.  Offices of the agency are located in all the major COL cities.

Google:  FAR International tourist visa extensions

billyuk wrote:

Hello Abitibi

Thank you very much for your reply, that is very useful!

So the clock resets on 1st January and you have another 180 days I understand it?

And also, i understand you get 90 days every time you enter the country? And so I have until 7th February (from the 10th November when I landed here a second time this year), despite spending 39 days here in August and September.

Abitibi is correct that you may stay 180 consecutive days spanning two calendar years.

However, in your case, Billy, that does not mean you get a magic calendar re-set.  You still have to go to Inmigración and apply for the easy-to-obtain extension.  (Or receive the work visa you mentioned.)

cccmedia

Hello cccmedia

Thanks for your reply.

Ok, so I understand that limit of days do not refresh on January 1st, or whenever I re-enter the country.

HOWEVER, I understand that I have 90 days from when I landed here on 10th November (so until 7th February 2018)? DESPITE being here from 19th August-26th September (39 days).

I have until 7th February, because I am still within my 180 day limit of being in Colombia. What I don't understand, is, is that 180 days in a Calendar year (Jan 1st - Dec 31st), or any 12 month period?

I just called up the Colombian Migration Office here -http://www.migracioncolombia.gov.co/index.php/es/
and they said that I get 90 days from 10th November, despite being here back in August and September. I am just double checking this fact on the forums, as the line was a bit bad and I want to be sure.

Thanks
Billy

Hi cccmedia

But surely I have until 7th February 2018 no? As you get 90 days every time you enter the country, and I landed here on the 10th November.

Thanks

Now let's do the math, Billy.

You correctly calculated that your earlier visit this year (2017) involved 39 tourist-permitted days.

To figure the days on your second/current visit that began November 10th: 

You were in Colombia during 21 days in November .. and have been in Colombia 11 days this month (as today is December 11, 2017) -- making a total of 32 days for this visit.

Add 39 and 21 and 11 to get 71 days, leaving you 19 more days before your initial permit-period expires.  That will be December 30, 2017.

cccmedia

Yes I did think that my last permitable day would be then, the 30th December. I calculated this also.

However I was under the impression that your 90 days renews every time you enter the country. And so I have until the 7th February? NOT 30th December. You can't obviously keep re-entering and getting 90 days every time and stay forever, as the limit is 180 days in one year.

I called up the Colombian Migration office earlier and they confirmed this as well. Is this not the case?

I'm not sure whether to believe these offices sometimes.

Thanks

I wouldn't trust that problematic phone conversation you had with Inmigración, Billy.

Some of the visa/tourist-permit rules changed recently.  However, to my knowledge, the maximium-90-days-with-multiple-entries-into-Colombia rule did not change.  If there was a change, I don't believe such a change has been reliably reported in English anywhere online.

To properly confirm that you have until February, you would have to take your passport and show the stamp to an official at an Inmigración office.  If you rely on that phone conversation, you are probably asking for trouble.

If you go to an Inmigración office, bring the simple documents described at the FAR International site .. so you can be prepared to apply for the permit extension.

cccmedia

Ok, thanks alot for your help. I will go to the immigration office in person, I think that is the best thing to do.

There doesn't seem to be a decent course of information anywhere regarding this!

Thanks for your help

... Also do you know whether it is possible to apply for a Working Visa, whilst being on a Tourist Visa, in Colombia?

Thanks
Billy

there is new colombia  immigration laws that went into effect on december 15 that has reduced the types of visas from 17 to 3. The 3 are visitor - resident - migration.
check it out on website

what website? colombiangov.org.co or something like that?

*** Go to chrome - key in "new colombia visa law december 15, 2017" .You will recieve a document from a bogota newspaper that completely explains the new law. Dont play games with the law - immigracion in colombia is not the place to play games - they will fine you and take your passport and give you 72 hours to leave the country