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What Documents Are Required To Travel To Colombia?

The question of whether you need a visa to visit Colombia is faced by every tourist who decides to go on vacation to this country. This country attracts adventurers with its beautiful coasts, coffee plantations, and ancient monuments of civilization. Therefore, every traveler who wants to visit this country first must resolve all bureaucratic issues.

What documents are needed to travel to Colombia? In this article, we will give a detailed answer to this question.

Visa requirements for Colombia

Good news! A visa to Colombia for citizens of most countries in 2021 is not required for travel for tourist purposes for no more than 90 days.

Visit Natvisa for the checking details.

Those tourists with whose countries a visa-free regime has not been established (all African countries, most Asian countries, Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Belarus, and Ukraine), can easily visit this Latin American country by applying for a visa at the embassy.

To legally travel to Colombia under a visa-free regime, 2 conditions must be met:

• stay in the country for a period not exceeding 3 months;

• the trip is intended only for tourist purposes or related to cultural, educational, sports events.

A long stay, doing business, employment, admission to a university is considered a violation of immigration laws and is a reason for refusing a subsequent visa-free border crossing.

How about a Colombia Transit visa?

A Colombian transit visa is required for persons who cross the country before arriving in another state. Such a document must be issued if the departure to a third country is carried out from Colombia.

If the departure is carried out on the same or a connecting flight within 12 hours, and you have air tickets and other paperwork necessary for travel on hand, you do not need a visa. You can leave the transit area freely.

Travel documents for visiting Colombia.

When a traveler crosses the Colombian border, he is required to present his passport at the appropriate point. It is important to ensure that it is valid for at least 3 months in advance.

Tourists with dual citizenship in the United States and Colombia will need to use a Colombian passport to enter Colombia and a US passport to return to the United States.

Also, upon entering Colombia, you must present:

• Return ticket.

• Certificate of financial solvency.

• Confirmation of hotel room reservation (not always required).

What do I need to get a long-stay visa in Colombia?

The package of documents for tourists wishing to stay in Colombia for more than 90 days includes:

• Passport valid for at least 3 more months;

• copies of the 1st page of the foreign passport (it is desirable to provide in 2 copies);

• a certificate confirming the financial viability of the applicant;

• an invitation from a private person – a citizen of Colombia (can be replaced with a hotel room reservation for a long period);

• a clear copy of the ticket;

• a completed application form with the personal signature of the person applying;

• color photographs of three by three (3 pieces).

The processing time for a long-term visa is generally seven working days. In some cases, consideration of the issue may take longer. The amount of the consular fee depends on which country you are coming to Colombia from. You need to pay the consular fee when you receive a passport with an up-to-date document.

If a child (schoolchild or student) travels to Colombia, then his package of documents must include the written permission of the parents to cross the border. This permission must be certified by a notary. If the child is traveling with one of the parents, then the text of the permission must be drawn up by the other parent who remains in the homeland.

It is not necessary to book a hotel, you can live with friends, relatives, or in your apartment, but the situation may change, so a backup option will always come in handy. You can book accommodation at a bargain price on Booking.com or other hotel aggregators.

COVID-19 documents.

Even though Colombia has already been quarantined several times due to a difficult epidemiological situation, international travel to Colombia is currently allowed. Today, there are already 8 Colombian airports receiving international flights.

Upon arrival at Colombia airport, the traveler must confirm a negative PCR test carried out within the previous 72 hours. The certificate must be in English or Spanish.

Tourists who have received a full COVID-19 vaccination within the 12 months before departure using an approved vaccine are exempt from the pre-departure testing requirement.

If you are planning a trip to Colombia, we recommend that you keep track of the situation and read all the latest related to possible lockdowns. The fact is that regional authorities are empowered to take measures at the local level, taking into account current risk factors, and new measures can be introduced without prior notice. This means that a lockdown can be introduced not throughout the country, but in local regions.

Do I need health insurance to visit Colombia?

Medical policy is an optional document to enter Colombia. But experienced travelers recommend taking out a policy since medical care in the country is paid.

In this Latin American country, there is a risk of contracting yellow fever, therefore, when applying for a policy, evacuation requirements are indicated in it in case of feeling unwell. It is also recommended to be vaccinated against hepatitis B and A, tetanus, typhoid fever. The issued policy is always carried in your pocket.

This is important to know! Having issued an insurance policy, its original and 2 scanned versions are attached to the main package of collected papers. The best digital nomad travel insurance is probably SafetyWing.

Additional information for travelers.

If the romance and exoticism of this friendly and sunny country does not want to let you go home, then there can be only one way – to the Colombian embassy in your country. Having received a long-term visa, you can go to live in Colombia for 6 months.

The package of documents that the diplomatic institution asks for is no different. Citizens of most countries are required, perhaps, to provide a foreign passport, which contains at least three blank pages.

Another subtlety is that high-quality photocopies must be made from the current pages of the internal passport. They need to be translated into English if your passport is issued in another language. It is also important to remember that return tickets are best bought at home, as in Colombia the ticket price is subject to a 15 percent tax.