Long term residents of Colombia are approaching the deadline for updating their visas. This applies to all Resident (R) visa holders, regardless of how long they have held that visa. It’s not actually a new visa as such, merely re-registering an extant visa.
You will retain the same number and class of visa. If your visa is open-ended and you haven’t updated the details in the last two years, this will apply to you. If you are not sure, check the upper right hand side of your visa as per the photo below. If Valid until / Válido hasta has a date in the future, follow that. If it’s in the past or there is no date, time to get started with the process.
There has been a long grace period given, but that’s finally coming to an end and there may well be a scramble of applicants as the door begins to swing closed. Even if your residency is permanent, you will still need to do a transfer process known as a traspaso in order to update your details.
Whilst it’s a slightly finickity procedure, it’s relatively easy to get done yourself and not too complicated for most people. However, there are some potentially very confusing areas to navigate, which we’ve done our best to explain below.
Some have branded this a cash grab by the government – this is bang wrong. The price is a little over COP$200,000 for the study of documents and as much again for the visa. Over the life of the traspaso, that’s COP$80,000 a year – not a big earner for the cancillería.
The legal changes of 2022 and earlier
This stems back to several recent changes, most notably law 5477 of 2022. This streamlined the entire system considerably in many ways, dividing Colombian visas into three easy and distinct categories, Visitantes (V), Migrantes (M) and Residentes (R). The first of these are short term visas
The R visa is for those who have lived in Colombia for a long time, usually after completing five continuous years of M visas. Residency visas have been through a number of changes over the years and so the new rules seek to standardise the system and make sure everyone is in the records correctly.
All residency visas, regardless of date of issue and including old permanent residency, are now considered to be contemporary R visas. That means holders must apply for a traspaso every five years, just as if they had been issued an R visa recently. A two year grace period was given for this, which expires in October this year.
Basically put, there will be a number of essentially unregistered foreigners within the country that have very old visas with out of date information on them. Colombia is merely professionalising the system to make sure all these people are correctly identified. Visas issued in the distant point were sometimes given without expiry dates. That still holds, but you must update the details to keep them valid.
What documents do I need for the renewal?
You will need to scan in a fair bit of paperwork, always in individual or combined .pdf files under a certain size. This includes but is not limited to:
- Cédula
- Passport data page
- Movimientos Migratorios (for more than five years)
- A letter of intent
- A declaration that you comply with the requirements
- Extant digital visa or scan of old one
- A passport photo, in colour, in JPG
What’s the process?
This is where it gets fun. First, assuming you don’t have a Movimientos Migratorios, you’ll have to get one. However, it’s not the normal document – which is for five years only – but an extended one that will cover the life of your visa. You’ll need to make an appointment at Migración to do this in person. This will be printed on the day after you pay. Remember to fill out the Tramite Único before arriving for your appointment.
Scan in everything and try to get file sizes small (The maximum weight allowed for the total of documents attached to an application is 5MB), but with easily readable data. Black and white is generally fine, some passports may require colour to be legible. Scan in all the docs and give them appropriate filenames.
Now start the application proper
Now, you’ll need to go to the Cancillería page and start the process of making an application. Set aside an hour or so just in case. You can make the application in either English or Spanish, but we recommend the latter as it’s better designed. First page is pretty straightforward – basically your passport details.
Note that the built in calendar on the dates allows you to click on the year/month to change them. If it only lets you go back/forward ten years, do that, then click in again and it will go back/forward ten more years. Repeat as necessary.
On the second page, select Traspaso/Transfer in the first field and new fields will pop up after a short loading period. Assuming you’re not adding an employer, click visa transfer/traspaso and the next field will ask for the date of issue. That in turn will inform the next fields.
These should explain themselves, but answer according to your original residency application. For example, if you got that residency from accumulated time but now are also the parent of a Colombian national, accumulated time will be the reason for the visa.
Click through to the next situation and we have the first odd situation. You can give the same address for your current address and “where you will stay in Colombia”. The system is designed for all visa applications, so this doesn’t really fit you. However, you need to fill it all in.
City is odd, type in where you live, then the search button. There will now be a mini drop down menu with options to select from. If for example there is Bogotá, Bogota, Bogotá DC, Bogotá Cundinamarca as options, any will be fine. The system seems to double register some locations – as long as it is understandable it will be OK.
Continue to give personal details as asked. For the social media section, copy and paste your username(s) that you use. Note that the personal information section adds fields, so revise everything. If you don’t it will flag it in red anyway, so you can’t get this wrong.
It can be tedious working out which subsection you may be in and if it doesn’t exist in the menus, choose something near enough. If you are outside Colombia making the application, additional fields will emerge asking for where you are.
Uploading your docs
Eventually, you will get to the documents page. Take a deep breath and focus. Photo first, 300kb maximum, colour, usual passport rules. Then the documents, one by one. The descriptions of each are in Spanish, even if the application has until now been in English.
Box one is odd – just make a document that says you meet the requirements for the visa. You may have to do this for boxes 4 and six too. We know it says it doesn’t apply for R traspasos, but if the system is glitchy, it may need a pdf porque sí. Just make a doc saying it is a doc to fill space.
You may find that you can’t join your electronic visa to your cédula scan, as the e-visa is a protected pdf. If that’s the case, you can try putting the cédula in box three instead, and the movimientos migratorios in box four instead of the document you don’t need. It will arrive as a single long pdf to the cancillería anyway.
The carta de motivación can simply say “estoy cumpliendo con las requisitos del estado” or something similar. This is more necessary for other applications on the site, but the same form is used for all applications, which is why it’s there. Don’t ignore it, but you don’t have to write a novel.
Payment time!
Now, it will ask you if you’re sure and you will be invited to pay in order for the cancillería to study your documents. Payment is no guarantee of a successful application. But if you have everything in order, you should be OK.
You can pay via various measures, including Visa, Mastercard, PSE and bank transfer. Once the payment has been received (this may not be immediate, even if confirmed by your bank), you will get an email saying it’s under review.
Once the application has gone through, you’re not quite home safe. Monitor your emails over the next week or so for any updates – it is very common indeed to be asked to provide extra documentation, although hard to predict exactly what that might be.
Recently, we were asked to freehand sign the carta de motivación and rescan. 24 hours after doing so, we had been approved.
Do as instructed and open the application page, entering your application number should reinstate your details and allow you to update your documents. Once you’ve provided that and updated anything necessary, you will be told if you have been approved or denied. If the former, you’ll need to pay using the link provided and should have your digital visa in short order.
It will say you need to register the visa, but you’ll actually need to make an appointment to update your cédula extranjería (even if it has months or even years to run). This means going back to the Migración Colombia website and making an appointment for a new cédula, as there are no appointments for registering a visa.
Your visa will also be registered as part of this process. There is a delay in the processing of cédula extranjerías, so be prepared to wait.
Some common problems, and how to avoid them
From the start, the Movimientos Migratorios appointments go online at 5pm on Sunday afternoons. That’s what the website says, but log on early to check – it sometimes opens earlier. We’d recommend from 4:30 or so. Make sure you have all your personal details such as ID numbers to hand.
Try to book for the end of the week to avoid it disappearing as you fill in your details. If you can’t make a booking for a Movimientos Migratorios, try booking a cédula renewal and be prepared to speak sweetly to the people at the counter on the day, explaining the situation.
If desperate, try turning up at the door, explaining your problem and be prepared to wait. Always carry your card as well – Migración will not accept cash as part of anti-corruption measures.
Website issues
Then, we’re into the online application itself. If you are having unexplained errors for no reasons, check your settings and browser. The website seems to work best in a fully updated Google Chrome or Internet Explorer (!), even if those are not your favourite browsers.
You may find that some dates do not display correctly when typed – so make sure that you use the built-in calendar to try and avoid that problem. Equally, finding your country of birth may take a little searching.
You may find your pdfs or photos are too big, so search for an online program to reduce file size. Next, you may find that you have to fill every box to continue. If that’s the case, use the filler documents we recommended above and make sure you have the documents in the correct order. Note you will not be able to join or alter your digital visa pdf.
All information in this article is advisory and at the discretion of the Colombian visa office
