While Colombia has traditionally been generous and straightforward when it comes to issuing visas to foreign immigrants, a trend in the opposite direction has recently been observed. The legal requirements have not changed since October 2022. Resolución 5477 de 2022 of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Colombia), which regulates the individual visa types and procedural steps, still applies. Recently, however, stricter handling of visa procedures has been observed in everyday practice. The following section highlights a few typical stumbling blocks that occur time and again:
1) Criminal history record
The regulations only explicitly require a criminal history record for a few specific visa types, such as the pensioner visa. In practice, however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs now also requests criminal history records in visa procedures where this is not provided for in the regulations, for example for investor visas. The record must not be older than 90 days when the visa application is submitted and must be apostilled. This point should be considered when preparing and planning your individual visa strategy.
2) Health insurance
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs now requires proof of health insurance coverage in Colombia in many procedures at its discretion, in some cases even for visa types for which this is not required according to the regulations. In some cases, the Ministry links the duration of the visa to the certified duration of the health insurance. In any case, the duration of the insurance should not be less than one year. The Colombian statutory health insurance (so-called EPS) is no longer accepted for certain types of visas, especially for pensioner visas. If foreign pensioners have already registered with an EPS before submitting their visa application, they are sometimes requested by the Ministry to deregister with the EPS.
3) Retrospective examination of the fulfillment of the conditions of previous visas
Foreigners who were already holders of another visa before submitting a visa application may be asked to prove that they fulfilled the conditions of the previous visa during its term. For example, anyone applying for an investor visa who has previously stayed in Colombia on a language student visa may be asked to prove that they have attended most of the lessons as part of the application for the investor visa, in this case by means of a certificate from the language school. Anyone wishing to switch from a work visa to a different type of visa may be asked to prove that they were employed, received a salary and paid social insurance for the entire duration of the work visa. The past visa history should therefore always be checked when preparing a visa application.
4) More difficult issuing of subsequent visas
Certain types of visas are only issued once. For example, the so-called digital nomad visa is generally only issued once and cannot be extended. Anyone changing from one type of visa to another must expect detailed queries from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For example, anyone wishing to switch from a digital nomad visa to language student status can expect an increased justification effort. This is presumably because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs now takes a more critical view when several types of visas, which are only intended for a temporary stay, are strung together to create a long-term stay.
5) Material examination instead of examination of pure formalities
In general, it can be said that simply fulfilling the formal requirements of the individual visa types is no longer sufficient these days. For example, in the case of an application for a company owner visa, if the company's accountant certifies that the company has received the amount of share capital required per visa purposes (currently COP $130,000,000 per shareholder), this is usually no longer sufficient nowadays. Instead, detailed evidence of the individual bank transfers from abroad to the Colombian company account is required. It is recommended that the respective company founder transfers the share capital from his own personal foreign bank account directly to the company's Colombian business account by regular international bank transfer and correctly registers the investment amount with the Colombian Central Bank. Otherwise, the Ministry may argue that it is not proven that the required amount has been invested in Colombia.
Conclusion
The stricter interpretation of the Colombian visa regulations makes it necessary for applicants to start their preparations and planning early. Nowadays, it tends to make sense to submit the application while you are still in your home country, i.e. not from Colombia. This is because documents are increasingly being requested, such as apostilled criminal history record from the home country, which are sometimes difficult to organize from Colombia.
