If your country is not exempted of visa for short stays, please note that you need a visa to visit Colombia.
As a general rule, tourists can stay in Colombia for up to 180 days per calendar year. That is, the period between January 1st to December 31st. We’ll refer to this period as the “180 days quota”.
Your 180 days quota is reset on January 1st every year, as long as you leave and re-enter the country.
This quota is not accumulable. You can’t accumulate the days from previous years.
This is not a hard rule but a guidance to the MigraciĂłn Officers, who can give you less time at their will.
The days are counted including the day of arrival. Even if you arrive at 23:58pm. Until the day of departure from the country, even if your migratory control is passed at 00:15am on that day.
When you exceed your allowed days of stay you can be subject to fines and other penalties. It will also hurt your chances of getting a visa.
These rules can be confusing when it comes to many trips on the same year or when your travels overlap two years. Counting your days is crucial to avoid penalties and for planning your travels.
The difficulty comes because every time you re-enter the country they give you a 90 days stamp. Even when you have more than 90 days left. This is because they can only give a stamp of max 90 days, even if you still have 110 - 150 days left on your 180 days quota.
You have to keep a track on the days yourself so is a good idea to keep a good track in your agenda, calendar or notepad. Migración Colombia will keep track as well, but they won’t tell you. There is not a public website that you can access to track the days.
If you leave the country before the 90 days are up and then return, they will give you a second permit for up to 90 days. But remember, the days used in the first period stays on their records. So if you have used more than 90 days in a year and do a visa run, you will receive less than 90 days.
For example, if you travel in a year adding up 100 days the next time they will give you a permit shorter than 80 days. So let’s dive into these rules for a better understanding.
Let’s take a look at the following practical cases.
In this case, Ana arrives on January 1st, 2023, at El Dorado airport, with a US passport. They grant her a Tourism Permit for 90 days.
On March 25th, 2023, she decides to extend her stay in the country. She fills out the Unique Procedures Form and gets her Tourism Permit Extension.
On March 28th she receives the extension of her stay in her email. Her extension starts on April 1st and ends on June 30th, for a total of 180 days.
After this period, Ana knows that she must apply for a visa. So she begins to explore the different visa options available.
| Arrival date | Granted days | Extension request | PTP_PP | Last legal day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1st, 2023 | 90 days - until March 31st, 2023 | March 25th, 2023 | April 1st - June 30th, 2023 | June 30th, 2023 |
Peter (43) is an electrical engineer from Germany working for a multinational corporation. He met Katerine, a beautiful Colombian woman from Cartagena. After 10 months of sharing memes daily they met on Cartagena on April 25th, 2023. At the entrance of the Rafael Núñez airport, he got 90 days.
Peter received a call from Hamburg at 2:00 am on May 14th: The systems of the company were having problems. He had to say goodbye to lovely Katerine and took a plane for Germany on May 15th.
After he fixed the issue, he told his boss that he would return for 5 days every month to check the system’s status. He went back to Cartagena on May 20th, getting 90 days more at Migration control.
He returned to Germany on June 15th, and when he came back on June 20th, he got another 90 days on his passport.
He thought every time he left and re-entered the country, he’d always get always 90 days. He signed a gringo-priced lease for a year. He left to Germany on August 5th.
Big was his surprise on his 4th trip when he returned on August 10th and got 88 days on his passport.
He realized that he had used 92 days out of his 180 days quota, and that was the reason why he got 88 days instead of the usual 90.
This surprise led to a big change on his humour. He got into a big argument with Katerine and the couple broke up on August 19th. Peter, heartbroken, returned to Hamburg on August 20th.
Katerine called him to get back together and Peter was very happy. Then she asked him: How long will you be able to stay with me this time? Peter, having learned, told her “Until december 31st, 2023”. I will be able to stay in Colombia without a visa for 78 days.
Let’s take a look at how Peter counted his days:
| Trip | Arrival date | Days granted | Days used | 180 days quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 25th - May 15th, 2023 | 90 | 20 | 160 |
| 2 | May 20th - June 15th, 2023 | 90 | 26 | 134 |
| 3 | June 20th - August 5th, 2023 | 90 | 46 | 88 |
| 4 | August 10th - August 20th, 2023 | 88 | 10 | 78 |
| 5 | September 1st | 78 | — | — |
Katerine said to Peter that she wanted to marry him and he agreed. Then, Peter requested for a M- Marriage visa and stayed happily in Colombia with his new wife.
Maria arrived to Rionegro’s Airport on July 15th, 2024. Migration officers gave her a tourist stamp of 90 days. Then, she left to visit Macchu Picchu, Perú on August 15th, 2023.
She came back on August 20th and Migration officers gave her another 90 days on her passport. She left to CancĂşn on October 15th, 2023 and came back on October 20th.
She left the country on December 5th and when she came back on the 15th of that month, she got 37 days.
Now, she has a travel planned to Argentina to visit her friend Monica.
If she leaves leaves the 24th and re-enters on December 30th, she would get 28 days. But if she re-enters on January 1st, the quota will restart. She will get 90 days more, with the option to extend them for 90 more.
She finally decides to go to Panama on December 31st to came back on January 1st. She gets 90 days more that she can extend until June 30th, 2024.
| Trip | Arrival date | Days granted | Days used | 180 days quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 5th - August 15th, 2023 | 90 | 41 | 139 |
| 2 | August 20th - October 15th, 2023 | 90 | 56 | 83 |
| 3 | October 20th - December 5th, 2023 | 83 | 46 | 37 |
| 4 | December 15th, 2023 - December 31st, 2024 | 37 | 16 | ??? |
| 5 | January 1st, 2024 - March 30th, 2024 | 90 | 90 | 180 |
| 6 - Extension | April 1st - June 30th, 2024 | 90 | 90 | 0 |
One last scenario is when you arrive on August 1st, 2023 and you get 90 days until October 30th, 2023. Then you ask for an extension that allows you to stay in the country from October 30th until January 28th, 2024.
At the end of January, you can’t ask for a second consecutive extension. But, if you leave and re-enter, you will get 90 days more that you can extend until you fulfill your 180 days quota.
For example, leave the 25th and re-enter January 30th. You will get 90 days more that you can extend for 75 days more. It will be 75 because since you used 25 days in January, that will add up your 180 days quota.
Likewise, if you arrive on November 15th, 2023 and have 90 days until February 15th, 2024. And then you get the extension from February 15th, 2024 until May 15th. You can’t ask for a second consecutive extension. Yet you still can leave and re-enter the country to use your refreshed 180 days quota of 2024.
Consider that since in 2024 you have used 133 days, when you re-enter the country they will give you maximum 47 days.
I hope now the picture is clearer.
Visa runs
The border crossing must be carried out only through one of the posts enabled for this purpose. Among these, we find the border crossings of Ecuador and Venezuela, by land, or airports, by air. Some popular destinations are Mexico, Panama, Ecuador and the United States.
The time you must stay outside the country has no minimum nor maximum, but it is recommended to be at least 24 hours.
What happens then in immigration matters is that:
When you reenter Colombia, the immigration officer will give you another permit for up to 90 days. You can request an extension during this period if you still have days in your 180 days quota.
Remember, if you want to stay longer in Colombia, it would be advisable to get a Visa.
If you overstay in the country even for one day, you will be subject to a sanctions, according to ResoluciĂłn 2357 of 2020. This Law provides three different kind of sanctions: slight, moderate, serious or very serious. Leve, grave or gravĂsima.
The minimum sanction is 26,31 UVT (Unidad de Valor Tributario or Taxing Value Unit, which as 2023 is $47.065 COP) and the maximum is 210,50 UVT. Let’s translate that to pesos and dolars.
| UVT | COP | USD* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 26,31 | $1.238.280 COP | $314,21 USD |
| Maximum | 210,50 | $9.907.182 COP | $2.513,93 USD |
Sanctions must be carried out through an administrative procedure. We’ll talk about this in another post.
I hope this post helps you to better plan for your trips and stay in the country. If you have questions, contact us.