Tourist Visa Renewal Process
Editor’s Note: Please visit this page for updated information on the tourist visa renewal process.
My entry stamp to Colombia allowed for 60 days as a tourist, so with my time expiring, it was time to figure out the tourist visa renewal process.
One morning, I took a taxi to the Departamento Administartivo de Seguridad (DAS).
- Address: Calle 19 80A-40, Barrio Belén, Medellin
- Office Hours: 7:00 am – 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday. As of November 2010, the office was closed from 12 pm – 2 pm for lunch. The office is also closed for national holidays.
At the front security gate, I was required to leave some form of identification. Leaving your phone or a credit card is sufficient, as you need to bring your Passport into the office. I was given an ID card on a lanyard, and pointed toward the office in front of the building which handles foreigners.
Adriaan had already warned me no one there speaks English, and he was right, though an older man in the office for his own needs was recruited to help me communicate. (note: on at least one visit in 2010, I encountered an employee who spoke English). I was given a piece of paper with the Spanish instructions and documentation required to extend my tourist visa by another 30 days.
The following information is current for the Medellin DAS office as of February 3, 2010, and required for a tourist visa extension:
- Original passport
- 4 photos (3 x 4 cm)
- The completed form you can download here, or that they will give you at the DAS office (requires the name, address, and phone number of one Colombian national), plus 1 copy.
- Deposit 72,350 pesos (about $40) into Davivienda Bank. There’s one 6 blocks from the DAS office, at the intersection of Calle 9 and Avenida 80.
- Original bank deposit and 2 copies
- 2 copies of the information page in passport
- 2 copies of the passport page with Colombian entry stamp
Once you bring all of this documentation back to the office, your wait time to be serviced will vary. Generally, the earlier you arrive, the shorter your wait and time to have everything processed. Allow yourself at least one hour. Expect to be fully fingerprinted the first time. You will then be told when you can return to pick up your stamped passport. Based on the experience of Erin February 4, 2011 (in the Comments below), the turnaround time may be as fast as one business day.
Subsequent visits to the DAS office are faster, as they already have your file set up, and you need only bring the bank deposit slip. Still, the earlier you arrive, the shorter your wait will tend to be.
This process can be repeated monthly for up to a 6 month stay per calendar year. After 6 months, the tourist is required to leave the country, and cannot return until the following year. In other words, tourists visas allow a stay for 6 of 12 months per year.
If you return to the same DAS office in Medellin in a subsequent year, they will have your file on record, so the visits continue to be of the shorter variety.
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Editor’s Note: Please visit this page for updated information on the tourist visa renewal process.
