It is the law issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which came into force last October 21, 2022 and repealed resolution 1980 of March 19, 2014 and 6045 of August 2, 2017.

Visas for Colombia

This new resolution establishes the types of visas for Colombia and their scope, as well as the conditions, requirements and procedures for the application, study, inadmissibility, denial, authorization, cancellation and termination.

This resolution is composed of 6 titles, divided by chapters that address general aspects, types of visas, requirements and characteristics; also everything about the administrative procedures related to the processing and issuance of visas, the termination and cancellation of visas, immigration and foreigner obligations and, finally, the final provisions that indicate restrictions, application of social security agreements, transition regime and validity and repeals.

Some important aspects addressed by the resolution are:

Time of validity of the passport.
Introduction of new visa modalities in the categories of visitors and residents.
Duration of the visa application review stage.
Possibility of having an electronic visa.
Inclusion of new requirements for applications for the 3 types of visas (visitor, migrant, resident).
Changes in the definition of beneficiaries.

With all these changes, the new resolution regulates more strictly the stay of migrants in the country, in order to respond to the new challenges and migratory flows.

Among them, perhaps the most important is the migration of Venezuelan citizens, since it is on the rise.

This is evidenced by Migration Colombia’s figures, which show that the number of Venezuelan migrants received increased from 23,573 in 2014 to 2,064,965 in 2022.

In addition, as the country has become a place of transit, return and immigration, in recent years the historical trends regarding migratory flows have been broken.

It was therefore necessary to design and implement a new migration policy that would align the rights of migrants with national objectives.