How To Renew Your Tourist Visa In Colombia

I’ve been in Colombia for almost two months now. When I arrived, immigration gave me a 60 day stamp on my passport. This means that I can stay legally for 60 days within the country. Since my 60 days are almost up, I have to renew my Visa.

What happens If I don’t renew my visa? What happens is that I end up staying in the country Illegally, and I’ll have to do a whole bunch of paperwork, get stuff notarized, and pay fines in order to get my proper paperwork to be able to leave the country. It’s too much of a hassle, not to mention more expensive, so I recommend just renewing your visa the proper way which I outline below.

Most likely you’ll also get a 60 day stamp, which means that if you get close to your 60 days in Colombia, you’ll have to go to the D.A.S. which stands for “Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad” which translates to “The Administrative Department of Security.” Most large cities in Colombia have a D.A.S. agency within the city, but if you’re in a smaller city you might have to go to one of the larger ones to get your paperwork done.

If you have a local agency in your city all you need to do is hop in a taxi and tell them to take you to the D.A.S, pronounced “das”. Once you’re at the agency you’ll have to go past security and let them know you want to extend your tourist visa or “extender mi visa de turista”.

The agents in the office will ask you to photocopy a your passport as well as the original entry stamp. You’ll also have to fill out a form which should only take about 5 minutes. You’re going to have to sign the form and also take a few photocopies of it. Finally, you’ll have to go to a bank and pay a fee, based on the details they give you in the D.A.S. agency. Usually this involves going directly to a bank and paying with a certain code that you’ll be assigned.

Once you pay the fee at the bank, you bring the receipt back to the D.A.S. agency and they will process the final paperwork. All in all it took me about an hour and half to complete everything including taxi rides. Unfortunately, after your first initial stamp is up, you’ll have to repeat this process every month.