What has to be sorted after the visa, and in what order?

A visa is not the end of the paperwork, it is the start of it. The guide about visas ends the moment the foreign ministry emails you the visa; this one picks up with what has to happen within fifteen days so that anyone here will open a bank account for you.

Colombian bureaucracy has three qualities worth planning for: it is slow, it is paper based, and it is logical. If you know who wants what and in what order, it does not hold you up. If you do not, you go three times.

The knot everything hangs on: the cédula de extranjería

It is the local ID for foreigners, and without it you are nobody here: no bank account, no health insurance, no lease signed, no phone contract.

The deadline is fifteen calendar days from the visa being issued, or from your entry into the country. It is not a formality; missing it carries a fine.

How it goes:

1. Book an appointment with Migración Colombia through their portal. In Medellín slots usually open within days; in Bogotá it is worse.
2. Pay the fee. The 2026 tariff: 294,000 pesos for the first issue, 88,000 for a duplicate. Paid online in advance.
3. Turn up in person with your passport, visa, proof of payment and a photo. They take your fingerprints.
4. Collect it about ten working days after payment.

Practical tip: make three copies of the cédula straight away and keep a photo of it on your phone. Every second office and every landlord will ask for it, always at the moment you do not have it on you.

Apostille: when it is needed and when it is not

An apostille is a stamp certifying that a foreign public document is genuine. Both Colombia and most European countries are in the Hague Convention, so an apostille is enough between them and nothing has to be legalised at an embassy.

Two directions, and do not mix them up:

A document from home for use here (birth certificate, marriage certificate, criminal record extract, diploma) is apostilled at home, by whichever ministry handles that type of document. Here you then take it to an official translator.

A Colombian document for use abroad is apostilled online on the Colombian foreign ministry portal. The whole thing is done over the internet, around the clock, and in 2026 an apostille costs about 36,000 pesos per document, a legalisation around 25,000. No middleman is needed and the ministry says so itself.

Watch out for:

• Each document is apostilled separately, not as a bundle. Ten documents means ten fees.
• Get fresh copies issued. Many offices reject extracts older than three to six months, and an apostille does not rejuvenate an old document.
• Apostille first, translate second, not the other way round. The apostille text gets translated too.

Official translation

A foreign document has to reach a Colombian office in Spanish, and only an official translator and interpreter, meaning someone who passed the state exam and is on the register, may translate it. A translation from anyone else gets handed back to you.

Prices are per page of finished translation and in 2026 run roughly 30,000 to 70,000 pesos; a page carrying only a stamp or an apostille is cheaper, around ten thousand. Signature authentication at a notary and any apostille are billed separately.

Practical notes:

• Ask for the price per resulting page, not per original one. Spanish runs longer than most source languages.
• Scan properly. A translator charges for time, not for patience.
• Keep the translation digitally too. Paper gets lost, files do not.

The notary, who here does things they do not do at home

A notaría sits on every corner and handles matters you may be used to solving elsewhere:

• Authenticating a signature or a copy (autenticación), a few thousand pesos, done while you wait.
• Power of attorney (poder), when somebody will be sorting something out for you.
• A sworn statement (declaración extrajuicio), a declaration under oath about something that cannot otherwise be documented: that you live together, that you have no income, that you are single. Colombian administration uses these surprisingly often and they are cheap and quick.

Go in the morning and bring cash.

RUT, if you earn money here

RUT is the tax number issued by DIAN. You need it as soon as you want to invoice here, run a business, or open a business account. It is free, mostly done online now, and it wants your cédula and an address.

Anyone working remotely for clients abroad, paid into an account at home, usually does not need it. Where the line runs is a question for a tax adviser, not a guide: among other things it depends on how many days you spend in the country.

The order that works

1. Visa (foreign ministry, online).
2. Cédula within fifteen days (Migración Colombia, in person).
3. Bank account (cédula and proof of address).
4. Health insurance (EPS, cédula and visa).
5. Lease (cédula, sometimes a guarantor or rent insurance).
6. RUT, only if you earn money here.

Do it in another order and you go in circles: the bank wants a cédula, the insurer wants a cédula, the landlord wants a cédula and proof of income, and proof of income comes on a document that wants an address.

What to avoid

Middlemen for apostilles. The ministry says it plainly: you do not need anyone for this.

Leaving it to the last minute. Fifteen days for the cédula is short and Bogotá appointments fill up.

Handing over papers without a copy. Photograph anything before you submit it.

Assuming it can all be done by email. Often it can, and when it cannot, it means going in person with your passport.

Panicking about the queue. Offices involve waiting, but the ticket system works and people are helpful. The best time is right after opening.