2026-09-20Finding
Colombia's 180-day ceiling counts from the visa, not from your arrival
Ninety days extendable by ninety is the part everyone repeats. The ceiling behind it is counted from a date most travellers never think about.
Colombia grants a tourist up to ninety days, extendable by another ninety. The limit that actually governs is the next sentence: a hard ceiling of a hundred and eighty days in any three hundred and sixty-five, and the days need not be consecutive.
So the ceiling follows a person across separate trips. Leaving and returning resets nothing, and a stay becomes non-extendable the moment it reaches the limit.
Two further things are checked at the border and are not in most summaries: a health policy covering the whole stay, and a return ticket.
The comparison is where this earns its place. Peru counts a hundred and eighty-three days cumulatively inside a window that opens at a traveller's first regular entry; Mexico grants a hundred and eighty days uninterrupted from the date of entry, a single stretch rather than a pool; Panama grants ninety per admission with no annual ceiling anywhere in the instrument. Advice written for one of these is wrong about the others, in both directions.
What the instruments say
«Vigencia: Hasta un (1) año. La permanencia autorizada en el territorio nacional será de 90 días, prorrogable por otros 90 días calendario, continuos o discontinuos. La permanencia será improrrogable al completar 180 días. continuos o discontinuos dentro de cada trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) días calendario, contados a partir de la expedición de la visa.»Our translation - not official
Validity: up to one (1) year. The authorised stay in national territory will be 90 days, extendable by another 90 calendar days, continuous or discontinuous. The stay becomes non-extendable on completing 180 days, continuous or discontinuous, within each three hundred and sixty-five (365) calendar days, counted from the issue of the visa.
Note what the 365 days are counted from: the issue of the visa, not your arrival. Two separate trips of 90 days in the same window exhaust the allowance.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Colombia's foreign ministry, which sets the visa regime by resolution. Resolución 5477 de 2022 is the instrument itself, not a summary of one: it defines every visa category, its requirements and its validity in numbered articles.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Resolutions are amended by further resolutions rather than reissued, so the consolidated version carries notes about articles added or repealed by later instruments - article 80 of 5477, for example, was repealed by Resolución 10434 de 2023. Reading a category without checking those notes can mean reading a rule that no longer applies.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Al ingreso al país, la autoridad de control migratorio exigirá al extranjero demostrar que está en posesión del correspondiente tiquete de salida.»Our translation - not official
On entry to the country, the migration control authority will require the foreigner to demonstrate that they are in possession of the corresponding exit ticket.
About this source
Colombia's foreign ministry, which sets the visa regime by resolution. Resolución 5477 de 2022 is the instrument itself, not a summary of one: it defines every visa category, its requirements and its validity in numbered articles.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Resolutions are amended by further resolutions rather than reissued, so the consolidated version carries notes about articles added or repealed by later instruments - article 80 of 5477, for example, was repealed by Resolución 10434 de 2023. Reading a category without checking those notes can mean reading a rule that no longer applies.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Póliza de salud con cobertura en el territorio nacional contra todo riesgo en caso de accidente, enfermedad, maternidad, invalidez, hospitalización, muerte o repatriación, por el tiempo previsto para su permanencia en el país»Our translation - not official
A health policy with cover in national territory against all risks in the event of accident, illness, maternity, disability, hospitalisation, death or repatriation, for the time envisaged for the stay in the country.
About this source
Colombia's foreign ministry, which sets the visa regime by resolution. Resolución 5477 de 2022 is the instrument itself, not a summary of one: it defines every visa category, its requirements and its validity in numbered articles.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Resolutions are amended by further resolutions rather than reissued, so the consolidated version carries notes about articles added or repealed by later instruments - article 80 of 5477, for example, was repealed by Resolución 10434 de 2023. Reading a category without checking those notes can mean reading a rule that no longer applies.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- issuesResolución 5477 de 2022, art. 34
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Colombia)
About this source
Colombia's foreign ministry, which sets the visa regime by resolution. Resolución 5477 de 2022 is the instrument itself, not a summary of one: it defines every visa category, its requirements and its validity in numbered articles.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Resolutions are amended by further resolutions rather than reissued, so the consolidated version carries notes about articles added or repealed by later instruments - article 80 of 5477, for example, was repealed by Resolución 10434 de 2023. Reading a category without checking those notes can mean reading a rule that no longer applies.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source