If you are a national from any of the visa exempted countries for short stay, you are allowed to enter the country with a passport valid for at least 6 months at the time you are expected to leave Colombia, and they may ask you an exit flight ticket or reservation. Between 24 hours and 1 hour before your flight, make sure you have filled and submitted the CheckMig form.
You can only enter the country through a legal entry point. You can see the list of legal entrance points here.
At the border control checkpoint, a Migración Colombia officer will confront some information with you. This process is called Migratory control, and it must be done by the Migración officers, although some of them are more rigid than others.
The Migración officer must verify that you are following the migratory rules.
Specially, the officer must check that you have not exceeded 180 days of stay in the country during the current calendar year. They will be also looking for wanted criminals trying to hide in the country, wanted drug kingpins, terrorists and the likes. They are constantly checking the Police and Interpol databases for red flags, that’s why they (have to) look so rude.
If the officer spots any irregularity on your migratory or legal background condition, he or she will be required to report that to his or her superior, who will take the correspondent actions: A talk off, a fine, a bigger fine, jail time, deportation or expulsion.
If everything is Ok, the officer will stamp your passport, mark the “PT” box on the stamp, and write the number of days granted with a pen. If the officer’s hand writing is illegible, remember to ask the officer “¿Cuál número es este?”.
This passport stamp is the “Permiso de Turismo” they give you when you arrive in the country.
Under a Tourism Permit you will be allowed to stay for up to 90 days (could be less). The official name of this permit is Entry and Stay Permit (Permiso de Ingreso y Permanencia - PIP) or Tourism Permit (Permiso de Turismo - PT), commonly referred to as “Tourist visa” or “Passport stamp”.
💡 This permit is not a visa. Permits are issued by Migración Colombia officers and visas are issued by Internal Work Group of Visas and Immigration (GIT - Visas y Migración) of the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Two different entities, who apply different rules. The permits are ruled by the Resolución 3167 de 2019 issued by the Special Administrative Unit - Migración Colombia.
Without needing to leave and re-enter the country, you can extend this permit for up to 90 days more through another permit called Temporary Permanence Permit - Permanence Extension or Permiso Temporal de Permanencia - Prórroga de Permanencia (PTP_PP), commonly known as “tourist visa extension” which can be applied for only once per calendar year and you must have a valid Tourism Permit to get it. This special permit can’t be granted for more time than the original Tourism Permit nor more time that would exceed the 180 days quota.
Every time you leave and re-enter the country, you will be granted a new Tourism Permit for up to 90 days, but if you have already “used” (stayed in the country) more than 90 days during that calendar year, they can only give you time for up to the remaining number of days to fulfill your permitted 180 days in that year.