Do US citizens need a visa for Colombia?

US passport holders enter Colombia visa-free for tourism or business and are stamped in for up to 90 days on arrival. The one thing you must not skip is Check-Mig: a short online form from Migracion Colombia that every traveler completes, whether or not they need a visa, before each flight to or from Colombia.

It is not a visa and does not guarantee entry, it is a registration that speeds the border and that airlines check at boarding. Skip it and you may be held up at check-in.

Fill it in between 72 hours and 1 hour before your flight. It takes a few minutes and asks for your passport details and your flight (airline, number, dates), so have your booking to hand. You complete it twice: once for your arrival flight and again for your departure. Save or print the confirmation.

1. Go to the official Migracion Colombia site, apps.migracioncolombia.gov.co/check-mig. Go there directly, not through a search ad.
2. Enter your passport and personal details and your flight information for the trip into Colombia.
3. Submit and save the confirmation. It is free, so if you are asked to pay, you are on the wrong site.
4. Repeat the whole thing for your departure flight before you leave Colombia.

Because the form is free and required, a whole industry of third-party sites has sprung up charging $30 to $50 to fill in the same government form. They are not official and add nothing you cannot do yourself in a few minutes. Use only apps.migracioncolombia.gov.co.

A few practical extras: carry a passport with a blank page, have a return or onward ticket to show, and note that yellow fever vaccination is required for some national parks, and if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is a risk.

The 90 days can be extended once inside Colombia (through Migracion Colombia) up to a total of 180 days per calendar year. Working, studying or living there needs a proper visa arranged separately, Check-Mig does not cover any of that.

For how money works once you are there, cash, cards, the peso and the rest, see the Colombia money guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Colombia

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Do I need cash in Colombia, or can I use cards?Short answer: cards in cities for hotels and nicer places, and peso cash for markets, small shops and taxis. Use ATMs inside banks or malls for safety. Here is how to handle it.
• Tipping in ColombiaIn Colombia, restaurants add a voluntary 10% tip that the server asks you about. Say yes and that is the tip, no extra needed. Here is what you actually owe.
• Taxi apps in Colombia, and the one rule that mattersIn Colombia the how-you-get-a-taxi matters more than which app. Here is the single rule to follow, the apps locals actually use, and how to leave Bogota's airport without the roadside gamble.
• Common money scams in Colombia, and what they cost youMillions of people visit Colombia and have a straightforwardly good time, and most trips pass without any of this. But we are not going to tell you a few habits defuse it, because that is not true here. The way money is taken from foreign visitors in Colombia is mostly not an inflated bill or a rigged meter. It is being made unable to refuse, by something in a drink or by a car you cannot get out of. That changes the advice: it is about not entering the situation rather than watching your wallet. The situations are few, specific and recognisable, and the decisions that avoid them are small. Note that this page covers money; the US State Department currently has Colombia at Level 3 with a kidnapping indicator, so read the full advisory for the wider picture.
• Staying connected in Colombia.Colombia is cheap and easy on this front: a Claro SIM costs a few dollars, covers more of the country than anything else, and takes a passport and a few minutes.
• What does getting sick in Colombia cost a visitor?Colombia's big-city hospitals rank among the best in Latin America, and a visitor pays local prices for them, usually in cash. The two things to respect are the map, which thins out fast, and the elective-surgery trade, which carries a real warning.