If you have lived in Colombia for some time and hold an R visa (the resident visa) that was issued under the old visa rules, you are up against a deadline: by 31 October 2026 that visa has to be transferred with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The procedure is called a traspaso, literally a transfer. Without it, Migración Colombia will not issue you a new Cédula de Extranjería, the foreigner ID card you need for your bank, your lease, your doctor and almost every dealing with the authorities.
The Cancillería (the Foreign Ministry) has publicly reminded residents of the deadline twice this year: in a notice of 24 March 2026 and again on 15 September 2026. For many retirees and long-term residents from Europe and North America who got their visa years ago and have not touched it since, that leaves only a few weeks.
Who is affected
Since 21 October 2022, Colombia has governed its visas through the Foreign Ministry's Resolución 5477 de 2022. It repealed the older rulebooks, Resoluciones 1980 de 2014 and 6045 de 2017. For everyone who received their visa before then, Article 123 contains a three-part transitional rule:
Article 123 originally allowed two years from the date the rules took effect, so the deadline would have expired in October 2024. Resolución 9316 de 2024, published in Diario Oficial No. 52.895 on 30 September 2024, extended it in Article 3 to 31 October 2026. The consolidated version on the Cancillería's legal portal lists this extension as the only amendment to Article 123; no further postponement is recorded there, and the notice of 15 September 2026 expressly names 31 October 2026 as the final date.
The September clarification
The 15 September notice narrows down who the obligation applies to. According to the Cancillería, it applies only to holders of an R visa whose visa label has expired, is about to expire, or was issued with unlimited validity. If you received residence recently, under the new rules, you are not the target, unless one of the general grounds for a traspaso in Article 105 applies, such as a new passport.
The sentence about unlimited validity matters most for many older residents. If you received your R visa decades ago and assume that an open-ended label settled the matter for good, on this reading you are exactly the person the deadline is aimed at.
What the R visa requires today
The traspaso before the deadline is not a one-off special case. Under Resolución 5477 it is a normal part of life with an R visa. That is why it pays to look at the obligations that apply once you have transferred.
Every five years, again
Article 86 obliges the principal holder and every beneficiary of an R visa to apply for a traspaso every five years, through the ministry's digital platform. Article 105, number 6, repeats this and adds that the application should be filed at least one month before expiry. If you transfer now, note the next date straight away.
Article 105 also lists other grounds for a traspaso that apply to all visas: loss or theft of your passport, a new passport if you want the visa moved onto it, typing errors in the visa that were not corrected within 15 days, and changes of employer. The condition is always that you use the same nationality under which you received the visa. Dual nationals should keep this in mind: under Article 24, a visa cannot be moved onto your other nationality.
Two years away ends the visa
The R visa lapses automatically if you do not enter Colombia for two years in a row. Article 88 phrases this as two consecutive, uninterrupted years; Article 112, number 4, as an absence of more than two years, and in both cases without any decision by the authority. The count runs from the departure date in your passport or in Migración Colombia's records. Once a visa ends, Article 111 gives you 30 calendar days to leave the country or apply for a new visa.
For residents who spend part of the year abroad, this is rarely a problem. For retirees who go back home for longer because of illness or family matters, it can become one.
Work and reporting duties
Under Article 87, the R visa grants an open work permit, though expressly not to retirees. If you work under an open work permit, Article 119 requires you to report every change of activity, job or profession to Migración Colombia within 15 calendar days.
Cédula de Extranjería
Article 118, as amended by Resolución 9316, now sets out the exemptions: holders of certain visitor visas are exempt from the foreigner register and the cédula. For everyone else the obligation stands. Migración Colombia describes it on its page on the Cédula de Extranjería as follows: anyone older than seven with a visa valid for more than three months must apply for the cédula no later than 15 calendar days after entry, or after the visa is issued inside the country. The application starts online with the FUT form, followed by an appointment for fingerprints and a photo. The fee in 2026 is COP 294,000, and processing takes ten working days from payment. How this works in practice is covered in our guide to retiring in Colombia.
The traspaso and the cédula are linked: in both notices the Cancillería calls the traspaso a "requisito indispensable", an essential requirement, for issuing the cédula, and in the September notice expressly also for updating the visa label. Once you have transferred, plan the ID card straight away.
Documents for the traspaso
What you must submit is set out in Article 106, which Resolución 9316 rewrote:
1. the general requirements of every visa application,
2. a copy of the visa to be transferred and of the corresponding Cédula de Extranjería,
3. the Certificado de Movimientos Migratorios (record of entries and exits) from Migración Colombia,
4. proof of the activity you carry out in Colombia,
5. a letter stating the reason for the traspaso.
The general requirements are in Article 24: the electronic application form, a recent digital colour photo on a white background, and a passport that is still valid for at least six months at the time of application, with a copy of the data page. If you apply inside Colombia, add the passport page with your last entry stamp. If your passport expires soon, it makes sense to get the new passport first and then transfer, otherwise the next traspaso is due again straight away because of the passport change.
Two rules from the general part are easily overlooked. Under Article 20, documents other than the passport may be no more than three months old when you submit the application. And under Article 21, every document issued abroad needs an apostille or legalisation and an official translation into Spanish; bank statements are exempt under certain conditions.
New since 2024: no more salvoconducto, but proof of activity
Resolución 9316 changed two things. Under the old version of Article 106, anyone who had not applied for the traspaso of an R visa before it expired had to present a salvoconducto, a temporary permit to stay issued by Migración Colombia. That requirement has been deleted. The resolution's explanatory statement says the R visa is open-ended in nature. Proof of activity has taken its place, and the copy of the cédula is now required without qualification. The purpose of the traspaso, according to the explanatory statement, is to update the records of foreigners living in Colombia.
Article 106 does not say what counts as proof of activity. For retirees, a current pension statement is the obvious choice; for the self-employed or employees, a certificate of ongoing work. If that proof comes from your home country, the rules in Articles 20 and 21 apply: recent, apostilled and translated.
Visas from before 2000
Since 2024 there has been a separate rule for the oldest cases. If you received your R visa before the year 2000 and can no longer produce a copy, the paragraph to Article 106 lets you submit instead:
There is a practical catch. Migración Colombia issues the Certificado de Movimientos Migratorios online only for the last ten years or from 2012 onwards. If you need movements before 2012 on record, you have to book an appointment at one of the authority's service centres, appear in person and explain what you need the certificate for. If you are transferring a visa from the 1990s, you are unlikely to avoid this appointment, so book it now.
How the application works
According to the Cancillería, the traspaso is fully online. It runs through the Foreign Ministry's application portal. The Cancillería's flowchart describes the steps:
1. In the visa form, choose the option "traspaso".
2. Select the type of traspaso and state the period in which your current visa was issued.
3. Fill in your details, upload the documents and pay the study fee. The application is only confirmed once payment is made.
In both notices the Cancillería advises applying directly and without intermediaries, to protect your own data and keep the process transparent. You only have to appear in person if the visa authority asks you to: under Article 24 it may want to see originals or interview you, and according to its fees page it will request this by email.
The order that saves time
1. Check your passport. Is it still valid for at least six months on the day you apply?
2. Request the Certificado de Movimientos Migratorios. Online if the last ten years or the period from 2012 are enough, otherwise book an appointment.
3. Get your proof of activity, with apostille and translation for foreign documents.
4. Gather the documents: copies of visa and cédula, photo, letter giving the reason, and for pre-2000 visas the sworn statement.
5. File the application online and pay the study fee.
6. Once the visa is issued, apply for the new cédula with Migración Colombia within 15 calendar days.
What it costs
The Cancillería lists the fees on its fees page for the traspaso. In Colombia and in most countries abroad it is USD 56 for the study of the application and USD 56 for the visa, USD 112 in total. If you apply at a consulate in Europe or Cuba, you pay EUR 44 and EUR 42. You can pay through PSE (Colombia's online bank payment system), by credit card, at Servibanca machines or in cash in pesos at Banco GNB Sudameris.
On top of this come Migración Colombia's fees under its 2026 fee schedule: COP 89,000 for the Certificado de Movimientos Migratorios and COP 294,000 for the new Cédula de Extranjería. The cost of apostilles and translations depends on where the document comes from.
What happens after 31 October
Honestly: the sources do not say. Neither Resolución 5477 nor Resolución 9316 nor the March and September notices state any consequence if the deadline passes. There is no penalty rule for the traspaso, no statement that the old visa lapses on 31 October, and no rule for late applications. The former requirement to present a salvoconducto for a late traspaso was deleted in 2024 without any new rule taking its place.
Only two things are certain. First, Article 123 itself says that visas issued before 21 October 2022 remain valid; how that squares with the deadline, the rule leaves open. Second, the Cancillería calls the traspaso an essential requirement for the cédula. Without a valid foreigner ID, everyday life in Colombia quickly becomes hard work, at the bank, the notary and the authorities. If you do not want to rely on how the rules will be read once the deadline has passed, file before 31 October.
Documents from home
For readers coming from abroad, the apostille is what matters most. Colombia has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since 30 January 2001, according to the Hague Conference status table. Most of the countries our readers come from are parties too; the same table shows whether yours is. If it is, no consular legalisation is needed, and the apostille from the relevant office in your home country is enough. Which office that is depends on who issued the document; our apostille roadmap for Latin America describes the route for the most common documents. Because Article 20 says documents may be no more than three months old, there is no point apostilling certificates in advance.
If you are taking the opportunity to put your status in order more broadly, our article on the Colombian residence permit gives an overview of the visas. For residents who want a Colombian passport one day, the R visa is the basis for naturalisation, as described in our article on Colombian citizenship. Tax, cost of living and residence routes in context are on the Colombia country page.
Carpe Diem. Life is short and fleeting. One shot. Make it count.