Blogs :: visa renewal day
With our initial 60 days in Colombia having flown by in a flurry of uneventfulness, it was time to renew our visas.
Personally my visa renewal experience is limited to Guatemala, where the current system in place involves making "border runs" to Mexico to kill a few hours before re-entering the country with a shiny new stamp on your passport. Thankfully, Guatemala is a country where one can still avoid that day-long event and grease the wheels a bit to have "a guy" get it done for you. Not that I did such a thing...twice.
Colombia's system is much simpler. We got the required docs, copies, and such listed in the Lonely Planet, then went to government branch DAS where we learned that we only actually needed about half of those. Ah well. If the LP was 100% correct on something like that, the universe would probably implode.
We walked fifteen blocks or so from the DAS building to the bank where we had to pay for the extensions. Waited in an long line of people who could not operate the ATM, then we filled out the wrong deposit form before we finally got it right. Another fifteen blocks back, but I needed a passport photos. A clever entrepreneur-extraordinaire waits on the sidewalk right outside the office with his digital camera and photo printer and aided in crossing that off the list.
All docs accounted for and turned in, all that's left is to get our fingerprints taken. We're on the books. Damn. There goes out potential life of crime...At least in Colombia.
Three hours in total. Not bad, but it was stressful, so how better to cope than a visit to the micro-brewery? With new stamps, our Colombian life goes on for thirty more days till we have to renew again. Woo.
visas, Lonely Planet, Bogota, Colombia
Posted By:
David
10/2/2009