English · Visas and residency
Every investor visa rests on a number somebody has to certify.
Registered capital. An investment traced to its source. Income you can evidence month after month. That is the half of a Colombian visa application an accountant builds, and it is the half that fails. Here is how each category actually works, and what it does to your tax position.
Two things almost every English guide gets wrong
Check the date on whatever you read next.
There is no investment fast-track to residency.
Resolución 6045 de 2017 granted an R resident visa directly for investment above 650 minimum wages. Resolución 5477 de 2022 abolished it in October 2022. Sites still selling that route are four years out of date.
The digital nomad visa is not a tax exemption.
DIAN Concepto General 009079 of 2023 states there is no special tax regime for digital nomads and that they can acquire Colombian tax residency like anyone else. Presence decides it, not the visa.
01
Migrant visas (M)
These build towards permanent residency. Five continuous years for the investor, business owner and pensionado categories.
Visa M — Inversionista
Investor visa
For foreigners with registered direct investment, or Colombian real estate above the legal threshold.
- Foreign direct investment
- > $1.138.088.250
- Real estate, in your own name
- $612.816.750
Visa M — Socio o Propietario
Business owner visa
For foreigners who own or hold a stake in a Colombian company with capital above the threshold.
- Paid-in capital or shareholding
- $175.090.500
Visa M — Pensionado
Retirement visa
For foreigners receiving a pension. A migrant category, so the years count towards residency.
- Minimum monthly pension
- $5.252.715 /mo
02
Visitor visas (V)
Easier to obtain and, for residency purposes, a dead end. Time held on these accumulates nothing towards the R visa.
Visa V — Nómada Digital
Digital nomad visa
For remote workers earning from abroad. The tax question it raises is the important one.
- Minimum monthly income
- $5.252.715 /mo
Visa V — Rentista
Rentista visa
For foreigners living on periodic income. A visitor category, which matters if residency is the goal.
- Minimum monthly income
- $17.509.050 /mo
03
Permanent residency (R)
The destination. Reached by continuous migrant status, not by the size of the cheque.
2026 thresholds
Every figure, computed from the minimum wage.
Colombian visa thresholds are written in law as multiples of the monthly minimum wage, so they move every January. These are calculated from $1.750.905, the 2026 wage set transitionally by Decreto 0159 de 2026 while a challenge to the original decree is decided. The amount itself did not change.
| Visa | Threshold | In minimum wages | 2026 pesos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investor visa | Foreign direct investment | more than 650 | > $1.138.088.250 |
| Investor visa | Real estate, in your own name | at least 350 | $612.816.750 |
| Business owner visa | Paid-in capital or shareholding | at least 100 | $175.090.500 |
| Digital nomad visa | Minimum monthly income | at least 3 | $5.252.715 / month |
| Rentista visa | Minimum monthly income | at least 10 | $17.509.050 / month |
| Retirement visa | Minimum monthly pension | at least 3 | $5.252.715 / month |
| Cédula de extranjería | Issued by Migración Colombia | Fixed fee | $294.000 |
Article 79 measures the investor thresholds at the date the application is filed, so a wage increase in January raises the bar for anyone filing after it. Cédula fee per Migración Colombia Resolución 0599 de 2026.
How we work on these
An accounting firm, working the half that fails.
Handled by the firm
The evidence, signed by a licensed accountant.
- Registering foreign investment with Banco de la República, and obtaining the investment extracts the application requires.
- Subscribing and paying company capital so the threshold is real, then certifying the shareholding.
- Certifying income where the file needs a public accountant's signature.
- Colombian tax filings that support the visa at renewal and at the residency application.
- Modelling what the visa does to your tax position before you commit to it.
Coordinated by the firm
The legal filings, by counsel we brief and supervise.
- The visa application and the consular filing itself.
- Public deeds before a Colombian notary, and property title work.
- Apostilles, legalisations and official translations.
- Foreigner registration and the cédula de extranjería.
- Corporate and immigration matters that are legal rather than accounting work.
You are told which is which before anything starts. We never present coordinated work as our own, and we do not promise approvals or processing times.
After approval
Registration and the cédula de extranjería.
Two deadlines that start the moment the visa is granted, and that people routinely conflate.
Register as a foreigner within
15 calendar days from entering Colombia, or from the date the visa is issued if it was granted while you were in the country
Apply for the cédula
at the moment of registration, or within 3 business days where the registration was completed electronically
Who it applies to
holders and beneficiaries of any visa valid for more than three months. Exempt: tourism, business, crew, events and two courtesy categories are exempt regardless of the visa's validity. The digital nomad visa runs up to two years, so it is not exempt.
Questions
Before you choose a category.
No. We are an accounting, tax and finance firm. What we do is the financial half these visas turn on: registering the investment with the central bank, subscribing and certifying company capital, certifying income, and working out what holding the visa does to your tax position. The immigration filing itself is prepared with the firm's immigration counsel, briefed and supervised by us, so one team holds the whole file.
Migrant categories do; visitor categories do not. The investor, business owner and pensionado visas each require five continuous years before you can apply for the R resident visa. The digital nomad and rentista visas are visitor categories and accumulate nothing, which is why the first visa you take matters far more than most people realise.
No, and this is the most repeated error in English-language content about Colombia. Resolución 6045 de 2017 granted a resident visa directly for foreign direct investment above 650 minimum wages. Resolución 5477 de 2022 abolished that route in October 2022. Today the same investment qualifies you for an M investor visa and the R visa still requires five continuous years.
None of them. Tax residency is decided by article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario, which counts days present: 183 or more in any rolling 365-day period makes you a Colombian tax resident regardless of your immigration status. The tax authority addressed the digital nomad case directly in Concepto General 009079 of 2023 and confirmed there is no special regime and no exemption.
No. Timelines belong to the consulate and to Migración Colombia, they vary by nationality and consulate, and anyone promising you a date is guessing. What we can tell you with precision is whether the financial evidence your application depends on exists today, and how long it takes us to build it if it does not.
Our fee is quoted in writing after a free call and depends on what has to be built: registering an investment that arrived years ago is a different job from registering one that has not left your bank yet. Government fees, apostilles, translations and the cédula de extranjería are third-party costs, itemised separately and paid at cost.
Where this comes from
- Resolución 5477 de 2022, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
- Cancillería, visa requirements by category
- Estatuto Tributario, article 10 (tax residency)
- DIAN Concepto General 009079 de 2023, taxation of digital nomads
- Decreto 0159 de 2026, transitional 2026 minimum wage
- Migración Colombia, current fees
Verified on 10 September 2026 against the consolidated text of Resolución 5477 de 2022 as amended by Resoluciones 10434 de 2023, 9316 de 2024 and 12509 de 2024. This is general information about how the financial requirements work, not immigration advice. Consulates apply the rules differently in practice and nothing here promises an outcome or a processing time.
Free initial call
Start with whether the evidence exists.
Before choosing a category, the useful question is whether the investment, the capital or the income can actually be evidenced today. Thirty minutes usually answers it.
The rule no visa changes
183 days
Colombian tax residency starts at 183 days of presence in any rolling 365-day window, counting days of entry and exit. Article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario.
Find out whether your file holds, before you file it.
Free initial call with the director. We reply the same business day.
Talk to the firm
Two ways to start. Both answer today.
Free initial call
Thirty minutes that order the year.
- TodayWe write back to confirm a time.
- 30 minA call with the director, in English.
- 24 hA written proposal with scope and fees.
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