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After my 180 days now what??

My 180 days as a tourist is up on January 16th. Before it is up i would like to apply for a work visa. The lady in DAS told me i can go to Ecuador or San Antonio, Venezuela.

Which country is closer to apply for the visa?
I do not want to leave Colombia and go back all the way to the U.S. just to apply for one.

How do i go about applying for the work visa before my 180 days is up?

Thank you!!

By raquel23 on Oct 3, 2009, 16:59 in Visa & paperwork.

yadid10 says on Oct 3, 2009, 17:14:

you should call the ones who isue the visa, the ministerio de relaciones exteriores (in bogota)
and ask them 01 800 097 9899
from what i heard there is no need anymore to leave colombia in order to isue a working visa

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Gator says on Oct 3, 2009, 18:31:

Call MRE Bogotá

"Bene, cum Latine nescias, nolo manus meas in te maculare" .

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njc (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Oct 3, 2009, 19:10:

raquel23,

"Which country is closer to apply for the visa? " -- If I remember right, you're in Bogotá. If that's true, go to San Antonio in Venezuela.
Two reasons: 1) it's closer, 2) the visa, if you have to pay for it, will cost you one-third of the price that it would anywhere else (change your money at the bus station in Cúcuta and you'll get ~3x the official exchange rate in terms of dollars).
I'd take a plane to Cúcuta, you can find flights for $70,000 each way (or less sometimes).

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vallenato says on Oct 3, 2009, 19:59:

3x the exchange rate? What's the catch? Are at least 1/3 of those bills going to be real?

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njc (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Oct 3, 2009, 20:10:

vallenato, black market. The catch is that you're helping their inflation problem. The exchange rate is fixed, pretty common that people exchange on the black market. Most places will give you a stamp to take back a bill if it's fake, but I've never gotten a fake.

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kramer says on Oct 3, 2009, 22:32:

raquel, this may or may not help you, but just to make sure you understand, you can stay in Colombia on a tourist visa for a max 180 days in a calendar year and a max 180 days consecutively. So technically, you could cross the border in January before your permission to stay expires and stay until almost the end of June.

Kramer

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Philly says on Oct 4, 2009, 06:11:

There is no catch. The bolivare(not sure how to spell it) is around .30 to .33 per mil peso. but you need a lot more things before you go to San Antonio, a job for one.

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dwmte7 says on Oct 4, 2009, 14:41:

raquel...........contact maria....she told me she needed to talk to you about the children.
dougla

patriarch

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misterfinger says on Oct 14, 2009, 05:21:

WOW This is a cool one What if someone stays the 180 days and wants to then end up staying on the pensioners Status Like how would that work??? I here in Mexico and Costa Rica thats very easy to do how is it in Colombia??? I here Brazil more redtape on this... OK Now a note on exhanging dollars on the black market in Cucuta you could do it??? How is that??? I thought you would need to go to Merida or San Cristobal to change dollars for the black market??? I am very confused on this,,,So if someone can post back on that it would be great too... Sorry on asking on two differnt issues here but that would be cool to get great response on this then.

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