Obtaining Residence And Citizenship In Colombia
In addition to offering a decent return on investment and generally being a good investment opportunity, buying real estate in Colombia has one major benefit that everyone is buzzing about.
That benefit is a permanent residence that you will automatically be entitled to if you spend at least $200,000 on Colombian real estate. And then, five years later (two years if you happen to have a local spouse or child), you can also apply for the Colombian passport.
A Colombian passport is now much better than it used to be. Not only will you be able to travel to 125+ countries visa-free, but you will also be granted access to Europe’s Schengen zone visa-free.
Another great thing is that Colombia allows dual citizenship, so you won’t need to renounce your current citizenship if you decide you’d like to obtain a Colombian passport. However, there are some cons to the process too. First, you will need to pass a language test, as well as a constitution, geography, and history exams to be allowed to become a Colombian citizen. Not exactly a hands-off approach. And do not forget the mandatory military draft for all men under the age of 50. You can get out of it if you have already served abroad and can prove it. There are other ways out of it too.
Still keen to start the process. Here is how one can get the Colombian investment visa (and a subsequent passport, if necessary). It could not be simpler, and the entire permanent residence application process can be done online by submitting PDF files of all the paperwork of your real estate purchase. The total cost of applying for the visa is $450.
Once you get your investor visa, keep in mind that you could lose it if you do not visit the country at least once every year. And this is important if you want to work towards the passport, which requires that one is a permanent resident of the country for at least five years prior to lodging a naturalization application. To sum it up, $200,000 is the magical number you will need to keep in mind when it comes to the price of your desired real estate.
NOTE
The amount of $200,000 must be registered on the deed or the property purchase. Some property owners will try to register a lower price to pay less tax, but you must not let that happen. Our advice would be to look for a property above the required minimum investment amount and then try to negotiate it down. The other way around simply will not work.