Renewing Pensianodo Visa and Cedula

[Khun Talung]

I don't think you will be able to complete Bogota in one day, unless you're lucky. If you don't live there, come in the day before, spend the night, be at the American Consulate when they open, 8am, I think. Present them with your documents of income, and they will give you a letter stating the amount you receive, for free. Go from there to the Supercade, Cra 30 with Calle 26. Their phone number is supposedly (Bogota) 5874000, their website http://www.cancilleria.gov.co/wps/portal/espanol. Taxistas don't know their ass from a hole in the ground, they'll say, this is the area...? It's a tall tower, 12-15 stories, the only one in the vicinity. You don't want the tower, you want the low building to the left. If you have less than 5 documents the website says you don't need an appointment. Go up the steps, if there are girls in yellow vests, get one of them to take you where you get documento legalizar. If not, get in the line on the right to get a number. When you get to the desk, tell them legalizar documento and you don't have a cita, they won't give you a number, just tell you to go over by the right wall. You get to one of the desks in the row by the wall, tell them you're from out of town, have less than 5 documents. There's a really nice looking woman at the next to the last desk, I'm definitely taking some pastries next time. They'll print out a pay form for 15K pesos per document, which you take out just short of the entrance, on the right, there's a bank office, green and white, you pay and get a receipt. You take this back to the person at the desk, they'll tell you, if you're lucky, to come back shortly, or if not, after 2pm. Keep the receipt they give you, you'll need it to reclaim your document(s). When you get your document, if it's before 10, or if not at 7:20 the next day, go to the Ministery de Relaciones Exteriores at Cra 13 #93-68, Parque 93, second floor. I got there about 6:50am, I was number 29. Get there around 6:30am better. You will need: Your statement of income, your passport, 1 copy of the photo page of your passport, one copy of your previous visa, three passport size photos with a WHITE background, one copy of the Solicitude de Visa, Codigo SC-FO-15, Version 2, which you can download, which should already be filled out, with one photo pasted in the box and the other two paper clipped to your documents. You will be given a number at the door, which, if you're near the front of the line, will be called soon. Give your completed paperwork to the clerk, sit, stay. You will be called to receive your passport and visa in one to two hours. Thank you, and done. Ask the guard at the door for two copies of the Solicitude de Visa for next year. They close for the day at 12 noon.

Go to Das to renew your Cedula. You will need your passport, 2 copies of your photo page, visa and cedula, three passport size photos with a BLUE background, a receipt from a specified bank, in Pereira Banco de Bogota Ubicado en la cra 7 #20-28 Plaza de Bolivar, which is actually a little past the plaza rather than facing it, for 140,000 pesos, deposited to Cuenta #468671300 in the name of Fondo Rotatorio DAS. They have easy to read examples at the form filling desks, but you have to get a form from the guard. Take all these things to, in Pereira, the DAS offices at Ave 30 de Agosto, see Dona Maria Reina in the rear, fill out a form she'll give you, come back in 21 days will some small treat for Maria Reigna (not required) and you're in.

I stayed at the Hotel Las Terrazas, Calle 54A, #3-12, Tel: 255-5777, email: hotellasterrazas@yahoo.com, had a nice room with windows and a queen sized bed, cable TV with English channels, including a breakfast of eggs, toast, coffee or chocolate, juice, for 95K pesos a night. Dona Adela has been there since I first came to Colombia 34 Years ago.

There's a French restaurant just down the street around the corner to the left, good soup and escargot, the chicken was tough.

Down the hill at Calle 54 and Ave 7a, is Pan Fino, been there for 41 years. I bought 8 loaves of dark whole wheat bread to bring back to Pereira, gave away 6 loaves, big hit. If anyone knows of a good German bread bakery in Bogota, please let me know.

Not far away, below Ave 7a is Calle 53, starting about Cra 15, is a section Artisional, all kinds of crafts and neat things. There are at least three small fabric shops in the area where I bought unique looking fabric to have put on stretcher bars, maybe framed, and hang on the wall as art. La Gran Pyramide, Calle 53 #16-73 Local 104, Tel 2354183, on the South side of the street, small entrance going back to an inside store, really nice energetic lady, has all kinds of boxes, trunks, chests, other things, unpainted, but really inexpensive. I got: a mid-sized chest with a curved top, an itty bitty box with a curved top, and two regular sized boxes, all made of pine, painted with transparent lacquer, for 70,000 pesos.

At La Esquina del Arte, Cra 16 #52-68, Tel 8111049, just down from the South West corner of the intersection of 53 &16, next to the Galleria Acapulco, Vladamir does incredibly good carving, deep, rounded, detailed, the kind I've been looking for, in pine and cedar. He does frames, trunks, beds, custom work. I really wish I hadn't found this place, they're going to get a LOT of my money.

Calle 53 had a 3-4 block stretch of shops with all kinds of neat decorative things, statues, silk flowers.

*El Minetero

[DrLife]

Great post. Thank you. What do people who live outside Bogota do? Are there reliable and affordable services that can expedte?

Originally Posted by Khun Talung

I don't think you will be able to complete Bogota in one day, unless you're lucky. If you don't live there, come in the day before, spend the night, be at the American Consulate when they open, 8am, I think. Present them with your documents of income, and they will give you a letter stating the amount you receive, for free. Go from there to the Supercade, Cra 30 with Calle 26. Their phone number is supposedly (Bogota) 5874000, their website Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. Taxistas don't know their ass from a hole in the ground, they'll say, this is the area...? It's a tall tower, 12-15 stories, the only one in the vicinity. You don't want the tower, you want the low building to the left. If you have less than 5 documents the website says you don't need an appointment. Go up the steps, if there are girls in yellow vests, get one of them to take you where you get documento legalizar. If not, get in the line on the right to get a number. When you get to the desk, tell them legalizar documento and you don't have a cita, they won't give you a number, just tell you to go over by the right wall. You get to one of the desks in the row by the wall, tell them you're from out of town, have less than 5 documents. There's a really nice looking woman at the next to the last desk, I'm definitely taking some pastries next time. They'll print out a pay form for 15K pesos per document, which you take out just short of the entrance, on the right, there's a bank office, green and white, you pay and get a receipt. You take this back to the person at the desk, they'll tell you, if you're lucky, to come back shortly, or if not, after 2pm. Keep the receipt they give you, you'll need it to reclaim your document(s). When you get your document, if it's before 10, or if not at 7:20 the next day, go to the Ministery de Relaciones Exteriores at Cra 13 #93-68, Parque 93, second floor. I got there about 6:50am, I was number 29. Get there around 6:30am better. You will need: Your statement of income, your passport, 1 copy of the photo page of your passport, one copy of your previous visa, three passport size photos with a WHITE background, one copy of the Solicitude de Visa, Codigo SC-FO-15, Version 2, which you can download, which should already be filled out, with one photo pasted in the box and the other two paper clipped to your documents. You will be given a number at the door, which, if you're near the front of the line, will be called soon. Give your completed paperwork to the clerk, sit, stay. You will be called to receive your passport and visa in one to two hours. Thank you, and done. Ask the guard at the door for two copies of the Solicitude de Visa for next year. They close for the day at 12 noon.

Go to Das to renew your Cedula. You will need your passport, 2 copies of your photo page, visa and cedula, three passport size photos with a BLUE background, a receipt from a specified bank, in Pereira Banco de Bogota Ubicado en la cra 7 #20-28 Plaza de Bolivar, which is actually a little past the plaza rather than facing it, for 140,000 pesos, deposited to Cuenta #468671300 in the name of Fondo Rotatorio DAS. They have easy to read examples at the form filling desks, but you have to get a form from the guard. Take all these things to, in Pereira, the DAS offices at Ave 30 de Agosto, see Dona Maria Reina in the rear, fill out a form she'll give you, come back in 21 days will some small treat for Maria Reigna (not required) and you're in.

I stayed at the Hotel Las Terrazas, Calle 54A, #3-12, Tel: 255-5777, email: hotellasterrazas@yahoo.com, had a nice room with windows and a queen sized bed, cable TV with English channels, including a breakfast of eggs, toast, coffee or chocolate, juice, for 95K pesos a night. Dona Adela has been there since I first came to Colombia 34 Years ago.

There's a French restaurant just down the street around the corner to the left, good soup and escargot, the chicken was tough.

Down the hill at Calle 54 and Ave 7a, is Pan Fino, been there for 41 years. I bought 8 loaves of dark whole wheat bread to bring back to Pereira, gave away 6 loaves, big hit. If anyone knows of a good German bread bakery in Bogota, please let me know.

Not far away, below Ave 7a is Calle 53, starting about Cra 15, is a section Artisional, all kinds of crafts and neat things. There are at least three small fabric shops in the area where I bought unique looking fabric to have put on stretcher bars, maybe framed, and hang on the wall as art. La Gran Pyramide, Calle 53 #16-73 Local 104, Tel 2354183, on the South side of the street, small entrance going back to an inside store, really nice energetic lady, has all kinds of boxes, trunks, chests, other things, unpainted, but really inexpensive. I got: a mid-sized chest with a curved top, an itty bitty box with a curved top, and two regular sized boxes, all made of pine, painted with transparent lacquer, for 70,000 pesos.

At La Esquina del Arte, Cra 16 #52-68, Tel 8111049, just down from the South West corner of the intersection of 53 &16, next to the Galleria Acapulco, Vladamir does incredibly good carving, deep, rounded, detailed, the kind I've been looking for, in pine and cedar. He does frames, trunks, beds, custom work. I really wish I hadn't found this place, they're going to get a LOT of my money.

Calle 53 had a 3-4 block stretch of shops with all kinds of neat decorative things, statues, silk flowers.

*El Minetero

[Khun Talung]

" What do people who live outside Bogota do? Are there reliable and affordable services that can expedite? "

You have to be present in person at all three offices in Bogota, and at DAS where you live. I've heard of visa services both in Thailand and Colombia, but I was never foolish enough to trust my PASSPORT to anyone. Bite the bullet, go to Bogota for one night, a day and a half. Take the first morning flight in, the afternoon flight out the next day. Done, for a year.

EM

[Rogbo]

There is now a reliable agency in Cali approved by colombian government to process visas without an appearence in Bogota, It is Aviatur across Sexta from Chipechape, just processed my resident visa, much cheaper and more convenient than a trip to Bogota.