Sudden changes to the Colombia tourist visa application requirements and processing times have exposed ongoing frustrations among the travel agent community, and agents warn that high-value client bookings to this increasingly popular destination are being put at risk. At least one Visa Specialist says that her company is currently not assisting passengers with Colombia visas due to several factors, one of them "erratic processes".
Travel News was recently told that South African passport holders wanting a tourist visa to visit Colombia now need to allow 30 days for their visa to be processed. They are also advised to re-examine the very latest list of supporting documents required at the time of their application, and all the other details too, as these may change without notice.
The Colombian embassy in Pretoria has confirmed that a new list of required documents and a 30-day window period for processing had been in force since the end of October.
Travel News called the Embassy after hearing of complaints that agents and their customers were on tenterhooks due to long delays in the visa process.
Penny Bannerman, the owner of Curious Traveller, a specialist tour operator based in Cape Town, said she had approached the embassy for help when a booking for six pax, four of whom required tourist visas, looked to be in danger of being cancelled due to fear of visas not being issued in time.
She said the booking was worth more than R700 000 and the group’s visit had already been postponed in 2021 due to COVID-19-related issues.
Bannerman said she had expected the visa to take fewer than 15 days and that the new 30-day waiting period caught everyone by surprise. She said she was also not provided with feedback as the embassy corresponded directly with the customer.
“I had to phone my agent in Colombia about the visa issue. Thankfully, Juanita, of the embassy in South Africa was a great help. This week, the visas arrived and my clients can travel. These are VIP customers – I don’t usually deal with direct clients,” Bannerman said.
According to the embassy representative who talked Travel News through the new requirements, customers need to know they must now allow up to 30 days for visas to be processed but it is also possible that the process could be concluded in just a week, or two, provided that the correct documentation is uploaded at the time of application.
As of October 31, documents must be uploaded in one single pdf file, which must be a maximum of 55 pages. However, six months’ bank statements are required, so the embassy suggests customers request a six-month summary from their bank to bring down the number of pages they submit. An up-to-date list of documents can be requested via e-mail from cpretoria@cancilleria.gov.za. The representative said another important point to know was that the letter of motivation and letter of employment required must be in Spanish. The representative said many successful applicants were using Google translate services to meet the requirement, and that this was sufficient.
Bannerman added: “It’s not just Colombian visas we are having issues with. Canadian visa wait times are also a problem at the moment. I have a client who waited four and a half months for theirs.”
Visa specialists
Gaynor Neill, MD of Cruise Vacations, had a similar story about a passenger from Kenya who was booked on a Silversea sailing out of Colombia. The passenger decided to transfer her booking when it looked as if she would not get her visa approved in time. The document came through at the last minute and the passenger booked another fare and added herself back on to the cruise.
Neill said visa wait times were an issue for Colombia at the moment but also for other destinations like Vietnam, which was traditionally, pre-COVID, a visa-on-arrival destination.
She said Cruise Vacations preferred to work with visa specialist companies such as Visas Unlimited. “We don’t touch visas. For cruising, there is no blanket cruise visa like there used to be. We are very anxious about visa details changing. For the latest, most up-to-date information, we recommend a visa services company.”
Colombia is a popular start point for cruises through the Panama Canal and onward to Peru. Neill said South America was generally an easy destination for South African passport holders as South Africans didn’t need a visa to get to most places on the continent.
However, she cautioned: “Bear in mind that cancellation penalties would usually apply when documents (likes visas) are not ready in time for the client to get on the cruise.”
Bronwyn Davey, Visas Unlimited GM, said: “We are currently not assisting clients with Colombia visas due to their erratic processes, document requirements, and the instability of the online platform. Their processing times vary from three to four months in some cases and in other cases three weeks. How and why, we cannot say.”
Davey added: “The biggest challenge would be their requirement of six months' worth of bank statements to be uploaded, yet there is a maximum number of pages permitted for upload.”
Lynette Machiri, Customer Experience Team Leader, Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa, said: “The third-party tools and resources we utilise to obtain updated visa information make no reference to the processing times for Colombian visas. We haven't received any communication regarding visas for Colombia taking 30 days to be processed.
“In general, we are not aware of any major delays regarding visa applications, although, with the holiday season upon us, we are mindful that some embassies will close which will impact any last-minute visa applications. The greatest challenge has been to secure US visa appointment dates - however, this has vastly improved over the past few months with appointment slots available even in December 2022.”
Machiri said: “We have been cautioning customers to factor in the specific requirements for visa applications, inclusive of any medicals required to fulfil the application requirements. The turnaround time for tests or examination results at this time of the year may impact the overall visa application processing time.”
