BOGOTA Visa Office 2012 applicants

[sabril27]

Apparently any Colombian can now do a criminal background check online as well using their ID number, but the process for a police check for immigration is waaaaaaay different. Why? No idea.

We got our colombian police checks really quickly and easily so i wouldn't worry about that....unless your wife has lived in other countries it should be pretty straight forward! and we did get one of the checks online, the other the embassy asked us to send was the one where you pay the bank 60,000COP and that's for a investigation company in bogota to check on your spouse and really just make sure the other one is legit, apparently. have you received any news from bogota at all yet? they've had my husbands passport for over 2 months already! really wish they could speed it up at this office!

 

[doorsopen]

they've had my husbands passport for over 2 months already! really wish they could speed it up at this office!

They've had my wifes passport for 3 months now!

 

[ccunnington]

We got our colombian police checks really quickly and easily so i wouldn't worry about that....unless your wife has lived in other countries it should be pretty straight forward! and we did get one of the checks online, the other the embassy asked us to send was the one where you pay the bank 60,000COP and that's for a investigation company in bogota to check on your spouse and really just make sure the other one is legit, apparently. have you received any news from bogota at all yet? they've had my husbands passport for over 2 months already! really wish they could speed it up at this office!

I wasn't aware you need 2 police checks. I thought you just paid them the 60,000 and that was that.

No, we haven't received an AOR or anything from Bogota yet, and they've had our app for 3 1/2 months now. I was reading through some stats that someone has posted on this forum last week, and Bogota is rated the worst embassy for speed of processing in all of south and central america. These were independent results, not CIC's own statistics.

 

[tecarf]

Hi, I'm also sponsoring my wife from Colombia. we applied back in feb, 2012. Got approved to sponsor in may, 2012 and haven't heard a thing from the VO in Bogota since. it's pretty frustrating when you don't have any idea of whats going on or even if they got the file in Bogota, I really wish they changed some of their ways to process this type of applications. but in the mean time I will keep you guys informed if anything changes in the next few weeks (which i'm hoping)

cheers!

 

[ccunnington]

Hi, I'm also sponsoring my wife from Colombia. we applied back in feb, 2012. Got approved to sponsor in may, 2012 and haven't heard a thing from the VO in Bogota since. it's pretty frustrating when you don't have any idea of whats going on or even if they got the file in Bogota, I really wish they changed some of their ways to process this type of applications. but in the mean time I will keep you guys informed if anything changes in the next few weeks (which i'm hoping)

cheers!

Ya its frustrating for sure. Some people seem to get AOR's from Bogota after just a couple of months, and others much longer...there doesn't seem to be much consistency

 

[sabril27]

They've had my wifes passport for 3 months now!

fingers crossed we both get some news soon!!

 

[Ibague]

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to share with you that the application status for my wife has just changed from application recieved to in process. The change happened on October 4. I am so ecstatic. we are getting there bit by bit!
here is our timeline
application filed Feb 16 2012
AOR from Missisauga May 9 2012
File transfer to Bogota May 9 2012
AOR from Bogota with request to pay At Banco de Occidente August 29 2012
October 4 2012 Ecas changes from Application Recieved to In Process
PPR ( loading/ pending)

 

[ccunnington]

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to share with you that the application status for my wife has just changed from application recieved to in process. The change happened on October 4. I am so ecstatic. we are getting there bit by bit!
here is our timeline
application filed Feb 16 2012
AOR from Missisauga May 9 2012
File transfer to Bogota May 9 2012
AOR from Bogota with request to pay At Banco de Occidente August 29 2012
October 4 2012 Ecas changes from Application Recieved to In Process
PPR ( loading/ pending)

Getting closer!

 

[doorsopen]

I wouldn't trust ECAS. Our status is still "application received" even though we know they are processing our case, as the passport has been requested and the embassy has asked for other documents.

 

[ccunnington]

I wouldn't trust ECAS. Our status is still "application received" even though we know they are processing our case, as the passport has been requested and the embassy has asked for other documents.

Ya, ECAS is strange...i don't know if its a problem with the system, or that some visa officers don't put updates on the system...

 

[ccunnington]

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to share with you that the application status for my wife has just changed from application recieved to in process. The change happened on October 4. I am so ecstatic. we are getting there bit by bit!
here is our timeline
application filed Feb 16 2012
AOR from Missisauga May 9 2012
File transfer to Bogota May 9 2012
AOR from Bogota with request to pay At Banco de Occidente August 29 2012
October 4 2012 Ecas changes from Application Recieved to In Process
PPR ( loading/ pending)

If your timeline is typical for Bogota, 3 months and 3 weeks to receive an AOR, then we should be hearing something in the next week!

 

[sridoy]

I wouldn't trust ECAS. Our status is still "application received" even though we know they are processing our case, as the passport has been requested and the embassy has asked for other documents.

Same here, my status shows "Application received" even after PPR.

-sridoy

 

[doorsopen]

It would be nice if there was some sort of timeframe. Some people say that once the passport is requested, then this is a good sign. Others say they are now asking for the passport earlier on in the process to stop the spouse in Colombia from traveling.

When we received the letter from the Colombian embassy in April it stated the processing time was 10 months. I am now presuming this is 10 months from the letter, which would make the "expected" visa decision to be made in February 2013 - which seems about right.

I'm booking my flight to Colombia for Christmas next week. I don't expect to see the visa this year.

 

[sridoy]

It would be nice if there was some sort of timeframe. Some people say that once the passport is requested, then this is a good sign. Others say they are now asking for the passport earlier on in the process to stop the spouse in Colombia from traveling.

When we received the letter from the Colombian embassy in April it stated the processing time was 10 months. I am now presuming this is 10 months from the letter, which would make the "expected" visa decision to be made in February 2013 - which seems about right.

I'm booking my flight to Colombia for Christmas next week. I don't expect to see the visa this year.

doorsopen,

Where did you get this info about passport being requested earlier on in the process? I was assuming that if the passport is requested and landing fees also asked to be paid, then they have definitely made a final decision regarding your case.

sridoy

 

[doorsopen]

doorsopen,

Where did you get this info about passport being requested earlier on in the process? I was assuming that if the passport is requested and landing fees also asked to be paid, then they have definitely made a final decision regarding your case.

sridoy

I was browsing through some of the other threads. For some countries they request the passport very early on in the process.

I think I paid the landing fees at the time of the initial application.

When we got the passport request we thought the visa was going to be processed soon. We've now given up that hope and expectations are "back to normal", with the hope of receiving the visa sometime early next year and looking forward to yet another Colombia visit in December. This will be trip number 10 to Colombia for me! I visited the country a few times before I met my wife though.