Colombia · Visa required
Emigrating to Colombia
For Colombia you apply online for a visa at the Cancillería, the foreign ministry. That's possible from the Netherlands, or from Colombia if you're there as a tourist. With a pension of three minimum wages, about 1,465 euros a month, the visa M pensionado is well within reach. What's harder is the treaty that isn't there yet: the 2022 tax treaty isn't in force, and for the AOW and healthcare there's no treaty. So the Netherlands keeps taxing, Colombia taxes your worldwide income, and a policy of your own replaces the CAK.
€ 399 one-off · 38 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- A visa online at the Cancillería, then registration and the cédula at Migración Colombia
- The clock
- Papers at most three months old; a decision within thirty days; within fifteen days of arrival to Migración Colombia
- Note
- The 2022 tax treaty isn't in force yet, and Colombia is no treaty country: the Netherlands keeps taxing, a policy instead of the CAK, and for a single person the married rate of the AOW
Last updated: 15 October 2026
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Five phases, from the online application to your first return
This journey turns on one unit of account and three clocks. The unit is the Colombian minimum wage: 1,750,905 pesos in 2026, and every threshold is a multiple of it. Three for the pensionado, ten for the rentista, 350 for a home in your own name. The clocks are the three months your papers may be old, the thirty days in which the Cancillería decides, and the fifteen days after arrival for Migración Colombia. On top of that there's what the brochure doesn't mention: the 2022 tax treaty isn't in force yet, and there's no treaty for the AOW and healthcare.
- Orientation
Three letters, six routes, and a treaty that doesn't apply yet
In this phase you learn how living in Colombia works, and what it does to your income and your healthcare. Colombia has three kinds of visa: V for visitors, M for whoever settles, and R for permanent residence. Whoever comes with a pension gets the visa M pensionado at three minimum wages a month. Whoever lives off fixed income, also before the AOW age, can become a rentista at ten. That's a visitor's visa, which doesn't count towards permanent residence. The 2022 tax treaty isn't in force yet: the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and pension, and Colombia taxes your worldwide income as soon as you're there for more than 183 days. There's no healthcare treaty, so no CAK. And whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people.Read more
- Your visa
Choosing a route, papers at most three months old, and an application online
In this phase you apply for your visa, online, on the Cancillería's form. That's possible from the Netherlands, through the consulate general in Amsterdam, or from Colombia if you're there as a tourist. You first choose your route: pensionado, rentista, investor, digital nomad, employee, or through a Colombian partner. Your papers, such as your pension certificate, your certificates and your certificate of conduct, get an apostille and a Spanish translation, and they may be at most three months old. A visa M costs 235 euros in Europe. The Cancillería decides within thirty days, and you get the visa by mail.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
No treaty in force, no CAK, and the married rate
In this phase you work through the familiar list for closing down in the Netherlands, and with this country it weighs heavily. The 2022 tax treaty isn't in force yet. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, your government pension, your occupational pension and your annuity, and you get no tax credit. Colombia only taxes your pension above 1,000 UVT a month, but does tax your interest and dividend. There's no CAK, and a pensionado doesn't enter the Colombian healthcare system: your policy has to be accepted before you deregister. Whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people. And whoever leaves before the AOW age can insure themselves voluntarily within one year.Read more
- The move
A levy of 15 percent on household goods, and no used car
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. Your household goods may come along without an import licence, but you pay a single levy of 15 percent on the value. The shipment arrives between one month before and four months after you. For the car the answer is short: a used car may not enter Colombia. You sell it here and buy another one there. The pet needs a health certificate at most ten days old, endorsed by the NVWA, a treatment against parasites and valid vaccinations. According to the resolution that treatment must be within 60 days; an ICA news item says 30, so do it within 30 days. Then on arrival there's an inspection at the airport, and no quarantine.Read more
- Arrival in Colombia
Fifteen days to Migración Colombia, then healthcare, RUT, bank and licence
In this phase you arrange your registration, your numbers, your healthcare and your bank after landing. Within fifteen days you have your visa registered at Migración Colombia and apply for your cédula de extranjería, for 294,000 pesos. Then you settle your healthcare: a policy of your own as a pensionado, or an EPS with another visa. You register with the DIAN for free and get a NIT. As a resident your Dutch driving licence isn't enough, so you get a Colombian licence. A rented home comes without a cash deposit. And after 183 days you're a resident for tax, with a return in the second half of the year after.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Colombia journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.2 of your plan
Know where you pay tax: the 2022 treaty isn't in force yet
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours, depending on your situation
In this step you know which country taxes which income. With Colombia that's a special case: there is a treaty, but it doesn't apply yet.
Now, without a treaty. The Netherlands and Colombia signed the treaty on 16 February 2022. The Belastingdienst lists it in its table of January 2026 as "not yet in force". On wetten.overheid.nl it's still without a date on 15 October 2026. Until that date Dutch law applies:
- AOW and a government pension are benefits from a Dutch public body. They stay taxed in the Netherlands.
- Occupational pension and annuity whose premiums you once deducted stay taxed in the Netherlands too.
- An exemption from payroll tax has no basis. So your pension fund and the SVB withhold payroll tax.
- No tax credit. Whoever lives in a country like Colombia is, according to the Belastingdienst, only entitled to the entrepreneur's deduction and the tax-free allowance in box 3.
If the treaty enters into force. It then applies from 1 January of the year after. Under article 17, pensions and annuities from the Netherlands may be taxed in the Netherlands if the build-up here was tax-facilitated. The AOW and other social security benefits the Netherlands may always tax (art. 17(2)). So the Netherlands keeps its taxing right then too, and even then you don't apply for an exemption from payroll tax. According to article 21, Colombia gives a credit for the Dutch tax.
The double taxation. Colombia taxes your worldwide income as soon as you're a resident there. See step 3.3. Without a treaty the same pension can therefore be taxed in two countries. Colombian law lets you deduct the Dutch tax from the Colombian tax on the same income.
For the year you leave you file a Dutch return with the M form, online through Mijn Belastingdienst or on paper.
Take this to a tax adviser and have him work out what you keep net. You need that figure before you give notice on your rent.
What this step rests on
- Belastingdienst — Verdragsstaten IB niet-ingezetenen, January 2026: Colombia, not yet in force
- Wetten.overheid.nl — the treaty of 16 February 2022, article 17: pensions and social security payments
- Treaty database — the tax treaty with Colombia, without a date of entry into force
- NederlandWereldwijd — no tax treaty with your country of residence, then the Netherlands has the right to tax
- Income Tax Act 2001, article 7.2 paragraph 2 under d and e — pension, annuity and public-law benefits of a non-resident taxpayer
- Belastingdienst — which deductions and credits you have if you live outside the Netherlands
- Estatuto Tributario, article 254 — the credit for tax paid abroad
- Belastingdienst — filing a return for the year of emigration: online or with the M form
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Colombia.
This is step 3.2 of 38. The other 37 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 38 steps for ColombiaEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Colombia: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Colombia change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
What will your move to Colombia cost? Work it out →Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Colombia? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Colombia starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
In December we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Colombia
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in Colombia: no CAK, and as a pensionado no access to the public systemThe Netherlands has no healthcare or social security treaty with Colombia, so no CAK and no S1. The Colombian system, the SGSSS, is compulsory for residents and runs through an EPS, a health insurer. But anyone who comes on the M Pensionado visa may, according to the visa resolution, not join it. That group needs its own policy that covers everything.
- Residence routes to Colombia: pensionado, rentista, investor or digital nomadAnyone who wants to live in Colombia applies online for a visa from the Cancillería, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For retirees there is the M Pensionado visa, with a pension of at least three minimum wages a month. After five years you can apply for permanent residence. Within 15 days of arrival you get your cédula.
- Working in Colombia: a work visa through the employer, or as a digital nomad for abroadAnyone coming to work for a Colombian employer needs the M Trabajador visa, which the employer applies for together with you. Anyone working remotely for a foreign employer comes on the V Nómada Digital visa. A regulated profession also requires a recognised diploma; that recognition costs 960,539 pesos for a bachelor's degree in 2026.
- AOW, pension and tax in Colombia: a treaty on paper, not yet in forceThe Netherlands and Colombia signed a tax treaty in 2022, but it is not yet in force. Until then the Netherlands simply keeps taxing your AOW and your pension, without tax credits. As your country of residence Colombia taxes your worldwide income, but exempts pensions, also from abroad, up to 1,000 UVT a month. There is no social security treaty: a single person gets the AOW for married people.
- Car and driving licence in Colombia: a used car cannot come along, your licence only works for visitorsImporting a used passenger car into Colombia is not possible in practice: for used vehicles the Ministry of Trade only grants a licence for classic cars, diplomats and a few special vehicles. Your Dutch driving licence is valid only as a visitor, for at most six months. Anyone living in Colombia gets a Colombian licence with a theory and practical exam, because the Netherlands has no exchange agreement with Colombia.
- Dog or cat to Colombia: a ten-day health certificate and the inspection at the airportA dog or cat may enter Colombia without quarantine if the papers are in order. The ICA, the Colombian agricultural inspectorate, asks for a health certificate at most ten days old, a valid rabies vaccination, a deworming and the inspection on arrival, which costs 78,200 pesos in 2026. If you ever want to return to the Netherlands, have the rabies blood test done before you leave.
All 13 articles about Colombia
- Household goods to Colombia: no exemption, but one flat rate of 15%
- Banking and payments in Colombia: an account is possible as a non-resident, but every withdrawal costs 4 per thousand
- The first weeks in Colombia: the cédula within 15 days, the rest follows from it
- Buying a house in Colombia: foreigners may, ownership passes on registration
- Renting in Colombia: no cash deposit, rent tied to inflation
- Registration and numbers in Colombia: the cédula de extranjería, the RUT and the SIRE
- School in Colombia: compulsory from 5 to 15, and first have the school years recognised
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Colombia: 38 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.