The step-by-step plan for Colombia

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Colombia. Colombia has three kinds of visa, each with a letter:

• V, visitante. A visitor's visa. The rentista and the digital nomad also fall under it. It gives no status as a resident.
• M, migrante. For whoever wants to settle in Colombia. The pensionado, the investor, the employee and whoever has a Colombian partner fall under it. The visa is valid for up to three years.
• R, residente. The permanent residence title. You apply for it after you have held a visa M for a number of years.

You apply for every visa online at the Cancillería, the Colombian foreign ministry. That's possible from the Netherlands, through the consulate. But also from Colombia, if you're there as a tourist. With a Dutch passport you may enter for up to 90 days without a visa.

The thresholds are in minimum wages, the salario mínimo. In 2026 that's 1,750,905 pesos a month (Decreto 1469 of 2025; after a court suspension set temporarily at the same amount by Decreto 0159 of 2026). Every year there's a new amount, and the threshold moves with it.

Not retired yet? Whoever leaves before the AOW age looks at the income that exists then.

• Pensionado is only possible with a pension you already receive. The AOW only counts from the moment you receive it.
• Rentista suits whoever lives off fixed income. The threshold is high: ten minimum wages a month.
• Inversionista suits whoever buys a home in their own name, or invests in a Colombian company.
• Nómada digital suits whoever keeps working remotely for an employer or clients outside Colombia.

In this step you see what emigrating to Colombia does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare.

Tax. The Netherlands and Colombia signed a tax treaty on 16 February 2022. That treaty isn't in force yet. On 15 October 2026 wetten.overheid.nl says: "enters into force on a date to be determined". Until that day no treaty applies. The Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, your pension and your annuity. And Colombia taxes your worldwide income as soon as you're a resident there. How that works out is in steps 3.2 and 3.3.

The AOW. Colombia isn't among the 36 countries with which the Netherlands has a social security treaty. The AOW does go along, but up to the married rate. For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone drops from seventy to fifty percent of the minimum wage.

Healthcare. Colombia isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare either. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. After that a policy of your own is your healthcare, or the Colombian system if your visa allows it. See step 3.1.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Each year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The application has to be in within one year.

In this step you choose where you want to live. Colombia is big, and the differences between the coast, the Andes and the big cities are large. Whoever knows Cartagena or Medellín from a holiday doesn't know the country yet.

Look at three things in every place:

• Altitude and climate. Bogotá lies high and is cool, the coast is hot and humid. Live for a few weeks in the place you choose, in the season in which you'll really be there.
• Healthcare. Ask in every place where the nearest hospital is, and whether your policy works there.
• The desks. You arrange your registration and your cédula at an office of Migración Colombia. Ask in advance where the office near you is.

Your scouting trip can become your application straight away. With a Dutch passport you may stay for up to 90 days, and from Colombia you can apply for your visa. See step 2.9.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. On the application side Colombia is affordable. A visa M costs 235 euros in Europe: 44 for the review and 191 for the issue. The cédula de extranjería costs 294,000 pesos.

The money sits in three other items:

• The health policy that replaces the CAK, and that returns every year.
• The move across the ocean, with a levy of 15 percent on the value of your household goods.
• The car, because a used car may not enter Colombia. You sell it here and buy another one there.

In this conversation you decide together whether Colombia fits, and when. With this country come three things you have to look at together.

• The AOW. The drop to the married rate only hits whoever goes alone. If one of you dies, the other becomes single. Even then it stays the lower AOW for as long as you live in Colombia.
• The language. At the desks, the bank and the doctor everything is in Spanish. Agree who is going to learn Spanish, and how.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see in passing. Agree how often you come back. Note: whoever is outside Colombia for more than 180 days in a row on a visa M loses that visa.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands have to be in, when you apply for the visa and when you deregister.

Count three clocks. Your papers may be at most three months old when you apply. The Cancillería decides within thirty days. And after arrival you have fifteen days to have your visa registered.