Colombia Forum

elpdiver
Joined 2019
Posts: 1238

1 year ago

Travelling with a minor

1 year ago

On our recent trip to Colombia we had many road bumps and hiccups. This is one we should have been aware of and prepared for; but...

Having recently registered my daughter as a Colombian citizen and obtaining a Colombian passport for her we presented said passport upon entering Colombia as required. Upon leaving they demanded to see her Colombian birth certificate. Uh-oh. This thing does not currently exist!

We explained that we had just gotten the Colombian citizenship for her and that we have not had a Colombian birth certificate for a birth abroad created. We didn't even know it was a thing until two days earlier when consulting with an attorney in regards to my R visa as the father of a Colombian citizen.

We once again explained that it simply did not exist and they indicated that we could not leave the country without one and told us to go sit over there (on the group W bench ala Alice's Restaurant).

They then said we could leave if we presented her American birth certificate. Well we didn't have one with us. They asked about a photo of it. We frantically searched for one online to no avail (we being my wife). I then told them that I would have to go on without them as I had to be at work in two days and indicated that I would depart for the gate in twenty minutes.

I had told them numerous time to take photos of all their documents: passport, cedula, Covid vaccine cards, Birth Certificate, etc and to load them in the cloud as well. (Cell phones get lost, stolen, die, etc) I did use said photos many times on our trip instead of the actual document.

The wife was getting um emotional? Angry? Scared? Confrontational? Finally when we were close to missing our plane the migrations officer came over and asked why we were not doing something. I explained in my broken Spanish that we have already done all we could. We had a friend driving to our house to take a photo of the birth certificate and send it; but, that she would not be able to do so prior to our flight taking off.

I then said, Look we are sorry; but, we didn't foresee this as an issue since both of her parents were with her. Then I suggested that they take all our documents and our seventeen y/o daughter in another room and ask her if we were taking her against her will and have her verify the information in all of our passports. I pointed out that the names matched up and the airline tickets matched up and showed us entering to Colombia together.

She finally let us go with a stern warning. Whew!

lpd

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Help others in Colombia by answering questions about the challenges and adventures of living in Colombia.