ETIAS Visa Waiver for Travellers From Colombia

Colombia has joined the 60 safe nations in the EU’s new visa waiver scheme. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) will allow Colombians to enter the Schengen nations without a full visa for short periods. ETIAS will be launched at the start of 2023, and until then the usual procedures remain.

ETIAS should help the EU to screen people coming in from Colombia better. It will leverage Interpol data, alongside fingerprint and criminal record data, as well as missing person registrations to find threatening or vulnerable individuals. The EU will therefore become more secure in the safety of Colombians coming into the Schengen area.

The ETIAS visa will give Colombians access to all of the states in the Schengen agreement. This includes the official Schengen states, as well as the micro-states that are unofficial members of the agreement.

All Colombians citizens will require an ETIAS visa to visit any of these nations. The visa allows travel for up to 90 days for any purpose. Colombians can make their journey to the Schengen area any time within three years of being awarded an ETIAS.

All Colombian citizens need a visa waiver to go to the above nations. The visa waiver is even needed by children of any age and older adults. They do get some relief though, as they will not have to pay an application fee. Colombian citizens will need to work out exactly which family members or friends are travelling with them and organise an ETIAS visa for them all.

The ETIAS visa waiver is needed for every kind of short-term travel to the Schengen area. This includes travel for pleasure, medical treatment, business, and transit.

Some unexpected instances when the ETIAS visa will not be required when Colombian citizens want to travel around the EU exist. Firstly, to travel to nations that are part of neither the EU nor the Schengen agreement will not require Colombian citizens to have an ETIAS visa. It is similar for EU states that are not part of the Schengen agreement, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Colombians will have to find out what visa they will need to travel when they want to go to these states. Most likely, a visa particular to the destination nation will be required.

When Colombian citizens apply for their ETIAS visa, it is a quick and easy process. Usually, the only documentation that Colombian citizens will need will be a passport and proof of address.

Most of the application is questions that should be easy to answer. They are simple personal information, like the name, birthplace, birth date, and address of the applicant, as well as similar information for their parents.

Some of the questions have a greater severity, like the applicant’s links to human trafficking, terrorist affiliation, criminal activity, and their visits to conflict areas,

Most Colombians will get a response to their ETIAS visa application in just one day, and the overwhelming majority of the responses will show a successful application. Success rates could be as high as 95%. In the rare case that further documentation is required, the application could take a further three business days.

There are three reasons for a rejection of a visa waiver application. They are concerns that the Colombian will pose a danger, concerns the Colombian hasn’t submitted a truthful or proper travel itinerary, or lies being discovered in the application.

Suppose a Colombian citizen’s ETIAS visa application fails. In that case, they have options and will not necessarily fail to get their ETIAS visa. For most refusals, they can clear the matter with additional documentation. The applicant gets 96 hours to find and submit the requested documentation.

Once the documentation has been received, it is up to the Colombian’s destination nation to decide if the ETIAS visa waiver should be approved. A decision can take up to four weeks.