Colombia's own police certificate is free and instant online — the trap is the foreign certificates, which must cover three years of residence and be under three months old.
Overview
Police clearance runs in two directions for Colombia-bound migrants, and the rules differ sharply. Incoming: several visa categories — Mercosur and Andean migrants, pensioners, rentistas among them — require a certificate of judicial, penal or police records issued by the authority of the country (or countries) where the applicant lived during the previous three years, apostilled or legalised and officially translated into Spanish (Article 21 formalities), and issued within three months of the visa filing (Article 20). The visa authority can also query records directly: Article 26 lets it check the Colombian National Police database and others it can access, or demand certificates from your country of nationality or residence for any category. Outgoing and domestic: Colombia's own certificate, the consulta de antecedentes judiciales from the Policía Nacional, is issued free and entirely online, and can be apostilled through the Cancillería's digital portal for use abroad. Two sister certificates — the Procuraduría's disciplinary record and the Contraloría's fiscal-liability record — are also free online and routinely requested by Colombian institutions. Verified against policia.gov.co, cancilleria.gov.co and suin-juriscol.gov.co as of June 2026.
Foreign Certificates for Your Colombian Visa
- Which categories: The express requirement appears in (among others) M Migrante Mercosur (art. 71), M Migrante Andino (art. 72), M Pensionado (art. 77) and V Rentista (art. 56): records from the authority of the country where you stayed during the last three (3) years.
- Multiple countries, multiple certificates: If you lived in more than one country in that window, obtain one from each — the formula follows residence, not nationality.
- Formalities: Apostille (or non-Hague legalisation chain) plus official Spanish translation, per Article 21; and issued within three months of registering the application, per Article 20 — order these last in your document assembly.
- Any category can be asked: Article 26 empowers the visa authority to verify your records online in the Colombian National Police database and other accessible databases, or to require certificates from your country of nationality or residence for any visa — a clean answer beats an explained one, so disclose honestly where forms ask.
- Minor or spent records: The resolution sets no rehabilitation rules; with the decision discretionary and unexplained (see Visa Refusals), a record plus a candid explanatory letter is the only sensible approach.
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See Paid Plans →Frequently Asked Questions
Which police certificates do I need for a Colombian visa, and from where?
Check your category's article, but the recurring formula (Mercosur and Andean migrants, pensioners, rentistas) is: a certificate of judicial, penal or police records from the authority of the country where you stayed during the last three years. If you lived in several countries in that window, that means one certificate from each — the test follows residence, not passport. Each must be apostilled (or legalised through the non-Hague chain), officially translated into Spanish, and issued no more than three months before you register the application. Even categories without an express requirement can be asked under Article 26, which lets the visa authority demand records or query databases directly.
How do I get a Colombian police certificate, and what does it cost?
Nothing — it is free and online. The Policía Nacional's consulta de antecedentes judiciales runs at antecedentes.policia.gov.co: accept the terms, enter your cédula (de ciudadanía or de extranjería) number, pass the captcha, and the result generates immediately. There is no office visit and no paper original. If a foreign authority needs an authenticated version, have it apostilled through the Cancillería's online apostille portal (COP 36,000, issued digitally within three business days). Colombian consulates also assist applicants abroad who need the record or a formal constancia for foreign processes.
What are the Procuraduría and Contraloría certificates, and will anyone ask me for them?
They are Colombia's two non-criminal background certificates, both free and online. The Procuraduría General de la Nación issues the certificado de antecedentes disciplinarios — sanctions against public servants and disciplinary findings; the Contraloría General de la República certifies you are not listed as fiscally liable to the state. Colombian employers (especially for public-sector or regulated roles), professional councils, and some banks and landlords request them alongside the police record, and naturalisation files commonly include them. Foreign residents generate them with the cédula de extranjería number. The fourth sibling, the RNMC police-measures registry, is increasingly checked by employers too.
My police certificate will expire before my visa application is ready — what do I do?
Re-sequence rather than re-order twice. Article 20 of Resolución 5477 requires supporting documents to be issued within three months of registering the application, so the certificate's clock starts at issuance, not at apostilling. Assemble the slow-moving items first — apostilled diplomas, pension certifications, employer paperwork, translations of stable documents — and only then order police certificates and civil registry extracts, leaving a comfortable margin inside the three-month window for the apostille and translation steps. If a requerimiento later demands a fresh certificate, you get just 10 calendar days, so know your issuing authority's turnaround before you need it.
I have a criminal record — will Colombia refuse my visa?
There is no published list of disqualifying offences and no rehabilitation-period rule: the decision is discretionary (Articles 19 and 96), the reasons for a denial are never disclosed (Article 99), and there is no appeal (Article 100). What the rules do punish explicitly are migratory infractions — irregular entry or stay, and facilitating others' irregular entry, which mandates denial. For ordinary criminal history, the practical guidance is: never conceal it (the authority can query databases directly under Article 26 and inconsistency is fatal), provide the certificate with a frank explanatory letter and evidence of rehabilitation, and consider Colombian immigration counsel for serious records before filing — a denial triggers the six-month bar.
Do I need a Colombian police certificate when I later apply for the R visa or citizenship?
Your Colombian record is checked rather than supplied: the R visa application asks for a copy of your cédula de extranjería precisely so the authority can consult your antecedentes judiciales (Article 90), and naturalisation files involve background verification across the police, Procuraduría and Contraloría registries. What you should actively manage is the record itself — pay and close any alcaldía fines or police measures in the RNMC, keep Migración sanctions resolved, and order your own free online checks before filing so nothing surprises you. For citizenship, also expect to evidence good conduct over the whole domicile period, not just at the application date.