Your Colombian visa application came back: what a requerimiento means
I write these guides from the experience of preparing real filings, not as a lawyer or an immigration adviser. Every figure I quote links to its official source with the date I checked it. If something here is out of date, write to me and I will fix it.
This describes the Colombian process. It is practical experience of preparing filings, not legal or immigration advice. Follow the exact wording of your own requerimiento.
A requerimiento is not a rejection. It is the authority saying something is missing before they can finish reviewing you. But the clock is running and the requerimientos run out.
What the email actually means
When your application is marked REQUERIDA, you get an email from the visa office citing articles 95 and 97 of Resolución 5477 de 2022, giving a reason and listing what to upload. The usual reasons are documentación incompleta and información adicional.
The email also numbers the requerimiento. If it says this is the third and final one, it means exactly that. There is no fourth chance to correct things, which is why you want to resolve every point in a single re-upload rather than fixing them one at a time.
The instruction people skip
The email says, in capitals, SIN BORRAR LA DOCUMENTACIÓN YA ADJUNTA. Do not delete the documentation already attached.
Many applicants log in, clear everything and start again. That destroys the file the officer has already reviewed and tends to produce another requerimiento. You add. You do not replace.
Do not start a new application either. If you try, the system answers that this person already has a visa application in process. That is correct behaviour: you update the existing application using its number.
The four usual causes
1. Illegible documents
A frequent cause, and almost always self-inflicted. Someone ran an apostilled scan through a generic compressor to fit the portal limit, and the result no longer holds a readable seal. The document is there, it is small, and it is useless.
Compressing it again does not fix it. You have to go back to the paper original.
2. Sideways or out-of-order pages
An official translation scanned on its side, or documents attached in a different order from the one the requerimiento listed. It sounds cosmetic. It still generates returns.
3. The contract summary form filled in incompletely
The DP-FO-208 version 3 form has to be completely filled in. The fields most often left half done are the start date, where people write "on issuance of the visa" instead of an actual date, and the signature block, where the applicant signs but does not print their name and identity number underneath. The requerimiento often words this as "fill in correctly the details of the people signing".
4. Irregular stay
When they ask for the passport page with the most recent entry stamp, they are verifying that your stay is regular. If the tourist permit already expired, sending that same stamp confirms the problem. What is needed instead is an extension, a salvoconducto, or an equivalent authorisation. And if you are outside the country, the requerimiento usually asks for a letter saying so.
Before you re-upload
- Read the requerimiento literally and answer point by point, in the order they numbered them.
- Open every file and zoom in on seals, signatures and long numbers.
- Straighten anything sideways.
- Check the total weight fits the portal limit before you start.
- Do not delete anything already attached.
Common questions
How many requerimientos can I receive?
The email tells you. When it says it is the last one, there is no further chance to correct, so resolve everything in one submission.
Should I delete the documents I already uploaded?
No. The requerimiento explicitly asks you to upload the new documentation without deleting what is already attached.
Why does the system say I already have an application in process?
Because you do. Do not create a new one. Update the existing application using its reference number.