Colombia · Business & founder
M Visa — Company Investor
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Last verified July 2026
100 SMMLV of registered foreign direct investment into a Colombian company. Resolución 5477 of 2022 remains operative.
At roughly USD 54,000 this is among the cheapest investor visas anywhere, and Colombia's startup ecosystem makes it genuinely usable. As with every Colombian route, the visa is the easy part and the wealth tax is the hard part.
Qualifying routes
175.1M COP
Direct investment in a Colombian company of 100 SMMLV
100 × SMMLV 1,750,905 = COP 175,090,500 ≈ USD 53,839 at TRM 3,252.11 (15 July 2026)
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 175.1M COP
- Total landed cost
- roughly USD 54k of investment plus USD 3–8k in legal, incorporation and visa costs
- Timeline
- 1–3 months — fast once the investment is registered
- Physical presence
- Lapses after a continuous absence of more than six months
- Family
- spouse or permanent partnerchildren under 25
- Permanent residency
- R visa after 5 accumulated years
- Citizenship
- 5 years on R; 2 if married to or parent of a Colombian
- Language test
- Constitution, historia patria, geografía, castellano plus culture module; exempt over 60
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- 100 SMMLV of registered FDI into a Colombian companyinvestment registered with the Banco de la Repúblicaclean criminal recordhealth insurance valid in Colombia
What can go wrong
- The wealth tax on worldwide assets from day one of tax residency applies here identically — above roughly USD 1.16M of net assets, at up to 1.5%.
- The threshold is a wage multiple and resets every January; the SMMLV itself is under litigation following the Consejo de Estado's suspension of Decreto 1469/2025 on 12 February 2026.
- The investment must be registered with the Banco de la República as foreign direct investment.
- Colombia has CFC (ECE) rules under arts. 882+ ET since 2017 and has been exchanging under CRS since 2017.
- Time on a V visa does not count toward the R visa — only M time accumulates.