Colombia · Residency by investment
R Visa — Resident
Open
Last verified July 2026
Reachable either by 650 SMMLV of direct investment or by accumulating qualifying time on an M visa. A mandatory five-year 'traspaso' applies.
The R visa is the only Colombian status that starts a citizenship clock, and the USD 350,000 direct route buys it immediately rather than after five years of M renewals. Whether that is worth doing depends entirely on whether you can tolerate the wealth tax.
Qualifying routes
1138.1M COP
Direct foreign investment of 650 SMMLV
650 × SMMLV 1,750,905 = COP 1,138,088,250 ≈ USD 349,954 at TRM 3,252.11 (15 July 2026)
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Accumulated time on an M visa
5 accumulated years on most M visas, or 2 years on certain M categories such as spouse or parent of a Colombian
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 1138.1M COP
- Total landed cost
- roughly USD 350k of investment, or nothing beyond fees if converting from M time; plus USD 3–8k legal
- Timeline
- 1–4 months — processing is fast; the qualifying period is the constraint
- Physical presence
- The R visa lapses after a continuous absence of more than two years
- Family
- spouse or permanent partnerchildren under 25
- Permanent residency
- the R visa is the resident status
- Citizenship
- 5 years on R; 2 if married to or parent of a Colombian
- Language test
- Constitution, historia patria, geografía, castellano plus a culture module added 25 September 2023; exempt if over 60
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- 650 SMMLV of registered direct investment, or qualifying accumulated M timeinvestment registered with the Banco de la Repúblicaclean criminal recordhealth insurance valid in Colombia
What can go wrong
- Time on a V visa — including the digital nomad visa — does NOT count toward the R visa. Only M time accumulates. This is the single most common and most expensive planning error in Colombia.
- The wealth tax on worldwide net assets from day one of tax residency is the reason most UHNW families should hold Colombian visas without becoming tax resident. Above ~USD 1.16M of net assets, at 0.5–1.5%; the 1.5% top rate runs 2023–2026 and falls to 1.0% above 122,000 UVT from 2027.
- A mandatory five-year traspaso applies to the R visa — it must be renewed and the status actively maintained.
- SMMLV-denominated thresholds reset each January and the SMMLV itself is under litigation (Consejo de Estado suspension of Decreto 1469/2025, 12 February 2026; Decreto Transitorio 0159 of 19 February 2026 governs pending final judgment).
- We could not read the 350/100/650 SMMLV thresholds verbatim from Resolución 5477's articles — the Cancillería normograma returns 403 on every route. The amounts are corroborated consistently across multiple sources and the arithmetic checks out, but they are not primary-source verified.