Colombia Student Visa for Australians
How Australians get the Colombia student visa: visa-free entry, DFAT apostilles, the acceptance letter, and why a trip this long deserves real months.
Nobody flies from Australia to Colombia for a long weekend. The distance makes the case for doing this properly: enough months, a real program and a visa that matches the plan. Here is how the student visa works with an Australian passport, from Sydney paperwork to a Medellín classroom.
After 15,000 kilometers, stay properly
Flights route through Santiago or the US West Coast, and the tourist window fits a South America loop, not the plan most Australians arrive with: learning Spanish and living in one neighborhood long enough to belong. The type V student visa ties your stay to a program at a licensed school, so you stop counting tourist days. It also changes how you live here: a lease instead of a hostel booking, a class schedule instead of a border-run calendar, and a certificate for each CEFR level you complete, A1 to C1. Groups of five students at most keep the pace personal.
| Question | For Australians |
|---|---|
| Visa to enter as a tourist? | No: entry permit on arrival, normally 90 days, extendable to 180 per calendar year |
| Apostilles | Yes where required, from DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), before you fly |
| The key document | The acceptance letter, issued by our licensed school as a PDF with a verification QR code |
| The program behind it | CEFR A1 to C1: 40 h/month, 1 to 15 months, in Pereira, Medellín or online |
| What it costs | From $ 1.760.000 per month, plus government fees set by the authorities |
Paperwork before the long haul
The application is filed online with the Colombian authorities, so distance does not slow the process; forgotten paperwork does. Around the acceptance letter you add a valid passport, recent bank statements in your name, photos to specification, proof of health cover and apostilled documents where required, obtained before you fly. Arranging an apostille from the other side of the Pacific means couriers, weeks of waiting and a fee for each attempt. Plan an official translation for anything not in Spanish.
The acceptance letter comes from the school
We are a licensed ETDH institution (Resolution 6784 of 2022); our Spanish program is registered by Resolution 005093 of 2024 with the Secretaría de Educación Municipal de Pereira and listed in SIET, the Ministry of Education registry. Reserve a Visa Program with a 15% deposit and we issue your carta de aceptación directly; the deposit counts toward your program rather than adding to it. From there we guide you through the process, so the rest of the file matches the letter and nothing waits for a reply from across the Pacific. Your first package gets −10% off on selected plans, applied automatically.
About time zones
Colombia runs about 15 hours behind Australia’s east coast, so our afternoon classes land in your early morning. Plenty of students do that with a coffee in hand for a level or two, but for Australians more than anyone the program belongs on campus: land, settle in Laureles, Belén or Pereira, and study where the language is spoken all day. A free trial class of 30 to 45 minutes lets you meet a teacher before you commit to a program.
Immigration rules change and cases differ, and this page is not legal advice: check current rules with official Colombian sources, or hand the application to our optional lawyer service (400 USD).
Australians ask us
Do Australians need a visa to enter Colombia?
Not for a short stay: you receive an entry permit on arrival, normally 90 days, extendable to 180 within the calendar year. For a season of real study, the type V student visa is the tool.
Where do Australian documents get apostilles?
From DFAT, before departure, in person or by mail. State documents like a birth certificate and federal ones like a police check both go through DFAT. Arranging apostilles from Colombia is the slow and expensive way, so plan them alongside your flight bookings.
Can I do the whole application from Australia?
Yes. The acceptance letter reaches you by email once your program is reserved, and the visa application itself is filed online with the Colombian authorities. Only the apostilles must happen at home.
Are online classes realistic from Australia?
They work if you like early mornings, and a level done that way counts like one done here. Most Australians prefer to start on campus, where every hour outside class is also Spanish, and keep online for a head start before the flight.
From choosing a program to a decision.
A plan for every goal and every schedule
Group classes from $ 420.000 $ 378.000 a week, flexible private packages valid for 6 months and live online at the same price.
Your Spanish starts today (and your first class is free)
Your first package gets −10% off on selected plans, applied automatically. See you in Medellín, Pereira or online.