SIM, bank and health cover: the boring stuff, sorted in week one

Day one: the SIM card

Getting connected in Colombia is one of the easiest admin tasks you will do abroad. The main operators, Claro, Movistar and Tigo among them, sell prepaid (prepago) SIMs against your passport alone, at official stores in any mall and at corner shops. Top-ups (recargas) are sold everywhere, and prepaid data is inexpensive by North American and European standards. The line is registered to your passport at the counter, you pick a data package for a week or a month, and the phone works before you leave the shop. We do not quote plan prices because they change often, and any number we printed would be wrong within months; connectivity will be one of the smallest lines in your budget.

• Bring your passport: it is the only document you need.
• Make sure your phone is unlocked before you fly; a locked phone is the one thing that ruins this step.
• Some operators offer eSIMs; terms change, so check current conditions if your phone supports it.
• If the operator asks you to register your handset, let the shop do it on the spot; an unregistered phone can be blocked after a grace period.
• Get WhatsApp working right away. Businesses, landlords, schools and your new friends all live on it, including us: +57 302 370 5357.

Money: the realistic plan

Opening a Colombian bank account as a newcomer is hard: banks generally want a cédula de extranjería, the foreigner ID that comes after your visa is approved, plus local paperwork you will not have in week one. You do not need a local account to live well here. A few banks open accounts for foreigners on a passport and a visa, but the rules differ from branch to branch and change without notice, so plan your first months around your foreign cards and treat a local account as a bonus if it happens.

• Your foreign cards work. International cards are widely accepted in cities and ATMs are everywhere; fees vary by bank, so check yours before flying and favor ATMs inside malls.
• Carry some cash. Small shops, buses, markets and tips run on pesos. Withdraw reasonable amounts and follow the rule of no dar papaya (our paisa slang guide explains).
• Bring two cards on different networks, stored in different places.
• Local digital wallets are everywhere for small payments between locals, but most require a Colombian ID and phone plan to register. Treat them as a later upgrade, not a week-one task.
• When you do need a full account, the path opens once you hold a cédula de extranjería, which starts with your visa.

The order of operations is phone, then money, then paperwork; each step makes the next easier. A local number makes deliveries, wallets and verifications work; a visa and later a cédula open the formal banking system. It is a ladder, not a wall. Check the COP rate before you fly and decide what everyday things should cost in your currency, so the first market run is less dizzying. Tipping is modest: restaurants add a voluntary service charge to the bill and ask whether you accept it, and rounding up is enough in a taxi.

Health cover: required

If you come on a student visa, health coverage valid in Colombia is a standard requirement of the application, not a nice-to-have. The conditions (coverage types, duration, documentation) are set by the insurers and the Colombian authorities and they change, so we do not print numbers or name policies here. We review this point with every visa student as part of the process, so you buy the right cover once instead of the wrong cover twice. Our student visa page is where the process starts.

Beyond the requirement it is simply smart: private healthcare in Colombia’s big cities has an excellent reputation, Medellín in particular is known for its clinics, and you want to walk in insured. Day to day, pharmacies (droguerías) are everywhere and pharmacists handle the small stuff, which doubles as a Spanish lesson. For anything bigger, private clinics take appointments by phone or WhatsApp, and your insurer’s assistance line tells you which ones it works with.

Your week-one admin checklist

1. Buy a prepaid SIM with your passport and get WhatsApp working.
2. Withdraw a sensible amount of cash and note which ATMs treated you kindly.
3. Check your health cover documents are in order; your visa file already required them, so keep copies on your phone.
4. Save the school on WhatsApp (+57 302 370 5357), for class things and for “where do I find X?” things.
5. Done by Wednesday. Spend the rest of the week on the fun list in our moving checklist.

If you need a productive place to do this admin, the coworking space at our Laureles campus ($ 6.000≈ US$2approx. per hour, $ 33.000≈ US$10approx. per day) has fast wifi and people who have already survived it. You are not doing any of this alone: our front desk fields “where do I…?” questions all day, on campus or on WhatsApp. Come by any of the three campuses or write, and someone who has onboarded hundreds of students will point you the right way in one message.