Job Discussion Forums

[LostStudent]

Hello, i am planning on moving from Florida to Medellin, Colombia in April and will start my job search upon arrival. I am a 24 y/o male, have a college degree and plan to get my TEFL certificate IF I can't find work with a degree and being a native speaker alone. So my questions are as follows

1. What documents am I going to need down there? Background check, Diploma do i need my original, etc...

2. Does anyone know how much the fines are for overstaying your Visa?

3. I've read mixed opinions on what to wear to interviews, do I really need to wear a tie or is that overdoing it?

4. I plan on getting my student visa before arriving, can anyone recommend a good program or university to take spanish classes?

5. Does anyone have experience with ISSO their TEFL class is about $800 cheaper than British council but I'm a little skeptical.

[Kramer]

Hello LostStudent,

In order to get specific recommendations for a good university or program for learning Spanish, you probably want to mention what city or region is your destination.

In 2008 I arranged a student visa before entering Colombia. Or rather, the Spanish language school to which I was matriculated wrote me a letter and told me to ask for a student visa upon entry and show the letter. A month later (since I only got 30 days on it at entry), I changed it to a tourist visa without leaving the country. Also, it appears that you can change from tourist visa to student visa without leaving Colombia (not sure about student visa to work visa, tourist visa to work visa, etc.):

http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/big-help-for-those-wanting-to-change-visas/


> 2. Does anyone know how much the fines are for overstaying your
> Visa?

I am not an expert on this, but from reading threads over on poorbuthappy.com, it seems like the fines are pretty arbitrary. The penalty range seems to be about $100 to $1500 (the latter would only be for very egregious multi-year overstays), and the fine is determined by DAS (immigration). Additionally, you can apparently no longer resolve it at the airport, instead you have to go to DAS in advance to take care of it. I think they want to check if you have any police record in Colombia during your stay, etc.

Kramer

[LostStudent]

Thanks Kramer