Wives and Passports

[Monteriano]

I looked and could not find a similar question. Maybe I am just getting old as well. I will be buying a boat in the next 12 months. I am a born US citizen but a dual national of Colombia. My wife is Colombian. She has been unable to get a US visa of any type for 4 years because I am not a US resident. Are we going to be able to cruise together and see the world or will I have to give up my dreams? Anyone else in a similar situation? She can not even get a visa for Mexico because she is Colombian and the EU is definately out. Any advice would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

[osirissail]

Welcome back to cruising. I have a very good friend who has a Columbian wife and got her a visitors visa by going to the American Embassy in Belize. I have first hand experience that different US Embassy/Consulates have different standards and success/failure rates on issuing USA B1/B2 visas for visitors. Especially if you are on a boat. Barbados is good for crew visas as they get a lot of super yachts from Europe passing through. Embassies/Consulates that do not routinely deal with cruisers/yachts have no idea what you need and just flatly reject. It is more a case of where you go to get the visa versus being flatly out of the question. And the key is having documentation and financial "ties" to her home country.
- - I just looked it up and Schengen visas (Europe) are available to Columbians. But with all visas these days, you need substantial ties to your home country, significant financial resources, and international medical insurance with repatriation provisions.
- - Virtually all the countries of the world are "full" and they do not want anybody "visiting" and then not going back home. If you meet those standards then you will not be refused a Visa (except for the USA).

[s/v Jedi]

Monteriano,

I assume you have a US passport, right? You must be able to go to the US, rent an appartment and get your wife over and naturalized with US passport and all. They must allow US citizens to marry a Colombian wife and live together in the US??

It would save you a lot of trouble with visa's.

cheers,
Nick.

[mesquaukee]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Monteriano,

I assume you have a US passport, right? You must be able to go to the US, rent an appartment and get your wife over and naturalized with US passport and all. They must allow US citizens to marry a Colombian wife and live together in the US??

It would save you a lot of trouble with visa's.

cheers,
Nick.

It took a friend of mine 4 years to finally accomplish that.

[Monteriano]

I am a Colombian resident and have been for over 15 years. It would take me 5 years to establish my residency in the US. She has no assets or fiancial ties to Colombia other than my property which is in my name for legal reasons. We both have plenty of insurance that is good world wide and have no desire to immigrate as I am primarily a farmer/rancher. I was told by several sailors that I could travel almost anywhere with her as long as our stay did not last longer than 72 hours. They would have my boat as collateral. Are the days of cruising over? Thanks for everyone's help. We do not want to live in the US. We love Colombia. We will even have a child yet the US embassy will not allow her to get any sort of visa. They are extremely corrupt and with 20K or so I could have a visa for her in a day but refuse to pay for what I consider my right.

[dana-tenacity]

Lots of other places to cruise, South America, The Pacific, SE Asia.

We had similar issues till my wife got a NZ passport, please let us know how you get on, that's a tough problem.

We have friends here in NZ who are from Colombia (Columbia is a company that makes movies), they used to travel home once a year ( he worked for an airline) and were practically strip searched in Miami every year. After about 15 years they got NZ passports and were waved through with a smile, go figure.

Must add we loved the time we spent in Colombia, lovely people, good food, terrific music.

[MacG]

I would not fade out Europe. It is clear that there are countries which are extremely difficult to get in to. But Holland for example get each year over 50.000 mostly illegal immigrants. The only hiccup would be your Colombian Flag. You may rest assured that they turn everything upside down as soon as the get a sighting.
But if you have a Schengen visa to one of the Schengen countries, the others will have to let you in.
Second to that, with the exception of Spain and Italy, customs are less aggressive then those in the US.
Try to get a visa for Sweden or Denmark. Maybe you might try Holland too. Even France.

[MarkJ]

Boat with a Columbian wife got turned over pretty bad by Customs in Australia a year or so back. The 'anti' attitude of the owner/husband didn't help.

You have to realise the facts as the rest of the world sees it: Columbia is a drug saturated hell hole. Wether that view is right or wrong, the criminals in Columbia have poisoned the countires reputation in the world. The rest of the world should not be blamed. Nor should you say that the USA is corrupt and for $20k you would have a visa. That just exacerbates a difficult situation.

If you really want to cruise you will be able to. But perhaps you will need to use a rule I use: We go to countires that want us.




Mark

[maxingout]

If I was from Colombia, and I wanted to cruise and do lots of international travel, I would get dual nationality in a user friendly nation somewhere around the world. In these turbulent times, dual nationality is a parachute that can save your life if things get bad in one location.

Surveillance of the innocent to identify the guilty puts a noose around the neck of all world travellers. Having dual nationality protects your freedom if the noose becomes too tight in any single location.