Colombia’s Check-Mig: the on-line form for international air travellers

The free on-line migration form continues post-Covid-19 – as do the scammers trying to make you pay. Here’s an update for 2023 and links to some ‘How To’ videos (and which to avoid).

The month of May 2023 marked the official end of the Covid-19 health emergency (did anyone notice?) but some petty bureaucracies still persist, such as Migracíon Colombia’s clunky Check-Mig form for anyone flying in or out of Colombia. You won’t board without it.

Don't get trapped by the Check-Mig bandits — **Don’t get trapped by the Check-Mig bandits, it’s free**.

Check-Mig was originally conceived as a free health tool to trace travellers after international borders reopened in late 2020 but is now used to “make the immigration control interview faster and more efficient at airports,” as Migracíon explained at the start of the 2023.

This means less hassle at the airport – but the added stress of filling in the form while dodging the sneaky scammers who try and divert you to their pay-for sites and charge up to US$70.

Some Check-Mig facts

So, let’s get some details, as at May 2023:

Since February 2023, Colombia has NOT required covid-19 vaccine proof or tests to enter the country.
Check-Mig is required for everyone on all flights in and out of Colombia. It’s free so no need to pay…
The form is much easier to fill in on-line (via a web browser such as Google Chrome) than the phone app. There are Spanish, English and French language versions (click the button).
You can complete up to 72 hours before your flight time.
You can add in minors to your adult application.
If flying frequently, you can create a user log-in register your details to speed up each entry or exit.
You can print off your completed form, and it will come to your email.
You can recover your registration if it fails to arrive at your email.
Check-Mig does not currently apply to Land Borders

Official Check-Mig landing page is clumsy but works if it do it properly...see below. — **Official Check-Mig landing page is clumsy – but it works if you fill it in properly…see links below.**

Unfortunately, the on-line form is far from user-friendly. One example is that even when you enter the English-language version the drop-down menus continues in Spanish: so anyone searching for ‘United States´ will be flummoxed (try ‘Estados Unidos’). Similarly ‘UK’ appears as ‘Reino Unido’ and Holland as’ Pais Bajos’.

Another glitch is you just enter your flight number (ie ‘107’) and not the airline code+number (ie ‘AV107’).

But assuming you overcome these hiccups generally Check-Mig does work (I’ve used it 15 times in the last 3 years and never had a problem). Unfortunately, its reputation for being badly designed has spawned many on-line website that divert travellers to pay-for sites that charge for Check-Mig, particularly preying on confused non-Spanish speakers. Other Youtube sites offer genuine good advice.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Check-Mig instructions:

The Good: Thanks to the on-line community there are some good guides to how to fill in your Check-Mig

Kim, from Work Hard Travel; Youtube with slow but thorough walk-through of the online form.
Wanda, the Travelling Dutchie, another good on-line video overview.
NatVisas has a great Fix List for problems with the Check-Mig page.
The Atlys website – despite making a half-hearted effort to divert you to a paid service – then actually gives you some good written info in the end on how to get the free one
The_Solo_Traveler has a even more detailed step-by-step video guide, see the video below…

The Bad: Websites that supposedly offer good advice but soon mislead then deflect you to pay-for services:

iVisa are serial offenders who flood Youtube with dodgy info (‘You don’t need a visa for Colombia if you have a passport from Colombia’…duh!). They sometimes (rarely) admit the Check-Mig is free, but more often omit then stress viewers into purchasing their US$25 service.
Another visa service company jumping on the Check-Mig bandwagon is Handy Visas, who apart from serially misspelling ‘Columbia’ also lack any transparent contact details and railroad readers into paying for something free.

**Companies like iVisa misinform travellers by exagerating the difficulties of the official Check-Mig page. You can do it for free.**

The Ugly: Pay-for services that try and look like official sites. Not recommended.

Colombia-CheckMig.com somehow pops up first on the Google search list, so can be mistaken for the official page, has no contact address, office or phone number (only a “72-hour contact form”) and is out of date (insists on vaccine certificates no longer needed).
Similar to the above, CheckMigColombia.com can’t even spell the name of the country (“Check Mig Columbia Application Form”), seems to be based in Poland, and charges 39 Euros.

Note too that DCBornRob alerted us on Youtube to a recent Check-Mig phishing scam whereby travellers received fake emails from ‘Migracíon Colombia´ leading to a false domain asking for money to resolve migration matters. Take care.