New Visa Requirements Take Effect for U.S. Visitors to Bolivia

Readers:

Despite the recent news of political upheaval in Bolivia, the fact remains that hundreds of U.S. citizens will keep coming to Bolivia each month and, effective last weekend, getting in has gotten a good deal more complicated. Bolivia’s new visa requirements for visitors from the U.S. took effect December 1. The Democracy Center has received a lot of recent email asking us for information, so as a courtesy to our readers our assistant director, Melissa Draper, has prepared the post below with details on the new rules.

This post isn’t about the politics of the new visa requirements. For readers interested in that, I would refer you to one of our previous writings below. If you do look at any of these, please take note that the visa details discussed on this new post are the ones you should pay attention to (in other words, no, you won’t actually have to buy an ‘Evo sweater at the border.)

Bolivia to Require US Visitors to Get Visas (January 4, 2007)

Bolivian Government Announces New Visa Rules for US Visitors (April 1, 2007)

New Visa Requirements for U.S. Visitors to Bolivia Take Effect December 1st (September 11, 2007)

Lastly, if you want to know my personal opinion about the wisdom of Bolivia’s new visa rule, suffice it to say I really wanted to use the graphic here to accompany this post, but didn’t.

Jim Shultz


NEW VISA REQUIREMENTS TAKE EFFECT FOR U.S. VISITORS TO BOLIVIA

The U.S. now ranks in the category of most regulated in terms of immigration requirements for the Bolivia Foreign Ministry. While they stuck to their word on the start date, the government unfortunately did not release the details of requirements until mid November, sending many into a tizzy considering the holidays were just around the corner. Here are the basics:

Who Needs a Visa

There are thousands of Bolivians who have family members currently living in the U.S. and with U.S. citizenship who want to come back to Bolivia to visit their families. The government has gotten around this neatly, by clarifying that Bolivians with U.S. citizenship, or U.S. citizens who can show they are the children of Bolivians via a birth certificate or other documentation, can pass freely without a visa. However, if you are a U.S. citizen without such a Bolivian bloodline or connection, you do now need a visa to enter Bolivia.

Where can you get a Visa

Officially, and fortunately, you have two options. You can either apply for a visa from one of the Bolivian Consulates in the U.S., or you can get one upon arriving at the airport in La Paz or Santa Cruz, if you have all the documentation required. The Bolivian Embassy in the US has posted a list of all the specific requirements and other information here.

What Do You Need to Get a Visa

Here is the official list, according to the Bolivian Embassy in Washington:

** A completed two-page form
** A passport with at least six months left before its expiration
** A copy of credit card or bank statement (to show fiscal solvency)
** A yellow fever vaccine certificate
** A roundtrip itinerary in and out of Bolivia
** An invitation from a Bolivian or proof of a hotel reservation
** $100 in cash

What has not been confirmed is whether, in practice, you can do the on-site visa process if you arrive in Bolivia by land.

What the New Tourist Visa gets You

The new visa is good for five years, during which you can enter multiple times, for stints lasting a maximum of 30 days each. You cannot exceed a total of 90 days per calendar year and you cannot come and go more than three times in one calendar year. Unlike in the past, it appears that only in rare cases will visitors be allowed to stay legally over 90 days in any given year. However, informally, the Director of Immigration in Cochabamba has told The Democracy Center that the government will maintain its policy of charging those who overstay their visa a 10 Boliviano-a-day penalty (roughly $1.30 a day).

A few fears have been allayed, mainly on the logistics end. By allowing visitors to get the visa upon arrival, the bureaucratic mess is somewhat averted, and the visa becomes more of a tax on Americans than anything else. The requirements are not as “over the top” as predicted earlier (originally U.S. citizens were going to be required to produce a police certificate confirming that they had no criminal records).

Here’s a tip regarding the yellow fever vaccination requirement: If you have not had the vaccination, consider holding off on getting it (in the U.S. the shot typically costs $120). For the visa requirements, you have an option to sign an affidavit saying you have chosen not to take the vaccination and promise not to take legal action against Bolivia if you get the disease. The shot is really needless here unless you are traveling into some of the deeper jungle regions of Bolivia and you can get it here, if needed, for under $10.

If You Want to Stay Longer than 90 days in a Given Year

You can consider seeking a one-year temporary visa. The requirements for this are a bit different, namely you must have a Bolivian institution—educational or a work place—that formally invites you to the country and vouches for your status as a student or worker. It’s more expensive than the tourist visa, but gives you the flexibility to come and go as you please within a one-year period. According to documents we got from the immigration office here, the first step-- to get a visa de objeto determinado (specific purpose)-- costs just over $100. This visa gives you 30-days to fulfill the requirements for the one-year visa (Interpol check, police report saying that you are not a criminal and a blood test to prove your healthy, among a few other things), which costs another $134.

The days of fast entry into Bolivia for U.S. citizens may be gone, but the chance to visit Bolivia is not. We do ask any readers who have first-hand experience with entry by land or air since December 1 to let us know how the process went. Those experiences can be posted as a comment to this Blog. That way we can help keep students, teachers, backpackers, academics, friends, parents and businesspeople and others informed about their next trip to this amazing country, Bolivia.

Written by Melissa Draper