Immigration and Customs Ecuador and Colombia | Customs and Immigration

Colombia -> Ecuador

We might have gotten lucky, as we didn't need to show anything of a criminal record or "tourist list". Officially if you can not provide any of the two, they will give you max. 10 days in Ecuador. However, we had not, said we didn't know about any of the two and we had planned lots of activities in Ecuador and plan to head to Peru afterwards within 15 days. She smiled and gave us the full 90 days.

1. Arrive at the border which is well into Ecuador country, all aduanas and immigration offices are within the same building. Stamp out of Colombia at Immigration.

2. Straight across is the Immigration for Ecuador, get your stamp.

3. Cancel Colombia TIP at Aduana, it's in the building but in the back.

4. Get TIP for Ecuador, provide copies of passport, license, car title, car itself with plates visible and VIN.

5. Done!

To be sure to get the 90 days for Ecuador, contact Hans (German) a week before you cross. He will get you on the tourist list, no criminal records or whatever needed. Or you do what we did and get lucky, haha.
Tel: +593 93 937 1170

No healthform needed, no COVID test.

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Ecuador to Colombia:
Strongly recommend doing the DIAN application online the night before. It made this one of the quickest crossings we’ve done in South America. We exited Ecuador and entered Colombia in a matter of minutes. The staff here were also very nice.

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You no longer need to fill out the Solicitud form to enter Colombia by land or sea. Only required if you're flying in or out. Colombia DIAN office is really easy to get your TIP as long as you fill out the information on the DIAN website PRIOR to arrival. We didn't do that and it took forever because internet is extremely SLOW there and you have to pay for it ($1/hr or rent a computer for $7) By forever I mean about an hour. After we got the form submitted, we walked in to the DIAN office and were out in less than 5 minutes with TIP in hand. The ladies in the little shop sell SOAT for Colombia, but at 2x the actual cost. You can go into Hormiga and get the normal rate and bypass this altogether. Be advised, on holiday weekends the SOAT office does not issue policies to foreign vehicles and you may be stuck at the border until the holiday passes... or until following Monday.

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To speed up TIP process for vehicles entering Colombia preload the following documents on the website bellow:
-Drivers License
-Passport
-Title and/or registration of the vehicle
-Picture of the VIN number
-Picture of the plate

https://www.dian.gov.co/Viajeros-y-Servicios-aduaneros/Paginas/Importacion-temporal-de-medios-de-transporte-de-turistas.aspx

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very calm border, almost no one here, quite fast, but be aware of luch time (12:30) we had to wait to do Colombia's aduana as the guy came back around 2pm
Very importante❗️you can pre fill the form before get here in the website: https://www.dian.gov.co/ the instruction I added as photo here. If not, you can ask for the wifi password in colombias aduana. We didn't pay anything here, did all by ourselves, quite easily :)

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Crossed from Colombia to Equador at 5pm. Bit of a gamble as the border closes at 6pm, but it paid off. No other traffic there and everyone (especially the ladies from the little copy shop) was super helpful to get me across so they could go home on time.

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Ecuador > Columbia
Very smooth border! Everything in 1 building. We let fill out the form for aduana in the Café/Store for 5$. total process took us about 1,5 hours. very friendly officers.

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Ecuador to Colombia:
Easy stamp out and in, no need for CheckMig anymore, agents are very friendly.
For the car: we registered at the website and uploaded pdf photo of passport, entry stamp page, car ownership document, the vin number and a driving license.
Everything took about 1 hour with filling up the form online. There is an ok Claro 3G just enough to fill it at the entrance of the building.

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Ecuador into Colombia with UK registered motorcycle - Ecuador migration and aduana took 5 min. Colombia migration about 2mins, they did not ask for any ‘Check Mig’ registration.

Super friendly and easy processing. Colombia Aduana has about a 2hr lunch (12-2pm) and they lock the office doors - register your Motorcycle details and upload your documents/photos (PDF) of VIN, plate, engine number etc on the DIAN website (see photos) before arriving or get the ladies in the adjacent cafe/store to do it for you ($5) in about 15mins. Everyone still in the same building. Very easy and quick crossing.

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Went across by foot, very easy with both desks next to each other. Friendly people working there. The ‘Check Mig’ form was impossible to fill out online because the website kept crashing on every browser I tried and wouldn’t load the questions, but I didn’t need it in the end.

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Colombia to Ecuador. Easiest crossing yet. One and a half hours.

Super straight-forward. Stamp out, cancel TIP, stamp in, get new TIP.

Notes: if you renewed your Colombia visa, then make sure you have the PDF you were emailed. It can be digital. We only had Eric’s and it slowed us down. They were finally able to find all three of us in the system, but it took a while because the internet was lagging.

Getting Ecuador TIP: we needed photocopies of driver’s license and title. They also need a photocopy of the Ecuador passport stamp you just got, so you can get that done at the little tienda on the other side of the glass wall. They’ll photocopy your passport face page on the same piece of paper. Then you can go outside with the person from the tienda. They will take photos of your vehicle’s license plate and VIN number, and make copies. They might ask for your motor humber. Eric said something about new vehicles not having one, and they didn’t care.

Other than that, totally fast and logical. Yay.

We also exchanged our money at the tienda.

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rapide, facile, simple. sortie de la Colombie et entrée en Équateur au même endroit. pour un véhicule faite vos photocopies passeport avec le tampon d'entrée, permis de conduire, carte grise du véhicule, photos avant et arrière du véhicule avec plaque d'immatriculation, numéro de chassis et numéro de moteur.

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4ever2wherever are spot on in regard to the dog crossing. Dixie was not checked out of Colombia or into Ecuador. The Ecuador tip guy came to the car to take pics, saw Dixie and smiled at her. That was it.

Easy crossing in 1:45 mins. Arrived around 1:30pm.

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Colombia to Ecuador
Smooth crossing. What we love about this border is that everything is under 1 roof! You’re going desk to desk instead of building to building. No health checks or forms necessary (I’ve read they’ve dropped the Covid restrictions). So it was:
1. Cancel Colombian TIP at Colombian Aduana
2. Get exit stamp from Colombian migración
3. Get entry stamp at Ecuador migración
4. Go to Ecuador Aduana for TIP

Then you’re good to go. (1 hour 30 mins)
Everyone super friendly and relaxed and it was ‘Men’s day’ so we even got balloons and lollipops! Bonus!

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what the others have said about pets was true for me. i did all the paperwork. delayed me by 3 hours at the border crossing and the Ecuadorian side didn't even ask. total waste of time and money.

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Colombia to Ecuador.
We were extremely unlucky today... Our border crossing took 6 (!) hours. The all-in-one aduana building is 3km past the bridge.
1) Cancelation of the Colombian tip was done in 2 minutes.
2) Exit stamp for Colombia 2 minutes too. Didn't need a CheckMig to exit.
3) Health check to enter Ecuador done in 5 minutes. Provide your proof of vaccination. Didn't need the Formulario Salud Viajero (which we did fill out online).
4) Entry stamp Ecuador took another 5 minutes.
5) The misery started then... Lots of trucks are using this border crossing because of the landslide on the Panamericana. And maybe even more this week due to planned protests. Anyway, they were not equipped for the number of trucks at the Ecuadorian Aduana. Also, their systems continuously failed because of poor internet and uploading a photo took 30 minutes. AND the two aduana guys working today were not digitally savvy. THIS is what accumulated to 5 hours!

If it's still this busy by the time you cross, make sure you know your place in line at the Ecuadorian Aduana. Fixers for the trucks try to skip the line..

DOGS/Pets
We are people who always do everything by the rules when crossing a border to avoid trouble. I would highly advice AGAINST following the rules for pets. The problem is to exit Colombia. Nobody cares on the Ecuadorian side. The Ecuadorian aduana guys did a quick inspection of the vehicle (literally opened the door, that's it), saw our dog and didn't say anything. Even the Colombian ICA lady said it's better to just drive instead of going through the process.

We had lots of time to kill. This is the official process:
In Colombia they have introduced an online process. It's near to impossible to arrange anything at the border, even if you have all the paperwork (vaccines, health certificate). You need an external (non-ICA) vet to make a health certificate and fill out something called SISPAP online. Not all vets can do this, ask your vet if they have access. With this SISPAP document which is then emailed to you after you pay 60k Colombian pesos, you can go to ICA at the border and get your pet exported officially. You cannot arrange this at the border without the SISPAP. So if you came to the border without the SISPAP paperwork don't even bother trying. Just drive to Ecuador as nobody checks. Maybe in a couple of years this will be a smooth proces.

BTW if you cross from Ecuador to Colombia be sure to register your pet if you are planning to fly out (Panama or home or wherever). You need an ICA document. I don't know the exact process for the land border as we flew in from Panama. Please update the description if you know!

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From Ecuador to Colombia.
It took us 3 hours in total. Exit stamps at Ecuador migracion and Ecuador Aduana for the tip was fast. The line for Colombia migracion was long. Maybe it's because of the detour in Colombia more people are taking this border crossing. The Aduana of Colombia was the longest step. We didn't fill in the form upfront. We went to the fotocopia shop. For $5 the lady fills in the form for you. You indeed need internet to receive a password as a verification. Our Claro sim had sometimes some signal. So we were able to receive it without paying for the WiFi. You can fill in the form yourselves. See the photo's for the steps. We didn't have an accurate revision tecnica, but that wasn't a problem.
Overall, it was an easy crossing in our opinion, but we were glad that we were early, because around 12 they went for a lunch break and we were the last ones they helped at the Colombian Aduana.

Good luck!

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So this is option b to pass from ecuador to colombia or visceverse since Panamerican route in Pasto is now closed due to a huge Landslide. For ya it was 5 hours crossing COL-ECU. Migration was slow but easy (bring your printed international vaccine) they didnt ask for check mig or “formulario del viajero”. Aduana in Ecuador was so burocratic, you need fotocopies of: license, passport, ID, photos of your car, motor and chasis photo number, soat, tecnomechanic (If your car is colombian). You can photocopy al of these in a specific format in a store that is inside of aduanas. You will need wifi (which you can buy it in the same store) to receive a code that aduana will send to you.

Pass early, and I would recommend to drive directly to Mocoa if you are heading towards Colombia (the safest place after the Border).

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As franci said, the procedure is easy. But I recommend everyone to do the online forms in advance, because the internet connection there is terrible. There is a fotocooy shop with Wi-Fi 1$/h, but it got disconnected many times and every time I had to start my online form again.

For the aduana online form you need to put the number of days permitted by migration and online upload of a foto of the stamp on your passport.

Just put a number you assume (like 90) and upload only your license of the car and passport page of your ID ahead. No one cares eventually and you save hours of time.

You need to upload pictures in PDF. You can use Google drive for the conversion.

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Easy and smooth. Like normal a lot of paperwork, copies for TIP but for the rest no problems. Very friendly. Fill in your check-Mig before online as there is no internet (unless you buy it from the copy lady, $1 for 30 min)
It was on a rainy Sunday I must say….

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Ecuador x Comlombia
1 - web check in migration

https://apps.migracioncolombia.gov.co/pre-registro/public/preregistro.jsf
2 - Motorhome in pictures.

complicated to do the procedure, you can do it before and put 90 days of permission, but if your deadline is shorter, you will have to do it again at the border.

PDF files only, take pictures and use an app.

3 - no paper for dog, but she stay only in de car (with my husband, of course).

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Entering ecuador. There’s a lady with a photocopy machine here now. They ask for photos of your plates, vin and engine number which she prints for you. You can pay in dollars or pesos. There’s are a little health office where they fill in a form and need to see your Covid vaccine certificate. Everything is in the same building but that last step of getting the Equador TIP is painful.

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Colombia to Ecuador: process as described below. We arrived 12.30 and had to wait until 13.15 for them to return from lunch. Everyone friendly.

Last step (aduana Ecuador) was a little bit tedious. 3 guys behind counter, only one working. 1 guy in front of us took quite long and they couldn’t resolve his issue with the papers apparently. Then it was our turn. Guy told us we need copies from passport stamps which we could not make in the building. Had to drive all the way back to the first town behind the bridge on the Colombian side (3km or so) to finally find a tienda that was able to make copies (I’ll attach a photo here, it didn’t have a name). When we came back to aduana, we had to wait again before being served even though no one was ahead of us. Don’t know if they wanted to mess with us or if they were still trying to resolve the other guys paperwork. After 20 minutes they continued our process, took them overall 1 hour to get everything ready. We then also found out it was indeed possible to make copies in the building (saw other people next to a copier just opposite of aduana later!).

Also note that the bridge of the Colombian side is the only place to exchange pesos to dollars $. Gave us a good exchange rate.

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Crossing from Colombia to Ecuador: very quiet and relaxed. Everything is in the building across the bridge already in Ecuador, so have stuff ready if you have a Colombian SIM card because there's no signal on the other side. NB: If you need internet, ask to the Colombian Aduana, they are super kind and give you their password (nobody else will help unless you tip them).
1. Exit stamp from Colombian immigration. You need to fill out the CheckMig online beforehand.
2. Colombian Aduana to cancel your TIP.
3. Ecuador health check. You fill out a form, they may ask for vaccination card.
4. Ecuador entry stamp.
5. Ecuador Aduana for new TIP. Have copies of everything with you. They will also require a copy of the 2 stamps you just got, if you're lucky the guy will make a copy there for you, if not they will send you back to the Colombian side to make copies. This last step is the most tedious one, but overall the process is quite smooth.
If you arrive at lunchtime be prepared to wait because everyone leaves for about an hour. Good luck! :)

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I am only on foot, so I am unable comment on how the process works for crossing with a vehicle.
What I can say for sure is that the officials are the kindest that I have encountered coming all the way from Mexico! One reason may be that there is very few traffic at the immigration at this border post. However they kindly helped me to fill out a form for the exit of Colombia. I was not aware of that. So better check online previously which form(s) you need to provide. For Ecuador I just needed the passport and Covid stuff.
I also found out the following helpful details:
For Colombia: You can stay up to 180 days per year. They count 01.01. - 31.12. while you will get 90 days initially + maximum 90 days on top if you apply online.
Ecuador: 180 days per person. The same 90 + 90 rule applies, but you have to go to immigration in person as it sounded like. Here they count your 180 days from the individual date of entry.
Enjoy!

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Coming from Central America....super easy! Total time on a rainy Saturday morning: 1 hour.

- no fees (except maybe photocopies)
- foreigners do not need to buy car insurance (SOAT)
- you will need photocopies of your documents: passport, license, exit stamp, car title. These cost 300COP or $0.10 each on site.

STEPS (all in same building):
1. cancel Colombian TIP at Aduana
2. get exit passport stamp from colombia at Immigracion
3. stamp passport into Ecuador at Immigracion (same desk for both countries)
4. get new Ecuador TIP at Aduana

PET OWNERS:
Aduana saw our dog sitting in the truck. He asked if we had done the pet paperwork. We said no. At the end of our interaction he said Buen Viaje and didn't bring up the dog paperwork again. We left. I hope everyone has it this easy!

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Very quiet, 40 min immigration and aduana all done. Very friendly. No Venezuelan people here.
This on Thursday morning at 11.00 h.

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35 minutes for both immigration and aduana. No body at the queue, neither at the restaurant on this Sunday at lunch time! Perfect...

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Llegamos a las 18.05 y cerraba a las 18 hs! Así que dormimos en la entrada, sin problemas. A las 6 abría, así que fuimos los primeros. Muy rápido trámite.

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many Venezuelan migrant, so expect some delay. It took us 3 hour for the stamp so you have to arrive early because the TIP desk for automobile import close 17h30....and in this case toi have to come back the next day......so we sleep in front off the migration office, quiet night, guards, toilet, shower, free wifi.

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Rápido y ágil paso fronterizo. Tiene restaurante y baños. No hay cambistas! Casas de cambio en el centro de Lago Agrio (Ecuador). Del lado colombiano, la ruta es desolada pero tranquila. Sólo hay pequeños trechos en los que hay que transitar muy despacio. El resto está asfaltado.

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super fast and easy crossing. everything on the Ecuadorian side in one building. copy's can be made for 10 cents in the restaurant. no scribe of the license plate needed.

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Ecuador to Colombia:

Fast but painfull$$$ crossing.

No credit card machine to pay for my Canadian tourist visa. Current cost 201k COP 74USD

Dont forget that you need a scribe of your vin plate when applying for Colombian TIP

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Traveling Ecuador to Colombia.
Super easy border crossing. Took us 45min in total, but have a Colombian car so no need for a TIP. Quite a few Venezuelans but lines didn't take too long . Cool to have everything in one building!
Super friendly military checkpoint on Colombian side of the bridge, guy just wanted to chat.
Recommended and a beautiful drive to and from.

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Going from Colombia to Ecuador, the entire border crossing took about 1hr. Getting our Ecuador TIP was the longest process. A few busloads of Venezuelans still there, but the security guy at front door waved us through the line.

Also, lovely drive here from Mocoa, lots of military and police checkpoints, so felt very secure to us. Nice Super Akí supermarket in Lago Agrio (Ecuador side) so you can stock up. Overall excellent crossing.

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About 30 refugees at the entrance, had to wait about 10 minutes, then everything went pretty fast, less than an hour in total. No vaccination required for our daughter 😊

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Took us 3 hours due to the large groups of refugees. We asked the police/aduana in camo outfit (that gives instructions when you arrive) and he let us thru the main door. Security guard will not be willing to help. Waiting does not help.
Feels bad to "skip line" but with pasports we have a different process and were done within 30mins. People in the building are helpfull and the guys for the TIP for Ecuador are really friendly and funny.

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Had a fairly good border crossing back into Ecuador. Quick process as we were at the door right at opening time. There were a lot of Venezuelian refugees here trying to pass the border. Luckily they set up tents, medical stands, comedors, showers and bathrooms for them. They all seemed fairly happy, looking at the situation they were in. They wanted to chat with us and know about our travels.
We asked at the guy at the door who led us to a separate row for "foreigners", not Venezuelians. It took about one hour in total, incl. Dian & Aduana. Only wait was at Colombian immigration.

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We arrived after lunch break at around 2:15pm and were done by 5:15pm. All due to the Ecuadorian immigration. There was a huge line and only 1 attendant who was really slow.

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Easy border!!
[passwords are not allowed unless explicitly permitted by the owner]

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Coming from Colombia (Mocoa) to Ecuador on May 23, 2018. The drive is 4.5 hours from Mocoa. Average speed of 30 MPH. 90% of the road is paved and decent. No 4x4 needed. See iO posting for road conditions and more details regarding the drive.

Whole process took 30 minutes. No queue, no problems. Check out of Colombia = 30 seconds to get exit stamp. Entry stamp and immigration paper for Ecuador = 2 minutes.

Aduana process into Ecuador = 25 minutes. Officer entered all vehicle info into computer, asked for copies of passport w/entry stamp, title and drivers license. He printed TIP, I signed it, he said “Listo!” And we were gone!

Fastest border crossing yet!

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Super easy at 9am today there was no one around, everyone was nice and helped us with all the copies of documents we needed (see posts below for list)

We were told that the border gets most busy around 12/1pm when a lot of the tourist buses arrive.

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Easy process, no queues. The gates are open from 6 am to 6 pm. Colombian aduana works 8-12 and 13-17.

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We arrived around 12.15 leaving Ecuador. First immigration Ecuador was at lunch for an hour. When they returned and we covered immigration, immigration Colombia went to lunch. When they finally returned, Aduana Colombia was closed until 14.00. In essence, do bring lots of patience when you cross here.

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We came here on the bus today, this is where you need to get your exit stamp for Ecuador and entrance stamp for Colombia. The bus did not stop here, took us to the bridge and then we had to get a taxi back to immigration to get stamps.

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DIAN has a sign up closed fir lunch between 12:00 and 14:00.
Got through migration at 12:30. Took the Ecuadorian side 40 min to proces the 8 in line before me. Colombia only 5 minutes.
DIAN indeed on lunch break, do I had mine. They were back before 13:00. They sent me back to migration to get the photo copies mentioned below. Now they were on lunchbreak, no sign saying so. After waiting for my turn, I was told that photocopies should be made in the restaurant. Which you will see walking from migration to DIAN.

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Quick border but closed from 12.00 to 13.00 hours because lunchtime.

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Just want to add that if you overstated your vehicule permit, just dont go to the Colombia DIAN. Ecuador aduana do not check with colombian authorities. This is a sure fact. If you overstayed in Colombia, CROSS AT THIS BORDER.

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Easiest border ever.

Aduana opens at 8AM...got here ready to go at 7am haha. Well. Gotta wait now.

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Very quiet border - yay!

Location:
Both colombia and ecuador in this one building. So if you see leaving colombia (like us) then feel free to drive out of the country and come here to do your papers.

Process:
We did migration first (next to each other at the same desk), and then went around to the aduana and DIAN to do our TIP stuff.

Steps:
Exiting colombia - Got an exit stamp. Handed in TIP (no paperwork required - just hand it over and go)

Entering ecuador - Got an entrance stamp. TIP: We had to get copies of our entry stamp, passport photo page, driver's license and vehicle title, which we were able to get from the little restaurant on site for 1,000COL pesos (could also pay in usd$). Then we had a chat and waited whilst they put us into the computer.

Time:
Migracion - 5 minutes for both
Aduana - 10 seconds to exit colombia, about 30 minutes for ecuador.

NOTE:
If you have been to Ecuador recently (we have, as we are doing a SA loop) many nationalities only get 90 day PER year. We used a lot of our time s few months back, so only got 37 days on entrance this time. They wouldn't give us more time here at the border, when we asked.

Easiest/quickest border in South America? We think so!

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Easiest border crossing ever! Immigration side by side in the front of the building, Aduana side by side in the rear of the same building! Less than 40 mins passports & vehicle. Lots of roadworks, NO TOLLS from San Agustin

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Traveling from Ecuador to Colombia.
Ecuador was straightforward, 10 min. Colombia immigration went smoothly, 5 min. Customs took 45 min. Apart from copies of passports, vehicle ownership documents etc. the office also wanted a copy of an old Zimbabwe visa, "as a souvenir". The VIN was recorded by putting carbon on the plate with the number and using tape to get an imprint.

Despite the signs no money can be changed in the building, but money changing is possible just across the bridge in Colombia. We got money from an ATM in La Dorada.

An insurance was not sold at the border. We had no problem entering Colombia without a valid SOAT. As recommended by the Colombian Customs officer we bought one in Hormiga (took 3.5 hours). COP 188,000 for 2 months.

We saw diesel being sold at the standard price in Ecuador up to the border, but we did not check if there were any limitations for foreigners. We filled up in Coca at the local price.

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