A friend of mine was here from Sweden a few months arriving at PUJ. He did not have the form and when they swiped his passport they made him ago away and come back with the form filled out. A real hassle as I was waiting. Fortunately he got a worker to help him fill it out and I was helping on the phone. Fill it out, takes 5 minutes..............
- Thread starter Lucas61
- Start date
COLOMBIA International Flight: Mandatory E-Registration = FAIL
Again, which form are you talking about? This thread was never about the D.R. form.
Of course. I apologize. I traveled to Colombia twice while I lived in the DR. I recommend it and Dominicans don’t need a visa. At least they didn’t used to.
I am going to Colombia in early September. I wasn't going to do the form until nearer the date but given the OP's experience I decided to do it now. I had a similar experience to his. I could not fill in some of the fields, but carried on regardless, doing what I could, I then got a page saying that my pre-registration had been successfully generated and that an email had been sent to me. I checked the email and the document had my wrong date of birth and flight. I'll try again nearer the date of travel but if I don't get any more success I will go with this document and hope for the best. Presumably, staff at the airport must be used to these problems but I look forward to hearing how Lucas61 gets on.
I watched the following video on Youtube about completing the Colombian MIG form. The first thing he says is that you should use Google Chrome when completing the form. Maybe this is why some people have problems. It also says that it should be completed within 72 days of arrival/departure.
While I am at it, a couple of posts later I mentioned that customs are likely to ask the phone number of the tourists Airbnb. That got called into question about being like something Cuba would do. Pretty ironic coming from someone who doesn't seem to mind being fingerprinted when entering the DR.
Hello All,
This is an update. The one month in Medellin was wonderful and we will return next year to Cartagena. However, we had big problems at Las Americas and almost missed our flight. It was a disaster. The first problem was that the formulario required by Colombian immigration was impossible to complete. The problem came with a question somethning like ?Cual es la ciudad donde vienes? It's a drop-down menu from which you select your city of origin. However, the menu was vacant of data, so a selection was not possible. Neither was sit permissible to type in your city. Therefore, it was impossible to proceed with the application.
Our flight left via COPA early in the morning and so we arrived at the airport the night before. The COPA desk was closed until 5:30 in the morning, so we couldn't get help there. We then proceeded to the generic information desk. The employees there were very helpful. However, they also failed to fill out the applications, one for each of us. We then went to Wingo which had boarding in progress to Colombia. There we engaged an employee who took us under his wing (!) and spent half an hour assisting us. He managed to fill out two applications and email them to us. He was typing so fast and furiously that I was never able to figure out how he managed success where we and other airport employees failed. Amazingly, when we went to get our boarding passes in the morning, we were not even allowed to enter the boarding pass line without showing these forms! And then we were asked again when we arrived at the desk. It appears that if you do not have these forms filled out, you will not fly, and that you will lose your ticket and your money. This is a big GOTCHA. And what's dumbfounding is that this Colombian form has almost no information on it, only name, DOB, passport number, about 5 items, the kind of information that is already available, say, on your passport. SOLUTION: Next time we will fly during the day when we get help directly from the airlines with hours of time before boarding. We might also investigate Wingo, since they have direct flights, and because that employee was so helpful to us.
The second problem, a minor but disturbing one, was that immigration was on my Dominican wife like "white on rice," as if she had committed a crime. Her passport was not acceptable. Officials took her into a back room and demanded to see her CEDULA or she could not fly. What the hell? Before we left, she asked if she should bring her CEDULA and I told her it was not necessary but better to bring it. Was the problem that she is dark and they thought she was Haitian? This was disturbing.
The third problem was that she was not allowed to pass immigration unless she could demonstrate paid accommodations. I explained that the hotels we had planned for our itinerary were budget hotels that did not permit advance registration. "You will not board without a paid hotel!" I scambled on my smartphone and could only find expensive venues, so I grabbed one for $115.00 per night and paid for one night. Then I was told we had to pay for 30 days. I argued about that and the immigration agent let us go. What a mess. Both with problem one and problem three we almost had our trip cancelled. SOLU
TION: It turns out that in Guatape, we stayed at Lakeview Hostel, sharing a dorm room. It was a wonderful experience and very comfortable and cost only about $10.00 USD per person. If you go to hostelworld.com you can find at least 30 hostels in Cartagena with very low prices. You can register and pay a 10% deposit for your entire stay and pay very little. We will do this in advance of our next trip. So we are expecting to limit obstacles to the Colombian formulario here. By the way, we also couldn't fill it out when we returned but it was never asked for in Colombia. Further, we did fill out the e-forms for the DR but they were not asked for either. A member here said they had no problem with the formulario. I don't know how that could be if it failed for me here, in Colombia, with employees at the airport, regardless of which OS or platform I used . . .
This is an update. The one month in Medellin was wonderful and we will return next year to Cartagena. However, we had big problems at Las Americas and almost missed our flight. It was a disaster. The first problem was that the formulario required by Colombian immigration was impossible to complete. The problem came with a question somethning like ?Cual es la ciudad donde vienes? It's a drop-down menu from which you select your city of origin. However, the menu was vacant of data, so a selection was not possible. Neither was sit permissible to type in your city. Therefore, it was impossible to proceed with the application.
Our flight left via COPA early in the morning and so we arrived at the airport the night before. The COPA desk was closed until 5:30 in the morning, so we couldn't get help there. We then proceeded to the generic information desk. The employees there were very helpful. However, they also failed to fill out the applications, one for each of us. We then went to Wingo which had boarding in progress to Colombia. There we engaged an employee who took us under his wing (!) and spent half an hour assisting us. He managed to fill out two applications and email them to us. He was typing so fast and furiously that I was never able to figure out how he managed success where we and other airport employees failed. Amazingly, when we went to get our boarding passes in the morning, we were not even allowed to enter the boarding pass line without showing these forms! And then we were asked again when we arrived at the desk. It appears that if you do not have these forms filled out, you will not fly, and that you will lose your ticket and your money. This is a big GOTCHA. And what's dumbfounding is that this Colombian form has almost no information on it, only name, DOB, passport number, about 5 items, the kind of information that is already available, say, on your passport. SOLUTION: Next time we will fly during the day when we get help directly from the airlines with hours of time before boarding. We might also investigate Wingo, since they have direct flights, and because that employee was so helpful to us.
The second problem, a minor but disturbing one, was that immigration was on my Dominican wife like "white on rice," as if she had committed a crime. Her passport was not acceptable. Officials took her into a back room and demanded to see her CEDULA or she could not fly. What the hell? Before we left, she asked if she should bring her CEDULA and I told her it was not necessary but better to bring it. Was the problem that she is dark and they thought she was Haitian? This was disturbing.
The third problem was that she was not allowed to pass immigration unless she could demonstrate paid accommodations. I explained that the hotels we had planned for our itinerary were budget hotels that did not permit advance registration. "You will not board without a paid hotel!" I scambled on my smartphone and could only find expensive venues, so I grabbed one for $115.00 per night and paid for one night. Then I was told we had to pay for 30 days. I argued about that and the immigration agent let us go. What a mess. Both with problem one and problem three we almost had our trip cancelled. SOLU
TION: It turns out that in Guatape, we stayed at Lakeview Hostel, sharing a dorm room. It was a wonderful experience and very comfortable and cost only about $10.00 USD per person. If you go to hostelworld.com you can find at least 30 hostels in Cartagena with very low prices. You can register and pay a 10% deposit for your entire stay and pay very little. We will do this in advance of our next trip. So we are expecting to limit obstacles to the Colombian formulario here. By the way, we also couldn't fill it out when we returned but it was never asked for in Colombia. Further, we did fill out the e-forms for the DR but they were not asked for either. A member here said they had no problem with the formulario. I don't know how that could be if it failed for me here, in Colombia, with employees at the airport, regardless of which OS or platform I used . . .
Thanks for the update, Lucas61
I had a completely different experience when I went to Colombia a couple of weeks ago. I went with Arajet to Cartagena. I had completed the Check-Mig form to the best of my ability despite the online problems and at check-in they asked if I had done it and I showed them the paper printout of the email I had received, confirming that it had been completed. No problem. I was not asked about paid-for accommodation, which was just as well because it was not paid in advance (not a possibility for the hotels I had booked on Booking.com). Coming back, some official asked me while I was in line for check-in if I had done the form and this time I showed him the email on my phone. No problem.
I have a feeling that Lucas61's above problems may have been caused because he was travelling with a Dominican woman whereas I was an English man alone. Colombia is one of the few countries that allows Dominicans to enter without a visa, and they may be worried that the real reason for travel may be to leave the DR permanently. That worries me, because I have promised the Dominican family I support, a woman (to whom I am not married) and two children, to take them all to Colombia in two years time.
I had a completely different experience when I went to Colombia a couple of weeks ago. I went with Arajet to Cartagena. I had completed the Check-Mig form to the best of my ability despite the online problems and at check-in they asked if I had done it and I showed them the paper printout of the email I had received, confirming that it had been completed. No problem. I was not asked about paid-for accommodation, which was just as well because it was not paid in advance (not a possibility for the hotels I had booked on Booking.com). Coming back, some official asked me while I was in line for check-in if I had done the form and this time I showed him the email on my phone. No problem.
I have a feeling that Lucas61's above problems may have been caused because he was travelling with a Dominican woman whereas I was an English man alone. Colombia is one of the few countries that allows Dominicans to enter without a visa, and they may be worried that the real reason for travel may be to leave the DR permanently. That worries me, because I have promised the Dominican family I support, a woman (to whom I am not married) and two children, to take them all to Colombia in two years time.
We travelled last year to Colombia and went through an agency. They did all the e-forms for both the DR and Colombia with information we provided. 20 of us, all Dominicans; all but one flying on Dominican passports. All hotels booked for the whole trip. No issues for anyone coming or going.
Sir, that is a really good picture!We travelled last year to Colombia and went through an agency. They did all the e-forms for both the DR and Colombia with information we provided. 20 of us, all Dominicans; all but one flying on Dominican passports. All hotels booked for the whole trip. No issues for anyone coming or going.