Thinking of moving to Medellin

Hello sydeshwbob.

Welcome to Expat.com!

Hope you'll be helped by other members soon.

Thank you,
Aurélie

The rent you suggest is possible if you buy your own furniture and stay out of Poblado (where the rents are the highest). I live near Estadio, which is nice but areas such as Laureles and Envigado are worth checking out. You'll generally need to pay several months rent in advance unless you can find an owner who will accept less. Finding an agency that will work with you is not so easy and you'll need to ask around. Good luck.

Hello,
I'm Brian a Canadian guy, from Toronto, Canada. I have been to Medellin 5 times in the last 2.5 years and lived there for about 16 weeks in total. It's the perfect city for living and I mean perfect ! It has literally everything you would ever want in a city !  Perfect climate, warm and sunny almost every day, 23-32C all year round. Warm, friendly, outgoing, educated people. Laid back atmosphere ! Modern, vibrant, dynamic, exciting city. Great shopping, great restaurants, fantatsic nightlife,the most ebautiful women in all of South America and I think in the entire world - they all look like super-models....lol. Have a look at the suburb of Sabaneta on the outskirts. It's an upper middle-class residential suburb of Medellin with a small population of about 40,000. but it's still close to the city, about 20-25 minute taxi drive away, and they also have a new metro station and regular buses runing to Medellin. The rents in Sabaneta are a lot cheaper than the area of El Poblado which is the wealthiest area of the city. You can find great unfurnished 1-bedroom apartments in Sabaneta for around US $ 350-500 per month. THos esame apartments in El Poblado would run you US $ 1,000-$ 1,500 per month. It is really difficult to open up a bank account there in Medelllin. You will need your passport of course, and your residency visa (pension visa, investors visa, student visa), and written proof of residency, and a cedula de extranjero ( which is a foreigner's identification card )which can take 3-6 months to obtain but they give you a temporary paper one when you apply so you can sue that to open up a bank account. Colpatria is a small Colombian bank partially owned (51%) by the Canaian Bank of Nova Scotia. The biggest Colombian bank and probably the best is called Bancolombia and they have branches literally everywhere all over Medellin.
Brian
Toronto, Canada

Hello to all!

I read the post and wanted to clarify a couple of things posted by other members. First of all, after being in Colombia for nearly 2 and a half years today I finally opened up my bank account with Bancolombia. They will not accept a contraseña or the paper one mentioned. It has to be a passport, Colombian cedula extranjero, and documentation as to where your funds come from.

Your best bet for an apartment is to find a landlord who is willing to rent directly which is very possible. As a member mentioned, you may want to stay away from Poblado but of course itŽs up to you. Even better, rent a room from a Colombian family. It would be cheaper, and this way you can learn more about your new surroundings. This too is easy to accomplish.

I believe I have written you before on the visa subject but allow me to give you the latest: Your proof of pension authenticated by the Embassy along with your passport and an attorney is the easiest and fastest way to get a pensionado visa. (a 1 year visa) School enrollment will take time and immigration will only give you 90 days thereafter you will have to pay 150,000.00 COP per month until youŽve reached the 180 day tourist visa allowance. Should you not be able to accomplish this within the 180 days y will need too country. (no exceptions)

Although I am married to a Colombian I was advised not to go the route as married as immigration is very strict with foriegners based on events of last year involving abuse. It is not guranteed that they will even approve you for a visa as a married man. You would need to go to the Minesterio in Bogotá to be interviewed along with your wife and from what I gather, it is more like an interrogation. We can thank a couple of our countrymen for ruining things for the rest.

Once you recieve your visa, you have 15 days to submit docummentation for a cedula. Cedulas now take 15 days from the date of submission. You will need to submit a certified document showing your blood type, an application form, photos and 150,000.00 COP. The blood certification can be done here locally.

All the information I have provided is the latest as of April 23d 2013. Good luck! However, if you decide on Envigado, I would be more than happy to assist you with finding a room. And no, I am not an agent or affiliated with an agency.