customs passport stamps for venezuela and colombia
 

I am planning to leave my bike in venezuela or colombia for a month while i return home. do either of those countries stamp your passport with a customs stamp when entering at the border that prevents you form leaving the country without the bike. thanks for any info

tim

hola,

in Venezuela they stamp a full page into your passport with the bike details, I asked the custom officer not to do it because I was running out of pages, but he wanted some money for not putting the stamp, so I let him stamp and waste a page.

Leaving Venezuela (I left overland and also by air, of course not at the same time) nobody was intrested to see the stamp. I never got an exit stamp for the bike, not even in Caracas in the airport customs. Should be no problem leaving the country without the bike.

In Colombia they dont stamp your passport at all for the bike. You get a white paper with the bike details, thats it. So you can leave the bike behind, no problem. Only when you return and than leave the country with the bike, it could be a problem, because the white paper is only valid for I think three months.

So, you see, in both countries it is possible for you to leave your bike behind.

But not legal.

enjoy

mika

My bike stayed in Colombia for a month while I left the country - it's perfectly legal and easy to do. There is a bit of paperwork involved, especially if you have to extend the time-limit on the permission for the bike to be in Colombia, which you do at the DIAN & DAS offices in the city where you stash the bike (in my case, Cali). Search the HUBB for more details.

Suerte,
James