Migrating from Colombia to Australia: documents, apostille & translation
General information about the Colombian documents and procedures that commonly come up in an Australian migration process — with links to the official sources.
This page gathers general information; it doesn't assess your case or replace the official sources. Every situation is different and the rules change — here's the overview and where to go to verify it.
Police certificate
Australia's character check (Department of Home Affairs) generally asks for a police certificate from each country where a person has lived 12 months or more (cumulatively) in the last 10 years, since the age of 16.
For Colombia, the Australian Embassy in Bogotá describes two routes by status. Colombian citizens obtain a “Certificado de Antecedentes Judiciales”, requested online through the Cancillería portal (from abroad, also at the nearest Colombian consulate). Non-citizens who lived in Colombia obtain a “Constancia de Antecedentes”, issued by the National Police (Policía Nacional) and requested by email directly to the police.
The issuer is the Colombian National Police (judicial-records function); citizen requests are routed through the Cancillería portal or consulates. The police email changes and is protected on the official page: take it directly from the source.
Colombia is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. The competent authority that apostilles Colombian public documents is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cancillería), through its apostille and legalisation area; the process is online and the Cancillería only apostilles documents issued by Colombian authorities.
Important: an apostille is not a requirement for lodging an Australian visa application. For the Department of Home Affairs, the usual requirement is a colour scan of the original document and its English translation (see below) — not an apostille. We include the apostille as general information on how Colombian documents are validated for official cross-border use.
The Department of Home Affairs asks for an English translation of any document that isn't in English. The rule depends on where the translation is done.
If the translation is done in Australia, a NAATI-accredited translator does it (the national accreditation authority for translators and interpreters). If it's done outside Australia, the translator doesn't need NAATI accreditation, but states their full name, address, phone, and qualifications or experience, in English.
The Australian Embassy in Bogotá adds that, outside Australia, official documents (birth, marriage or divorce certificates, identity document, police and military-service certificates) are translated by a traductor público (sworn translator); other documents accept a faithful translation; internet or machine translations are not accepted.
The Australian Embassy is in Bogotá (Av. Carrera 9 No. 115-06, oficina 2003). Visa applications are lodged online via ImmiAccount, not at the embassy.
For those in Colombia, biometrics are collected by the Department of Home Affairs through the Biometric Collection Centres (ABCC) operated by VFS Global, with locations in Bogotá (Carrera 11A No 98-50, Edificio Punto 99, oficina 202), Medellín (Calle 10 # 32-115, Local 117, Vizcaya Centro de Negocios) and Cali (Calle 6N #1N-42, oficina 303, Torre Centenario).
The usual process: the person receives a letter requesting biometrics and then books an appointment with VFS. Locations and hours can change — check the current information at the official source.