Visas by Expats for Expats

James and his team were exceptional. Going through the visa process is really confusing because you are dealing with the language barrier, a cultural barrier, and procedures you never heard of. James being a native English speaker was a big difference maker. Valeria also deserves a lot of credit because she was keeping me posted on where I was with the process. Highly recommend if you're expat and want to get your visa done by someone who isn't going to sell you BS.

Find somewhere else. This dude James is an absolute train wreck. Will give you a price and keeps charging. All the good lawyers leave. You will never hear from him again after the first consultation. He just pawns everything off to his staff.

Excellent Service in every step to obtein my Colombian Visa. Gerlys helped me and answered all my questions in every moment to get my visa in a fast way. Thanks!!!

Thank you, Visas by James! I cannot begin to say enough good and positive things about you and your law firm, and especially about Lorena who took care of all of our needs for a United States Passport Renewal in Colombia. She is the most excellent, professional, polite and patient legal assistant that we have ever worked with. She answered every one of our questions and concerns with so much patience and care, it was like she was handling her own case. Her follow up was perfect and always on time. The passport was delivered from Bogota sooner than we expected, and we could not be more pleased. Lorena walked us through the process step by step, and she did not overlook a single detail. My Spanish is not very good but her English is perfect, and so is her knowledge and communication skills. Lorena completely gained our complete trust and 100% confidence. I usually don't like to give reviews, but in this case Lorena was so excellent that I had to leave this review...and she deserves every bit of it. We give the highest recommendations to Visas by James for any of your legal needs. We are grateful and fortunate for having found your law firm, and it was through an internet search without any recommendations from anyone. It is not easy to find reliable and honest people or companies. I hope that anyone reading this will take it as a personal recommendation and trust that you have come to the right place. Thank you again Lorena and Visas by James!

The team at Visa by James did an exceptional job helping my then girlfriend and now wife do a legal marriage. The complexity of documents required by Colombia were overwhelming (notarized copies of birth certificate <90 days old, getting notarized documents authenticated in my own country, having everything translated, keeping track of days in Colombia, and then being on standby waiting to finally get the appointment time at the notary). For myself, I am quite good at navigating these complex bureaucratic systems, but I would have been lost without this team and especially Lorena who was our main point of contact. There were several “mini emergencies”: one where I was in Canada getting what I thought were the right documents notarized but it was not the correct authentication needed. Fortunately we caught the error with enough time to get the documents to the correct Canadians services who mailed it completed. I had to leave that same day to return to Colombia so I was stressed but Lorena was attentive (as she has been throughout this entire process), patient, and knowledgeable. The teams expertise in helping navigate the intricacies of legal marriage in Colombia made it a success and in a reasonable amount of time. We started the legal marriage process in earnest March 13th and were married by April 17th. In my opinion, it was great value for the money. Moreover, their assistance in obtaining my Colombian visa was even better. It was smooth, they took care of almost everything, and by May 31st they had it. Again, our main manager was Lorena and she made the process very smooth. Undoubtedly I would have made mistakes with migration during this process. My beautiful wife and I are happy to begin the next chapter of our adventures and we could not be more thankful to the team. If it’s not obvious already, I highly recommend their services.

Visas by James will only produce a "Visa Approval" not a "Usable Visa" and here is why that is important for you to understand the difference. Once your Visa Application is approved you only have 15 days to apply online for a Cedula or Colombian ID. Without the the Cedula you approval becomes null and void. The appointment to scheduled the Cedula can only be done online and the only time you have a chance to schedule that and yes I said "you" is on a Sunday at 5:pm and there is only a 10 minute window of opportunity to do this. If you apply in Medellin you will have two Sundays at best once your application is approved to complete this on your own. Visas by James will not proved this service as they know full well the rate of success is extremely low. When I refused to pay the final balance for an incomplete Visa service this is how they described booking the crucial appointment. "Regarding the appointment of the Cedula, as I explained to you our costumers must make the appointment of the Cedula, because in Medellin the appointments last available for scheduling 10 minutes that is why it is impossible to make these appointments for all customers". That is a direct quote from Yaira who is a new hire since James had his entire team walk out on him in the middle of my Visa process a couple of months ago. In short I wasted thousands of dollars and months of my time. Two months ago I attempted to use this online system as designated to extend my tourist visa. First off the website is in Spanish and there is no options to translate it and every attempt I made to schedule an appointment in Medellin was met with an immediate "error" message I tried as many times as I could during that 10 minute window and had zero luck even getting to the Medellin appointment page to come up. Yaira told me on the phone you have to start 10 minutes before the 5pm start time but still admitted it not easy to do. James knows this but will actively cover this up to any potential client as he knows it would be a deal killer. The whole process was a nightmare. James will blame that on his team quitting but at the end of the day James was not capable of stepping up and making sure his existing clients where being taken care of nor did he seem to care. Without my constant diligence and repeated emails that went unanswered for the most part pestering them to make sure they had everything they needed from me my visa would NOT have been submitted on time. I don't want to waste your time rambling but here are a few warning signs. After 20 plus years in being the "Expat Attorney" James has no official business contract or agreement if you contract his services you get an poorly drawn up estimate that is ambiguous at best in defining what he does or does not do. The reasons why are now obvious to me now. As mentioned James doesn't not deliver a usable Visa only an approval, I will let you decide it that is deceptive or not. They also use a combination of Whatapp and several different email address to contact you. I asked them to stop using Whatsapp to communicate but the request was ignored. I was never given my payment history or anything else I request via email even though they said they would. After I figured out the Cedula needed to turn your Visa approval and into a Usable Visa was basically pure luck at best to achieve I attempted to clarify this with James with numerous emails over a two month period along with many phone call attempts that all went unanswered. I have screenshots of my emails that were never replied to by James or the newly hired staff that had no clue what was going on anyway. James will state I refused to pay for his services in full and that's a correct statement. When you lie and mislead people about your services ultimately costing them lost time and thousands of dollars you're not entitle to be paid in full James. My advice use a Bogota based attorney to do business with and make sure they will see the process through to the end. Medellin is a waste of time for this process and obviously I would not recommend Visas by James.

I recently worked with Visa by James Medellin and had an excellent experience. Once I was connected with Isabela, I felt confident I was on the right path to obtaining my Visa. She was incredibly attentive and went the extra mile to ensure I had full support throughout the process. Thanks to her help, I look forward to working with the office for my future business and real estate needs in Colombia. Highly recommend!

I have used Visas by James for 2 Visas and 1 Passport renewal . Their performance has been excellent and their communication quick and to the point as they have bilingual personal. The current person assisting me Is Lorena and she has been excellent in communicating and following thru with the entire process. I can Highly recommend Visas by James as well as Lorena.