Having just flown out of Bogota, I just wanted to give an update to readers on the process for getting the Colombia Resident Exit Tax refunded. This showed on my ticket as USD21.90 with a tax code of “DG”.

After my boarding pass was issued, I asked where I would get this refunded. In my broken Spanish I said “Donde reimbolso impuesto exit residencia?”. That was enough for her to understand me. Even with Avianca, some staff don’t speak too much English.

She checked our passport entry stamps to ensure that we hadn’t stayed longer than the period that would disqualify us from a refund (60 days maybe).

She called up a supervisor who came with a little bag which had money in it. They reprinted our boarding passes and marked them as VOID. On the back, they stamped an acknowledgement for us to sign. They also stamped and noted the refund in our passports against our immigration entry stamp.

Even though we were airline staff travelling on standby with no guarantee we would get on the flight, we got our money back right there and then. I guess they knew we would be leaving the country in the next few days even if we couldn’t get on today.

Once airside, we changed the pesos we received into USD as we were flying to the USA. The airside departure money changer near Gate 38 has excellent rates when they sell USD.

Note that the arrival money changer has a really bad rate when selling COP. Use the ATM instead if you can!