What are the consequences of overstaying your Bolivia travel visa?

Hello, I was just wondering what would happen if you end up staying in Bolivia longer than the visa permits? would you get jail time? The reason I ask is because I am going to Bolivia for 4 months to volunteer and it requires a special purpose visa, and I read in a website that it may take 2 weeks to 4 months to process the extension of the visa.


Thank you in advance

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What happens if I stay past my visa expiration date in Bolivia?

Hello! I entered january 10 on a tourist visa and am thinking about staying 3.5 months past the 90 days given to me for my tourist visa. I'd like to stay this extra time and pay the fine for the extra days I'm here. I think the fine is 20Bs a day. I wanted to see if anyone knows for sure how much the fine works and gather others' thoughts on my doing this? I'm living in Cochabamba and not planning to be traveling around the country, just living and informally working here. Also, does anyone know how doing this might impact my returning to the country in 2015? I'm an American citizen...

All the best

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Visa - updates and experiences overstaying?

by Carol

Hi All, I hope you can provide me with some information on overstaying on a tourist visa. I post a new message since the last post were rather old.

Does anyone have recent experiences with overstaying and paying the fine when leaving? How long did you overstay, how was it handled and so on?

What would be the response of an officer in a routine check if you had overstayed for let's say a month? What actions would be taken if they encounter you on an expired tourist visa?

How much is the fine nowadays?

Is it indeed true that you cannot do a visa run anymore?

Thanks all!

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Talking our way out of visa overstay fee???

Hello. This is sort of an embarassing question, but I thought I would see if anyone has any experience, suggestions, insights. We have overstayed our 3 month visas (family of five from US, in Bolivia 7 mos) and we're leaving soon. Any suggestions on ANY possible phrases, excuses, ways to talk our way out of at least some of the fine? We're prepared to just pay it but since it will be HUGE we thought we'd see if there were any creative ideas out there for getting around it while we're on our way out at the airport. Thanks very much. Folks have been very helpful in the past here!

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The Risks of Allowing Your Bolivia Tourist Visa to Expire

Tourist Visa past 90 days: Hi Bella! You said you wanted to hear from people about extending a Tourist Visa, so here goes! If anyone else knows how to do it, please post.

We came on a tourist visa and our child was born in Bolivia. Their Government gave us an ID in 24 hours and Passport in another 24 (with a little coaxing).

But, the US Government/Embassy would not allow our child to obtain a visa to bring it home; said we HAD TO make it a US Citizen. This took two months and threats of a DNA test to prove it was truly our child.

We went to Immigration before the Tourist Visa expired and explained and they said they would not extend it- no way, no how- for any amount of money. They told us, just pay the fine when we left, which is what we expected to do (about twice the cost of the original visa, per day, $3).

But, when we checked into the same hotel we had checked into upon arrival, we were raided by Immigration, who got our names from the Hotel, and they could see that we were there more than 90 days before. They were polite and when we explained the situation, they understood. We had to spend a day at Immigration to get our Passports back and then another day at the end when we wanted to pay the fine and leave the country.

All in all, they were much friendlier than in the U.S. I expect we would have been in an Immigration prison for months, gone to court and then deported, if this happened in the U.S.!

One more thing. I am not advising anyone to do anything illegal. Just to state a fact: once we realized that we were over our time, if we had given a false Passport number and name to the Hotel, this wouldn't have happened, as they wouldn't have been able to track us. But, we tried to do things above board.

We tried to do things correctly and were advised by them to stay in the country overtime, so the problem arose from their own miscommunication between the Investigator that came out to get us and the Immigration Officer who had advised me to stay and not do anything about the expiring visa.

Thank you for your site. I have gotten much good information about moving, shipping, visas and buying land from your site and the http://liveinbolivia.com site. There are not too many good English Bolivia sites around.

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How can an Australian citizen stay over 30 days in Bolivia?

by Amelia
(Sydney)

Hi Bella, I am an Australian citizen who is wanting to stay for longer than 30 days in Bolivia. I am hoping to study in Sucre and travel around for about 40 days. How can I go about getting a longer visa? Thanks!!

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Question about overstaying a tourist visa

Hi. Thanks for all the info on your site. We are a family of 5 (2 adults 3 kids) staying in Samaipata for 6-8 months. We will definitely not be here longer than that, i.e had and still have no intention of residency. However, we arrived on a tourist visa (from our home, US) which expires April 2. (we arrived Jan 2) What do you advise we do? Wait and pay the fine upon leaving? Go through a process to get an extension? From reading your site, I see that we're in a bind and should have had a different visa to begin with, but here we are in this situation. Any advice greatly appreciated! Thank you.

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What happens if I exceed the 90 day per year limit on a Bolivia tourist visa?

by Nick
(Florida)

I traveled to Bolivia on a tourist Visa in January 2012 for 26 days (I entered on Dec. 11 2011) and again in May-Aug for 90 days. When I left in August I paid 20 Bolivianos per day for the 26 days I was over my 90 day limit for 2012. I have plans to return to Bolivia in December. Will I not be able to enter the country since I am over my 90 day limit, or can I just pay 20 Bolivianos per day that I am there when I leave?

Thanks.

Nick

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What will happen if I stay in Bolivia without a visa?

by Julia
(Ixiamas)

I'm planning on staying in Bolivia for 6 months and I've already been here for 3. I don't know what to do next? I've asked some people and they say the only way I can stay here for 3 more months is if I open up a temporary carnet (greencard) for 1 year, but that will cost me at least 500 US dollars and it takes up to 3 months. I was wondering if I just stay here and pay the fine when I go to the airport will anything happen? I mean I know people do this but I'm guessing they do it for a week or two and I'm wondering if there will be any serious consequences? I've heard I can get kicked out of the country and not be allowed back in for 5 years or I can get put in jail. If I just pay at the airport then it will be about 300 dollars but that's still cheaper then 1000 dollars plus traveling back and forth to La Paz and Ixiamas. PlEASE HELP ME????

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