Do I need a visa to ship household goods?

From what I understand, if you get your visa at the Atlanta Consulate, you have 15 days upon your first entry into Colombia to get your Cedula. Now, if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.

Everyone picks up their visa in Bogota or their facilitator makes arrangements to have a courier bring it to Medellin. If I ever have a visa to pick up, I will do it myself.

Don't ship your things...  Period.

Few have had good luck doing so.  Import taxes are higher than what they say.  You'll be paying for dock fees for every day they are in dock, which of course takes longer than they say,  the shipping estimate will suddenly increase. 

Sell what you can and pay the extra money to bring in 5-6 suitcases with you.  That's really all you'll need.  Houses are, generally, smaller here than overseas and your things won't fit.  If you have antiques, nobody cares about those in Colombia, and they don't carry value.  You can furnish a house for $5000-$8000....that's much less than shipping your furniture and things.

Do a search on this forum, or other Colombian forums, about shipping experiences....

I would second what Mtbe said. I’d try to get away from shipping as much as you can. Bringing stuff is paperwork hell it will cost you much more than purchasing down here. If you can take your stuff on the plane that’s great, otherwise I’ve used this site to ship some smaller stuff while avoiding taxes: logybox

I would second what Mtbe said. I’d try to get away from shipping as much as you can. Bringing stuff is paperwork hell it will cost you much more than purchasing down here. If you can take your stuff on the plane that’s great0
-@nolaanimitchell

The above is good advice.

If you pay extra for additional checked baggage,

you will typically make it up in savings on

other types of shipping.

Also, you'll have your stuff immediately on

arrival with no wait for paperwork and other delays.

cccmedida

@nolaanimitchell is clubox through servientrega similar to logybox? I've already setup an account with them.

I think shipping some boxes is the way to go. Logybox is only about $50 for a medium 20lb box but you have to pay another $40 to UPS to ship it to them so about $90. However, Letsbox.it is only about $65 for the same box and you just print out the shipping label and drop it off at the post office and it arrives in Colombia in 7-10 days. So that's who I'm going with. Now I don't have to scramble to get my visa before I leave and am saving $7k. I just can't ship 10 boxes at once because it will draw attention from customs. Going to ship 2 or 3 a day to 2 or 3 friends I have there. Thanks for the great advice!