For information on the conditions for being considered a Colombian citizen by birth and on the process to recover Colombian citizenship that has been renounced, please refer to Responses to Information Requests COL17066.E of 12 April 1994, COL20723.E of 16 May 1995, COL21045.E of 22 June 1995 and COL22464.E of 8 December 1995. These responses are available through the Refinfo database and at your Regional Documentation Centre.

In addition to the information provided in the above-mentioned responses, a consular assistant at the Embassy of Colombia in Ottawa stated during a 26 January 1996 telephone interview that the consulate is not aware of any circumstances under which a person who meets the requirements for recovering Colombian citizenship could have it denied.

The requirements for recovering Colombian citizenship are outlined in the above-cited responses and in a Spanish-language simplified guide entitled La Nacionalidad en Colombia: Todo sobre la Ley que faculta la doble nacionalidad (1994), which was provided by the Consulate of Colombia. According to this document, Colombian citizenship can be recovered by those who renounced it according to the provisions of law 43 of 1 February 1993, or who lost it through the application of article 9 of the 1886 constitution, which revoked the citizenship of Colombians who acquired the citizenship of another country and resided there (ibid., 11).

Those who were Colombian by birth but lost their citizenship can recover it by submitting a written request to the Ministry of External Affairs in Bogota, to any consulate outside Colombia, or to any state government (Gobernación) in Colombia (ibid., 11-12). The request must contain a vow to uphold and abide by the Colombian laws and constitution, and indicate the holding of another citizenship, if such is the case (ibid., 12). The requester must also submit a citizen's ID (cédula de ciudadanía) or a birth certificate, and four colour photographs of four by five centimetres (ibid.). Finally, the document states that a person who was Colombian by birth and renounced his citizenship cannot recover it before two years have passed since his renunciation (ibid., 28).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Embassy of Colombia, Ottawa. 26 January 1996. Telephone interview with consular assistant.

La Nacionalidad en Colombia: Todo sobre la Ley que faculta la doble nacionalidad. 1994. Bogota: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.