What Happens if I Want to Take My Child Out of Colombia? The Exit-Permit Rule and the Hague Convention (2026)

If you're a foreign parent living in Colombia and you want to take your child abroad, even for a vacation, a family visit, or a permanent move, you need to know about one specific Colombian law before you book the flight. It's not optional, it's not flexible, and it's enforced at the airport.

The rule is Article 110 of Ley 1098 de 2006 (Colombia's Code of Childhood and Adolescence), and it requires that any minor habitually resident in Colombia who travels abroad with only one parent, or with someone who isn't a parent, must first have a notarized travel authorization (permiso de salida del país) signed by the parent who is not traveling. Migración Colombia checks for this permit at the airport, and a child without one can be stopped from boarding.

That sounds simple. In practice, it's the source of more avoidable family-law disasters than almost anything else for foreign parents in Colombia, because the consequences of getting it wrong cascade into the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, and a parent who takes a child abroad without permission can be subject to a Hague return order from a foreign country back to Colombia.

This guide explains, specifically, what happens when you want to take your child out of Colombia: the rule itself, the exceptions, what to do if the other parent won't sign, what not to do, what happens if you leave without permission, and how the Hague Convention works in practice. It's a focused companion to the broader Child Custody Rights for Foreign Parents in Colombia guide.

This is general informational guidance, not legal advice. Anyone in an actual cross-border child situation should consult a qualified Colombian family lawyer (and ideally an international family lawyer on the destination-country side) without delay.

The 30-Second Answer

If you want to take a child habitually resident in Colombia out of the country, and you're traveling with one parent (or no parent), here's what you need to know:

• You need a notarized permiso de salida del país from the parent who isn't traveling, stating the destination, purpose of the trip, and departure/return dates.
• The permit is signed before a notary in Colombia or before a Colombian consul abroad.
• If the other parent won't sign or can't be located, you must seek authorization from a Defensor de Familia (ICBF) or a family judge, not just leave.
• Taking the child without proper authorization can trigger a Hague Convention return order from your destination country.
• There are specific exceptions (children habitually resident abroad for 1+ year, suspended patria potestad), but they're narrow.

The Rule: What Article 110 Actually Says

The text of Article 110 of Ley 1098 de 2006 is dry, but the operative paragraph is precise. Translated into plain English:

When a child, female child, or adolescent habitually resident in Colombia is going to leave the country with one of the parents or with a person other than their legal representatives, they must first obtain the permit of the parent with whom they are not traveling, or of those parents, duly authenticated before a notary or consular authority. Said permit must contain the place of destination, the purpose of the trip, and the dates of departure and return to the country.

A few things worth unpacking:

The rule applies to children habitually resident in Colombia, not to children of Colombian nationality per se. A foreign child living in Colombia is covered by it. A Colombian child whose habitual residence has shifted abroad may not be (see exceptions below).

The triggering condition is "traveling with only one parent or a non-parent." If you're traveling with both parents, no permit is needed. The requirement bites the moment one parent is absent from the trip.

The permit must be notarized, either before a Colombian notary if signed inside Colombia, or before a Colombian consul if the signing parent is abroad. A scanned PDF the other parent emails you is not enough.

The permit must specify destination, purpose, and dates. Vague permits ("she has permission to travel internationally") are routinely rejected by Migración Colombia.

If a non-parent is the accompanying adult, that person must be named and identified in the permit.

The form itself is standardized and available from the Ministry of Justice's LegalApp portal. Most Colombian notaries also have it on file. It's a one-page document, but the content matters: it has to match the trip exactly.

The Exceptions: When You Don't Need the Other Parent's Permission

Article 110 builds in specific exceptions. They are narrower than people often hope:

1. The other parent has lost or had their patria potestad suspended. Authorization is not required from a parent whose parental authority has been formally suspended or stripped by a court. This is not an assumption you can make on your own — the suspension has to be a real, ordered, documented legal fact, and you need the court documents to prove it. Patria potestad is rarely lost; separation alone does not affect it.

2. The child habitually resides abroad for 1+ year, and is returning there. Under a paragraph added to Article 110, a child whose habitual residence is abroad for one (1) year or more does not require the other parent's permit to leave Colombia with just one parent when returning to that habitual residence. The conditions are strict: you must present a certificate of residence abroad issued by the relevant Colombian consulate (or evidence of consular registration), plus a copy of the document establishing custody in the traveling parent. If the child has been abroad less than a year, the standard rule applies and you need the permit.

3. The parent on the REDAM (deadbeat support registry) cannot block travel. Under recent legislation, a parent who is registered in the Registro de Deudores Alimentarios Morosos (REDAM) — the national registry of parents in default on child support — cannot use the exit-permit requirement to prevent the child's international travel. Migración Colombia confirmed this exception in 2024. The permit of a parent listed in REDAM is, in effect, not required.

4. The child has no legal representative, the parent's whereabouts are unknown, or the parent cannot grant consent. In these cases, Article 110 says the permit must be issued by a Defensor de Familia (ICBF), not unilaterally taken. This is the route covered next.

If none of these exceptions clearly applies to your situation, assume you need the other parent's notarized permit. Don't improvise.

What If the Other Parent Won't Sign?

This is the situation that most foreign parents in conflicted relationships hit, and the answer matters: you cannot simply leave anyway. Doing so creates serious legal exposure (see the Hague Convention section). The legitimate routes are:

1. Negotiation and conciliation first. If communication is workable, try a written agreement on the specific trip with clear destination, purpose, and dates. Many disputes resolve at this level once expectations are clear.

2. Conciliation before a Defensor de Familia or Comisario de Familia. The ICBF system offers free conciliation hearings on family matters, including exit-permission disputes. Outcomes reached here are legally binding.

3. Defensor de Familia authorization. Under Article 110, the Defensor de Familia can issue the exit permit when the other parent cannot or will not consent — for example, when the other parent's whereabouts are unknown, they refuse to authorize, or they cannot grant consent. The Defensor must:

• Receive a formal request from whoever has personal custody of the child.
• Notify the other parent (where contactable).
• Hold a conciliation hearing if possible.
• Decide based on the best interest of the child.

A Defensor-issued permit has a limited validity window once final, generally specified in the resolution.

4. Family court (Juez de Familia). If administrative routes don't resolve it, the matter can be taken to a family judge for a binding ruling on the trip.

None of these routes is fast. Budget weeks to months, particularly if the other parent is uncooperative. Plan well ahead of your intended departure date.

What NOT to Do

A specific list of moves that foreigners are sometimes tempted by, and that consistently end badly:

Don't try to leave Colombia without the permit, hoping Migración won't check. They check. Children are routinely stopped at the airport, and a missed flight is the best possible outcome of that scenario. Worse outcomes include legal consequences for the traveling parent.

Don't sign a fake permit or alter one. Document fraud at the border is a criminal matter.

Don't accept a non-notarized permit "to save time." A handwritten or scanned-PDF permit from the other parent is not what Migración accepts. The notarization is the legal core of the document.

Don't assume "we're separated, so I have custody." Separation alone does not strip the other parent of patria potestad, and it doesn't make you the sole legal representative for travel purposes.

Don't leave Colombia with the child planning not to come back, when the permit doesn't authorize that. This is the move that escalates a domestic family dispute into an international child abduction case, with everything that follows.

The Big Risk: The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction

If you take a child habitually resident in Colombia out of the country without proper authorization, you can be sued under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, of which Colombia is a member. Here's how that actually works.

What Hague does. The Convention provides a fast-track legal mechanism for the prompt return of a child wrongfully removed to, or wrongfully retained in, a member country. The principle is that custody itself should be decided by the courts of the child's country of habitual residence — and Hague is the mechanism for getting the child back to that country so the custody question can be properly adjudicated.

Who triggers it. The "left-behind parent" — the one whose consent was not obtained, or whose consent was exceeded — files an application with the Central Authority in either their country or the country where the child has been taken. In the US, that's the US Department of State (Office of Children's Issues). In Colombia, the Central Authority is the ICBF.

What "wrongful" means. Under the Convention, removal or retention is "wrongful" when it breaches the custody rights of a person under the law of the child's habitual residence. In the Colombian context, taking a child out of Colombia without the permit required by Article 110 is exactly the kind of breach that triggers Hague.

What happens next. The Central Authority in the destination country processes the application, attempts a voluntary return, and if unsuccessful, the case goes to that country's courts for a Hague return proceeding. The Convention's text contemplates a 6-week target timeline, though real-world enforcement varies widely. The court doesn't decide custody — it decides whether the child should be returned to their habitual residence so custody can be decided there.

Defenses available to the taking parent are narrow. Under Article 13 of the Hague Convention, return can be refused only on specific grounds: the child is settled in the new environment (after more than a year), there is a "grave risk" of physical or psychological harm to the child on return, or an objecting mature child. These defenses are interpreted strictly. "I prefer living in my home country" is not a defense.

The framework also runs in the other direction. If a Colombian-resident parent takes a child from another Hague member country into Colombia without authorization, the left-behind parent abroad can file a Hague application in their country, which is processed through the ICBF (as Colombia's Central Authority) and eventually a Colombian family court. Colombian courts and the ICBF do process these cases, though enforcement has been criticized in some high-profile international matters for being slower than the Convention's standards.

The honest practical point: do not let a domestic family dispute in Colombia escalate into a Hague case by leaving without authorization. The consequences are serious, the costs are large, and the outcome may well be a court-ordered return to Colombia of the child you took.

If You Want to Move Abroad Permanently with Your Child

Permanent relocation is a different beast from a vacation. The same Article 110 framework applies for the act of leaving, but the underlying question is now about custody and relocation, not just travel permission.

The right approach:

1. Address custody and visitation explicitly first. A permanent move abroad changes the other parent's relationship with the child fundamentally. Trying to resolve this with a one-trip exit permit is the wrong tool.

2. Seek either an agreement or a court decision. A negotiated relocation agreement (custody, visitation, support, communication arrangements), formalized through conciliation or court, is the legally durable solution. If agreement is impossible, a Colombian family court will need to decide.

3. Expect Colombian jurisdiction to take primacy while the child is in Colombia. Even if you have a foreign custody order, Colombian courts will generally apply Colombian law to a child habitually resident in Colombia. See the broader Child Custody Rights for Foreign Parents in Colombia guide for how Colombian custody jurisdiction interacts with foreign orders.

4. Recognize the cross-border dimension. Once your child is settled abroad with a recognized custody order, that becomes their new habitual residence — and the Article 110 framework largely stops applying to subsequent trips. The transition from "Colombia habitual residence" to "foreign habitual residence" is the legally hard part.

5. Get specialized international family law advice. Permanent international relocation is the most complex thing a foreign parent can do here. Hire counsel on both sides of the border.

Common Mistakes Foreign Parents Make

Underestimating Article 110. It's one paragraph in one law, and it controls a huge amount of foreign-parent life in Colombia. Take it seriously.

Assuming a foreign custody order overrides Colombian rules. Generally it doesn't, while the child is in Colombia. Colombian jurisdiction takes precedence over a child in Colombia.

Confusing patria potestad with day-to-day custody. You can lose custodia (day-to-day care) and still fully retain patria potestad, in which case your authorization is still required for the child's international travel. Most separations do not affect patria potestad.

Treating consent as ongoing. A permit authorizing a specific trip ends with the dates it specifies. Staying abroad past those dates can flip from "authorized trip" to "wrongful retention" under Hague.

Trying to fix it at the airport. Migración Colombia agents at the airport do not issue permits. If you don't have it in hand before you arrive at the terminal, the trip is not happening.

Not realizing it cuts both ways. Article 110 protects foreign parents too. If your Colombian co-parent tries to take your child abroad without your permission, the same rule that constrains you is your shield.

Quick Checklist

1. Article 110 of Ley 1098 de 2006 requires a notarized permiso de salida del país whenever a minor habitually resident in Colombia leaves the country with only one parent or a non-parent.
2. The permit must specify destination, purpose, and dates of the trip.
3. It must be signed before a Colombian notary (if signed in Colombia) or a Colombian consul (if signed abroad). No scanned PDFs.
4. No permit needed if traveling with both parents, or if specific exceptions apply (suspended patria potestad; child habitually abroad 1+ year and returning; other parent listed in REDAM; etc.).
5. If the other parent won't sign, the route is conciliation → Defensor de Familia → family judge — never just leaving.
6. Taking a child without authorization can trigger a Hague Convention return order from the destination country back to Colombia.
7. The Hague return process targets a 6-week timeline and is run by Central Authorities (US State Department; ICBF in Colombia).
8. Permanent relocation abroad is a custody question, not a travel-permit question — address it through formal custody/relocation procedures, ideally with cross-border legal counsel.
9. Don't try to fix this at the airport. Migración checks for the permit, and a missing one stops the trip.
10. The rule cuts both ways — Article 110 also protects foreign parents from unilateral removal of their children by a Colombian co-parent.
11. For complex situations, get a qualified Colombian family lawyer, and international family counsel on the destination-country side if relocation is involved.

Final Thoughts

Article 110 is the law that quietly determines whether your next trip out of Colombia with your child happens or doesn't. It exists to protect children, and in practice it protects both parents — including, when you need it, you. The system works best for foreign parents who treat it as a fact to plan around, not an obstacle to navigate around.

The two rules to internalize are: get the notarized permit in hand before you book the trip, and if the other parent won't sign, use the Defensor de Familia or court process — never just leave. Foreign parents who follow those two rules avoid almost every disaster this area of Colombian law can produce. Those who don't are the ones whose ordinary family disputes turn into Hague Convention cases, and Hague cases, once started, are slow, expensive, and rarely end the way the taking parent hopes.

If you're contemplating a permanent move abroad with your child, treat the custody decision itself — not the airport — as the real question. A formal Colombian custody agreement or court order that explicitly authorizes the relocation is the durable foundation; an unauthorized departure is a years-long legal nightmare. Get the order, get the permit, get on the plane. In that order.