Aerocivil
Colombia
Permit path requiredNoncommercial open category or specific-category authorization; customs restrictions apply
Colombia permits noncommercial open-category flying within RAC 100 limits. Commercial, profit-making, or otherwise noncompliant operations enter the specific category and require operator certification and flight authorization. Bringing a drone into Colombia also requires advance customs planning.
The trip, step by step
- Bring it
- Drones may not enter Colombia as ordinary traveler baggage. DIAN requires advance import formalities, restricts arrival and customs-processing locations, and prohibits postal or courier importation. Confirm the ordinary-import process before departure.
- Register it
- Use Aerocivil's UAS hub and RAC 100 guidance for aircraft registration and category planning.
- Fly it
- Open-category operations are noncommercial, limited to aircraft up to 25 kg, and require registration except for aircraft under 200 g. Maintain at least 30 m from uninvolved people and follow the applicable daylight, VMC, urban-separation, and location restrictions.
- Map check
- Do not fly in prohibited, restricted, danger, training, or no-drone areas; within 2 km of military, police, prison, presidential, or critical-infrastructure sites; within 3 km of a heliport; or within 6 km of an airport. Between 6 and 9 km from an airport, open-category operations are limited to 61 m / 200 ft above the lowest runway-threshold elevation.
Before you travel
- 01Check whether the flight fits RAC 100 Open Category limits.
- 02Complete Aerocivil registration and category requirements where applicable.
- 03Confirm the ordinary-import process with DIAN before traveling with the aircraft.
- 04Get authorization for commercial, specific-category, urban, people-proximity, or restricted-area shoots.
Operating notes
- Max altitude
- 122 m / 400 ft AGL in the open category, within VLOS and no more than 750 m horizontally from the pilot.
- Commercial work
- Any operation for profit, or outside open-category limits, is specific category and requires UAS registration, a qualified pilot, operator certification, registered technology, liability insurance, a safety-risk analysis, and Aerocivil flight authorization.