Paying the Visa Fee at Banco Helm in Bogota Colombia

You must pay the visa fee at an authorized Banco Helm office before having an interview at the US Embassy in Bogota Colombia.  My fiancee originally paid the fee at the Banco Helm branch in Barranquilla Colombia however we had problems as the representatives were not properly trained.  They wouldn't accept our computer generated forms that were required according to the web site, and the representative was unsure of how to enter the payment giving us serious doubts about if the payment was actually registered.

While in Bogota we needed to visit a Banco Helm office to resolve an issue we had with our payment receipt.  I checked the list of authorized Banco Helm payment offices on the US Embassy's website at (http://bogota.usembassy.gov/scabco.html) and decided to go to the branch named:

Oficina de Recaudo de Visas - Cipres Plaza
Carrera 50 No. 21-41 Local 118
Hours  7:00am - 3:00pm

The taxi driver wasnt able to find the address as i dont believe its correct on the website but was able to find it because he was familiar with Cipres Plaza.  Cipres Plaza is a small shopping center and the building is green in color.

The Banco Helm office is on the first floor and is divided into two sections.  The first section is for regular banking transactions and the second section is dedicated to visa payments.  The employees were very knowledgeable about the visa payment process and one of the tellers named Diana went above and beyond her duties to help us get the issue resolved.  So much that I wrote a letter to the bank manager praising her efforts.


I would recommend that you make your payment at this office to save yourself time and to have peace of mind that the payment was entered correctly.  


We wasted two days dealing with the Branch in Barranquilla.  Here is a map of its location relative to the US Embassy in Bogota.