Is Colombia Safe for Families? Moving Abroad With Kids
July 28, 2026
A safety incident at their kids' school was the last straw. Alyssa Bolaños shares how her family chose Medellín, built residency through their children, and found that safety, schools, and healthcare all work differently than they expected.
IS COLOMBIA SAFE FOR FAMILIES WITH KIDS?
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Colombia's reputation abroad rarely matches what daily life is actually like there, according to Alyssa. Schools don't run active shooter drills: "That's not even a thought; it just doesn't happen here." Kids are prioritized in public life too, from malls to restaurants to priority lines for errands, which she described as Colombia feeling "almost designed for families."
That doesn't mean there's no crime. Alyssa was direct that violence exists in Colombia, and she isn't negating it. But the day-to-day safety consideration for a family in Medellín is petty theft, phone snatching being the most common version, not violent crime. Locals have a phrase for avoiding it, no dar papaya, roughly "don't give them a reason," meaning don't walk around flashing valuables. She also pushed back hard on the Pablo Escobar tourism trope: "do not ever say that to a Colombian, he was a horrible person... that's like buying a shirt with bin Laden's face on it and walking around the U.S."
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HOW DO YOU GET RESIDENCY IN COLOMBIA THROUGH YOUR CHILDREN?
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Because her husband is a Colombian citizen, their two sons qualified for dual citizenship immediately. Alyssa's own path to residency, however, went through her children rather than her spouse, and that choice mattered: applying as the parent of a Colombian citizen child requires four years of residency before you can apply for citizenship, versus five years through a spousal visa.
"I have one less year to be able to apply for citizenship" this way, she explained, and she now recommends the same route to any family in the same position: "if you have a spouse and a child, do it through your child, it's just a little bit easier." That residency status lets her work, open a bank account, and get a local ID card, a cédula. The one thing it doesn't allow is voting.
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WHY DID THEY CHOOSE MEDELLIN OVER HER HUSBAND'S HOMETOWN OF CALI?
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Her husband is from Cali, but the deciding factors for Medellín weren't cultural; they were infrastructural. Medellín has a metro system, a bus network, and a cable car (the teleférico), and "it was the only city with a metro" at the time they were choosing. They also picked a flat, walkable neighborhood built for biking and rollerblading.
That mattered because of a previous stint the family had in Orlando, where "we struggled very much with not being able to walk anywhere, not even because of the heat, but there's no infrastructure for pedestrian life, not even bikes; it's very dangerous to have a bike there too." Easy access to nature nearby sealed the decision.
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HOW MUCH DOES HEALTH INSURANCE COST IN COLOMBIA?
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Colombia runs a universal healthcare system called EPS, funded through payroll taxes, and most families layer a private supplemental plan on top, running $80 to $300 a month for a family of four. Alyssa's own receipts back that up: a dental visit ran about $12, and a full eye exam plus new glasses cost about $200, versus roughly $500 for the same prescription in the U.S. That price gap is a big part of why Colombia has become a medical tourism destination, including for U.S. veterans who find it faster to get quality care there than through the VA.
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CAN YOU ENROLL KIDS IN A COLOMBIAN SCHOOL MID-YEAR?
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Generally, no, and it's the detail Alyssa says catches families off guard. Colombia's school year runs January through November, and most schools won't accept new students partway through it. Their safety incident happened in February, with only a few months of the U.S. school year left, so rather than enroll their sons somewhere new for a matter of weeks, they started homeschooling immediately and are continuing until the next Colombian school year starts.
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WHATS THE FIRST STEP IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING AN INTERNATIONAL MOVE?
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"The first step is to have those honest conversations," Alyssa said. Most people assume a move like this is impossible, especially with kids, but "you can have a higher quality of life, often for a lot less, abroad." Her advice: talk it through with your partner and your kids so no one is blindsided, then get a real cost-of-living breakdown for the country you're considering before deciding the move is out of reach.
The questions that actually decide whether a move like this works rarely show up on a general "moving abroad" checklist: whether a school accepts mid-year enrollment, which parent's citizenship shortens a residency timeline, what a private health plan runs per month, what daily infrastructure looks like block by block. Alyssa and her husband worked through each of those one at a time, not all at once, and that's the more realistic model for most families weighing a similar move.
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CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS
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00:00 – Raising Global Kids: How Expat Families Choose Where Home Is
04:36 – The Safety Incident That Pushed One Family to Leave the US
09:33 – How to Choose a Walkable City with Easy Access to Nature
14:28 – What Daily Life and Safety Actually Look Like in Colombia
20:33 – How to Get Residency in Colombia Through Your Children
23:07 – Healthcare Costs After Leaving the US Healthcare System
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ABOUT THE GUEST
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Alyssa Bolaños is the bilingual Latina creator behind Casa Belanos. She moved with her husband and two young boys from the US to Colombia, by way of a three-month world-schooling program in Uruguay, and shares the realities of raising global, bilingual kids online.
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
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Arielle Tucker, CFP® & IRS Enrolled Agent with Connected Financial Planning, is a cross-border financial planner based in Switzerland helping Americans living abroad navigate U.S. taxes, international investments, and cross-border financial planning.
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ABOUT PASSPORT TO WEALTH®
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Passport To Wealth® is the platform for current and aspiring US expats looking for trusted, fiduciary support. We connect globally mobile Americans with fiduciary, licensed cross-border financial advisors, tax professionals, and relocation experts who understand the financial and legal complexities of life abroad. For guidance tailored to your specific situation, book a paid expat expert consultation.
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This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Individual circumstances vary. Consult a qualified cross-border financial professional before making any financial or tax decisions.