The Constitutional Court endorsed the initiative that the natives of the neighboring country do not have to apostille to validate their studies, after studying a protection action of a Venezuelan citizen residing in the country.
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The Constitutional Court determined that, from now on, the Ministry of Education may not require the apostille requirement to validate the bachelor's degree of any Venezuelan legal resident in the country. This decision was made after a young woman who was born in the neighboring country instituted a guardianship action because she could not enter secondary education since she was required to apostille the bachelor's degree that she obtained in the neighboring country, as a prerequisite to validate her diploma in Colombia.
According to the Court, the young woman declared that it was impossible for her to comply with the apostille requirement, due to the difficulties she has to process that requirement in front of the Venezuelan authorities and additionally she cannot go to the neighboring country to advance the request, not only for security , but because it does not have sufficient financial resources to go there. But the biggest problem is that it cannot apostille since there is no diplomatic or consular representation of the Venezuelan authorities in Colombia.
The case reached the Fifth Review Chamber, with a presentation by Judge Paola Andrea Meneses Mosquera, who concluded that "the requirement of an apostille requirement for validation of the young woman's bachelor's degree is manifestly unreasonable and disproportionate."
In this regard, the court specified that exceptionally these documents may be received and unconstitutionally declared the apostille requirement for the validation of the bachelor's degree obtained abroad. Taking into account that this request is made because you are a minor migrant in a state of economic vulnerability, have obtained an academic bachelor's degree in Venezuela and have an interest in accessing higher education programs in Colombia.
Among the requirements set forth by the Constitutional Court are that its diligence and good faith be accredited when carrying out the procedures related to enrollment in the new institution and that it demonstrate that arbitrary actions by the competent authorities made the apostille impossible, "which may have been exhausted the alternative means available to obtain the bachelor's degree in an unsuccessful way and, finally, that provides a principle of proof of the authenticity of the document whose apostille is required ” , commented the entity.
Despite receiving the order from the Court, the Ministry of Education insists that the young woman has the possibility of obtaining the apostille of the high school diploma in the neighboring country. He also mentioned that the plaintiff has other alternatives to obtain the bachelor's degree in Colombia, such as the validation exam for the academic baccalaureate.
Venezuelans in Colombia:
There are currently one million seven hundred forty-two thousand nine hundred twenty-seven (1,742,927) Venezuelan citizens in the country, as reported by the Director General of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa Palacios. This figure, according to the head of the Colombian immigration authority, corresponds to the number of Venezuelan migrants who would be in Colombia by January 31, 2021 and of them, said Espinosa Palacios, 54% would be in an irregular condition.