"Regularizing my migratory status will help me improve my situation."

Five years ago, Marian* packed her life and the lives of her two children into a pair of suitcases. She remembers the colors of that early August morning; the sky was clear and, although it augured a calm day, her heart was pounding. Inspired by the gaze of her young children, she took the impulse to take each step towards Colombia. "We came across the border (...) walking, in whatever way we could (...) I came with a suitcase of dreams and with the sole purpose of giving my children a better future," she says. 

With the same difficulty with which she made her journey, she lived her first years in the country. First of all, she did not have the necessary documentation to acquire a formal job, nor did she have a support network to help her take care of her children. Despite having studied a professional career in teaching, and having extensive experience educating children in her native Venezuela, she knew at the time that her condition in Colombia would not allow her to quickly access a job. "At first it was not easy, I could not get a job, I had to work in the plaza loading carts, I had to work in construction, until I managed to stabilize a little in a better job and I'm going to be two years", explains Marian. 

According to figures from Migración Colombia, as of June 1, 2022, one million Venezuelan nationals in Colombia have regularized their migratory status and more than 800 thousand are in the process of regularization through the Venezuelan Migrant Protection Statute - ETPV. Marian and her youngest daughter, Sary*, are among the thousands of people who have benefited from this measure, whose implementation has been supported by the International Organization for Migration - IOM.

"I know that having a regular immigration status will help improve my situation," shares Marian upon receiving her PPT in a massive day of deliveries held at the Palacio de los Deportes, in Bogota. At this event, which has also been held in cities such as Cali and Medellin, attendees were able to receive support at the IOM's mobile Referral and Orientation Points -PRO, take the first stage of the SISBEN Survey, enroll in health services and access vaccinations. Similarly, other migrants, who are currently starting their regularization process through the ETPV, were able to complete the Single Registry for Venezuelan Migrants (RUMV), as well as the biometric registration for the issuance of the Permit.

This massive journey was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Canada's Migration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada - IRCC and IOM's Migration Resource Allocation Committee - MIRAC.