FINRA Fingerprinting in Bogotá: What You Need to Know

Most people who land on this page were not expecting to need it. If you are a Colombian professional working with or for a US broker-dealer, and someone on your firm's compliance team recently told you that you need to get fingerprinted for FINRA registration. And your first reaction was probably some version of: why? I am not American. I do not live in the United States. This is a US requirement.

That reaction makes sense. But under SEC Rule 17f-2, any individual associated with a US broker-dealer is required to submit their fingerprints to the FBI through FINRA. It does not matter where you live or what passport you hold. If you are associated with a US broker-dealer, the requirement applies to you.

This is not just happening to individuals either. As more US financial firms expand their operations into Colombia, hire Colombian contractors, or build out nearshore teams in Bogotá, the number of people here who need FINRA fingerprinting has grown significantly. Compliance teams at these firms are now actively looking for reliable fingerprinting solutions in Bogotá, not just for one person, but sometimes for entire teams at once.

This blog covers everything you need to know about getting FINRA Fingerprinting in Bogotá correctly, without the confusion that usually comes with figuring this out for the first time.

In Bogotá, common groups of people requiring FINRA fingerprinting the most divide into four distinct segments:

• Nearshore Tech and Ops Contractors: Colombian software engineers, compliance analysts, controllers, and back-office staff hired by US broker-dealers or Fintechs.
• Expat Financial Professionals: US citizens or green card holders residing in Bogotá working remotely for US wealth management firms, RIA/BD hybrids, or investment banks.
• Multinational Executive Teams: C-suite, directors, or partners in Bogotá-based subsidiaries of global financial institutions.
• Dual Citizens and Cross-Border Advisors: Financial advisors servicing cross-border clients between Colombia and the US.

Learn What is FINRA screening?

Step 1: Confirm Your Form U4 Is Filed First

Before you do anything else, confirm that your firm has already submitted your Form U4 in FINRA's CRD system. The 30-day fingerprint window only opens after the U4 is filed, so there is no point getting fingerprinted before that happens. Check with your firm's compliance officer or registration team to confirm the filing date. That date is day one of your 30-day clock.

Step 2: Get FINRA-Compliant Fingerprint Cards

FINRA requires a specific fingerprint card, which is different from standard card formats. Where you get it depends on your situation:

• Your Firm in the US Mails or Couriers the Cards: Many broker-dealers keep a stock of these hard cards on hand and will send them to their Bogotá-based staff directly.
• A Bogotá Branch Office of Your Firm Provides Them: If your firm has a physical presence in Bogotá, the local office may already have cards available.
• Professional Fingerprinting Provider in Bogotá Supplies Them: Some technicians and fingerprinting service providers who regularly handle FINRA or US government submissions keep complaint cards in stock. 

Do not print the card yourself from the internet. Cards must be the original physical form and meet the quality standards required for acceptance by FINRA.

Step 3: Find a Trained Technician in Bogotá

The FINRA card requires ink-rolled fingerprints, not a digital scan. You need a trained technician who knows how to take proper ink impressions. Look for technicians or providers with experience handling US government or FINRA submissions specifically. Some notary offices, security companies, and private investigation firms in Bogotá offer this service.

Step 4: Complete the Card Correctly

Before the technician starts rolling prints, make sure the demographic fields on the card are filled in accurately. The card requires:

• Full legal name
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Social Security Number, for US citizens
• Sex, height, weight, hair color, and eye color
• Signature of the individual being fingerprinted
• Signature of the technician taking the prints

Every field must be complete. A card with missing fields can be rejected regardless of how clean the actual fingerprint impressions are. Your firm may pre-fill some of the fields before sending the card to you. If that is the case, do not alter any pre-filled information without checking with your compliance team first.

Step 5: Fingerprints Mailed to FINRA

Once the card is completed, it needs to reach FINRA's Document Services office in the United States. How this happens depends on how your firm handles it.

Mostly, your firm will take care of mailing the card on your behalf. They may ask you to send the completed card back to the firm's US office first, and they will handle the submission from there. Some firms have a set process for this and will give you specific instructions on how to package and ship it back to them. Follow those instructions exactly.

If your firm asks you to mail the card directly to FINRA, use the addresses below. You can choose the method based on how much time you have left in your 30-day window.

Step 6: Monitor Your Status in CRD

After FINRA receives and processes the card, the status in the CRD system will update. Your firm's compliance or registration team can monitor this directly. The FINRA fingerprint status you are looking for is one of the "Approved" statuses. If the FBI determines the prints are illegible or rejects the card, the status will revert and a new 30-day window begins for resubmission. We advise you to stay in contact with your firm throughout this process.

When your firm submits a Form U4 to register a new associated person, a clock starts ticking immediately. From the date the Form U4 is filed, the firm has 30 days to submit that person's fingerprints to FINRA. If the firm misses that 30-day window, the individual's registration status is set to "Inactive Prints," and any business activities requiring a securities registration must be suspended until the fingerprints are received and processed.

The 30-day period runs on calendar days, not business days. That means weekends and holidays count, and every day from the moment the U4 is filed counts toward the deadline. The clock cannot pause because an office was closed or a holiday fell in the middle of the month.

Bogotá's 19 Festivos vs FINRA's 30-Day Clock

Colombia has 19 public holidays per year, locally called "festivos." These are nationally observed days when fingerprinting providers, government offices, and most service businesses are closed. Many of these holidays are moved to the nearest Monday under the Emiliani Law, which was created to give workers longer rest periods and promote domestic tourism. This means Colombia ends up with a significant number of three-day weekends spread across the year.

This is great for long weekends but terrible for strict deadlines. Fingerprinting providers in Bogotá have limited availability as it is. If a festivo or a long weekend falls in the wrong week, you can lose three to five working days from your 30-day window without doing anything wrong.

But why does this matter for your 30-day window? Now consider what happens when a Form U4 is filed during a month that has multiple festivos. FINRA's 30-day clock does not care that a Monday was a holiday in Bogotá. But your fingerprinting provider's availability very much does.

This is what the actual usable days inside a 30-day window can look like, depending on the month:

June is the worst month for this. In 2026, for example, June had three public holidays, all on Mondays, giving three consecutive three-day weekends in a row. Semana Santa in April also creates a four-day shutdown where banks, couriers, and service providers all reduce operations at the same time.

Filing a U4 in late May or early June, then discovering that a significant portion of the following 30 days includes multiple Monday closures, can become problematic for a firm.

The festivos themselves do not extend FINRA's deadline. But they do reduce the number of days when a person in Bogotá can actually go to a fingerprinting shop and get the job done. This creates a gap between how long the deadline is on paper and how much usable time you actually have.

This is what you can do to make the best of it:

• Start the fingerprinting process on the same day or the day after the U4 is filed.
• Check the Colombian festivo calendar for the month ahead before filing, so you are not surprised by a cluster of upcoming holidays.
• If you see a situation where the 30-day window overlaps with multiple festivos and scheduling is becoming a problem, ask your firm to contact FINRA before the deadline expires to request an extension. They may, upon application and a showing of good cause, extend the 30-day period under FINRA Rule 1010.
• Keep records of any delays caused by holiday closures. If you do need to apply for an extension, that documentation supports your good cause showing.

It can be difficult to find a compliant fingerprinting provider in Bogotá, especially if you’re going through this process for the first time, which is true for most people here. This is because some only handle Colombian government requirements, some only do digital scans, and some have never seen or heard about a FINRA card.

Asking the right questions before you book can save you from wasting time, missing your deadline, or paying for a service that does not work for your situation.

If a provider cannot answer most of these questions with confidence, that is your answer. Move on and find someone who can.

Most people going through this process in Bogotá spend more time finding the right provider than actually getting the fingerprints done. We built Globeia to take that problem off your plate entirely. This is what you get with us:

Convenient Mobile Fingerprinting Services

Globeia offers doorstep fingerprinting across Bogotá and the surrounding area, including Chapinero, Usaquén, El Poblado de Bogotá, Suba, Fontibón, the Zona Rosa business district, and nearby municipalities like Chía and Mosquera. Whether you are working from a home office, a coworking space, or a corporate building, we can send a trained associate to your location at a time that works for you.

Read How to Prepare for Your Mobile Fingerprinting Appointment?

Corporate Bulk Solutions

Financial firms in Bogotá, like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab regularly bring on new registered personnel who need FINRA fingerprinting before they can begin working. Globeia can handle FINRA fingerprinting for teams of 10 to 500 or more employees at a time. We coordinate directly with your firm's HR or compliance department to schedule sessions, manage the cards, and make sure every submission meets FINRA's requirements.

Stock of FINRA-Compliant Cards

Globeia keeps a standing stock of FINRA-compliant hard cards. When you book with us, the card is ready. You do not need to wait for your US office to mail one over or track down a supplier in Bogotá. If your firm has already sent you their own pre-filled cards, that works too. We can capture your fingerprints on whatever card your compliance team has provided, as long as it meets the required format.

Strict Fingerprint Quality Reviews

When a fingerprint card reaches FINRA, it goes through multiple layers of review before the FBI processes it. Our associates are trained specifically in international submission standards, including US government and FINRA requirements. Every card we complete goes through quality checks before we hand it over to you or your firm’s compliance team. We look at clarity, coverage, and consistency across all ten fingers. If something does not meet the standard, we redo it before concluding the appointment.

Book Your FINRA Fingerprinting Appointment in Bogotá Here.

Working in financial services across borders is already complicated enough. At some point, the smaller pieces of the process need to just work. Getting your fingerprints done correctly and on time is one of those pieces. It is not the most complex part of your registration, but it is one where a small mistake can create a much bigger delay. The goal should be to make sure that does not happen.