Working days in Colombia: how to count a deadline
How to count working days to a deadline in Colombia: Sundays, Saturdays, the 2026 holidays, derecho de petición terms and a worked example.
To count the working days until a deadline in Colombia, count Monday to Friday and skip Sundays and the national holidays. The count usually starts the day after you file or are notified, and in court and before public entities Saturdays usually don't count. If the last day falls on a holiday or another non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day.
What a working day is
A working day (in Spanish, día hábil, often translated as "business day") is a day when people work and offices are open. The opposite is a non-working day: Sundays, public holidays (festivos) and, depending on the case, Saturdays. When you are given a deadline "in days", holidays are left out. Ley 4 de 1913, article 62, says that terms in days exclude holidays, and that when the last day of a term is a holiday or a non-working day, the term runs to the next working day.
Saturday causes the most confusion. In court and in procedures before public entities, it usually doesn't count, because those offices are closed. At a job it depends on your schedule. If the deadline is about a work matter, ask the payroll department whether Saturday counts in your case.
If you are new to Colombia, the other surprise is the calendar itself: there are many public holidays, and most of them fall on a Monday.
The 2026 holidays
Colombia has 19 national holidays in 2026. Most of them fall on a Monday because of Ley 51 de 1983, known as the Ley Emiliani, which moves most holidays to the following Monday. That is where Colombia's puentes come from: three-day weekends.
There is a new one from 2026. Ley 2578 de 2026 added 9 July, the day of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá, which is also moved to a Monday: in 2026 it is Monday 13 July. A lawsuit against that law is pending, but the law is in force, so that Monday is not a working day.
| Month | 2026 holidays |
|---|---|
| January | Thursday 1 and Monday 12 |
| March | Monday 23 |
| April | Thursday 2 and Friday 3 (Holy Week) |
| May | Friday 1 and Monday 18 |
| June | Monday 8, Monday 15 and Monday 29 |
| July | Monday 13 and Monday 20 |
| August | Friday 7 and Monday 17 |
| October | Monday 12 |
| November | Monday 2 and Monday 16 |
| December | Tuesday 8 and Friday 25 |
Deadlines for a derecho de petición
A derecho de petición (right of petition) is a formal written request to an entity, and it is the deadline most people end up counting. Its terms are set by Ley 1755 de 2015, which rewrote article 14 of the Código de Procedimiento Administrativo y de lo Contencioso Administrativo, the administrative procedure code known as the CPACA:
- General request: 15 working days.
- Request for documents or information: 10 working days.
- Consultation to an authority about matters in its charge: 30 working days.
These are working days, not calendar days. Fifteen working days with no holidays are three full weeks; with holidays in between, more.
How to count a deadline, step by step
- Find the start date. It's the day you filed the request (in Colombia, radicar) or the day you were notified. A term counted from a notification usually starts the next day.
- Confirm how many working days you have. The law, the notification or the document you received says so.
- Decide whether Saturdays count. Before courts and public entities, they usually don't. For a work matter, ask payroll.
- Count forward. Open the Colombian business days calculator, choose "Add working days to a date", and enter the start date and the number of days. It starts counting the day after, skips Sundays and every national holiday, and leaves Saturdays out unless you tick the box. It has buttons for the 15, 10 and 30 day terms. It runs in your browser, so your dates never leave your device.
- Read the result. You'll see the deadline date, the calendar days in the period, and how many weekend days and holidays it skipped. Because it only counts working days, the last day is always a working day.
- Check what the calculator doesn't know. It doesn't know local civic days in your city or court vacations (vacancia judicial), when courts close. If one of those days falls inside your term, ask the entity or the court whether it counts.
- Write down the deadline and keep the filing receipt (constancia de radicado). It's your proof of when everything started.
Example: a request filed in March 2026
tienda-ejemplo.co, an online shop, files a general request with a public entity on Monday 16 March 2026. The entity has 15 working days to answer. The count starts on Tuesday 17 and goes like this:
| Week | Working days | Running total | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 17 to Friday 20 March | 4 | 4 | Normal week |
| Monday 23 to Friday 27 March | 4 | 8 | Monday 23 is a holiday (San José) |
| Monday 30 March to Friday 3 April | 3 | 11 | Thursday 2 and Friday 3 are holidays (Holy Week) |
| Monday 6 to Thursday 9 April | 4 | 15 | The term is complete |
The 15th working day is Thursday 9 April 2026. If you enter 16 March and 15 days in the calculator, it gives the same date and tells you it skipped 6 weekend days and 3 holidays along the way.
Counting the working days between two dates
The calculator's other mode answers a different question: how many working days are there between two dates. Here both dates count, if they are working days, and it also lists the holidays in the period.
For example, the tienda-ejemplo.co team wants to know how many working days it has between Monday 6 and Friday 17 July 2026 to prepare a large order. The answer is 9, because Monday 13 July is a holiday. If the shop works on Saturdays and you tick the box, it's 10.
Watch out for one trap. Because this mode counts both ends, 16 March to 9 April gives 16 working days, not 15. To see how many working days have passed since you filed, use the day after filing as the start date.
Quick checklist
- I know the start date: filing or notification.
- I know how many working days the term has.
- I know whether Saturdays count in my case.
- I counted from the next day, without Sundays or holidays.
- I checked for local civic days or court vacations in between.
- I wrote down the deadline and kept the filing receipt.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. For a court deadline, a lawyer has the final word; for a work matter, the payroll department does.
Frequently asked questions
Is Saturday a working day in Colombia?
It depends on the matter. In court and before public entities, usually not, because those offices are closed. At a job it depends on your schedule, and payroll can tell you. In the calculator, Saturday is off by default and you can turn it on.
What happens if the deadline falls on a holiday?
It moves to the next working day, under article 62 of Ley 4 de 1913. If you count in working days, that's already taken care of, because the last day always lands on a working day.
Is 9 July a holiday?
Yes, from 2026, under Ley 2578 de 2026. Like most holidays, it moves to the following Monday: in 2026 that is Monday 13 July. A lawsuit against the law is pending, but it is in force.
Does the day I filed or was notified count?
Usually not: the count usually starts the next day. That's how the calculator counts when you add days to a date.
Try it
- 7.2Business days ColombiaCalculate working days between two dates or add business days to a deadline in Colombia.
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