Ecuador Visa Requirements

We often get asked about the Visa requirements for visiting and for moving to Ecuador. What I post here is accurate RIGHT NOW. That doesn't mean it will be accurate tomorrow. Change is inevitable, sometimes hourly it seems and sometimes up to the discretion of the official (office) you are dealing with.

First, if you want to visit Ecuador you will be automatically granted a 90 day tourist visa upon entry into the country with a US passport. This is good for one year...in other words, if you enter the country on March 13th, your year starts that day and you can spend up to 90 days in the country between that date and March 12th the following year. Simple, easy and FREE!

• Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months beyond your travel dates. 
• A round/onward trip ticket is needed to prove the length of your stay. 

{source}

If you wish to live in Ecuador as a resident immigrant, there are several visas available to choose from. The full list is here, below are the most commonly used ones that we have heard about.

• Pensioner Visa (Foreign Pension) 9-I
  Requires a minimum income of $800 (for life), each dependent requires an additional $100 per month income
   
• Investor Visa 9-II or 9-III
  Multiple ways to invest, tightly restricted, minimum $25k investment
   
• Professional Visa 9-V
  Requires graduation from a 4 year degree program from a certified college or university. There is a list of those already registered with Ecuador but if yours isn't on the list, it doesn't mean you are excluded. In addition, you do NOT have to plan to work in Ecuador for this visa to be valid. It does take longer to get than the above visas. Click here to download the list of accepted universities as of April 2013.

We opted to each get a pensioner visa, it cost us more because there was more paperwork go be notarized/apostiled, then translated and apostiled again. Plus the visa fee was double ($700 for two, $350 for one). But if something were to happen to one of us, the other still has residency without having to start the paperwork over again.

There is one caveat to the immigrant visa. We are restricted to being out of country 90 days in any given year. Our anniversary date is the date we entered the country, December 12th. So we have 90 days between then and this coming December 11th.

In our 3-5th years the requirement changes but we are still unclear as to what it changes to...we have heard 18 months over the three years, 180 days over the three years and even 18 months a year. We will see what it is when we make it to year three. For now, we carefully count our days out of country to be sure we don't exceed the 90 days.
{NOTE: November 2014- Per an immigration lawyer, Immigration Law Article 36 states that it is 18 months MAX before you must return to Ecuador.}

What happens if we do? We have to start the visa process all over again, including paying the fees again! Nope, not gonna do that.

So, you want to get a visa. How do you start? The first thing is to get certified copies of your birth certificate, current marriage license and any name change documents. For those of us women who married and then were divorced or widowed, that means more paperwork UNLESS you never changed from your maiden name. (Note: women in Ecuador don't change their names.)

We were told I only needed the birth and most recent marriage but since the marriage certificate showed a different name from the birth certificate, we decided to err on the side of caution and I got everything.

You will also need an official letter showing your documented pension/social security income. We went to our local office, told her what we needed. We could not use the form you can print out from the internet. The clerk printed out the document from her printer, then stamped and signed it (a critical step).

We also needed a criminal background check for the last five years of residence. We got ours online from TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation). That sufficed although since then we have heard the local Cuenca office is required an FBI check which requires fingerprinting. The document is also time sensitive, typically no more than a month old from your application date.
{NOTE: DECEMBER 2014: Latest news, ALL Ecuador immigration offices will soon be requiring an FBI report AND a state report. They will no longer accept a local report.}

{more pensioner visa info}

Suffice it to say, this is a much easier process to start while still in the US. If you are already in Ecuador and need a document from the US, it becomes an expensive process and one that requires a contact to receive the document and then send it to be apostiled before sending it to you in Ecuador.

Many people complete the whole process without assistance, even without being fluent in Spanish. This is obviously the most economical way. You bring your documents with you from the US, get them translated and apostiled in Ecuador, present the whole packet (including copies of your passport pages and passport sized photos) to Immigration. Be prepared for several visits there and long waits. A good book is your friend, or a tablet for playing games. Oh, men take note - remove your hat! Eventually (hopefully), you will walk away with everything APPROVED.

In our case we opted to hire a facilitator for a turn-key package. Because our Rt 66 trip was during the two month when I would have had to been available for mailing documents back and forth, we got the all the originals and sent the whole thing to Maite Duran of GringoVisas.com. She has an office in Connecticut and is able to handle all the US side there and then it all goes to her office in Cuenca where the process is completed.

I ordered all our originals in mid-July and we sent her our packet in mid-August. We enjoyed our Rt 66 motorcycle trip and by late October received an email from her office that we could get our Visa stamps at the Ecuadorian consulate in Atlanta (the closest to us). Woot!!

Was this the least expensive route? Absolutely not. Was it the most stress-free route? ABSOLUTELY! It was the right one for us.

There are other facilitators in Ecuador who will consult and assist you as well as lawyers who can do the same but Maite was the only one who, at the time, offered a turn-key service. She continues to get recommendations from all who work with her.

So do it yourself or hire someone but do your research regardless. Requirements are know to change on a whim here! ;)

June 15: Sunday Sundry Photo

If it SITS, it FITS
Taxis move a lot of different things here.

Happy Father's Day

First, sending out HAPPY FATHER'S DAY wishes to all the dads, granddads, great-granddads, foster dads, step-dads and anyone taking the place of a dad. Enjoy your day!

Stu will be home this Wednesday and I hope he enjoys his Father's Day gift. A bicycle! He's been talking about getting one but they are either super expensive ($500+) or ultra-cheap quality (Coral for $100).

Early last week as I walked to a friend's to drop off something for her to mail while in the US (yeah, found out a day after Stu left) I saw a bicycle in a shop window for $150. It looked fairly new but I didn't take time to stop because I was on a schedule.

Later in the week I went on the hunt for the shop, only remembering I found it when I took the wrong street as I looked for my friend's place. I walked for blocks and blocks, no luck. Stopped for a much needed lunch and decided to try again, taking the exact route I had taken the first time.

Luck was with me - I found it! I snapped a photo of it and the price and a photo of the shop. Errr, well, funeral parlor. Errr, well, they sold coffins...LOL! I then ran the photo past Stu to be sure it was something he was interested in before calling our friend Emilio to have him contact them and see if they were negotiable on the price.

He got a slight reduction in the price and we went to pick it up on Monday. It now sits in our guest room (the utility room is still full with my bench being refinished). I know he's looking forward to trying it out on the trail alongside the Yanuncay river.

Six Month Anniversary

Wow! Where did the time go - we arrived in Ecuador six months ago on December 12th. A lot has happened since then but it's still amazing that it's been that long. We stay busy, in fact this was scheduled to post on our anniversary date but I was so busy it got delayed.

We still love it here but do have BIG news...we're moving! We found a wonderful apartment that offers us the two things we are missing in our current spot. An amazing view and a rooftop terrace to enjoy the outdoors. It means a bump in our budget but still close to our initial estimate. For us it's a quality of life issue and we look forward to our new digs.

It's in an 8 floor building that is only two years old. Elevator, 24 hour armed security, secure parking (not that we need that right now), only two apartments per floor, very large and well appointed. We are excited - not sure how our furniture will fit but that will all work itself out.

Back to living here...I have already written two posts about our Preconceptions, Misconceptions and Viewpoints and not much has changed since the last update. The traffic is about the same, we have a new mayor who is putting safety and transportation at the top of his list, the taxis are now metered (although how that is working out is debatable, at least for the taxi drivers), I am seeing a bit of influx on the graffiti side but I also see a lot more official murals around town, we have found that strawberries wane a bit in late May-early June but they seem to be making a comeback, restaurants continue to come and go, we find new businesses all the time and for me, my Spanish is growing slowly. I have had several compliments on my pronunciation, even though I can't roll my R's.

We continue to watch our food choices, not eating out a lot and walking more. With the bicycle in the house, Stu will be using that to continue getting/staying healthy. He is bringing me back a knee brace to help my walking. Since my fall last February, it has continued to bother me at times.

We love the weather even though many days bring a little rain. Often it's just a shower but a month ago we had long downpours. It is getting a little cooler as we move into winter here but I have still been quite warm walking around El Centro midday with bright sunlight.

We will post photos of the new place once we are moved in...needless to say, the next two weeks will be BUSY!!!!

A few Waverly photos

Since the only photos I've shared are when Waverly was born, thought it was time to share a few newer ones.

Stu with his three grandgirls - Jesse, Waverly, Olivia

Sookie loves her Waverly

I promise not to deluge you with photos but wanted to share that momma, daddy and baby are all fine!

Traveling - When things go wrong

Traveling can be stressful and we sometimes forget that we aren't in our home territory (be it another state or another country). If there is a language barrier, it can be even tougher. I recently read this blog post, The Uselessness of Getting Upset While Traveling, that points our many good reasons why we shouldn't get upset.

Reading the post I thought about our experience here in Ecuador where our Spanish is quite limited. We talked about living in the states and dealing with foreigners who nod their heads agreeably and then go on to do something different, frustrating us at times. Here in Ecuador, I find myself doing the same thing. Nodding my head, smiling and saying, "Si, si" repeatedly. The locals probably laugh and shrug when I then do something contrary to what was said.

Another thing that surprised us...we talk about the locals and their "bullet" Spanish, rapid fire speech that leaves us far behind. We were chatting with our maid a while back, she is working on her English and is doing quite well, and she said, "Demasiado rápido". WE were talking to fast in English for her. Something to remember...

It's electric!

Back in late January, early February we noticed work being done on our street. It appeared they were putting in new power poles. The new ones were the same, just taller - concrete poles, buried in the sidewalk.

We watched the men hand digging out the poles using picks and shovels to break open the sidewalk, dig out the dirt and rocks - sometimes large rocks.

Next came the new poles being set in place, beside the old poles. Would these be additional poles or would the old ones go away?

Soon the wire work started and before we knew it our power would go off by 9am and be turned back on between 5-7pm. Those were the days we walked El Centro or visited Popacuchu Cafe for the free wifi along with their coffee and pastries.

The power outages were sporadic, going on for days and then stopping for a week before continuing to be off daily. No notice, it just happened. Not a major inconvenience for us but it shut down the businesses along our street as well. They seemed to just go with the flow as we have learned to do.

By the mid-April things were looking good, the new poles were in place, the wires were connected and our power outages were a distant memory.

But the holes around the new poles were still open, the old poles still in place and piles of dirt still blocked the sidewalk in spots. Would this ever get cleaned up?

Yes, slowly the holes were filled in with concrete, surrounded by a circle of surplus rocks. The old poles were removed and the surplus of rocks and dirt piles filled in those holes.

Now as we walk the sidewalks we barely notice that this was once a construction zone. Job well done!

Here are some photos I snapped of the process....as always, click for a larger image.

Oh, the last photo has nothing to do with the power work, just a couple of chicks walking the street. ;)