Hitting a Moving Target!

Documents Needed and How Things Change = Hitting a Moving Target!

We have only recently decided, within the past 90 days, we were going to move to Ecuador and apply for residency there.  We have been very busy getting all the necessary paperwork completed for our move. 

First, research dealt with just trying to figure out what Visa we needed to get into the country and stay.  If you are a Tourist, you can enter Ecuador and receive a 90 day tourist visa upon your arrival at the airport.  But, we "heard" you could not renew that visa while in country - so could we complete our Residency paperwork within 90 days?  There is another Visa (12-IX) that requires you to apply for that while in the States and has much more paperwork connected but it is good for 6 months. 

12-IX Visa - is good for 6 months
1.  "Aplicacion de Visa" Visa Application completed & signed (Ecuadorian Embassy web site)
2.  "Certificado de Visacion"  Visa Certificate
3.  Original passport, valid for at least 6 months beyond the departure date
4.  2 recent color passport pictures with white background
5.  Police certificate indicating that there is no record
6.  Bank letter stating that the person has good economic standing & can support himself/herself

This application and all documents must then be sent to the nearest Ecuadoran Consular (Miami for us) along with $230 payment.

Ed wrote a long email to Ms. Serrano in the office in Cuenca that now processes  an Expats Residency paperwork.  His question to her was "do we need a 6 month Visa in order to have time to process our Residency paperwork OR could a Visa Upon Entry be renewed while in country".  Her reply was a week later but she told us if we submit our papers as soon as we arrive for our Residency, we should have enough time to finish the process because it is now only taking about two months.  But, she also explained that if the process should take longer that an extension to our Visa could be done but had to be applied for 30 days before the expiration date.

OK - we knew that we could just fly down and start the process right away and should be completed within two months.... good news for us.  So, the race was now on for us to get all our required documents ready.

Next big questions - what documents did we need to have with us upon arrival to file for our residency? ... Now this is where the Moving Target comes into play.  It seems the requirements for the Pension Residency seem to change weekly in Ecuador.  Papers that were NOT needed last week are now required. 

We also learned that some of the documents needed to be apostilled in the United States.  OK, what does that mean & how do you get that done????  It means the document - has a certificate that is used to legalize a document for use in another country.  The apostille certificate is a small square certificate that is attached to another document.  The apostille confirms that a government form, signature, seal or stamp on a document is genuine.

We needed certified birth certificates for each of us with a date within the past 12 months.  So, we wrote away to New Hampshire and Montana for our new certified copies.  Then, we had to send each one with a cover letter, back to that state's Secretary of State's office to have it apostilled.  We had to also have a new certified marriage certificate and that also had to be apostilled by the state of Virginia.  OK, we were moving right along with what we needed.

We printed off a form from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website.  We had to provide the Ecuadorian government with proof that we didn't have any criminal record.  Once that certified document arrived, we had to send it to Tallahassee to be apostilled.  Yup, another box checked.

Then, we needed a certified letter from our doctor that we didn't have any type of communicable disease (TB or HIV).  That had to be sent also to Tallahassee to be apostilled.  We have heard that this letter might not be required any longer - but we will have it available if necessary.  Again, a moving target - today - NO but tomorrow Yes!

Now, we had to prove to Ecuador that we had a minimum pension of $800 per month plus an additional $100 for each additional person (just me).  So, for a couple it requires a minimum of $900 per month proof of steady pension income 'for life'.  So, we needed a certified letter from Social Security giving the amount of Ed's pension.  That had to sent to Tallahassee to be apostilled.  This original document must then be translated into Spanish by a bilingual notary who will then notarize it.  Then, all that is sent it to the Ecuadorian Consulate in Miami and they certify it.

OK, still more I's to dot.... we needed a couple of current color passport pictures with white back-ground taken, a color copy of our main picture passport page & it notarized, and then all the documents must be translated into Spanish.  The translation of the pages can be done in Cuenca when we arrive, we've been told but still researching if that is true.

We think that is all we need now... just like hitting a moving target.  We are always concerned that Ecuador will add something else before we're down there and have our paperwork into their system.  Our flight departs on September 13th. 

We owe a BIG thank-you for all the guidance & help we received from the 'Ecuador Expat' Facebook Group.  Everyone there has been so kind in answering all our questions.  We were doing research on the Ecuadorian Embassy website and that information wasn't even current & not helpful.  I asked the question on the group page and received the correct current answer very shortly.  I don't believe we could have gotten all this done without the Group's help.

Muchas Gracias,
Peggy