Approved!!!!

Congratulations. I am glad to see things went so smoothly for you. If you are like most of us, you will be very happy here.

Thank You, Joseph,
so far the people have been so friendly, and the climate so great, I can't see how anyone wouldn't love it!!
Stay Well,
Neil

Congratulations.

It is not too soon to begin the following process, although you will want to get your cedula first:

Citizenship Conference
Posted by Gringotreeposts Posted 02.07.2013 14:36 Categories: Looking for...People  Tags: visa

How do you obtain Ecuador citizenship? Attend this free seminar, presented by officers from Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, all about requirements and procedures for naturalization.

Wednesday July 3, 10 a.m at Cuenca's Chamber of Commerce, Federico Malo 1-90 y Av. 12 de Abril.

To sign up, email [email protected] or click the button below.

I approve of your approval. Well done sir and congratulations!

I'd be dancing in the street right now if I were you.

Thank You Sir,
Your wealth of connections never ceases to amaze, and you are always so forth coming. It is appreciated! < BY ALL>
Cha Cha,
NEN

gardener1 wrote:

I approve of your approval. Well done sir and congratulations!

I'd be dancing in the street right now if I were you.

I approve of your approv.... awww, this could go on all night.
I would dance in the streets were I waaaayy younger, but, you have to be pretty nimble to just CROSS these streets! < grin >
Stay  Well
Neil

CONGRATS Zen Spike! so happy for you! yes you will be happy here, those who make the effort to learn Spanish, make Ecuadorians friends and not only respect but embrace the culture always are...

Congrats, Neil. That's great news!

Loving Ecuador wrote:

CONGRATS Zen Spike! so happy for you! yes you will be happy here, those who make the effort to learn Spanish, make Ecuadorians friends and not only respect but embrace the culture always are...

May ZenSpike be the first Gringo in Cuenca to learn Spanish well!!

P.S.
Where have you been Loving Ecuador? You deprived us for months of your commentaries and now you are back with a venageance.

Thanks Bob,
With all the scuttle butt going around with the political climate, it was a relief to get this news, as I do have a financial concern. Talk about putting the horse before the carriage!
Stay Well,
Neil

Loving Ecuador wrote:

CONGRATS Zen Spike! so happy for you! yes you will be happy here, those who make the effort to learn Spanish, make Ecuadorians friends and not only respect but embrace the culture always are...

I want to embrace the culture, but I'm really concerned with my ability to learn a foreign ( to me ) language. Nards kids about him not knowing the language, but I think he's actually pretty adept.

I hope to assimilate to this new lifestyle, and be accepted.
Stay Well,
Neil

Congratulations, Neil.  You're an inspiration.  It's not too soon to think about getting a couple of good dogs.

Hi ZenSPIKE & Hearty Congratulations !
I would like to know what type of visa u have applied & got the approval.

Regards,
KSRaj

Thank You,
I got the Pensioners Visa.

Neil, congratulations on your visa. Regarding learning Spanish, as with golf it takes patience and persistence which you appear to have in abundance.

fdmcg wrote:

Neil, congratulations on your visa. Regarding learning Spanish, as with golf it takes patience and persistence which you appear to have in abundance.

Thanks F,
others might argue regarding the 2 P's you mention. I truly am attempting to modify my temperament and " blend " as best I can.
Things are coming together on the condo, and that's a good thing.
I haven't gone loco, and that's a better thing!
Stay Well,
Neil

Congrats on the Visa. I would like to ask a big favor...

Exactly what documents did you have (the FBI check vs. the State check), which were apostlied, did you go it on your own, did you use a facilitator, did you use a lawyer. I'm so there at the end of September, and since you so recently, have achieved this goal, I think you would be a "demonstration by example" that I could follow. I currently have a lawyer signed on, but just to get some informative feedback would be worth it's weight in helado! THX

Good on ye

Well, I honestly hate to say, as the system is so fluid. Things changed requirement wise 1 week before I arrived in Ecuador. The safest thing you can do, is over prepare. < which of course, there is no such thing as > I don't know what type of Visa you are interested in, but I'll tell you what I had for my Pensioners.

Birth Certificate
Marriage Certificate
Proof of Income ****
State Police Report
***Besides your proof of income, you will require a letter, in Spanish, from your nearest consulate that verifies your proof of income. < yes, again >
None of these documents can be over 90 days old. They must have an apostille.
If you have been divorced, you must have the divorce degree. < only from your last divorce, not the other 3 before this last one >
Now, I'm told in Cuenca, they require the FBI background check, but I know 2 different people that got by with a STATE background check. In Quito, they did not want my marriage certificate, nor my birth certificate. But in Cuenca, they insist on the marriage & birth certificates.
In the end, if you have a reputable lawyer, listen to them.
I in no way am saying this is correct, even after I just went through it. Like I say, it's to darn fluid, and I'd hate to give you misinformation.
The above was my situation, less than a month ago, but there were folks experiencing different requirements at the exact same time.... just seems the difference between the 2 offices. Cuenca is the tougher of the 2 offices for sure. That I can attest to!
Good Luck
Neil

If you don't mind giving ballpark numbers, how much were the all inclusive fees of the attorney and visa faciltator? Need to budget for this expense and I have no idea at this time what it might be.

And you used an attorney referred by Gringo Tree, but isn't that a Cuenca expat website? We will be making our applications through Quito (when we get to that point) and do not intend to live in Cuenca, so we would not have a need for a Cuenca located attorney.

Do you know where we might reference Quito immigration attorneys?

THX Neil. I have (I believe) a very good lawyer. I've checked his credentials as much as I can, so am comfortable with that. I can get the state police report without problem, but I would like to avoid any sort of FBI thing, not because I'm a bad guy, but rather due to the disfunctional state of the current governent (umm, ours). Based on your last post, I presume you did your thing in Quito. I'm so excited that you have run the gauntlet and have emerged unscathed.

I will be coming for an investors visa (25K CD), so the letter of income is probably mute. Birth Cert and Marriage Cert are no problem (with apotilles). My current plan is to redo all my paperwork mid-August. You have given me renewed drive to get this thing done.

Helado on me, when I get there in September.

"I can get the state police report without problem, but I would like to avoid any sort of FBI thing"

Could be worse -- I've been checking into Peru lately; overall, the requirements are similar, or maybe even a bit simpler -- but they require an Interpol check.

BobH wrote:

"I can get the state police report without problem, but I would like to avoid any sort of FBI thing"

Could be worse -- I've been checking into Peru lately; overall, the requirements are similar, or maybe even a bit simpler -- but they require an Interpol check.

Bob,
Interpol? You signing up for MI6, or doing some James Bond type stuff??
I guess Interpol will cover just about all the bases.
Stay Well
Neil

Yup, it was Quito for me. Actually, if you have your documents in order prior to arrival, it's a piece of cake.
I was lucky in that my home city, Minneapolis, has an Ecuadorian consulate.
I am 20 minutes away from the Attorney General's office, and 10 minutes from there to the State Police office. Also, all my history was in Minnesota, so I didn't have to deal with other states for documents. I got everything done in one morning, with the exception of the letter from the consulate, which ended up being 3 trips. < they goofed on something >
You'll do just fine, it's pretty straight forward in the end.
Best of Luck,
Neil
Ps. I'm off to the lawyers office now for the final paperwork!
Another $ 320.00 to the government!

ZenSPIKE wrote:

Bob,
Interpol? You signing up for MI6, or doing some James Bond type stuff??

LOL. I'd sign up for just about anything if they'd guarantee me a Bond Girl.

If you think about it, Interpol kind of makes sense, and would actually be simpler for me, since I haven't been in the US for over a year. From what you say, I may (to be safe) need both a state and FBI check for the US, and then the question is -- what about the Philippines?

I'm leaning toward maybe glossing over my stay in the Philippines by just telling the Chicago consulate something like "I have been a resident of Illinois for the past X years", which is true, from a legal standpoint.

On the other hand, I understand I need an NBI (Philippine FBI) clearance to leave, and I hope that will suffice to prove to Ecuador that I haven't been engaged in any particularly nefarious activities while here. Although then maybe I need that appostilled in the Philippines, and it might be more than ninety days old by the time I get to Ecuador.

Maybe it would be easier to lie gloss over things.

Bob

Hi Zen and congrats!  What was the minimum they required for the pensioners visa?  I've read many articles and they are never the same amt. so just curious since that is the type of visa I'd like to apply for.

It was $800.00 per month per a single person. If you have a single dependent, it goes up $ 100.00 per month. So, a couple would be $900.00 per month.
Hope this helps,
Neil

glossing is a good thing.

I understand your feeling of the Interpol route being a good option. Why in God's name does it need to be so... arbitrary? I was going to say, difficult, but it's really the whimsical, or arbitrary way they do things that gets frustrating.
I sat in the attorneys office when they were on the phone to the office in Cuenca asking for a clarification on the FBI, vs. State verification issue. The answer was: "depends upon who you deal with "  Well, that kinda sucks! Thus my decision to go to Quito, where it was cut and dry.
My passport is on a plane to Quito, where my facilitator will present it ( with my Power of Attorney ) for my final stamp!!
Life is Good!
Stay Well,
Neil

ZenSPIKE wrote:

Why in God's name does it need to be so... arbitrary? I was going to say, difficult, but it's really the whimsical, or arbitrary way they do things that gets frustrating.
I sat in the attorneys office when they were on the phone to the office in Cuenca asking for a clarification on the FBI, vs. State verification issue. The answer was: "depends upon who you deal with" Well, that kinda sucks!

It's interesting that things we hate in the US, we often hate the opposite in another country.

In the US, I often bitch about crazy bureaucrats who enforce rules to the letter, regardless of whether the rules make sense in a given situation (e.g., the frequent cases of kids being suspended from school for drawing a picture of a gun or (OMG!!) chewing a pop tart into the shape of a gun -- are these people insane?).

But then we go to another country (and I've experienced here the same things you're describing) and we see what happens when bureaucrats decide to enforce rules based on whether or not their spouses annoyed them this morning.

There has to be a middle ground.

I agree with your thinking Bob.
Like, here's a question. Why on God's green earth would Ecuador require a birth certificate, when the first document we present is the most sacred of all US documents, our passport..... that has our birthdate on it? I think perhaps they saw the redundancy in that, and it won't be a requirement going forward. Contrary to what a lot from the US believe, I don't think Ecuador tries to make it difficult to get your Visa. Hell, look what it takes to get one in the US. Don't know that I would pass with out some serious history brush up, and if I didn't speak English, I'd really be screwed.
So, if we look at the requirements for Ecuador to the US's requirements, it's not even close in the difficulty factor. Ecuador is strictly paperwork.
Stay Well,
Neil

Panda,
I don't know if your question regarding what was brought with us was directed to me, but in my case, I was really a light weight. I brought a carry on, computer bag, and 2 checked bags. That was it. Certainly, as friends visit, I'll try to get them to bring a bag of stuff in for me. Well worth the $ 70.00 fee for an extra bag to get some of the things I miss.
There are many retired teachers here..... teaching! You might want to research it. There have been many posts on this site regarding the subject. There is a certificate that one gets to be considered certified. I'm sure another teacher will see this and give you the info. Otherwise, just scroll through the past posts.
And don't even consider the thought of making friends in Ecuador, you'll meet ton's of great folks, foreign and domestic! < grin >
Good Luck in your travels
Neil

pandabear131 wrote:

I will be a retired school teacher when I get there, so I guess no jobs for me!

pandabear131, you don't say whether your "want" to continue teaching, or not. If you do, places are always looking to folks with TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certifications. Just Google TESOL and take a look.

Shoot, Groupon even has TESOL classes from time to time. I just looked and they have one right now for $69 for the 150 hour certification (reg $599). My wife went this route (for a 120 hour) certification. Took her a few months to complete, but while at an evening function we attended in Quito, she had two different job offers just from casually mentioning that she had completed her certification. One was in Manta and came with an apartment to live in. About a month later at another gathering at the language school we were attending, she got another offer to work in Cuenca.

So I would think that if you "wanted" to work, there would be an opportunity for you.

symo

pandabear131 wrote:

I just thought that if you were on a pensionare visa you could not work.

Whoops... we're going for the investment visa, and the pensioner aspect just failed to register.

However, good idea to check with your attorney for certainty, but since the pensioner visa is a resident visa, you should be able to work. A resident visa grants all the rights of a citizen except the right to vote. For that you need to get your cedula.

Neil can probably shed further light on this.

symo

ZenSpike,

Congratulations!  I hope my process goes as smoothly.

   Carlos  "El Gringo Bueno"

Carlos,
Thank You for the well wishes. I'm sure that all will go smoothly for you. It just takes a bit of effort up front. From reading your past posts, I'm sure you will be successful.
Best Wishes,
Neil

pandabear131 wrote:

Thanks, I looked into that, but am already ESL certified and finishing my last graduate class in TESOL, I just thought that if you were on a pensionare visa you could not work. I will always tutor-have general ed. experience and graduate degree in special ed. and Visual Impairment. Am teaching blind kids in public system in Houston. I just thought there were restrictions; best to just get there and see! I appreciate all the info. and time spent on your post-Thanks, Amber

You may want to have a look at this, Daves ESL Cafe, Latin American Forum:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewforum … a671b04b1e


....as Dave's goes overall, the General Latin American forum tends to be rather rather subdued....

Outstanding news, Neil!!!  Congrats.

Thanks Bryon,
I look forward to hooking up when you hit he ground. Keep me in the loop.
Best Wishes,
Nags