Help obtaining a visa

Contact gringovisas.com service
They will email you the rates
We are.doing it now based on college degrees but we want to enter ecuador on tourist visa and then change it  after filling our degrees with local agency
Gringo visa service can do all fillings for you and you pick up visa in US

Is that with Maite Duran?  Can you tell me how to check her company out?  Why are you going on the other visa instead of waiting for the resident?

Next23 wrote:

Is that with Maite Duran?  Can you tell me how to check her company out?

If it's Gringo Visas, that's Maite Duran's company.

They claim -- and I have no reason to doubt this -- that they are the only EC visa company with offices both in Ecuador and the United States, and thus they can process the residency visa for pickup at your nearest EC consulate in the U.S.  It can then be registered when you get to Ecuador, with the company's assistance.

Although the pickup is at a consulate, the consulates in the U.S. do not accept applications directly from applicants in the U.S.  So, as I understand it, you apply with Gringo Visas in the U.S., they process the visa in Ecuador, then you pick up the visa in the U.S. before leaving for Ecuador.

You can read up on what Gringo Visas' customers have to say about the service at the GringoTree website.   I'm not saying this is a journalistically unbiased site, but at least you get to see comments from about 20 previous customers.

The company is based in Cuenca, with offices in Quito, and in Connecticut, USA.

You can google:  gringo visas maite duran gringotree

-- cccmedia in Quito

Have you checked out Ecuador visas with Sara Chaca ?  I am speaking with both.  Has anyone used Sara with Ecuador visas?

Oscar Valenzuela  is an experienced attorney and has helped several expats with their visas,  he helped us with the process to obtain our Ecuadorian citizenship and were very pleased with his services.  Another plus is that he speaks English and can communicate with you via email to get the process started.  His rates a very reasonable compared to other attorneys. 
Here is his contact information, feel free to contact him.  Good Luck

Oscar Valenzuela
011-593-99-890-2890
Oscar Valenzuela Morales <[email protected]>

Thanks, I just emailed him.

I contacted the Ecuadorian Consulate helpline from Ottawa, my home, and talked to the guy.  Both the Consulate website and the helpline guy say that all documents must be professionally translated prior to legalization by DFAIT (Canada' Dept  of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Dev.).  Have you other folks experienced that you had to get a Professional translator for this?  I had hoped to just ask my Latino friends to do it.

Secondly, the helpline guy said that I do NOT need the documents to be notarized by a notary prior to being legalized by Canada's DFAIT.  This is contrary to what the consular website says..  So I am going to have the documents (photocopies of originals) certified first anyway.

They said that, for the cedula, which comes of course after the residency visa, that all a widow needs is the husband's death certificate.  I would think that they would also want the marriage certificate, since otherwise why would I even bother to tell them I am a widow?  Maybe I should just indicate that I am single?

Advice?

Helen Pivoine

Helen Pivoine wrote:

I contacted the Ecuadorian Consulate helpline from Ottawa, my home, and talked to the guy.  Both the Consulate website and the helpline guy say that all documents must be professionally translated prior to legalization by DFAIT.  Have you other folks experienced that you had to get a Professional translator for this?  I had hoped to just ask my Latino friends to do it....

They said that, for the cedula, which comes of course after the residency visa, that all a widow needs is the husband's death certificate.  I would think that they would also want the marriage certificate, since otherwise why would I even bother to tell them I am a widow?  Maybe I should just indicate that I am single....

If the consulate site and the helpline guy both say to get the professional translation done, Helen, I'd say do it.  It seems unlikely that a comment from anybody on this blog could trump two official sources.

"Maybe I should just indicate that I am single"...

A tempting thought, but don't do it.  If a database or a document produces true facts contrary to your declaration, the consequences could be unpleasant.  Just get the marriage certificate or any other docs they request.

cccmedia in Quito

If the visa process gets complicated early on, it's likely it will be complicated later.

There's no shame in doing what over 90 percent of Expat visa-applicants do -- get professional help.

Visa facilitators and experienced immigration attorneys are working on this stuff all the time, unlike most Expats, who have a thousand other things to attend to...and don't need the tsuris.

Peace of mind is worth a lot...and hiring a visa pro is recommended for anybody who can afford it.   Not including, of course, the special 8 percent who  fearlessly and successfully can navigate a complex, Spanish-language bureaucracy on their own without encountering the usual angst.

cccmedia in Quito

See the following Testimonials from Attorney & Abogada, Sara Chaca's "Ecuador Visas" website and she can also get you your Visa BEFORE you arrive to Ecuador if desired by you which is called the "Visa Via-Cable" option and she has a USA office in Sarasota, Florida as well for ease of processing your Residency Visa (she does everything and quite well by the way, Visas, Containers, Real Estate Transactions, Opens Businesses, Drivers Licenses and Health Insurance, Wills & Living Wills, etc.) – simply just click on or paste the following link into your web browser, as is a most impressive set of very lengthy Client Testimonials to say the least (I was super-duper happy with her myself!): ecuadorvisas.com/testimonials/

Good advice, cccMedia,


and I have a line on a professional translator.

Thanks!

Helen Pivoine

@ Helen Pivoine > Do not hesitate to recommend these translators in the business directory.

Thanks

Priscilla

Priscilla,

This would be a translator living in Ottawa, Canada, not Ecuador.

HelenP

I came on a tourist visa in July of 2014, then got a six month extension.  During that time, I made a lot of mistakes and had a lot of unnecessary stress trying to manage the visa process on my own.  I definitely recommend hiring someone.  You will save money in the long run.  I don't know anything about Gringo Visas, but I had a wonderful attorney who did absolutely everything for me.  I paid him $500 for his services on top of approximately $400 in various ministry fees. He got my degrees apostilled, ran background checks, delivered documents to various ministries, etc.  It took about six weeks and I now have a cedula and permanent residence.  His name is Joseph Guznay and he can be reached at [email protected]

What is a  "Visa Via-Cable" option?

Oscar Valenzuela - No, not a good idea.  I contacted this guy and received an email in perfect English.  Everything looked reasonable.  So I asked him a couple questions.  His first email was obviously a template someone created for him who knew how to speak English.  His reply to my questions were barely understandable, some not at all, plus he said I owed him $50 for answering a few logical simple question like how did he want to get paid.  I don't care where you are from you do not charge someone a fee without telling them up front what it is going to cost them.