Getting an Ecuador Visa

Although, in the last couple of years, improvements have been set to speed things up in certain immigration formalities, it's still a good idea to plan ahead! It's not a good idea to be in front of an agent from the Ecuadorian Immigration Services without having a fair knowledge of the type of Visa or Residency status you want to obtain. 

The problem is not so much about rules and regulations. It has to do with the people working for this government entity and their lack of knowledge ultimately leading to your frustration. You'll probably won't get a straight answer to your questions or you might get a different answer from one agent to another.

 Most retirees or expats obtain an investment or  a retirement visa. There are some restrictions with these type of visas, and one of them is that you can't be out of the country for more than 90 days with in a 24 month period, and this happened to the wife of one of my friends!a few months back! She can't return for a certain period of time... 

When you apply for a retirement visa, be prepared to provide lots of paperwork, originals and certified copies (in some cases notarized and apostilled), and translated to Spanish. The documents include but are not limited to, Birth Certificates, Marriage Licenses, Certified Bank Letters that guarantee your retirement income and expect to pay anywhere in an average of $2000 in attorney fees.

Expect some issues when obtaining an Investment Visa, specially if you are planning to buy Real Estate.  To qualify for this visa, you need to invest and maintain a minimum of $25,000 in a bank if single, and $1000 per each dependent, so, if you have a family of three, then you need $27,000. Just like a retirement type visa, you need to provide with all the necessary paperwork. You can also qualifying for an Investor's visa buying  real estate. But the problem you may run into is that in order to qualify for an Investor's visa you need to provide the immigration services with the deed to the property you are acquiring, and, there have been numerous incidents were it turns into a nightmare to obtain the Deed Certificates eating up the time that you have been allowed to stay in the country legally. 

I sell real estate for a living, and I want you to hire me to be your agent but this is one of these circumstances where if you decide to get an investors or retirement visa, I will have to recommend you to rent first, and, I can help you with that as well. 

Ecuador is a beautiful country, and renting will give you the opportunity to find out if Ecuador is right for you. 

Meanwhile, we can go and look at some potential properties while you decide... 

But, if you are ready and decided about buying a piece of real estate.... You might want to consider a Corporation Visa or a Work Visa The corporation visa takes about 2 months to obtain. 

As a business entity, a corporation  does not need a visa, the visa is for the person who's behind the corporation. 

The requirement is that 1% of the shares of a corporation must be owned by an Ecuadorian citizen. The corporation must have a Manager to whom you'll pay the minimum wage, currently around $340 a month plus all the benefits required by law . You file 0 on your tax forms without penalty as long as you file on time, or you can hire the services of an accountant to file for you for less than $50 a month. You will need to assign a single transaction power of attorney(meaning that the power of attorney is only for the purpose of entitling one person to act in your behalf to form a corporation and no more)  whom you are going to send the necessary documentation to start a corporation in Ecuador.

 Later on, you can apply for an Investors or Retirement Visa.  

The advantages of the Corporation visa:

• It costs about $1,500 to $2,000 for attorney fees  
• You don't have traveling restrictions as for the Investors or Retirement Visas
• You can purchase real estate, and as soon as you get your deed you can apply for an Investor's visa
• It is not a resident visa, meaning that if you decide not to stay, you can sell/transfer your Corporation to someone else and Chao!

Oh! by the way, if you need an Ecuadorian Immigration Lawyer or documents translated from any language to other language in more than 40 languages, notarized and certified,  shoot me an email at ivangolfer78@gmail.com with a PDF file of the documents to by translated and I will send you a quote within 48 hours. You can find additional contact information even a a local US number where you can call me by clicking HERE

I'll see you when you get here!
Ivan Moncayo