Cedula's Achieved!

It is with much relief and a certain amount of satisfaction that we finally have our cedulas. There were some interesting hurdles, one being that Ron's town of birth was not "in their system". It took them 5 hours and a call to Guayaquil to fix the issue. It's something to have that little green card in our possession, as we've been working for 6 months to attain it.

Things to know about the process: you may have to go to the oficina de extranjera a couple of times to get your actual Visa in your passport and then complete the paperwork for your cedula. You will be asked to fill in a single sided form (in Spanish) without error. This is practically impossible, but small errors will be accepted. Really really really double check everything that is entered in to the computer, if there is any error, you will have to go back to the foreigner office to get corrections, which will delay the process. (More about that in a second.)

At the oficina de extranjera you will need:
     You're original passport with residency visa
     Original birth certificate
     Colour copies of your passport photo page and residency visa
     Colour copy of your birth certificate
     (There seems to be no need for translations)

They will issue you a colour print out including the information from the aforementioned form and will ask you to verify the information on the print out. Once verified you will sign it and for the most part that will be that with the foreign office. It takes approximately 6 working days for the information to be transferred from the first office to the Oficina Civil, which actually issues the cedula. (In our case, it took longer as there was delay due to change of authority after the recent election - an extra 8 days, not including the 6 days to correct a typo.)

While waiting, you'll need to get that form you filled in notarized, which costs about $14 give or take. You will need another colour copy of your passport photo page and residency visa, plus the notarized document confirming the information on the personal information form you filled in at the oficina extranjera.

Once you arrive (after the 6 days of waiting) you go to the desk that states "verificacion de extranjera" and they will double check all of the information to make sure it matches. (This is where we got hung up as a letter was missing from a parents' middle name.) Once everything checked out we went to the cashier and paid $5 per person and were given a number. When called, we provided confirmation of the information to be entered in to the system, signature, favourite colour, whether we wanted to be organ donors or not and finally a photo and finger prints. (Tip: you have to press your fingers VERY hard on to the scanner.)

About a half hour or so later a very nice person calls your name and VOILA, you get your cedula. No problem!