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!

Sweet Success!

For someone who worked in banking, paperwork really was never that mysterious to me. I figured I pretty well had it all down. It's not rocket science; fill in all the blanks, follow the checklists and make sure that your 'i's' are dotted and your 't's' are crossed.

When it came to applying for residency we did our homework. We contacted the Ecuadorian Consulate in Montreal to determine what we needed and worked diligently at securing the required documents, translations, apostilizations and notarizations. We'd actually done quite well, except for a pesky timing issue. As previously mentioned some of our documents had "expired".

This is what we feel we've climbed during this process.

Well, what followed was an exercise in frustration. We were under the gun. To get new criminal record checks we had to have an Ecuadorian notary authenticate English documents and verify our identities. This is not an easy task. Once this was done, we had to arrange to have the criminal record checks sent through their process (notarized coloured copies, then sent to the DFAIT to be apostatized, then sent to the Consulate to have them legalized. Ridiculous.

Be forewarned, the largest challenge (assuming you're in Ecuador already) is arranging for couriers. In this day and age it's completely unacceptable that you cannot arrange for pick up and return delivery. We had to send documents to Canada (thank you generous and patient family members!) and then our family had to arrange to have documents sent to the required agencies and returned to them. Once back they returned them (via courier) to us. Yikes!

Never the less, we persevered, watched the clock (we were running out of time on our marriage certificate) and finally had our documents submitted successfully!

Giddy with success! (As giddy as Ron gets over anything.)

Wooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooo!  While there was some misunderstanding with the residency office, most of our stress and difficulty came for the whole courier problem.

It took four months (from when we attempted to first apply for residency) and the biggest cost was...you guessed it...courier fees.

If you want to see the documents required here's a link to my prior post: RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS (this is for residency based on pension income).

We are giddy with success, though there are still hurdles to jump, we hope that the course is smoother from here on in.

Lost In Translation! Trying to get residency. UPDATE - 16 Feb 2014 (in red text)

We've been here in Cuenca for almost three full months and it was early in the second week that we first visited the residency office.  We were feeling nervous and yet overly confident at the same time.  We'd been in contact with the Ecuadorian Consulate in Montreal for a stretch of time and felt that we had done our due diligence and had everything in order.

Boy were we wrong!  It seems that communication between the consulate and the immigration department is, well, let's say it's lacking.  (It doesn't help that requirements seem to change like the weather here.)  We had outdated items, missing items and items that were never required in the first place.  It was basically a debacle.  As mentioned in a previous blog, our marriage certificate was "expired", as were our criminal record checks.  Apparently, Ecuadorians have one piece of paper that shows everything on it, so there is a certain "timeliness" that comes with paperwork. Our system of certification is mysterious to them.

Anyhow, we were required to get new criminal record checks and a marriage certificate.  The girl (I can hardly call her a woman, as she it quite young) at the residency office kindly gave us a list of requirements and tried to explain where we had gone wrong.  This is difficult as our Spanish was negligible and her English, while fairly good, doesn't have the depth of vocabulary necessary to explain requirements in fine detail.  (I think she might disagree with me.)

So we ordered the required items, contacted the Ecuadorian Consulate in Montreal to get the paper work we were missing and spent a fairly obscene amount of money on couriers etc. (You can't get postage paid return courier envelopes here in Ecuador, so we had to use a family "emissary" to at on our behalf.)

Round two: despite horrendous delays with our DHL package, we finally received our paperwork back; notarized and apostilled and we headed down to the residency office once again.  Nope, still wrong.  Some of the new documents weren't legalized. (Despite the paper she provided us stating that it wasn't necessary.)  So we've now couriered (using UPS this time) documents back to the Ecuadorian Consulate in Montreal once again,via our long suffering emissary.  Sigh.  (There's also a tricky issue with a 1x2 inch stamp on the back of our criminal record checks, which I'm not sure whether we've fixed or not.) 

Bottom line, here's what you currently need to get your pensioners visa as a Canadian (I would assume that this also applies to other countries)  Please note THIS MAY CHANGE RAPIDLY AND FREQUENTLY so don't be surprised  if you need something else down the road:

1. Your passport must be valid for more than 6 months

2. You will need colour copies of your passport picture page, your entry visa and registration of visa (the copies need to be notarized by an Ecuadorian notary...not a notary in Canada) Good news is that the notary only charges $1 per page. (I will also note that our checklist specifies a Cuencano notary.)

3. Criminal record checks (at this point in time you have somewhere between 90-180 days from the date it's printed before it expires - this is a hotly debated issue and I can't find anything in writing to confirm anything more specific)

     a) the original criminal record check need to be legalized by the Ecuadorian Consulate in Canada (ECinC) closest to you

     b) the criminal record check also needs to be copied (preferably in colour...do front and back!), this copy must be notarized and then sent to the DFAIT (Department of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Transportation) to be apostilled.  (A happy red stamp that takes approximately 15 business day to get back once the DFAIT receives it.) Trust me, it will take at least the full 15 days. 

    c)you must also have the notarized, apostilled colour copy of the criminal record check legalized by the Ecuadorian Consulate

    d)The notarized, apostilled copy needs to be translated either by an approved translator in Canada and also legalized by the consulate or you can have the document translated here in Ecuador (I'm unclear on whether the Ecuadorian Consulate in Canada will legalize a document without a translation)

4. Certificate of Migratory Movement (certificado de movimiento migratorio) which you get here in Ecuador.  These are only valid for 30 days.

5. Proof of your retirement income from whomever is supplying it (we had a company letter)  This also need steps a through d in item 3.

     a) In addition (I believe because funds are in Canadian dollars) you will also require a "Protocolizacion" this is a letter from the ECinC that verifies that it meets the dollar requirements of a pensioner visa, this is accompanied usually by a copy or the original letter

6. For women only, or so I believe, a Marriage Certificate (this cannot be more than 120 days from the date it was printed)  This needs to follow the same procedure as your criminal record check including apostillization!

7. Letter of Request (in Spanish) they give you a letter sample when you register your visa (if you do so).  It includes your personal information and reason for wanting to live in Ecuador.  The letter must be dated for the day you submit your application at the residency offices.

8. Application this is available on the Ecuadorian government website.  Do NOT date the application or sign it until you're in the office. 

These documents need to be presented in the order listed on the check list.  (Items 7 & 8 actually come first in the process.)   You will likely have to get several sets of coloured copies of various things, so keep small bills ready, you will also have to buy a file for the residency office to keep your documents in. (They keep the file that you have to buy.)

Hope this helps in some way! We'll let you know if anything else comes up after we go in for attempt 3...it's supposed to be the charm.