Once you have been in Ecuador for three years (from the date of your Cedula), you can apply for citizenship and get an Ecuadorian passport.
We have just successfully completed our application for Ecuadorian citizenship. And like with everything else, it wasn't easy. Here are the steps that we took.
Please be advised that this was our experience as of May, 2014. You will probably find a different set of rules when you decide to file your application.
All documents in English need to be translated into Spanish, and notarized. We used the services of Joseph Guznay in Quito who was amazing.
Here is his contact information:
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| Mike and Joseph |
Joseph Guznay
Email: josephguznay@gmail.com
Cell Phone: 098-747-3181
Documents Needed to Accompany Citizenship Application
Birth Certificate: If you were born in the U. S., get
an updated certified copy of your birth certificate from the County where you
were born and take the certified
copy to your Secretary of State to get it apostilled.
Passport: Color
copy of your passport front page and Visa page.
Ecuador Cedula: Color
copy of front and back of your Cedula.
Proof of Income: Copy
of your proof of income (social security, pensions, etc.), and copy
of your bank statement.
Ecuador Police Report: This
is the Certificado de Antecedentes Penales which shows you have not committed
any crimes while living in Ecuador. You can print this online from their website
at: www.ministeriodelinterior.gob.ec.
Ecuador Social Security Record: This
is the Certificado de Afiliacion and shows that you don’t owe any money to the
IESS (Instituto Ecuatoriano deSeguridad
Social). You can get this certificate from the IESS office in Cuenca on Gran Colombia near Hermano Miguel.
Registro Civil: You
go to the Registro Civil to get the Certificado Biometrico, which shows your
Cedula record with your fingerprints. The cost is $5.00. We went to the office in Cuenca located at Parque Luis
Cordero.
Tax Record: You
need to go to the SRI office in Cuenca to get a Certificado de No Inscripicion, which shows that
you don’t owe any back taxes. Also, you'll need to go to
the Municipio to get the La Tesorera Municipal Certifica, which states that you
don’t owe any property taxes (needed
even if you don’t own property). We went to the ETAPA office in Cuenca on 10 de Agosto, where there is a window for
this. Cost is $1.85.
Migratory Movement: Go to
the Policia de Migracion office in Cuenca on Eduardo Munoz, just off of Gran
Colombia. Here, you will get your Certificado
de Movimiento Migratorio, which shows your international traveling to and from
Ecuador. Cost is $5.
Passport Photos: We
went to Fuji Film in the Millennium Mall in Cuenca for our passport photos. You get 8 photos for $4.
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1. We went to the States and got a certified copy of our birth certificates, and then had them apostilled at the Secretary of State's office. (I think that you can do it by mail also.)
2. Our friend, Linda Gonzalez, drove us around for 2 days in Cuenca, getting all of the documents that we needed.
3. Then we called a courier service (that Joseph recommended) who will pick up your package and deliver it from Cuenca to Quito (door-to-door) within 24 hours for only $3!! Their name is Expocoe, and their land line in Cuenca
is 245-5337.
4. Joseph received all of our documents and went to work translating them, and getting them notarized for us. He also prepared our applications.
5. We flew to Quito to submit our applications with all of the documentation. Joseph met us at the Ministero de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio e Integraccion office at 1855 diez de Agosto in Quito (where he worked for three years so knows the ins-and-outs of the system there, which helps a lot!).
We went to the third floor and saw the lady who checked to make sure that we had all of the required documents and that they were filled out correctly. She speaks to you in Spanish and asks some very basic questions. When you answer correctly, she's satisfied that you are learning Spanish. Joseph thought that my Spanish was very good (but I don't think so yet!).
We are then seen by a second lady who enters all of the information into the computer and takes your picture. She then prints the form, and you are in the system.
6. We paid the first government fee of $200 for each application. When the process is completed, we'll pay the remaining fee of $500, making the total fee of $700 per application. We also paid Joseph $200, which is half of his fee. We'll pay him the remaining $200 when the process is completed.
Now we wait . . . Joseph will take care of publishing the required legal ads in the newspapers, which is not cheap.
We'll wait until Joseph tells us to come back to Quito to pick up our passports and pay the remaining fees (probably in about 8 months or so).
Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps you in your citizenship process!
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| Applications submitted! |
