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All I can tell you is that I know some Colombians married to Ecuadorians with kids who applied for the "amparo" residency visa and it took them 10 months. Hope that helps!

thanks a lot for your reply!

I have decided to resuscitate this four-year-old thread because its title is as good as any for this post.

The questions here are as follows...

If an Expat resident of Ecuador overstays his time out-of-country, will he be denied re-entry at the airport?
What will happen to his residency visa at the airport when the overstay is discovered?

An experienced immigration attorney has just provided me with answers....

The Expat will not immediately be turned out of Ecuador and will be allowed to continue to his home in La República.

When the Expat renews his passport and desires to have his permanent-residency visa transferred to the valid new passport, he will be denied the transfer and will be informed that he has lost his visa rights.  To restore visa privileges, the Expat would have to start the visa application process all over again.

Source:  Oscar Valenzuela-Morales, Quito immigration attorney
              email: oscar(at)valenzuelamorales-abogados.com


I suspect that the Expat could also be informed of the violation if traveling outside Ecuador again.  It could be up to the discretion of on-duty agents as to whether the Expat's next entry into Ecuador would have to be on a tourist-stamp or non-immigrant visa.

Residency visa holders are limited to 90 days outside Ecuador in the first 365 days of visa validity .. 90 additional days in the second 365-day period .. and an aggregate of 18 months in the subsequent five years.  These timelines were confirmed by Sr. Valenzuela-Morales.

cccmedia in Quito

Hey buddy. I can add this if it helps.

I am Canadian but arrived on my British passport so I did a residency visa on that. I chose the investors Visa , so a little different...far more complicated.
I managed to start a limited company and get it registered so that I would have all the documents I needed for the residency. I read it at the time that it would take at least three months to do that and I didn't have that much time, but luckily most my friends here are Ecuadorian and with their generous help I managed to get the business registered and legal within 6 weeks. Then I took the docs in to immigration.

Once you start the process they're cool. Even if your current visa will expire before you get the residency...they seem to make it so once you are in the process...you're good.

I didn't even notice till a couple weeks later that an email from immigrations had arrived in my junk folder. They had approved my visa in about 3 weeks I think it was...might have been as long as 5. Anyway it was so fast I wasn't even looking into it.

I paid no lawyers except for obvious stuff like writing the company constitucion...no way around that. But as far as paying for actual help with the residency.... cero centavitos.

My friend at the time (American) was also going to do the same residency visa. However, he had a child with his COLOMBIAN girlfriend, but because his child was born in Ecuador, he got automatic residency. It was a cheap enough and simple enough process for him.

You need anymore help, fire away and I will look into it for you. It all helps me build a site that I wish had been there when I was going through all this so that I didn't have to sive through so much terribly inaccurate forum information...Bad information is DANGEROUS stuff! Especially when you are looking at potentially getting kicked out of a country if you do it wrong.

By the way, did you know that the OFFICIAL government stance on being in the country illegally after your visa expires is ...well...nnot at all illegal!?!?!

Now, I haven't looked into this again for 2 years, but at that time the OFFICIAL government big wig who was allowed to make bold statements regarding such things, said as much.

If your visa expires, you ahve to be out of the country for 9 months before you can return. BUT, if you stay IN the country for years AFTER it has expired, when you finally do leave, the fines and penalties??...the same. Nothing, you just can't come back in for 9 months. Now THAT is a pretty kind immigration policy if you ask me!!!

But do bear in mind, though accurate at the time, I haven't considered it since.

Once sorted, perhaps the newlyweds will want to buy one of my oceanfront apartments in Playas in the future (shameless self promotion)

Any questions about anything Ecuador though, Check out my Facebook page "Moving to Ecuador"
Or the in construction , slowly but surely website, it is linked to. I have only just begun postin the info I have gathered over the years and to be honest I have very little time to do a lot on it right now with my current building project, ut it is sincerely in my nature to lend a hand...so rest assured it will grow and grow to be a wealth of helpful info for people such as you or I.

Whenever I have a chance to help someone with a question such as yours, I will try to post ONLY THE OFFICIAL AND ACCURATE INFO!!!

The Apartments , are to be seen at facebook  Sherlock Homes Ecuador which is link to the official website

Hope this is of some help and aside from a little promotion of the "helping others page" and my apartments for sale.With all seriousness, though I am a very busy beaver these days, I have been here now for 3 and a half years...and I have learned a lot of stuff.
There are a lot of pitfalls that can be easily avoided...and equal measures of inaccurate info out there on gringo forums to help you fall into them!

Via either of the above websites...(via facebook in case we can't post links here)...you will find my personal email  or you can message me with your further questions.

Take care and good luck with it.

Greg Fidler
General Manager
Sherlock Homes Ltd.

Non-Immigrant Extension Visa For USA-Ecuador Serial Expats.

Poster gringosconnect and I had a PM messaging conversation on this topic and he is allowing me to discuss here on the forum the issues we covered.

For USA citizens such as gringosconnect who haven't decided on a permanent residency in Ecuador and would like to avoid unnecessary permanent-visa requirements, they can still stay most of the year in Ecuador on a repeatable two-part method...

1.  Get the customary, no-cost T-3 Tourist Stamp at UIO or GYE airport, good for 90 days in Ecuador.

2.  Extend an additional 180 days on a Non-Immigrant Visa Extension for a fee.

The process can be repeated in Years 2, 3 and beyond, starting on the one-year anniversary date of the issuance of the original tourist stamp.

An Expat can handle the extension on his or her own, especially in metro Cuenca, but in Quito or Guayaquil a facilitator or attorney could make life easier for anyone who prefers to keep life simple when the EC bureaucracy is involved.

Timing the extension for maximum days in Ecuador is what I consider "inside baseball" since there's the question of whether there would be an overlap between the T-3 and the extension.  Outside Cuenca or the new metro-Cuenca office north of that city, this inside stuff is often best interpreted for Expats by a facilitator or an attorney.

Here are some recommended professionals:

Guayaquil and the coast:  facilitator Profesora Dana Cameron
    email:  Dana.Visas(at)gmail.com

Quito and the coast:  attorney Sebastian Cordero
    email:  scordero(at)gcabogados.com

  -- cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Non-Immigrant Extension Visa For USA-Ecuador Serial Expats.

Poster gringosconnect and I had a PM messaging conversation on this topic and he is allowing me to discuss here on the forum the issues we covered.

For USA citizens such as gringosconnect who haven't decided on a permanent residency in Ecuador and would like to avoid unnecessary permanent-visa requirements, they can still stay most of the year in Ecuador on a repeatable two-part method...

1.  Get the customary, no-cost T-3 Tourist Stamp at UIO or GYE airport, good for 90 days in Ecuador.

2.  Extend an additional 270 days on a Non-Immigrant Visa Extension for a fee.

The process can be repeated in Years 2, 3 and beyond, starting on the one-year anniversary date of the issuance of the original tourist stamp.

An Expat can handle the extension on his or her own, especially in metro Cuenca, but in Quito or Guayaquil a facilitator or attorney could make life easier for anyone who prefers to keep life simple when the EC bureaucracy is involved.

Timing the extension for maximum days in Ecuador is what I consider "inside baseball" since there's the question of whether there would be an overlap between the T-3 and the extension.  Outside Cuenca or the new metro-Cuenca office north of that city, this inside stuff is often best interpreted for Expats by a facilitator or an attorney.

Here are some recommended professionals:

Guayaquil and the coast:  facilitator Profesora Dana Cameron
    email:  Dana.Visas(at)gmail.com

Quito and the coast:  attorney Sebastian Cordero
    email:  scordero(at)gcabogados.com

  -- cccmedia in Quito

Don't you mean in #2 an extension of 180 days for 270 days total?

Yes, I meant 180 days.  Thanks for noticing and reporting that.

I have now corrected the original report.

The Cheese Desk regrets the error.

cccmedia in Quito

Hey Patrick
I'm still a 'wanabe' residing near Edmonton A.B. Canada. I received an email last night from an attorney in Quito who stated the following:
Once translated papers are all in order and in Gov. hands,- 30 to 35 days and you should have them.
His fee is $ 850.00
bill

Lonecowboy wrote:

I'm still a 'wanabe' residing near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I received an email last night from an attorney in Quito who stated the following:
Once translated papers are all in order and in Gov. hands,- 30 to 35 days and you should have them.
His fee is $ 850.00

Dear Cowboy Bill,

The weather.com forecast for Edmonton on February 11th and 12th is snow showers with a high 17-19 degrees F.  (3 degrees Celcius*.)  So come on down.  It's 68 F. (20 C.) daily in Quito, year-round.

I see in your profile that you and your Mejicana wife are splitting from the frozen tundra soon.  If not now, make sure it's before the next Canadian winter.

The attorney's timeline you posted tells us the 90-day tourist-stamp you'll be getting should be plenty of time to get your residency visa processed.  Just make sure to get your pension certification and other paperwork in order.

cccmedia in Quito

*Update:  This Celsius conversion is not accurate.  A correction / explanation appears in Report #12 of this thread, below.

cccmedia wrote:

Lonecowboy wrote:

I'm still a 'wanabe' residing near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I received an email last night from an attorney in Quito who stated the following:
Once translated papers are all in order and in Gov. hands,- 30 to 35 days and you should have them.
His fee is $ 850.00

Dear Cowboy Bill,

The weather.com forecast for Edmonton on February 11th and 12th is snow showers with a high 17-19 degrees F.  (3 degrees Celcius.)  So come on down.  It's 68 F. (20 C.) daily in Quito, year-round.

I see in your profile that you and your Mejicana wife are splitting from the frozen tundra soon.  If not now, make sure it's before the next Canadian winter.

The attorney's timeline you posted tells us the 90-day tourist-stamp you'll be getting should be plenty of time to get your residency visa processed.  Just make sure to get your pension certification and other paperwork in order.

cccmedia in Quito

17-19F = 3C?  Please recompute

Re-calculating, updating and correcting the temperatures currently forecast at weather.com for February 11-12 in Edmonton, Alberta...

February 11:  high of 19 degrees F. or -7 C.

February 12:  high of 20 degrees F. or -6.7 C.

The low on February 11 is forecast at 3 F. or -16 C.  The 3 degrees earlier reported from the weather.com site actually referred to the forecast's Fahrenheit low for Feb. 11th, not a conversion to Celcius. 

Thank you, mugtech, for catching this mistake.

The Cheese Desk regrets the error.

cccmedia in Quito

Well guys
It's not exactly the 'frozen tundra' but after working 58 years I'm ready for almost anything. 30 to 35 C in Merida, Yucatan  last winter was a bit much but it sure beat winter in Alberta (by the way - The Most Beautiful province of Canada!).
I need to obtain laser surgery for cataracts as soon as eligible. any ideas on the time frame involved CC ? I'd like to get an accurate discription of just how to go about getting one's own doctor and still be covered under the IESS for dental etc. I plan to be in Quito about a week. Could we plan to meet ? Do you know lawyer Santiago Andrade ? ?
Getting ichy feet !
as ever
Lonecowboy