Ecuador Visa Update: Must Read Information
Just this past week, the Ecuador Immigration office issued new Ecuador visa guidelines. We reviewed this information with our attorney, Jimmy Penafiel, who works in the Legal Department for the government of Ecuador.
When you arrive in Ecuador now with just a passport, you will receive a 90 day T-3 visa. This visa is non-renewable, unless you leave the country prior to the expiration date. If you leave the country, (for example, go on a trip to Peru), when you return you will get an additional 30 days, which is renewable in-country every 30 days for a total of an additional 90 days. At the end of this time, (180 days total), you cannot return to Ecuador for 6 months.
You can get around this new regulation if you want to stay for a complete six months, but it costs money and can be a hassle. You can apply for either a commercial visa 12-IX or a tourist visa, 12-X at the Ecuadorian consulate in your home country. Jimmy said that a commercial visa is a good visa to get if you are contemplating staying on a permanent residency visa. This is also good if you intend to export goods from Ecuador
This will involve a fee in the vicinity of $200, as well as certain documentation, such as a police report, a health certificate showing you do not have any communicable diseases, and perhaps a marriage license. Check with the consulate to determine exactly what paperwork you need to have. You must also show an on-going ticket out of the country.
IMPORTANT
If you intend to get a residency visa, the new regulations state that you need to get this 12-X or 12-IX visa prior to arriving in Ecuador, then make your application for a residency visa once here.
Many changes are happening in the Ecuador Visa Immigration department right now. Many of the immigration attorneys are upset at the new regulations because it is costing them clients, and they are complaining. These regulations can change on very short notice, so it is a good idea to keep abreast of the current regulations if you are contemplating a trip or especially an extended visit to Ecuador.
Be forewarned: Often the Ecuadorian Consulates do not have up-to-date information in the newest regulations. We try to stay as current as possible, so stay tuned to this blog and www.pro-Ecuador.com.
Click on this link to take you to an article on the Ecuador immigration department website giving a brief explanation of the new regulations. It is in Spanish only.
Filed under: About Ecuador, Ecuador Laws, Ecuador Residency Visa, Moving to Ecuador
Good additions to the newsletter. I know it is difficult as Mark and I have been trying to get ours up and running and it is much more difficult than we thought. We will keep reading to see how this particular item chages (or not) between now and next summer when we plan to return.
Miss you guys,
Joan and Lisa
If you visit Cotacachi for 3-weeks, do you need a Visa for that period? I’ll only be one night in Quito?
When you arrive in Quito, customs will stamp your passport with a T-3 visa stamp giving you 90 days in country. This is an automatic procedure, and you need to do nothing other than show up at customs with your passport.
Make sure that your passport has at least 6 months validity remaining “from the date of your expected departure from Ecuador.”
They may ask you to show an onward ticket.
Have a good trip,
Gary Phillips
Good update info. Thank you guys.
Regarding residency visas and the 90 day visitor visa, if we come down for about 30 days, leave and then return to take up permanent residence within 6 months after that date, would we only deal with the 12-X of 12-IX visa application on our second arrival? Would we be subject to the not returning for the next six months or does that only apply if you are in and out and in on the original T-3 visa?
Is there any hidden surprises with the residency visa when you do apply or is it just routine paperwork (assuming all the other niceties are in place - clean bill of health, police record etc?)
Would rather not sell our property here, be in the moving process and then find a roadblock to getting a residency visa once we arrived there.
Thanks
Hi Geoff,
Yes, you would only then need to deal with the 12-x or 12-IX on your return, when you are ready to get your residency visa.
You can be in country for 6 months out of a year, with the year beginning on the date of your first arrival in country.
The residency visa is fairly simple if all your paperwork is in order. It does take some time, and sometimes several trips to Quito, depending on the skill of your attorney.
As stated above, rules can change quickly, so it is good to check the latest shortly before you come.
Hi Gary,
First of all, thanks for a great website. Lots of interesting information!
Regarding the T3-visa you mention and the option of leaving the country before your 90 days are up, and then getting 30 new days when re-entering Ecuador (up to a total of 180 days), is this the standing regulation by now?
I think it is interesting that you mentioned that the local Ecuadorian Consulates might not always be 100% up to date. We checked with the consulate in London today and they told us that 90 days was all we could get, nothing more, very confusing? I for one of course hope that now it is possible to stay longer by leaving to Peru and then return back to Ecuador. We are planning a trip to Ecuador and would prefer to stay 4-5 months (the 12-IX will take too long, so that isn’t an option).
Best regards,
Jacob
Hi Jacob,
Yes, another client also told us that they got completely different information from the consulate when they called.
I am getting another update from our attorney in a few days, but basically, as I understand it, the rules are the same: get a 90 day T-3 visa automatically when you enter the country, leave before the 90 days are up to Columbia or Peru, (or any place for that matter) get an additional 30 or possibly 90 days when you return.
If you only get 30 days, then it is easily renewable two more times without leaving the country again. After 180 days, you cannot come back into the country for another six months.
Thanks a lot, Gary.
I am hoping you will share the next update from your attorney with us. This is a very interesting topic indeed!
Best regards,
Jacob
Please let me know if you have any feedback from anyone that has entered Peru and came back allowing them to get a 30 day stay with the option of renewing for another 30 days. Also, please tell me if you know how long one has to stay in Peru before going back to Ecuador. I’ve read some terrible things about Huaquillas and would like to cross the border and return to Ecuador as soon as possible. Thank you. I lived 10 years in Ecuador and left 8 yrs ago. I know things have changed a lot and am a little quesy about the alerts from the embassy about the crime and don’t want to get away from Loja for longer than necessary. Just an old lady renewing some wonderful times and memories. Thank you so much. Love your site. Lorene Kraft
Thank you for this information. It has been quite challenging to find up to date information on the tourist visa situation and many people are confused and worried. I recently arrived in Ecuador and was told be a fellow traveler that if you left the country during your initial 90 day tourist visa that you would not be let back in, or given another visa (of any length) unless you had left Ecuador for 6 months. I found information similar to this on another website:
“If you’re an expat and you haven’t heard the bad news yet, sit down to read this. If you’re planning a trip to Ecuador, READ THIS NOW: there is a new director of the department that issues visas for the Ecuadorian national government. As of July 15, all persons who have entered Ecuador on or after June 20 are unable to procure ANY kind of visa from within Ecuador. Tourist visas still last 90 days, but after that they expire with no possibility of renewal. You must leave the country for 6 months in order to return with a new tourist visa. There are also no volunteer, cultural exchange, journalist, work, or other visas granted from within the country. You must leave Ecuador to procure any kind of visa. If you overstay your visa, you will be charged at least $200 upon leaving the country, and run the risk of having trouble re-entering later”
I had trouble believing this and would really make me change my plans. I plan to travel to Peru, Chile and Argentina for about 3 months (not 6) and then back to Ecuador for my return flight. I was worried that I would have trouble re entering the country.
From the information you have provided it seems that this other website may not be completely wrong, but failed to include the 30 day visa option upon return, which would be more than sufficient for my needs. It may also be that the regulations are changing so often that this information was just out of date. Thanks again and keep us updated if you know of any changes.
Sincerely,
Britton Layman
First I am going to respond to Lorene above. I do not know of anyone who has recently actually went to Peru and returned to get a new visa. But one reader will be making the trip in a couple of weeks, and I hope he will report his experience.
However I did hear from our attorney today who said that when you leave Ecuador before your first 90 day T-3 visa has expired, when you return, you will be issued a new 90 day visa. When this visa has expired, you cannot get another visa for six months. It is basically an over the border and back. No requirement to stay out for any length of time.
I passed through the border at Huaquillas a few years ago and it was quite miserable and unsafe. I would not suggest that you do it alone, or at all if you can make other plans.
From reading various blogs, it seems as if it is still that way. The border at Macara’ seems to be much easier. Check out this post:
http://tinyurl.com/6zu6gh
Regarding the information from Britton’s post, there was a new director of immigration that came in and lasted about three weeks (or so) during that time. She caused lots of havoc, but immigration attorneys all over the country complained loudly and she was replaced.
As I have said many times, things change quickly here. The time to check out visa details is when you are ready to make some kind of move. Then try to get as close to the source (immigration) as you can get.
In this moment, we have a good contact in immigration. That can change at any time. Don’t read this post six months from now (Oct. 30th) and accept it as gospel, and don’t read the July 15th post quoted above and make your plans according to it.
Successful travel requires in the moment planning and a willingness to adjust and adapt to changing situations. Sometimes you may get it wrong, but my experience is that those times can offer some of the most exciting adventures of all. Have fun with it.
Best,
Gary
Thanks to everyone for the info. I chickened out and am sending for the 6month. A very nice man at the embassy in DC said he would get it for me.I will check when I get there and if I have concrete info will contact this lovely site. Thanks so much. Lorene kraft
Friend A tried to renew a T-3 visa and was told by Migracion that it is not possible, that she must leave and could not come back on a T-3 visa for 9 months. It was not renewable, for any length of time, not by leaving and returning or any other way.
The so-called 6 month tourist visa costs way more than stated above. The fee itself is $200, non-refundable application fee is $30, every document will cost $10-$50 per page to get legalized, and if you don’t speak Spanish very well, you will have to pay a lawyer to deal with a very unhelpful beauracracy.
I was quoted from $250-$1500 by lawyers for help with this. Friend B went this route and also had to pay an extra $200 because the lawyer did not submit the paperwork on time and the original visa ran out before the new one was granted. I say “so-called” regarding the 6 month tourist visa because this same friend was told he would get 6 months but when the visa came, they had subtracted the time spent in Ecuador on the first visa, and that left him with only 60 days in return for the approximately $800 it cost him to get it.
One more fact: to change visa status, you must submit the new application at least 30 days before your current visa expires. And in Ibarra at least, I was told that it isn’t good enough to apply for any visa from outside Ecuador, say, from Peru or Colombia; that you must do it all from your home country. So, if you get caught up in these changes after you are in Ecuador, add the costs of flying home and staying there for the months it will take to get a response and correct the inadequacies that inevitably crop up, to your visa costs.
I have had friends whose Spanish is pretty good try to do this themselves and they found complete uncooperation from the offices they had to deal with. They ended up paying lawyers a lot of money to get through this.
Hi Gary-
I lived in ecuador from february 2008-November 2008. In August I added 3 months with a 12-9. I have been in Colombia since November, and I would now like to return to Ecuador. However, it has not been 6 months since i left. What can I do to enter Ecuador again before the 6 months? And what is likely to happen at the border if I just try to re-enter?
Thanks,
Joel
This is a good case in point about the luck of the draw (see my comment on Ecuador Visas–One families experience)
First, there is no way you should have received a 12-IX visa in August, because the law says you can only be in country for 180 months out of each year. Obviously, you received your 12-IX at the point you had already been in Ecuador for 6 months.
Technically, there is nothing you can do to return to Ecuador until six more months have passed, after the expiration of your 12-IX.
However, who knows what will happen when you approach the border immigration officer with a $20 bill carelessly stuck in your passport. Please note that I am not advising you to do this. Bribery is against the law. But I know of people who have had success with this method.
I would not attempt to come in by air, as the airport immigration officers tend to be by the book. You will almost assuredly be sent back to where you came from. Technically, there is no legal way for you to get back into Ecuador for another six months.
Good luck,
Gary