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My Life in Ecuador Newsletter, Issue #018 --- Illegal in Ecuador April 22, 2013 |
My Life in Ecuador, Issue #018April 22nd, 2013 My Life in Ecuador brings you the latest news and adventures of my family living in Ecuador. If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a big favor and "pay it forward." If a friend did forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting My Life in Ecuador Issue #018, April 22, 2013Illegal in EcuadorSo you've overstayed you visa in Ecuador. What now? Although things in Ecuador are never set in stone and differ from one official to another, here is one family's experience. My friends came to Ecuador in 2011 with the plan to make Ecuador their new home. Their first choice was to find a teaching job and then ask the school to sponsor their work visa. Although work was pretty easy to find, finding a school that had their paperwork in order to be able to sponsor the visa was a whole other ballgame. The second option, volunteer. Again finding an organization to volunteer for was the easy part. It looked like everything would go through right before their visas expired. At the last minute...literally days before their visas would expire...there was a problem. Now what? They had no way to leave before the visas expired and really didn't want to. So over the next six months they looked for some way to legalize their stay in Ecuador. In the end the only thing to do was to leave. A lawyer we work with had told us that there is NO FINE for leaving Ecuador with an expired visa. But as the time drew near for my friends to fly out we kept hearing different rumors. One couple supposedly paid $200 per person to leave the country. In the end things turned out quite simple. Step one: Clear your immigration record in Ecuador. You must go to the Immigration office in Quito or Guayaquil within 48 hours prior to leaving Ecuador. In Quito, the Immigration office is right in front of the Jardin Mall. It's open Monday through Friday. They will give you a stamp in your passport valid for 48 hours; you must leave Ecuador within this time frame. They were not charged anything. You need this stamp to avoid problems in Immigration at the airport and also to avoid problems when you want to return to Ecuador. Step two: You cannot enter Ecuador for nine months. Again we got conflicting answers when trying to be sure on this one. One Ecuadorian consulate in the US says they will give you a visa to re-enter any time, without waiting the nine months. But for now my friends are in the US probably for nine months. We will miss them, but time goes by so quickly. Laws in Ecuador are constantly changing. Right now the visa requirements can be complicated. Having a good lawyer can be a life saver. Photo Contest Winner Congrats to Luna for winning our photo contest for the second month in a row. Great photo! Still waiting on one more photo for the next contest.
Jungle Real Estate Check out our newest real estate listing. Located just minutes from Tena near Puerto Napo. Newly contructed three bedroom house on 2.5 acres of land. Click here for more info.
Coming soon! Tena Restaurant Guide. Reviews of my favorite restaurants in Tena. Until next time...Jess Life in Ecuador Home Page Life in Ecuador on Facebook |
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