Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Citizenship Process -- Part 2 of 4

It has been awhile since my last post about the citizenship process  (http://grimmsecuadortraveltales.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/citizenship-process-part-1.html) .  Our application was stalled because of an existing law we didn't know about.  For those who want to become citizens of Ecuador, you can't be out of the country for more than 90 days in your first three years.  We were over their limit by 7 days, so they declined our application.  We appealed and were approved to move forward -- hence the delay in posting this next stage of the process.

So now that we've been approved to proceed, we need to supply additional documentation, as follows:

  • Color copies of the bank account in which Social Security benefits are deposited every month
  • Certificates issued by our banks in Ecuador
  • Certificado by Gravamen issued by the Registro de la Propiedad (only if we own property in Ecuador, which we don't). 
  • If we own vehicles, we need to make a color copy of the Matricula
  • If we rent a house or an apartment, we will need to provide a copy of the registered lease agreement.
We will need to provide two sets of each document since both of us are applying for citizenship.  The process will take another four months.  The cost of publishing the three newspaper ads is $421.00 per person.  We will need to go to Quito again at the end of the process to pick up the final documents.

Hopefully sometime in August, we'll become citizens and get our Ecuadorian passports!


2 comments:

  1. Question: on what basis did you appeal the 7 days over the 90 days? and on what basis was it accepted? Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Hello,

      It was for medical reasons. The doctor in Ecuador wrote a letter to the authorities indicating that it was necessary for my husband to have surgery in the U.S. because the Ecuadorian doctor didn't want to operate on my husband's back which had previously been operated on by his U. S. doctor.

      The surgery was successful and the Ecuadorian doctor made the right call.

      Thankfully, the authorities accepted the Ecuadorian doctor's letter and gave us an exception to the 90-day rule.

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