Getting Married in Ecuador and becoming a citizen
My name is Karina and my fianc茅 is a dual citizen of Ecuador and the USA. He had to go back to Ecuador as he has ill family members. He cannot leave them long enough to come back to the USA to get married.
I am planning to go there and get married then apply for residency. I know I need a 12-IX visa and a letter of request must be written as part of the application. I am hoping to get the 12-IX visa without the aid of a lawyer and save some money, but have hired a lawyer to assist with my Residency visa.
Should I put that I plan to marry in my letter or will they likely deny me based on that information? Is there someone who can help me translate it, as I still only have a rudimentary understanding of Spanish?
Any and all advice would be very appreciated. It has been hard to be without him after being together for so long. I just want to get there and continue life.
Sincerely,
Karina
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1.聽 Translations of documents into Spanish should be done in Ecuador.聽
2.聽 Why would you think that planning to get married would be a hindrance to obtaining a visa?聽 Ecuador's society and institutions are pro-marriage or neutral.
cccmedia
What is the best way to apply? Should I apply for the extended stay visa before I leave or while there on a tourist visa?
cccmedia
My take on this is that Me and my spouse are US citizens.聽 We were married in Fiji after I moved here.聽 For personal reasons I didn't want my marriage legal in the states, as I chose to remain single there.聽 I could have made my marriage legal in ecuador, but to file it here, the attorney wanted over $3k.聽 Since we are both on the deed to my house, we both currently qualified for the ecuador residency visa, which we have, so to me there's no benefit to being "married" here.聽 Since I'm female and on both the house and the bank account, laws here entitle me to 50% either way.聽 I refuse to spend additional funds here if I don't have to.
If you want your marriage to be legal here, I would say get married here.聽 Makes becoming a legal residence here easier.聽 My friend who has lived here longer than me, and was scammed by an Ecuadorian attorney into believeing that he paid extra for a visa that allowed him to be out of the country more than the requirements his first two years here, as he was still working, just recently married an Ecuadorian.聽 Of course, now he qualifies and it will be easier to obtain citizenship, there is still a ton of bullshit hoops he must go through, but he will get it.聽 To get an Ecuadorian passport, he says is a whole separate bunch of bullshit he will have to go through after this process.
With the new laws, who really knows.聽 Everything here benefits the govt. and if you get married here you will still have to file with the US consulate to make it a legal US marriage.聽 I have no idea what those fees are or the process.聽 I know before the new laws, since your fianc茅e/future husband would qualify to bring in a container and even a vehicle duty free.聽 Not sure if that still applies.聽 If you are only getting married for residency purposes, I would weigh both the pros and cons before making it official.聽 聽But as ccc says, this point and with the new laws I'm sure you will have to see what implications they will make.聽 Consult a reputable attorney before you make the move and decide.
If we are not grandfathered in the new laws as being a resident, I can assure you my house will go on the market and I will leave asap.聽 It has cost me too much blood sweat and tears to get my current residency to put up with any additional cost and bullshit to obtain a new one.聽 Just my opinion....take it for what it's worth.
As I recall back then, there was a difference in that as a male, I had to demonstrate sufficient income to live here also., females did not.
The requirements were pretty much the same as other visas though in terms of police reports, etc.
Not sure if it changed, but after being married for 3 years (regardless of time spent in Ecuador with your visa), you could apply for citizenship after obtaining your visa......
They did test my spanish speaking for naturalization and I needed a birth certificate also.
Of course all documents needed to be apostilled.聽
If you also become naturalized then you can get a passport without difficulty.
Being married did not really help much with what I needed to do, except allowing me to become naturalized without meeting the time requirements of visas in country.聽 This was much appreciated as I had already lost a permanent visas due to being our of country too long.聽 It is nice to be able to come and go as I please.
So my understanding is that Registr贸 civil is where all visas are processed and obtained?
For the sake of my young children my plan is to get residency but not change citizenship. I want my girls to have the opportunities available to them that the US has to offer if they decide they want to go to a US college when older.
Everything else was done at Ministerio de Relationes Exteriores
(please excuse the spelling).
As for citizenship.......duel.....you need not give up anything.
Thank you so much for all your help. I was under the impression I would have no choice but to get a fancy expensive lawyer to assist me with this.
You have no idea how much your information has helped me at a time when I was feeling discouraged. Bless you.
You DO NOT need anybody to help you do about everything here from visas to citizenship to cedulas, to naturalization, to drivers license.......it is not tough stuff....
Yes it is true if you do not speak spanish that it will be more difficult and more work, but it is also a great learning experience.
I'm with AMDG price tag because $3500 contradicts everything about Ecuador.
Of course the price of apostilled documents would add to this, but not much and certainly not $3500......
Ecuador is a nice place, good things and bad, but the good far outweigh the bad.
As for a third world country......I would most definitely not agree with that.......in many things, the technology here is better than in the US....
AMDG wrote:As for a third world country......I would most definitely not agree with that.......in many things, the technology here is better than in the US....
Tech may be tops in Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, where AMDG lives.
However, keep in mind that the Big G is not representative of most places in Ecuador.
Quito seems to be well-along in high-tech these days.聽 Cuenca has made wi-fi advances,聽 In recent years, fiber optic has spread around that city.
But on the whole I don't buy that EC's tech is superior to that in even medium-sized cities in the U.S.
cccmedia
Once you get your divorce papers from NY, getting the apostile will not take long.
Worldchamp wrote:I am a US citizen. I'm waiting for my divorce papers from NY. My soon to be wife is Ecuador citizen. Once I recieve the final divorce papers from ny is the process of getting married here difficult? Time frame? Requirements? My visa expires in July.
Here are the requirements in Spanish per the web page of the Registro Civil.
If you are on a T3 tourist visa, it is a no go.
Si uno de los dos contrayentes es extranjero y posee visado T3 (Turista), no se podr谩 efectuar el matrimonio.
AMDG wrote:Ahh gracias to Nards.......from the site:
If you are on a T3 tourist visa, it is a no go.
Si uno de los dos contrayentes es extranjero y posee visado T3 (Turista), no se podr谩 efectuar el matrimonio.
Yeah, I saw that. But maybe the world champ extended his T3 another 90 days.聽
The question I have is if he gets married before his Visa expires can he qualify for some kind of Visa exception.
I am not sure about the new visa categories but they are available on the net, or perhaps the Nards will help with this.
Police record (both FBI and state), proof of income, are required among other documents.
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