Where to have your fingerprints taken in Cuenca
I should mention that we sort of got the runaround at first, since the help desk had no idea that we could get our fingerprints taken there. They sent us to a different police station of Criminalistica which is out on the west side of Cuenca, who then sent us back over to the office by the airport. We eventually ended up in some small building located behind the main office, where we had our fingerprints taken. Supposedly the office of Crimanlistica on the west side will eventually house the personnel for fingerprinting, so keep that in mind.
Finally, I would like to mention that I hired Vicente Villafuerte who sometimes provides advise on this blog under the name Vinny66 to drive me to the Police department and to help with the translation.聽 I recommend him to expats needing assistance with problem solving, transportation, shipping, or translation.
Departamento de Criminalistica de la Policia Nacional del Ecuador
Adress: Av. Gil Ramirez Davalos y Elia Liut, Cuenca
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The reason I needed to have my fingerprints taken here in Cuenca is because I relied on the advise of noted female attorney here in Cuenca who promotes her law firm in a blog post on a website run by a Canadian couple (hint: they are recognized authorities on what constitutes an "ugly American").聽 This attorney even responded to questions submitted by readers from time to time in the comment section.
So, while in the U.S., I went through the process of getting the required police reports from my state police department, and even went above and beyond that to get one from the FBI. Then, I get to Cuenca and learn that I needed to have them APOSTILLIZED!聽 But in order to learn this fact, I had to come to Cuenca first and pay the $40 consultation fee to the noted attorney, who would refund it if I hire them to do my visa.
To make a long story short, my police reports are worthless and I am having to repeat the process. And yes, I blame the attorney who failed to mention that the police report needed to be apostillized, even though she had number opportunities to do so, and was using the blog and comment section to promote her firm.
Needless to say, I will not be using the noted attorney now or ever for any legal problem. In fact I hope to complete the visa process by myself since there is now a Visa office in Cuenca and everyone says it can be done without an attorney.
However, when and if I need an attorney in the future, I will be following the advise of Cuenca resident and fine American Deke Castleman (sometime writer of articles for and other web publications) who recommended the law firm of Coloaustro Abogados - coloaustro.net. They have an English language legal assistant who is very responsive to emails and phone calls, which I can attest to.
Here is her contact information:
Jane Becker
English Language Legal Assistant
Coloaustro Abogados
Telephone: (593)(07) 4103647
Cell Phone: 091253576
Email: legalassistance@coloaustro.net
Website: coloaustro.net
Skype: coloaustro.abogados
What is one has a criminal record in Australia, will one get residency..?
I invite you to recommend this law firm into the Cuenca Business Directory.

Thank you,
础耻谤茅濒颈别
And whether or not they except one if he /she has a criminal record..
An63680 wrote:You can ask Migration i had my state back ground noterized and appostiled. But the lady said the las were changed about 2months ago. You now must have FBI check,聽 and my God i wish i would have known that When i was having all this done,聽 if you can please call Migration and tell me that my state police check will work. I will
There has been no end to the conflicting and incorrect information I've been told by various government offices. No, I won't be calling the Migration office for you. As many folks on these forums have pointed out, the process varies not only from city to city, but from clerk to clerk. Maybe I got really lucky, or maybe you were just unlucky.
While I don麓t take the following statement as gold, the Gringo Post a couple weeks ago had a lengthy Q&A email that included the following, for what it is worth
Immigration FAQ
GrintoPost has received answers from the Cuenca immigration office for the following questions which will become part of the "Visa FAQ" section of GringoPost.com:
_________
Q. Police report requirements - If a US state has a state police entity, will a report issued by that entity for the past 5 years duly executed, notarized and apostilled be acceptable, or is the requirement now a standard FBI Criminal background check?
A: If you have a state criminal background check, apostilled, it's completely acceptable.
janet119 wrote:I have NO ideaa what having something aplostilled means. I have never heard this term before.
Basically, it is a document affixed to the document which was notarized/certified. The apostille is generated by the Secretary of State, of the State which issued and notarized/certified the document.
Sort of like the Secretary of State of say Oregon, certifying that the notary that signed my Oregon police report is in fact a notary and their commission is active in the state of Oregon.
For more in-depth background see
symo
EDIT: Whoops... I see you're from Canada. Canada is not signatory to the Hague Convention. I will now withdraw my answer and button my lip :-) in hopes someone from Canada can give more guidance.
Not sure I understand your post. It sounds like the police report that was done in the US was not valid because it was not aposilized. When you had the work redone in Cuenca was this work aposilized?
dour224
dour224 wrote:Hi
Not sure I understand your post. It sounds like the police report that was done in the US was not valid because it was not aposilized. When you had the work redone in Cuenca was this work aposilized?
dour224
The only work redone in Cuenca was getting the fingerprints taken. Everything else was handled via correspondence and FedEx. And yes my police report was apostiled in the U.S. by the secretary of Oregon.
Sorry to hear bout your troubles but for me you've only got yourself to blame...!!!
I'm planning to move to Ecuador next year and just by doing a little bit of homework in searching the net apart from others using the blog you are trying to dispute one of the first things I found out is that if you are planning on obtaining residency visas you have to come prepared and all paperwork needs to be notarized and apostilled...
Sorry again but I just think your angry rant should be redirected at yourself rather then blaming and denigrating the rest of the world...
Hope all is good for you in future...
Peace and Love...
Tomas...
Sponytom wrote:Hi there,
Sorry to hear bout your troubles but for me you've only got yourself to blame...!!!
I'm planning to move to Ecuador next year and just by doing a little bit of homework in searching the net apart from others using the blog you are trying to dispute one of the first things I found out is that if you are planning on obtaining residency visas you have to come prepared and all paperwork needs to be notarized and apostilled...
Sorry again but I just think your angry rant should be redirected at yourself rather then blaming and denigrating the rest of the world...
Hope all is good for you in future...
Peace and Love...![]()
Tomas...
Who are you addressing Tomas? If it is me, I will hand you your butt with a rant worthy of your聽 idiocy.
Nards Barley wrote:Sponytom wrote:Hi there,
Sorry to hear bout your troubles but for me you've only got yourself to blame...!!!
I'm planning to move to Ecuador next year and just by doing a little bit of homework in searching the net apart from others using the blog you are trying to dispute one of the first things I found out is that if you are planning on obtaining residency visas you have to come prepared and all paperwork needs to be notarized and apostilled...
Sorry again but I just think your angry rant should be redirected at yourself rather then blaming and denigrating the rest of the world...
Hope all is good for you in future...
Peace and Love...![]()
Tomas...
Who are you addressing Tomas? If it is me, I will hand you your butt with a rant worthy of your聽 idiocy.
Oh yea, sorry it was addressed to you...! But I must have missed something cos from my understanding you came unprepared which was what I said... I find it incredible you wouldn't get your stuff apostilled which is why I reacted the way I did... I only started looking at visa situation in Ecuador few weeks ago and words "apostilled" and "notarized" are everywhere I look...!!! I must say though that your reaction made me laugh a lot and I read it after a long day at work so thanks very much for that. I like when people do that to me... Anyway I'll keep on being an Idiot and you keep on being Awesome...聽
I wish you all the best in Amazing Ecuador and I can't wait to get going as well...
Peace and Love聽
Tomas
They will NOT accept any reports from county Sheriff's department or anything that you can have printed online like the State of Michigan ichat website which give Michigan background checks.
There is no charge for fingerprinting done at Criminalistica.
xoie wrote:For anyone doing this... this post was done in 2012.聽 The fingerprinting is now done at the Criminalistica police station on the road to Naranjal.聽 They have limited hours in which they do the fingerprinting (like between 1:00pm and 3:00pm). Something like that.聽 Bring your own fingerprinting cards printed on cardstock which you can have done at any printing/internet place.聽 Just ask them to print something up from the internet and go to the FBI website to find the cards.聽
There is no charge for fingerprinting done at Criminalistica.
2012? Wow. Time flies. Some threads are like a good wine. They get better with time.
So are you in the home stretch for your residency visa Xoie?
do you still have some?
I need to have my fingerprints taken..
Please advise..
Thank you
cici
I just went through this issue on the Brazil Forum and the California DoJ WILL NOT accept the downloaded version of the FD-258 Fingerprint Card on regular paper stock. They will only accept the original "hard card" that they will provide by mail if need be. They advise that the FBI will accept the downloaded version of the FD-258.
Just remember that the fingerprints must be taken by an "on duty" police officer who must sign and stamp the form or it will not be accepted in any event.
The following is a copy of the e-mail I received from the California Department of Justice regarding my enquiry about the form and why it wouldn't be available at all US Embassies and Consulates:
General information about FD-258 card
RecordReview (recordreview@doj.ca.gov)
02/02/2015
Para: James Woodward
recordreview@doj.ca.gov
Hello,
1.聽 聽 聽 聽The FD-258 fingerprint card is the FBI card, they will accept a downloaded paper copy of the card, but unless you have the proper 鈥渃ard stock鈥 the BCIA cannot accept paper copies.
2.聽 聽 聽 聽Your would have to ask the FBI your question on why embassy or consulates do not have the card, but again it is on line.
3.聽 聽 聽 聽I cannot tell where to get the card in Brazil, but if the individual needs to do a 鈥渧isa/immigration鈥 type background with the BCIA, provide an address and the card and instructions for a BCIA 鈥渧isa/immigration鈥 background will be mailed to them, yes to聽 Brazil.
When you do get them, I'd recommend using an FBI Channeler, list available on the FBI.gov site, to expedite the process of getting your report back.聽 Sending the report via Fedex is going to cost you about $50.00, but that's a small price to pay to get this process out of the way.
Good luck with this...and with the rest of the Visa process.
Yes, you do need to have the FBI Report notarized, but since the examiner who prints you will sign the card and will apply their stamp to it, you don't need to have the cards notarized, just the report.聽 Then comes the delay, as far as I've seen, which is getting the report apostilled.聽 The State Department can be very slow in responding to requests that come from outside the states.
Good luck with this.
They say the usual turnaround is two weeks, but in my case, its been a lot longer.聽 I don't know what other people are seeing, but that's my experience.
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