Trials and Frustrations

In Which, I become annoyed, panicked, and annoyed again

The thing no one tells you about when you talk about living abroad is visas. How they're a real PITA.

Here in Ecuador, it's very easy to stay for 3 months. After that, it gets a little tricky.

Ecuador divides their visas into resident and non-resident categories. If you're looking to retire or stay here indefinitely, a resident visa is the way to go. It takes time and a lot of patience and paperwork, but after roughly 4-6 months (depending on the type of resident visa you choose it can be longer), you'll be a permanent resident and you don't have to deal with routine visa stuff anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I've heard some chilling stories from some resident visa holders and the frustration is real on their end. But, once they've got the visa, through however much frustration it took, they're essentially done.

Non-resident visas is like living the frustration over and over again, every 6 months to 1 year, depending on how long you want to stay and how long your visa is good for.

We chose the student visa option for a few reasons, not the least being that it was more in reach than the missionary/volunteer visa or the work visa.

Our first application went off without a hitch. It was time-consuming, but relatively pain free.

This time around however, things have been a little dicey.

First off, we applied late. Technically, you're supposed to submit your application a week before your visa expires. I got the dates all turned around (they write them day/month/year and I'm used to seeing month/day/year) so we ended up submitting the application 4 days before our visa expired.

Ironically enough, this seems to be one of the least of our worries at this point.

Secondly, when we were actually submitting the paperwork, we were informed that there is a new rule (surprise!!) that required us to submit the paperwork in the zone where we live. Ambato is in Tungurahua, which is a different zone than Quito, which is in Pichincha.

There wasn't any information about this at all and no one at our school had mentioned it. We were just supposed to magically know it, apparently.

*Insert annoyance*

Thankfully, they took pity on us poor, lost gringos and let us write a letter (in REALLY bad Spanish, natch) about why we were submitting the paperwork in Quito rather than Ambato.

The following week (this past week) we got an email from the ministry saying they needed to interview us regarding our application.

Enter problem numero 3. We get to the ministry (in Quito, mind you) at the appropriate date and time and speak with a lovely gentleman (Dr. Hidalgo) who tells us that, essentially, we're missing some paperwork from the school.

The problem is, we're talking about ALL of this in Spanish, so we were a little confused with what he was trying to say. In the midst of the confusion, we told him that the classes were via Skype, not actual in-person classes taken in a classroom.

Problem numero 4 quickly raises its head. The man points us to the legislative language allowing the school to offer student visas, and it doesn't say ANYthing about classes via Skype being allowed.

*Insert panic*

Talk about a rock and a hard place.

Thankfully, the man took pity on us poor gringos (playing the dumb card can really work in your favor). Basically, the paperwork we were missing was essentially John's "graduation" papers, stating that he had completed a level of work and was moving on to the next level.

As a compromise, Dr. Hidalgo says he'll ok the visa application, but we have to get the paperwork stating John's completion of whatever level to him in 4 months. If we don't bring it in that time frame, our visas will be revoked and we'll essentially be here illegally.

We agree and he types up a very official letter, with his official seal, and we sign it.

At that point, we weren't sure what to do next, and he tells us now we have to wait for an email regarding our visa application, at which point, we have to come back to Quito AGAIN and finish out the process.

Keep in mind, it's a 2.5 hour drive and it costs us almost $50 roundtrip each time.

Sigh.

*Insert annoyance*

So that's where we're at. We'll hopefully get an email that our application was approved this coming week, we'll go to Quito AGAIN, pay for the visas and, hopefully, get them instated in our passports.

Today's lesson? When you have the chance to apply in your home city, do it.

Because Visa, Part 2

In Which, We Actually Receive Our Visas

So technically, I probably could've put this all in one post, but the last one was getting kind of long and I know visas are pretty boring for those not super interested in travelling for long periods of time. 

Either way, here's the ending.

So a week after we put in our applications, John received an email basically saying our visas had been approved. All we had to do now was get to Quito within 72 hours of receiving that email, pay the second portion of the visa fees and then actually receive our visas.

Quito...again

Of course, the worst part about all of this was thinking about how to get to Quito. It was either bus or private car again, or so we thought. We happened to be eating dinner that night (Tuesday) with our downstairs neighbors and friends, Juan and Andrea, when John actually got the email. Of course, we were pretty excited and told them what it was all about. 

Given the timing of the email and the fact that we needed time to put some plans together, we decided to go on Thursday. 

At this point, Juan piped up and said he had some training for work that he had to go to Quito for...ON THURSDAY. He said that he would be riding with his friend, but it wouldn't be any problem if we wanted to come along. 

HOLY COW. We were so excited. It's the same length of trip, but there's just something nice about going with friends. And a car ride is waaaaay better than a bus ride, that goes without saying. So we eagerly said yes, and our trip to Quito was taken care of. We'd have to take a bus back, but that was no problem.

This is what 4:30am looks like, folks

 So we have yet another early morning wake-up call on Thursday and hop in the car to Quito. We weren't in quite a rush this time around, so breakfast absolutely happened at a reasonable hour, and we arrived at our location at a reasonable time and reasonably full. 

We knew what to do this time. We walked up to the check-in desk and told them we needed to pay for and receive our visa. They gave us a number and we settled in to wait. About 30 minutes later, our number was called, and we went up with our numbers and passports. They checked our applications in the system, asked a few questions, then gave us receipts to use to pay for the visas, two windows down. 

We scooched down 10 feet, paid $150 for a student visa and a dependent (amparo) visa, then scooched back to hand them the payment receipt to be attached to our application paperwork. 

At that point, we were basically done. We left our passports with them to have the visa pasted in, and that was definitely the scariest part, at least for me. When a passport is one of the only things truly identifying you, it's a little panic-inducing to leave it anywhere out of your possession. But I managed to walk away. 

We were told to return between 3:30 and 4:30 that afternoon to receive our passports with the visas. Since we had arrived around 9:30 and the whole process took roughly an hour, it left us with a significant chunk of time to kill. 

So we headed to Parque Carolina again. It's REALLY huge, but apparently there's an even bigger one just a few blocks away that we totally missed. Anyway, Carolina is a pretty sweet park. Basketball courts, soccer fields, a huge track, some pond areas with paddle-boats on them, and just plenty of space. It was really nice to just walk through. Also, people watching is off the chain there. I saw more diversity there in 30 minutes than I have in the past 2.5 months!

a (very small) portion of Pargue Carolina

So then we hit up the mall to find some food, and we ate at a place called Vaco y Vaca. Burgers and sandwiches as well as really big plates of food. All in all, a really great lunch. There's rumors that a Vaco y Vaca will be opening in the new mall expansion here in Ambato and I'm REALLY hoping that's the case.

Anyway, we finally killed enough time and made it back to the ministry around 3:15. We went up to the same room we had initially waited in to put I. Our application, and there were a LOT of people there. We weren't sure what the breakdown was though, because it seemed like there were several different things going on.

After almost an hour of being slightly nervous and wondering if we were in the right place or if they had forgotten about us entirely, they finally started calling for our visa type, the 12-5. Everything moved really quickly at that point. We walked up to the same guy who had taken our application, he had us sign some paperwork that cancelled the balance of our T3 visitors visa, he handed us our passports (THANKYOUJESUS) with the visas pasted in them, and said, "Congratulations!" 

Well, hello there!

And that was pretty much it. We thanked him and walked out with our passports and visas and the ability to come and go in, out and around this country as we please for the next 6 months. At which point we'll have to do it all again, but in the words of the famous philosopher, Scarlett O'Hara, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

The final piece to our day was making it back home. Before they dropped us off, Juan and Eduardo told us that they would pick us up at the end of the day and take us home as well. HAPPY DAY. I was getting antsy in the visa office because it was getting a bit late and we didn't want to hold the guys up. Thankfully though, we got out of there just before 4:30 and they called us about five minutes later to say they were on the way. 

And that is how we got our visas. Relatively straightforward, really, especially in hindsight. Next time though, we'll be sure to make plans to stay in Quito overnight so we don't have to make the trip twice in one week.

Also...FYI. We're so high up that we're essentially above the clouds. Occasionally during the drive we'll drive past valleys that are shrouded in clouds, and it's really cool. It really is the land of the clouds.

Because Visa, Part 1

In Which, We Gain the Ability to Stay Here Legally

Which is always a good thing, no?

So these past two weeks have truly been a blur. It's been travel, LOTS of work, more travel, planning our trip back home for Will and Amanda's wedding, more work and finally - attaining our visas.

I wish I had taken more pictures along the way, but I guess you'll have to live with what I've got.

So everybody who enters Ecuador gets a free, 90-day tourist visa called the T-3. It stops when you leave and starts again whenever you re-enter the country, and you're allowed one per year.

T-3 Visa (it's just a stamp, really)

Since we want to stay here in Ecaudor for at least a year, figuring out which visa to get was a pretty big deal. I've written about it in a couple other posts (here and here) so I won't bore you with the backstory.

We decided to get the student visa, which is called the 12-5, and it is in the non-immigrant class of visas. We decided on the student visa for a few reasons. 1) It's one of the cheapest ones out there; 2) It's renewable, which means that in six months, we can apply to renew it for another six months, and we can do this for up to two years; 3) John was wanting to take Spanish classes anyway, so this was the perfect two-birds-one-stone strategy.

John's motto these days

Our T-3 visa was set to expire on June 8, so we decided to get the student visa process rolling in the middle of May or so. I had found a school in Quito that does distance lessons via Skype that would be able to sponsor us for the visa.

Now, many people have asked why we didn't find a program here in Ambato. The answer - we tried. There are several universities here and I inquired at all of them, but none of them had a Spanish program. We heard that the government has recently been making changes in the requirements for university programs, so a lot of language programs actually lost their ability to sponsor students, hence our reason for going to Quito.

John is learning through Simon Bolivar Spanish School. They're really wonderful to deal with and, so far, he has really enjoyed his lessons. We both would have preferred him to be in a classroom setting so he could learn alongside other people, but I think this is a great alternative.

So on Monday, May 25, we hopped on the bus to Quito. It's about a 3 hour trip from Terminal Terrestre in Ambato to Terminal Quitumbe in Quito. It should only be about 2-2.5 hours with the new direct-link highway, but the buses still go through Latacunga and Salcedo, towns just off the highway, to pick up and drop people off. So 3 hours it is.

At least the views are typically amazing...

We had an appointment with an advisor at Simon Bolivar, German, at 3pm. We decided to get to Quito in the morning to hand in all of our paperwork so that everything would be ready to go at 3.

Breakfast while we were waiting
for the 3pm meeting

What paperwork, you ask? Well. Yet another benefit of the student visa is the relative ease of getting the paperwork required. We had to have a certified copy of our marriage certificate, and it had to be apostilled, and it had to be within 6 months of applying for the visa. Just in case you were wondering, an apostille is like a notarization for your notarized papers. You have to get it from the secretary of state, which means we had to make the drive to Columbia. Thankfully, that process was much easier than, say, getting Jethro's papers certified by the USDA.

The other thing we had to have was a translated and notarized copy of our bank statements for the past three months, and it had to show that we had at least $1500 in the bank. Thanks to our good friend Beth, who is a certified translator, we had that taken care of quite easily.

We also had to have our passports, passport-size photos, and we also had to fill out the visa application which had to be PERFECT. No mistakes. John and I both messed up and had to re-do them.

The visa application!

Once we got through all of that, the school put together the folder with the documents that were required from them. The next step was to actually apply.

This is where things got a little sticky. Our appointment with German was at 3, and when we spoke with him he told us that the ministry only takes applications in the morning. Which meant we either needed to stay overnight or plan on coming back another day. Since we hadn't made any plans for Jethro beyond that day, we decided to come back on Wednesday, two days later. German told us that we needed to be at the ministry building as early as possible, definitely no later than 8am. This meant an early wake-up call for us, since it's a 2-hour drive via car to get to Quito from Ambato.

Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
y Movilidad Humana - they LOVE long titles

After our meeting at Simon Bolivar, we spent the next few hours exploring Quito. We had made an appointment to drive back with a private car service and meeting up with them at the correct time is a story in and of itself, but that's for another day. Suffice it to say, we made it back to Ambato around 10pm and immediately passed out.

In between all of this, I had a pretty steady level of work to try and get out at the appropriate time. I don't need internet to do my work, but I do need a connection in order to DELIVER my work. So when I have a due time of 5pm and I'm not sure if I'm going to be on a bus then or somewhere else without Wi-Fi, I've got to make sure to send it out beforehand, which meant a lot of doubling-up at night and trying to read while on the bus. The latter was highly unsuccessful, as my sisters would have no doubt told me beforehand. I've never had any luck with being able to read in vehicles, I don't know why I thought a bus would be different.

Anyway. Wednesday's return was uneventful, other than the 4:30am wake-up call we had to catch our 5:30am ride. We used the private car service again, and made it to our destination by 7:30, which is quite a feat. For those who don't know, Quito has over 2.5 million people living in it. It's roughly 18 miles long (30km) but only around 2 miles (3-4km) wide. Needless to say, getting in and around this place smack dab in the middle of rush hour is a feat in and of itself, and getting to where you need to be (in the center of the city, no less) in good time in nigh on a miracle.

Upon arrival, we realized German was already there and waiting for us, saving us a spot in line. The office actually opens at 8:30, but people line up quite a bit before then.

After some waiting, we were directed to the second floor, where we waited for about an hour and half before being seen by the visa advisor. He was very nice, checked all our papers, asked a few questions, then accepted our applications and instructed us on what to do next.

We had to go downstairs, pay for the visa applications with the slips of paper he was giving us, and then, when we received the receipts, we were to bring them back up to him. No fuss, no muss.

So we went and did that, and then he told us that we would receive an email in roughly a week to tell us when the visas would be ready.

At that point, we were basically done. We said thank you and goodbye to German, then we took off in search of some breakfast.

We found this on the way..

No filter...seriously

Not sure of its name, but it was beautiful, and the sun was hitting it at just the right angle for some great pictures.

So we found breakfast and finally ate. We had a minor payment snafu which required us to briefly go back to the ministry, but we cleared that up very quickly, and from there, we headed to the local transport of choice (Ecovia) to take us to the bus terminal to catch a bus back to Ambato. We made it home right at 3pm and, again, utterly crashed. Public transportation can be exhausting and draining, especially when you're working on very few hours of sleep, which I was, due to work.

One of the Ecovia stops

Either way, we spent the rest of the day just relaxing and getting back into the regular groove of things. John's birthday was the next day, and he wanted to just chill all day, so that's what we did. We got a late breakfast, took the dog on a walk, spent the day watching movies, ordered pizza for dinner, and spent the rest of the evening just chilling. All in all, we were both happy to spend the day doing next to nothing, and it was a great way to recharge our batteries.

John enjoying his birthday cigar!

So stay tuned for our third (and FINAL) trip to Quito to receive our visas. Another 4:30am wake-up call and more waiting, hurrah! All's well that ends well though. Now you know the ending of the next post, but I still expect you to read it ;)

The Visa Black Hole - pt. 2

***So just the other day, I posted about our original plan regarding visas. Due to some delay on my part, the post didn't go live until just the other day, but that was our plan back in the beginning of January. There have been several changes in Ecuadorian immigration policy since then, so we've had to change a couple of things around.***

                                                      

                                         In which, we Change Our Minds

So here's the dealio - we've been working with Sara Chacas at Ecuador Visas in regards to any and all things visa related. She's a lawyer based in Cuenca and she has been invaluable to us. Seriously, she answers all of my questions in a very timely manner, and she's been very upfront about timelines, costs and the expected 'hassle' factor of things. She also gives me several options for every choice, which I really, really like. Options make me happy.

Sara sent me an email at the end of January with some interesting info that had just been handed down from the Immigration Ministry, which basically said that effective immediately, the Ministry was eliminating one of the tourist visas, the 12-X visa. This was the 90-day visa we were planning on applying for to finish out a full year in Ecuador. 

After much hurly-burly and hullabaloo, the Ministry actually rescinded that ban on the 12-X visa the very next day. However, the restrictions have been tightened immensely, which effectively still keeps it out of reach for us.

This caused some concern on our part - how were we going to ensure we could stay for a full year? There was always the option of just staying after our last visa ran out, and then, upon leaving the country, taking whatever consequence was handed out (typically a ban on travelling back to Ecuador for a certain period of time). That was do-able, but we want to go by the book as much as possible. Plus, we wanted to keep our options (see?) open if we decide we want to stay longer or return after our initial 1 year adventure.

Enter a 3rd option (remember how I said how I love options?) and that is the 12-V visa, aka, the Student visa. 

This visa actually has several benefits. 1) It's cheaper. BY FAR. And, we only have to pay the full visa cost for 1 person (John) and I can come in as his dependent. 2) It would actually allow us to stay in the country for up to 2 years if we wanted, which takes a lot of the short-term visa hassle out of the equation. 3) It means John actually has to take Spanish courses, which is what he was planning on doing anyway, so it's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. 

I'm not entirely sure why we didn't consider this option before, but sometimes you have to be hit over the head with the obvious before it become...well, obvious. At least, that's the case for me. 

So now the plan is to enter on our T-3 visa (the one everyone gets for free whenever you come to the country) and then find an approved school we can take courses at, apply, and then complete the visa process within the balance of our allotted time on the T-3 (roughly 10 weeks). Fingers crossed it turns out well. I've already asked several of our friends in Ambato if they can recommend a particular program or course of study to us, so hopefully that will be the easiest part of what seems to be a relatively easy process. I'm kind of waiting for life to turn around and punch me in the teeth and then kick me on the ground and I'll realize that it was NOT an easy process. 

Here's hoping I can manage to keep my teeth cause I don't feel like dealing with dental issues in a foreign country.

The Black Hole that is...Visas

Visas. Never have there been so many questions about any topic than how to get into a country (legally), how to stay in said country (also legally), and what the rules and regulations are governing your movements in and around the country once you obtain the ability to stay (hopefully legally).

I don't have all the answers. In fact, I have very few answers so please don't look to me for advice. All I'm going to be doing here is telling you what our plan is and how we came to make that our plan. This is subject to change, of course, and we will definitely keep you appraised of the process as we go along. So let's get to it.

First off - you don't need to apply for a visa prior to entering Ecuador. The country has a lovely 'open door' policy for pretty much everyone, save a few countries (I'm looking at you, Pakistan).

When coming through Immigration you will receive what's called a T-3 visa that's good for 90 days in a chronological year. You don't pay or do anything except fill out the paperwork they hand you on the plane, then hand it to the lovely people in Immigration while they ask you if you've been to Ecuador before and how long you plan to stay. After inputting the information into their computers, they smile at you and say, 'Bienvenido a Ecuador!' and you go on through. You now have 90 days (3 months) in the country.

There are two other visas that we're planning on applying for to ensure a full year's stay. A 12-9 visa is good for 6 months and a 12-10 visa is good for another 90 days.

All three of these visas are considered 'non-immigrant' visas. If we wanted to stay permanently in the country, we'd have to apply for an immigrant visa on the grounds of retirement, professional ability or investment. We had considered going the professional visa route, but Ecuador places some restrictions on travel after receiving an immigrant visa and we ultimately decided that we only want to commit ourselves for a year at this point.

So right now, I'm thinking that we will apply for the 12-9 visa to start off our sojourn. Apparently you can do all the paperwork and legwork before ever leaving the States and simply arrive in the country with the visa in hand, therefore bypassing the need for the T-3 at the get-go.

Originally we were considering doing the T-3, then the 12-9, then the 12-10. Then, one of John's best friends got engaged over the holidays (congrats, Will and Amanda!!) and it's looking like their wedding will be in October of 2015. Since we're planning to arrive at the end of March/beginning of April, that puts the wedding roughly six months out from our arrival in Ecuador. Since the 12-9 is good for 6 months, it seems like it would be easier to start with that, then take a trip out of the country once it expires, then return on either the T-3 or 12-10.

This is all subject to change, but that's my thought process so far. If you have any questions or advice, I'd love to hear it!