Greetings to all.
As some of you already know, since September 2nd, the appointment system for visas in Ecuador has changed. Now the attention is according to the order of arrival at the office in Azogues, Machala and others in Ecuador. Quito, Guayaquil and Manta, the online appointment system is still working as I am writing this.
But, along with this change in the way visas are processed now, the first part of the “Migratory Amnesty” for Venezuelans began, but under some conditions:
– They must have arrived in the country in a regular way, up to a certain date.
– Regularly means that they have to have a passport and have entered Ecuador through a migration control point, airport, seaport or land-border point, and have an entry stamp in the passport.
– Fill out the form on line, in this page, and request an appointment to submit extra documents. https://estoyaqui.ec/(I am here)
– And they do not have to pay any fine for having been in Ecuador irregularly.
Then, this migratory amnesty was extended to Colombians and Peruvians.
Today I was again at the Migration Police Office here in Loja, and again they told me the following:
For any extra nationalities, on November 17th, the migration amnesty will begins, but, that day we will know the conditions for the other nationalities… maybe a reduction in the penalty for overstay (right now is $212.50 plus $0.57 of bank fee), or not notifying to leave the country to those who have exceeded their time of tourism when they try to pay the overstay fee, with or without the extension of the tourist visa. So, anything related with this process for extra nationalities, is just a rumor now.
The other thing I was told is that the form on the registration page has to be filed by all foreigners into Ecuador, whether legal, illegal, regular, or irregular, regardless of the time they have been in Ecuador or their immigration status, it is part of the Census that the government is conducting, in order to know how many foreigners actually live here in Ecuador, and the option in English will be activated as soon as the next steps for this process are known.
I will keep my “ear on the ground” to keep you updated on this whole system and any questions can be sent to me at:
ulisesacostac@gmail.com
http://www.visatoecuador.com
Ulises Acosta: ulisesacostac@gmail.com .
City: Cuenca
