October 18- Getting our Movimientos Migratorios‏

Yet another form that is required in the package for our Visa application is the 'Movimientos Migratorios‏'. This is a record of your comings and goings into Ecuador. My assumption is that the beaurocrats just want to check that you didn't overstay any of your previous visits- LOL

Anyway, for this important piece of paper you must apply personally and you only require your passport. In our case our lawyer Sebastian came with us, mostly because our Spanish is so inadequate.

We were to meet him at 10AM at the Extranjeria Office located at Av. 6 de Diciembre y la Niña, on block south of Multicentro. We rode the trolley to get there having found the location with no problem on our city map. We were there early and so was Sebastian.

After going in, lining up to get a number, we waited only a few minutes until our number was called. Sebastian told the woman at the window what we needed and handed her our passports. You probably think this is going pretty smoothly but we are forgetting that this is Ecuador!!!

Even though the sign above her window clearly said 'Movimientos Migratorios', she told us that her computer did not have this information and directed us to another building in a totally different location of the city!

Luckily for us, Sebastian had his car parked nearby. After a reasonably short drive in horrendous traffic to Av Amazones, finding another parking lot and walking a couple of blocks, we arrived at the second building- another government location, no name on the front and in much worse repair than the previous address. Again we got a number, waited maybe 15 minutes and then were called up to deal with yet another government employee and her computer. And yea, she could get us our required document. In less than 5 minutes, we had our pieces of paper duly stamped. We paid the required $5 each , gave them to Sebastian to put with the rest of our pile and were free to find our way back home.

Now we were still waiting for one more document required- our updated registration papers from Salinas regarding our condo which we were using for our investars visas. Sebastian is hoping it will arrive early next week and we can meet back to the Extranjeria Office , meet with the official in charge and hand over all of our documentation so that our visa process can finally begin. Patience, patience........