March 25- Finally our Residency Visas!!!

Woohoo! We finally both have our residency visa.

For those of you who follow my Blog regularly, you know that we started the process last year. Over the summer while back in Canada we had gathered all the required documentation, had it translated, notarized, approved and legalized- see Blog September 2012   - Getting our Documents for Residency  http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html

In October we went to Quito, Ecuador, and met with our lawyer to start the arduous process.

First we needed our movements in and out of Ecuador- see Blog October 18--- Getting our Movimientos Migratorios  http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-18-getting-our-movimientos.html

Then having everything we needed neatly put into two separate packages- one for me and another for Uwe- we went with our lawyer Sebastian to get our documents checked, approved , filled out the application, paid the $30 application fee and got the visa process started- see Blog October 25- Submitting our documents for Residency  http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html

What follows is the long, sometimes humorous, sometimes frustrating story of the last few months. And we had thought this would be easy!! NOT!

In December, three months after the process started, Sebastian informed us that the Visa people now wanted the 2013 receipt of payment of our taxes on our condo- we are using our condo for our investment visa. It seemed that the receipt that we had already submitted did not have our names on it. So in early 2013, we went and paid our taxes and fedexed the original to Sebastian- see Blog January 3,2013- Paying our Property Taxes  http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-3-2013-paying-our-property-taxes.html

 

On January 25^th, four months after that process started, Sebastian let us know that my visa was approved and Uwe’s would be approved any day. We quickly sent our passports to Sebastian- these were now necessary to get the visa stamp. And then we waited and waited……..

Near the end of February, Sebastian informed us that the person working on Uwe’s visa insisted on the original tax receipt- our lawyer had placed the original in my package and a notarized copy in Uwe’s. Though he told the visa person repeatedly to just take the original out of my package and place in Uwe’s, the cretin doing Uwe’s visa didn’t/wouldn’t understand!

Finally finally the supervisor realized the error, Uwe’s application was approved at the lower level and sent it on for final approval.

We received the following note from Sebastian:

 

Unfortunately your files have been analyzed by two different persons and it caused one (Uwe’s) was suspended because they missed the original impuesto predial payment.

It was solved and has been approved by the first level and now it has to be ratified by the director. I’m insisting every day. Even the supervisor is trying to get it approved as soon as possible when she found the mistake.

 

This was now early March almost  4 ½ months after we started the process.

Again we patiently waited for news. On the morning of March 25^th, I again sent a note to Sebastian , ‘any good news??’    and received the following reply. Unbelievable!

No yet Petra. They have required an update of the police record. Since we submit it on time, they requested through INTERPOL (international police organization) I have been monitoring this procedure, I went in person to INTERPOL, to make sure they send the information. So they did it on Thursday and now I’m insisting to get the approval. I hope to have this week

Poor Sebastian- Uwe is a lot of work!!! LOL

Of course  Uwe’s police report had run out, we got in June 18^th, 2012 and it is only good for 6 months ( yes, 6 months not 90 days!). Luckily for us, Sebastian was able to do it all without Uwe’s having to go the Quito and Interpol himself.     A few hours later we got the good news!

Uwe’s visa was finally approved! Amazing.

Now stay tuned for the Cedula process ( National ID card that we now need to get- more documents!)