After 3 years...

Dear V.P. Buzz,

Let's take it one issue at a time....

You asked whether your professional visa will be subject to expiration.

Your professional visa -- like all residency visas -- does not / will not carry an expiration date.  As long as you are a law-abiding citizen during your three years in Ecuador -- and do not spend too much time outside the country -- you will enjoy the rights of an Ecuador resident ongoingly.

To retain residency rights, you may be outside Ecuador for no more than 90 days in each of the first two 365-day periods starting on the date your visa is issued.

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You wanted to know if your professional visa will be valid while your passport is valid.

There is a procedure you need to follow when your passport is renewed to transfer the EC visa into your new/renewed foreign passport.  My Ecuadorian passport expires in October (2016) and I plan to post about this visa-document-transfer procedure soon after that.

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To apply for an Ecuadorian passport after three years:

vpbuzz wrote:

will there be a need for me to return back home to arrange for any documents? For instance, will I need to go back an get a new police clearance certificate from home (or) any other documentation? I'm not sure if its a possibility for me to return; so I would like to carry with me any such necessary papers needed for the future.

There are multiple points to make here.

1.  The rules on this issue are subject to change, so any information your receive now could be different in three-plus years.  The documents one would need to provide could change over time.

2.  There are special requirements, more restrictive than the visa time-in-country requirement I posted above, that impact your right to apply for citizenship, aka getting an Ecuadorian passport.  These rules, in fact, recently became even more restrictive than before. 

3.  You should be able to obtain the document you mentioned, the criminal background check, without returning to your home country, which I understand is Sweden.  It's possible you might have to provide a background check from a national agency in Sweden and a separate, local background check for any area(s) of Sweden where you lived during the preceding five years.  I suggest you have the new background check(s) issued and apostilled within 90 days of the date when your citizenship application would be submitted.

4.  Although some posters or authors may say you can obtain citizenship without assistance, I consider an application for citizenship to be a major step... and personally would not attempt it without an EC attorney's supervision... or at least a pre-application consultation with such attorney or non-attorney specialist.

5.  A complicating factor in some cases pertains to marital history.  You may need to provide recently-apostilled copies of documents related to marriage(s) and divorce(s).  Determining whether this would involve a trip to Sweden is beyond my competency.

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vpbuzz wrote:

my intent is to move to EC and start a new life. I have some resources to support me for about a year and I hope I will figure other means in this time....

I'm not sure if its a possibility for me to return (to my home country).

If you can't figure out a means of financial support in that first year, this ‘plan' could be a recipe for disaster.

Ecuador and Ecuadorian employers are not welcoming of Spanish-language-impaired Gringos who need to make a living in La República.

The welcome mat is mainly out for retirees on a pension and folks with plentiful money to invest in a certificate of deposit or a home.

You need to think long and hard about a potential situation where you can't return home and do not have a reliable way to support your living needs.

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Awesome.. Thank you for the CRYSTAL CLEAR answer

Will this process involve me going back to my home country (or) any documentation from there?

Super thanks Clear & Precise (as always)

Kudos to you.

Good morning, I hope you're having a great day!
Well regarding to your doubts:

(a) Does a professional visa to EC have a validity? Or is it indefinite? Or is it valid till your passport is valid?
The residency visa (as yours is) does not have an expiration date, it is indefinite. Once your passport expire, you should do a visa page transfer, that means a process that you have to do at the Ecuadrian Ministry Offices, it takes about 2 weeks, it's not a big deal.

(b) Its a long shot - But after I complete my 3 years in EC and also provided I check all other requirements, I would want to apply for a EC passport. Now my question is, will there be a need for me to return back home to arrange for any documents? For instance, will I need to go back an get a new police clearance certificate from home (or) any other documentation? I'm not sure if its a possibility for me to return; so I would like to carry with me any such necessary papers needed for the future.

If you want to get your Ecuadorian citizenship, it is not necessary to come back home, of course you will need new background checks but you do cannot bring them now due they have to be updated to the date you will apply for the citizenship. What you can bring now is your birth certificate because it does not need to be an updated certificate. If you have a diferent marital status than single, so you also should bring your divorce decree or maybe your husband's certificate apostilled, this will be necessary to get your cedula.

If you need assistance for going through the process for your professional visa, I can highly recommend Helping Expats Group, they a well organized group who takes care of all this immigration matters in Ecuador for  a very reasonable rate. They can also help you getting your criminal background checks when you need them, so you will not need to come back home.
Email: [email protected]