Colombians-MERCOSUR Visa for Ecuador

Well, Colombia has officially lost 9 months of my income for the foreseeable future due to tax policy.

For those expats with a Colombian spouse there is a quick easy way to get temporary residency in Ecuador.
The pension or investment visas require a lot of paperwork from your home country. FBI background check, Income verification exc. You must get an apostille for each document and translations. I looked into them and it would have been a royal pain in the ass, probably taking several months to compile all the info needed for the application if doing it from Colombia. 

The MERCOSUR Visa is available to Colombians with almost no paperwork and can be done online and at an Ecuadorian Embassy. A Colombian can apply, and then apply for there non Colombian spouse to get a visa based off there visa. 

What do you need?

A Colombian 
1. An online application.
2. A clean 5 year police report w/apostille (1 week to receive)
3. A copy of your passport & cedula.
4. Electronic passport photo.
Download documents onto the form online and submit electronically.
$170,000 COP application fee.

3 days later approved and appointment scheduled to submit the original documents at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

After Colombian has their visa they can apply for non Colombian spouse.

Non Colombian Spouse
1. An online application
2. A written letter from spouse applying for your visa based on his/her already received visa. Should include info such as there name, passport # and new Ecuadorian visa number.
3. A clean police report w/apostille (1 week to receive)
4. A marriage license w/apostille (can pick up marriage license same day but 3 days to get apostille)
5. Copy of your and spouse passports and cedulas.
6. Electronic passport photo.

Download documents onto the form online and submit electronically.

$170,000 COP application fee.

3 days later approved and appointment scheduled to submit the original documents at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Non Colombians must also pay a $680,000 COP issuance fee.

This is a 2 year temporary visa after which you can apply for permanent residency.
With this visa there are no restrictions on work or going to school in Ecuador.
The only potential drawback I see is this visa requires you to be in Ecuador for 9 months a year during the term of the visa. 

While we like living outside Bogota, after returning from the last 2 month trip investigating Ecuador, we are freezing our asses off. LOL
Now our plans are to spend several months around Christmas here in Colombia and the rest in Ecuador, at least while we have our temp  visas.

A helpful tip if doing this. All documents must be PDF files. You have limited files you can load to your application so scan several items into 1 PDF file.
Your visa is officially valid the day you enter the country with it and you have 6 months to take personal belongings into Ecuador tax free.