Legal services in Ecuador

What types of legal services might an expat need in Ecuador?

Legal services in Ecuador are available for every imaginable situation whether it's immigration, business, health, family issues, and so on.

Are legal services easily accessible? What are the best ways to go about finding a professional for your legal needs in Ecuador? (e.g. online, yellow pages, word of mouth)?

Aside from personal recommendations the CNT phone-book (yellow pages) is a good resource to find lawyers. This is definitely the case for Quito as the listing comprises three pages of lawyers and consultants.

If the CNT yellowpages is not available for your city or a similar alternative then use the internet. Do the search in Spanish and use the most specific keywords including your city.

What are the most affordable options for legal services (private, public, etc.)? Is there a range regarding fees?

The most affordable options are public lawyers. As for private attorneys the cost will depend on the service.  As for a range of fees there seems to be a consistent range for some services such immigration help as lawyers more or less charge the same fees give or take a few hundred.

What types of legal services might an expat need in Ecuador?
An expat who is living here as a single person and who does not have a spouse or any blood relatives in this country may wish to have a will drawn up to specify which beneficiary(ies) will have access to any funds or property after death of the expat. Those can be relatives or friends who live anywhere in the world.

Expats can also request a separate form which will specify their wishes for the disposition of their body(s) after death.

Are legal services easily accessible?
Since I had used an attorney to assist in obtaining my visa whose work I found to be very helpful, I chose to use the same attorney for the above stated purposes. I live in Cuenca and am unaware of bilingual public attorney services in this city.

I stayed in Ecuador for less than a year and The closest thing I had to deal with legal services is by processing my visa. I have an Ecuadorian friend who assists me in dealing with those and he is also well spoken in english so it is a great help. My advice is to befriend locals especially those who are already good in speaking english to get help in getting around the process in the country. Hope that helps.

DorothyPeck wrote:

What types of legal services might an expat need in Ecuador?
An expat who is living here as a single person and who does not have a spouse or any blood relatives in this country may wish to have a will drawn up to specify which beneficiary(ies) will have access to any funds or property.... Those can be relatives or friends who live anywhere in the world.

To facilitate executing the terms of an international will .. let's say the beneficiaries are in the USA .. from the start use attorneys in both countries who coordinate on the project.  Two wills may need to be drawn.

If you don't use two attorneys and two wills, the heirs may face a world of bilingual problems in obtaining the assets .. and may find it impossible or extremely problematic to move them without coming to South America.

One suggested solution may be to dictate that the assets be sold and the proceeds be transferred internationally.  Your attorneys can serve as executors.

cccmedia in Quito

I have worked with 3 lawyers and two realtors in Cuenca, This one lady lawyer, helped me with my resident visa and cedula, just fine,  She helped me with a visa for my Ecuadorian, untill she decieded to quit in the middle of the job, So I had Helen Parra finish the job, she did a great job, got my wife her visa, helped me with a banking problem, Helen is one of the most honest lawyers in this town,  I have  bought and sold property in Cuenca,  Kathy Gonzales is A very good realtor, I hired a lawyer to write up A sales agreement, for the purchase of my house, and A lawyer can sometimes do both, write the sales agreement, and do the closing, which can be a lot less money then a realtor,  I hired this one lawyer to help with a civil problem,  he said he charges 20 percent of the setelment nothing more, but everytime i talked to him, he would always ask for 30 bucks cash, I guess he expected me to pay for his lunch every day,  Then one day he told me he would not work on my case anymore, he had a more important money case to do, The cost of ECuador visa and cedula is about one thousan bucke,  a green card for the USA may cost up to  3 or 4 thousand,  writing up a sales agreement 2 to 4 hundred bucks, always ask brfore you start,  If you have any more question, maybe I can help.   Robert

My husband and I have a home in Southeran Ecuador and have for about three years.  Our neighbors are Eucadorian but we are really like family.  We travel back and forth often but they take care of things there for us.  They are very smart buisness people and have helped us find lawyers in the past.  We are very blessed.  We plan on being in our home permanently by next summer.  We have started the process.

My question is this; Should we have a will in Ecuador and in the USA?  We have one in the USA currently but if we need to, we can get one done in Ecuador, too.
What do you think?

One more question.  I know we have six months to move what we want to the courntry.  Is that a one time shipping trip or can I come first with what we want to bring- mostly personal things, kitchen items and some tools.  Then, Joel will follow in about 3-4 months.  He is my husband.  Can he also bring items if we come at different times duty free?  We will have redential visas because of owning our home.  I have read one shipment per person but I am not sure how that is interpreted by law.  It is one couple?

Any help or direction you can provide is very much appreciated.

Thank you,
Robin and Joel

I can't give you any advice except to do as much research as you can for yourselves - start by doing a search for
ecuador menaje de casa
...and read the Ecuadorian government pages from the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores and the Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador, and others to find out what the current rules are for bringing household goods.  Most of this is directed to Ecuadorian citizens who are returning from abroad to live again in Ecuador - so you must make sure what applies to you as foreigners.  I'd directly contact the authorities to get it crystal-clear.

You don't say what your legal status is with regard to residence in Ecuador.  Make sure the rules apply to you if you are not yet a legal resident!  You cannot bring anything you want into Ecuador, even if you are an Ecuadorian citizen, and probably much less if you are a foreigner who is a legal resident, and not at all if you do not have some legal status beyond a tourist.

https://www.cancilleria.gob.ec/menaje-de-casa/https://www.aduana.gob.ec/para-migrantes/

We will have our legal resident visa when we move.  But yes, there is always something new to learn.  That is good.  It keeps our minds young!

Thanks for the suggestions.

Robin and Joel

RobinJoel wrote:

My question is this; Should we have a will in Ecuador and in the USA?  We have one in the USA currently but if we need to, we can get one done in Ecuador, too.
What do you think?l

i think that having your Will translated to Spanish, and then reviewed by your Ecuadorian lawyer is crucial.

It is a small expense to get legal clarity. Your assets could become tied up in Ecuador and could cause headaches and expense for your heirs

Thanks.  That is a good idea.

Do the right thing:

Get wills drawn up in both countries.  Have the respective lawyers communicate with each other to produce final products that are precise and non-conflicting. 

Ecuadorian assets such as real property may need to be liquidated before splitting the proceeds amongst the heirs. 

Wills not properly coordinated could be confusing, so have one will designated as the prevailing one in case of conflicting clauses.

cccmedia

Dorthy,

Can you tell me what attorney you used to obtain a visa?  My husband and I want to get a residential visa.  We do own a home in the rural area outside of Vilca.  Or, do you think we need a lawyer in our area?  We have friends that know and have Ecuadorian lawyer and are Ecuadorian.  They helped us with other issues when buying our home.

How do we start the visa process?  With the attory?

I also wanted to find a mover/shipper.  I know we need an Ecuadorain company to make the process easier.  From all that I have read and learned...We need someone to make a list, a manifest of what is to be shipped from an Ecuadoian company so there are no, or at least fewer problems, when the shipment arrives.  We know we need to be there when property is offloaded with the moving representative.  We also have to have smaller trucks to take our property to our home in the south.
Am I wrong on these points?  Should I know more?   We are only bringing kitchen items, tools, and our bed - oh and personal family things!

Another question, can we bring items down duty free more than once in the first six months of our residental visa?  Do we have a provisional res visa for two years?

My husband and I want to be settled there by the end of next summer.

I know I asked you lots of quetions but we have "written" in the past and I trust your advice.  I also trust CCCMedia.  I know there are other very good people to talk with but you two seem to give the best straight forward advice and you know the ropes in Ecuador!

What do you think?

Robin and Joel

CCCMedia,

Thank you for the information about the wills in two courntries.  Joel and I can do that.

About the property - our home and land - we will leave it to friends in Ecuador.  No one in our families will ever move or even want to live in another place!  Kind of sad but honest.  Personal property for the most part will go back to family in the USA but some will stay with the home.
Do you think either of these will be a problem that might involve governing issues?

I ask you and Dorthy most questions, though there are many educated people.  I trust your experieces and like how straight forwar you both are with us.

Can you read my comments to Dorthy?  Your response would be very welcomed, too!

Robin and Joel

Thanks for the kind words, Robin and Joel.

With the will and the other matters, you obviously need an attorney .. and you seem to know that.

Ask him or her all your legal questions.

A one-hour consultation will show you what are your next steps.

cccmedia

CCCMedia,

Thanks for you quick reply.  We will have an attorney take care of the wills.

We should also work with one for the visas, right?  and the shipping process, right?

Joel and I are very ready to move to our  home but we have an idea.  What do you think?
Joel works for a big international company but he works from home using the internet and conferece calling - lots.  We thought that we could get a small rental place in Loja with a "very good" internet connection and an international phone plan.  We were told that Google is coming through Vilca and we could pay to have them bring a line/connection to our home in the rural area.  But that may be later.  What is the internet like in Loja?
So, what do you think?  A rental unit for the week to live with an internet and phone, then home on weekends.  Joel would work for a year or so this way.   I can go back and forth (Loja and Vilca) but Joel could be in Loja during the week for work and home on the weekends.  Does that make sense?

Once we have a provisional residential visa, can we make this happen?  Will working for a USA company online be an issue with the government?

Thank you for all information and ideas.  We so want to move permanently to our home.  We have so much there that we love and are ready for this change.  Eventually, we will consider duel citizenship.

Robin and Joel

I recommend that you check out Internet service in Loja and Vilcabamba before you make any commitments.  Get feedback from Expats living around there.

My Internet service in Quito this month was less than ideal .. and heaven knows whether they have outages or dropouts in the south of Ecuador on a regular basis.

cccmedia

RobinJoel wrote:

Will working for a USA company online be an issue with the government?

Probably not an issue if you don't make it one.  The South American tax collectors and other bureaucrats haven't exactly caught up with digital nomads yet.

cccmedia

"Eventually we will consider dual citizenship."

  ----

Now why would you ever do that?  Enthusiasm for Ecuador?  The right to vote in Ecuador?

Unless there are bi-lingual children who need to travel or you have property (tied to a visa) that needs to be sold .. I don't see a reason.

The more nationalities you have, the more you are subject to worldwide income taxes.  Even countries that don't tax worldwide income now .. could change the tax laws whenever more income is needed.  Expats typically don't even have a say in the matter.

The changing and onerous tax laws in Colombia, where I recently spent over a year, ran me off that country (except for up to 180 days a year).

cccmedia

CCCMedia,

Thank you again for your quick reply.  I am so happy that you are out "there!"

Do you know of a few knowledgeable people in the Loja area so that I can write them?  Or should I just throw the question out?

Thanks,
Robin

CCCMedia,

Joel and I thought that we could choose to pay taxes in the USA or Ecuador if we had duel citizenship?
Ecuador is 8%?   In the USA, it is much higher.  Also, we were told that if we had an Ecuadorian visa that we could travel more cheaply around South America.  Is that true or not?  We were also told that if anything happened to one visa that we would have another to travel with.  Is that not true?
It sounds like we don't need a duel citizenship. This information we have comes from acquaintences not lawyers.
Were Joel and I way off on this issue?

Robin and Joel

RobinJoel wrote:

CCCMedia,

Joel and I thought that we could choose to pay taxes in the USA or Ecuador if we had duel citizenship?
Ecuador is 8%?   In the USA, it is much higher.  Also, we were told that if we had an Ecuadorian visa that we could travel more cheaply around South America.  Is that true or not?  We were also told that if anything happened to one visa that we would have another to travel with.  Is that not true?
It sounds like we don't need a duel citizenship. This information we have comes from acquaintences not lawyers.
Were Joel and I way off on this issue?

The acquaintances are not necessarily serving you.  They may be spending too much time reading Lief Simon's essays in Live and Invest Overseas .. or other publications that promote second passports.

Cheaper to travel around South America?  Ecuador has no exit tax for residents at its borders or airports, but Peru used to charge about $30 a head if you flew out of there.  The departure taxes are sometimes folded into the price of airline tickets in most Latin countries that had standard $25 exit taxes. 

Losing your passports or visas -- sure you'd have a backup, but since few lose their passports, that's not the incentive it otherwise would be for organized folks like your family.

That advice you got on supposedly choosing which country gets your tax payments .. I won't dignify, except to say:  The way for tax-liable USA citizens to avoid the IRS is the expensive and tricky route of renouncing citizenship.  But then you wouldn't have dual citizenship anyway.

cccmedia

RobinJoel wrote:

CCCMedia,

Thank you again for your quick reply.  I am so happy that you are out "there!"

Do you know of a few knowledgeable people in the Loja area so that I can write them?  Or should I just throw the question out?

Thanks,
Robin

You could start a new thread via the Ecuador forum welcome page, something like:

Loja/Vilcabamba Internet Quality -- Digital Nomads Want to Know

CCCMedia,

Losing your passports or visas -- sure you'd have a backup, but since few lose their passports, that's not the incentive it otherwise would be for organized folks like your family.

That advice you got on supposedly choosing which country gets your tax payments .. I won't dignify, except to say:  The way for tax-liable USA citizens to avoid the IRS is the expensive and tricky route of renouncing citizenship.  But then you wouldn't have dual citizenship anyway.


No, we won't lose our passports!  We can put them away when there and carry a passport card.  I think that will do in the country most of the time.

We don't wan to give up USA citizenship, so we will pay the federal taxes.  I don't think we pay state taxes because we don't live in a USA state.  We will find out for sure or maybe you know. 
Yes, there is a lot of articles about duel citizenship but if the cost is so small to travel South America then it really is not needed.  I don't think about safety with an Ecuadorian passport because no matter where we travel, we will not look latin.

You, sir, are a wealth of information.  You have no idea how much we value your information and honest thoughtfulness on this site.  If there is something that we should be reading, real info, just tell us.

Thank you - lots to do!  I hope you don't mind a question or two in the future!
Robin and Joel

RobinJoel wrote:

I don't think we pay state taxes because we don't live in a USA state.... maybe you know.

You, sir, are a wealth of information.  You have no idea how much we value your information and honest thoughtfulness on this site....

I hope you don't mind a question or two in the future!

That's correct:  no USA address nor official affiliation with a state, then no state taxes are due.

I just finished work on an annual federal return for the IRS.  A 1099 showed me as a California resident because I derived taxes a while back from that state.

However, my USA accountant in Nevada specializing in Expat taxes -- Tax Samaritan -- agreed with me that, as I have no California address nor any other USA address, I am not liable for any state taxes.

Expats have until on or around June 15 of any year to file taxes from overseas.  Extensions until October are easily obtained by filling out a form at irs.gov and getting it to the IRS.

If you have no state connection, you effectively lose the right to vote for the electoral college, meaning no vote for president and vice-president of the United States and other office-holders.

----

I welcome your questions any time and am glad you have appreciated my responses.

cccmedia

RobinJoel wrote:

CCCMedia....

If there is something that we should be reading, real info, just tell us.

I recommend 100 Points to Consider Before Moving or Retiring to Ecuador by Nicholas Crowder.  I read it on Amazon/Kindle during my first months in Ecuador via the Kindle Cloud free Reader.

Although Nick apparently does not live in Ecuador now, he was in-country for many years and has a background as a security officer and expert.

He actually presents well over 100 points, maybe 150 points, many on the topic of safety and security in Ecuador.

One controversial point:  he says, don't invite anybody you have met into your Ecuadorian residence.

Many Expats may notice that they don't receive invitations into locals' homes even when they have invited the locals into the Expat's home.  I believe this is often a matter of security and not giving access to items inside the home.

My friend John from Reno, Nevada, and his Ecuadorian wife invited several couples to dinner at their home in the suburbs of Quito .. and the invitations were accepted.  John was disappointed later when none of the couples reciprocated with invitations into their homes.

cccmedia

Nick Crowder's book is currently available on amazon.com for $4.99.  At the moment it's free with an Amazon's Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription.