Before you start
- Apostilled criminal-record certificate covering recent residence
- Health cover valid in Ecuador for the visa period
- Documentary proof of the income, pension or investment for your category, apostilled and translated
- For the professional route, a degree registered with SENESCYT
Step-by-step
- 1
Choose the category against the current SBU
Pensioner and rentista routes need three SBU of permanent income, USD 1,446 a month in 2026; the investor route needs 100 SBU, USD 48,200; the professional route needs a SENESCYT-registered degree and means of subsistence around one SBU. The SBU is reset each December and every threshold moves with it on 1 January.
OnlineWho: YouBefore filing - 2
Do every apostille and translation before you leave home
This matters more in Manta than in the big cities. Police certificates, degrees, pension letters, marriage and birth certificates all need an apostille from the issuing country and a sworn translation into Spanish, and if something is missing you are dealing with it from a provincial city with no consulates. Sorting it before you fly costs an afternoon; sorting it afterwards costs weeks and several trips.
In personWho: YouBefore you move - 3
Budget travel to Guayaquil or Quito into the timeline
Guayaquil is roughly three to four hours by road and Quito eight or nine, with flights from Eloy Alfaro airport as the faster alternative. Anything requiring your own country's mission, and some ministry steps, will mean going. Treat it as two or three planned trips rather than as a surprise, and note that intercity bus fares rose 25% on 1 August 2026.
In personWho: You - 4
File at a consulate abroad if you possibly can
Filing at an Ecuadorian consulate before you travel means arriving with the visa in hand and turns the Manta end of the process into a single registration and cédula appointment. From a provincial city that convenience is worth considerably more than it is from the capital.
In personWho: You - 5
Register the visa and obtain the cédula at the Registro Civil
The visa is not the end. You register it and then obtain the cédula de identidad, which is what banks, the IESS, EPAM, the SRI and every municipal counter actually use. Book a separate appointment for it.
In personWho: You - 6
Track every day you spend outside Ecuador
Temporary residents may be absent no more than 90 days a year, cumulative over the visa's validity. Permanent residents have faced a 180-day annual limit in their first two years. Start the record on day one — nobody will send you a warning.
OnlineWho: You
Documents you’ll need
- Passport
- Apostilled criminal-record certificate
- Apostilled proof of pension, income or investment
- SENESCYT degree registration, for the professional route
- Health cover valid in Ecuador
- Cédula de identidad, once issued
Things most newcomers don’t know
The visa is national; the friction is provincial, and no national guide will tell you that.
Every published account of moving to Ecuador is written from Quito or Cuenca, where the ministry, the Registro Civil and a full consular corps are within a taxi ride. In Manta they are not. A document that needs your own country's mission means a trip to Guayaquil or Quito, and consular appointment availability rather than Ecuadorian processing becomes the binding constraint. Budget two or three trips and the time off, or file at a consulate before you ever arrive.
Source: community-reported
Absence is the leading cause of lost residence in Ecuador, and it is entirely avoidable.
Ninety days out of the country in a year sounds generous until you count a trip home at Christmas, a fortnight of work travel, a family emergency and a holiday. The count is cumulative across the visa's validity, not reset by a renewal, and there is no warning letter. Keep a spreadsheet from day one.
Source: Ley Orgánica de Movilidad Humana; MREMH
Every threshold is a multiple of the basic salary, which is reset every December.
Ecuador expresses its income and investment thresholds as multiples of the salario básico unificado — one SBU for basic subsistence, three for the pensioner and rentista routes, one hundred for the investor route. The SBU is USD 482 for 2026. Plan against the multiple rather than a dollar figure you read last year, because they all move together on 1 January.
Source: Ministerio del Trabajo
The October 2025 reform makes most published guidance stale.
A reforming law published on 24 October 2025 amended more than twenty-five articles of the mobility law, tightening the loss of permanent residence, requiring judicial-record certificates at entry and for residence visas, and broadening deportation grounds. Almost everything written about Ecuadorian immigration before that date describes a slightly different system. Where a source does not say when it was checked, assume it predates the reform.
Source: MREMH
Common mistakes to avoid
- Budgeting the process from a Quito- or Cuenca-based guide and omitting the travel a provincial city requires.
- Arriving without apostilled police, education and pension documents.
- Exceeding the 90-day annual absence limit without realising it counts cumulatively.
- Relying on guidance written before the October 2025 reform of the mobility law.
- Treating the visa as the end of the process and never obtaining the cédula.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.
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Sources
- Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana — official
- Registro Civil del Ecuador — cédula de identidad — official
- Ministerio del Trabajo — salario básico unificado — official
Last verified August 2026. Government processes change — always confirm critical details against the official source before acting.