Bureaucracy is strong here and each individual bureaucrat can (and does) interperet rules/requirements in their own way. Biggest piece of advice: when you can, accept the craziness and do your best to appease the bureaucrat in question. When the problem is the bureaucracy itself... IDK... pray? Here are two stories that may be illustrative -
Story 1:
I paid for a facilitator to help when I got temporary visas for my daughter and myself since I wanted the process started before we arrived in country (professional visas are somewhat more complex). Two years later, I needed to apply for our permanent residency and figured I knew enough Spanish and enough about Ecuador to do this on my own (except for a $10 or 20 consultation with a lawyer). I brought all the documents that were listed on the website and everything the lawyer suggested to their office in Azogues (where our original temporary residency visas were issued).Â
1st bureaucrat wanted daughter's apostilled birth certificate (which they had in their files from our temp visa application). I couldn't understand why they were asking me for a document they said they had. Finally had the agent call my bilingual attorney who explained what they wanted: A signed letter from me asking them to give the birth certificate to themselves. Went to local print shop and printed and signed a letter and returned it. Was told all the other docs were in order and could return in a few weeks - after they'd given the document to themselves - in order to submit the application.
When I returned, the documents weren't enough for the second bureaucrat. This time he wanted 6 months of bank statements and a translated and apostilled rental agreement for property I was renting out in the USA. So I returned home, got the documents together, and returned. 3rd bureaucrat said she didn't actually need the bank statements or rental agreement and accepted the application.
Received notice the visas were ready and returned to pick them up (FYI a ~7 1/2 hour bus ride each way). 4th bureaucrat would not give us visas until I provided proof of insurance for us both. Because of how long the process took, he couldn't accept the original letter since it was now too old. I won't go into how I managed to have a PDF copy of a letter saying we both had insurance within 30 minutes while our agent was out of the office in Quito, but suffice it to say that the 4th bureaucrat was satisfied with the PDF and we left with our visas issued as LPRs.
As far as I can remember, the entire process took about 3-4 months and 4 trips to Cuenca/Azogues (~60 hours of bus travel in total).
Story 2:
Last year while I was visiting family in the US, I realised that my Ecuadorian driver's license had expired. I had read the date wrong (10/05/2023 was May 10th NOT October 5th). I had assumed it was October without thinking since that was the month when I first got the license. No problem. Went to the ANT with everything it said they required on their website and anything else I thought they might possibly want. The initial agent couldn't find my license in their system so I was told I couldn't renew my license.
After getting shuffled around for a few hours to various people I finally found someone who could figure out the problem: Because I got my license through "homologación" (I literally exchanged my US license for an Ecuadorian one) I never went to driving school in Ecuador. Apparently, the legislature passed a law to get rid of unqualified drivers like those who never went to driving school... and, because there was no record of my having attended driving school, they "anulled" my license. In order to fix this they required my help... Can you guess? They wanted me to write a letter to them asking them to give my driver's license record to themselves.
I can't say how many trips to the local ANT office I made over the next months, but it was over 5. Each time I was told that the problem needed to be fixed in the head office in Quito and that all I could do was wait for the records to be updated. Meanwhile, I couldn't drive legally - in fact, it turns out I had been driving illegally since they had anulled my license without informing me. On my second to last trip to the local ANT in October (5 months after my license expired) I asked how long I should wait since I needed to renew my car registration next month (November). I was informed that it could take weeks or months or maybe next year.
Upon returning home, I made a list of every official in the ANT that might possibly be able to help, from low level agents to the head of the ANT and found their email addresses online. I then wrote a very detailed and polite email begging for help and proceeded to email it to those 50+ people everyday. I merely changed the subject line each day from "First Attempt..." to "Second Attempt..." etc (all in Spanish, of course). If I remember correctly, I received a response after the 9th attempt. By mid-November I had my renewed driver's license and was able to renew my car's matricula.
I am not recommending this action (mass email), but I was desperate: If I didn't renew my car matricula in November then, even if they eventually renewed my license, I couldn't legally drive my car to the ANT to renew my (then invalid) matricula. And since they can and do seize your vehicle for driving without registration here, I wouldn't risk it with a car... I can't even imagine the bureaucracy involved in trying to get your vehicle returned to you after it's been seized.
