Expat Community > Ecuador

DUNMOVN
Joined 2011
Posts: 1991

VISA DOCUMENTS APOSTILLE AND NOTARIES

12 years ago

I live a five minute walk from the immigration office in Cuenca and I am there at least once a week getting answers to questions for members of this forum. Today is September 6th and the information below is accurate as of today. In case you haven’t noticed, Latin countries love paperwork, it gives the high school graduates they hire something to do. But then I am cynic.

When you are sending your documents to the appropriate Secretary of State in the US to be Apostilled, they will usually require notarization. You need to call and find out. What is being notarized is your signature, and not the document and it will usually be on a separate piece of paper.

Then the documents have to be translated into Spanish and the translator’s signature must be notarized. Here it where it gets tricky. You can go in most phone books or online in the US and find translators who, once the translation is completed, have to be present to have their signature notarized. Once that is done, you have to send the translated notarized document back to your Security of State to have it Apostilled. Yes, the translation must also be Apostilled. So now you have your original Apostilled document and the Apostilled translation. The potential mine field is just ahead.

The translated, notarized, apostilled documents have to be acceptable to Ecuadorian immigration and they recommend that you have the translation done locally for very good reasons. In the event there is a mistake like leaving out a middle initial or misspelling a name or word, the translation will not be approved and you will have to have it done over and Apostilled again. It is easy if it has been done in Ecuador, but if it was done in the US, that can ruin your whole day. You have two options. You can try to get the translator in the US to correct it, have it notarized and have someone take to the Secretary of State again. Plus you have to trust it to the US and Ecuadorian postal service, or pay FEDEX both ways. You should have a headache by now.

The second option is a no brainer. It is so much simpler to just wait and have the translation done in Ecuador. In Cuenca for example, immigration recommends using the Spanish language schools and one of them, Nexus is a 10-minute walk from the immigration office.

I have the list of documents needed for visas and the Cedula. Send me a private message with your email address and I’ll send you then lists—in English

If anyone does not like or wants to complain about this, the complaint department is run by Helen Waite. If you have a complaint go to---

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VISA DOCUMENTS APOSTILLE AND NOTARIES

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