What residency documents or visas did I need if I will be in Ecuador for a while?

"I can only speak of my own experiences with Ecuadorian Bureaucracy. I've been here five years, and currently hold a permanent resident's visa. If they can find a way to make any paperwork-based process more difficult they do. Without fail. From cédulas to driver's licenses, to getting married, which I gather you understand being, like me, married to an Ecuadorian. Or buying a car or land. Months of frustration. For example: my new cédula as a married person. Five trips by bus from Otavalo to Quitumbe (outside Quito) to the Registro Civil which deals with foreigners. Each trip 3-4 hours each way. Each time we went armed with all the documents we felt we could possibly need. Each time there was something lacking. "You were born in the States but are a Canadian?" "Yes, I've lived in Canada since I turned 23 and am a naturalized citizen. " "But can you prove you were born in the US?" "Here are my two passports, Canadian and US, both of which state I was born in New York." "But do you have your birth certificate?" "Yes, but not with me." Another trip back to Cotacachi and back to Quitumbe the next day." "But señor, this is the original." "Yes, by some miracle I still have it 73 years later," "But señor, the original is unacceptable as proof of anything." We need to see a copy, notarized and apostilled by the Secretary of State of New York." At this point, we gave up and contacted the lawyer in Cuenca who had organized my visas for me and she made it happen in two days, in Cuenca. Both the permanent visa and the cédula done on the same day. Worth every penny. And a road trip to boot," commented one expat who made the move to Cotacachi, Ecuador.

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"Think it was an long term tourist visa for more than 6 month (90 days upon entry and 3 month extension is easy) I needed bank account with about $7000 in it to prove I had resources to stay. Problem was chicken and egg. Had to have cedula to get account opened and had to have account to get visa to get cedula. Did an informal workaround but ended up getting different visa. Trying to prove usa resources for a visa is difficult as the government here wants all kinds of certificates with apostilles for your Financials. Only works with Social Security. As you may or may not know, apostilles are verifications of government issued documents and banks in the USA are privately owned (not owned by government) so any usa bank document cannot be apostilled. Their laws apparently allow them to apostille their bank documents for use outside of Ecuador but usa rules do not allow the same. Also the certificates they want do not exist in usa banking practice," remarked another expat in Ecuador.