One step further

For a few weeks, we had been "sweating out" part of the process of getting our residency visas.  When we came back in December, we were told that we would have them in 30 days -- our paperwork was all in order.  Our lawyer needed another copy of my passport with the date my tourist visa ran out, but that was easily taken care of.  She sent all our paperwork to her colleague in Quito for presentation to the Ministry.  Well, the very next day, the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, fired the Minister because there was rampant corruption (selling of visas, for example) in the department.  He appointed a new minister, but the office was closed for a month for house cleaning.  It reopened January 12.  We kept waiting and waiting, but no one seemed to know what was going on.  Our visas were due to expire on Feb. 17, and we had return tickets to the US for Feb. 7.  (One of the requirements to get in the country on a tourist visa is, of course, a return ticket, although no one checked to see if we had one either time we entered the country.)  We went to our lawyer and told her that if we didn't hear that our visas were approved, we would be leaving the country on our flight.  Within a couple of days, the lawyer in Quito called our lawyer and told her that our visas HAD been approved.  Our passports were sent to Quito for the application of our "silver certificates"; we should have them back this week.  We then go to Quito to get our national identity cards -- our cedulas -- and then we have to get our census cards -- our censos -- here in Cuenca. 

This means that we can look for property in earnest.  We had found a couple of places on the internet that interested us.  We saw one on Friday -- very beautiful, but remote with no access to it and no way to get electricity to it.  It was in a valley, and we suspect it floods (a river runs through it) and that it is government land; it is past the checkpoint to El Cajas National Park.  We were scheduled to look at a place in Nabon, about 50 miles from here, on Monday, but yesterday Ray received an email from the real estate agent we talked to, telling him that the property had been sold.  There is another place, also in Nabon, that we are interested in, but we haven't heard back from that real estate company yet.  The system here is unlike that in the US.  Anyway, we're giving it another month, and then we'll evaluate and make a decision.

Until next time, be well.