Aug 11, 2013 · All legal documents in Ecuador must be drafted in Spanish. If your attorney is not bilingual, you will likely incur the additional costs, of an external translator, which will likely charge higher fees, than the in-house admin staff of your legal counsel. If you simply cannot find an attorney comfortable with your native language, consider ...
Nov 23, 2010 · Expats offer insight into the cost of living in Ecuador. Expats in Ecuador offer advice to newcomers and people considering a move to Ecuador about clothing, sunscreen, renting before buying, gringo pricing, Ecuadorians politeness and much more. Real estate listings in popular cities and towns in Ecuador.
Lawyers of Ecuador. Lawyers of Ecuador is, a member of Lawyers of Latin America (LLA), composed of a group of Ecuadorian legal experts in commercial transactions representing the interests of both individuals and companies. Your business or personal project in Ecuador will thrive with our local and international expertise.
Jan 18, 2022 · Ecuador’s labor law cover much more than just maids, gardeners and guards, of course, and expats who hire Ecuadorians for other purposes, including as construction laborers or as full- or part-time employees in businesses, need to understand the legal requirements. ... If an employer fires an employee, severance costs can be much higher, even ...
What employers need to know. “The first thing that employers should understand is that the labor law of Ecuador protects workers much more than it protects employers, ” she says. “It has been that way for years. People say that the law changed with (President Rafael) Correa, but most of it has been the same for years.
Cuenca attorney Andrea Jaramillo, says the number of legal cases against employers is growing rapidly. “I have been to court a number of times recently to represent expats and Ecuadorians and, in most of those cases, the employer didn’t understand the law,” she says.
Almost every expat arriving in Ecuador has heard the pitch: You can hire a maid, gardener, or cook in Ecuador for a fraction of what you would pay in North America or Europe. This is true, although the cost has gone up considerably in recent years. What you don’t hear, however, is that there are strings attached in the form ...
A maid in Ecuador is entitled to benefits.
Ecuador’s labor law cover much more than just maids, gardeners and guards, of course, and expats who hire Ecuadorians for other purposes, including as construction laborers or as full- or part-time employees in businesses, need to understand the legal requirements.
You can expect to pay around $10 per person for dinner without alcoholic drinks at expat-oriented restaurants. A glass of wine costs around $5 with a bottle running $20. A bottle of domestic beer such as Club or Pilsener costs around $3 while craft or imported beers cost around $5. Pizza is also trendy in Ecuador.
The lowest budget long-term rental option is to rent a room in an Ecuadorian home. You can often find places in the $100 to $200/month range, but they may not have a private bathroom, and you’ll need to share the kitchen and refrigerator.
One of the main reasons expats leave home is to save money while also being able to afford a higher quality of life. The low cost of living in Ecuador and other popular expat destinations makes that possible. Back in the roaring twenties, American expats migrated to Paris and other parts of Europe for the same reason. In this article, we’ll let you know how much you can expect to pay for necessities in Ecuador, like rent, utilities, healthcare, transportation, food, appliances, and more.
IESS is Ecuador’s single-payer social security and (universal) healthcare system. Once you have your temporary or permanent residency visa and your cedula, you can sign up for this health insurance.
The cost of fruits and vegetables in Ecuador varies by location and season. Most of the products you’ll find in mercados are grown in Ecuador and much of it comes from local farms. However, if you live in the mountains, you’ll pay more for tropical fruits grown at lower altitudes and shipped into the mountain cities.
When expats first move to Ecuador, some prefer to find somewhere to stay for only a few weeks or months while they find the best neighborhood and location for their long term investment.
Dinner is the biggest meal of the day for Ecuadorians, so that’s when most of the restaurants are open. There are lots of Ecuadorian restaurants in every neighborhood. In the larger cities, you’ll also find a variety of international cuisines, such as American, Indian, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.
The Investor Visa is ideal for expats that need to spend more than 90 days outside of Ecuador whilst their money is working for them in a high interest CD.
Exit tax. If you do decide to leave Ecuador, you should be aware of the current 5% exit tax on cash leaving the country. There has been continuous talk of removing the tax, but until it actually happens you should be prepared to lose 5% on any capital leaving Ecuador.
Ecuador's Pensioner Visa (or Retirement Visa, Pensionado, Jubilado) is the most popular type of visa for retired expats wanting to spend their golden years in Ecuador. The main requirement is that you receive a guaranteed income for life.
The visa fees for dependents are currently $200 - or half of the primary visa holder's fees. This fee is only payable once the visa is approved.
Ecuador has some of the most affordable property prices for expats. And, prices are likely to continue to fall as COVID forces more distressed owners to sell. This can make it very tempting to kill two birds with one stone by buying yourself a cheap property that you can also use to obtain your Investor Visa.
Please note though that there is NO such thing as obtaining Ecuador Citizenship by Investment without first becoming a Permanent Resident of Ecuador, and also waiting the above mentioned required three years since having become a Permanent Resident – that of course generally requiring a TOTAL period of 5 years living in Ecuador, first as a Temporary Resident for one’s initial 2 years in Ecuador, followed thereafter by an additional 3 years in Ecuador as a Permanent Resident, so as to be able to finally qualify for Ecuadorian Citizenship at that then time.
You should also take into account that the Ecuadorian Citizenship process is currently taking a time period from a minimum of 6 months, to a maximum of 12+ months, in order to be approved. This is because the Immigration Ministry must review and approve the various documents, as well as administer an Ecuador Citizenship Test in Spanish to you in the context of a written test and oral interview, as to proving your intermediate or better Spanish speaking ability, which needs to be demonstrated by you as to you personally having a fairly general knowledge of Ecuadorian culture, geography, history, and the legal/political system of Ecuador. And so, as you might imagine, the Citizenship application is not nearly as quick to be approved, in comparison to when one applies/applied for a Permanent Residency Visa itself, which Permanent Residency in Ecuador itself does not include these additional requirements that Ecuadorian Citizenship does in fact require.
Please note that after submitting your Ecuadorian Citizenship application’s above mentioned requirements, you will need to take a computerized multiple choice test of 20 questions in Spanish, which will require you to achieve at least a 90% score in your knowledge of Ecuadorian history, geography, culture and politics (a comprehensive list of the pool of specific questions with answers in Spanish is available for you to study from, so as to allow you to be familiar with that before sitting for the test – a competent Ecuadorian Attorney is easily able to provide you with the required pool of study questions and answers in Spanish as well as pre-prepared study note cards showing the questions and answers for same).
prove your economic solvency by showing a combination of your recent bank statements, proof of pension, and in the case of owning any Real Estate in Ecuador then also provide proof of your property in Ecuador).
Very truly, it is no doubt permitted to just remain only as a Permanent Resident of Ecuador for the rest of one’s days here in Ecuador, because as you likely already know, Permanent Residency in Ecuador is generally valid for a lifetime, subject to one not leaving Ecuador for more than 180 days during either of one’s first two years as a Permanent Resident of Ecuador, nor leaving Ecuador for more than 5 years in a single trip thereafter one’s first two years of Permanent Residency are completed. That said though, and of important and generally happy/positive note for most Expats, per the current rules (beneficially revised rules) for applying to become an Ecuadorian Citizen, one absolutely now CAN apply to become a Citizen of Ecuador if he/she leaves Ecuador for up to a maximum of 180 days in EACH of their first three years (i.e. 540 days in TOTAL if in no individual year did one spend more than 180 days outside of Ecuador) since having officially received their Permanent Residency Visa stamp in their foreign issued passport. A special and even more favorable rule applies to spouses of Ecuadorian citizens, and also a new three year look-back period is possible for ANY person [s] who left Ecuador for too long a period of time during their first three years of Ecuadorian Permanent Residency (i.e. more than 180 days in a particular year) but who later made amends with their amount of time spent in Ecuador during another consecutive three year period of living as a Permanent Resident of Ecuador (naturally that varies on a case by case basis, and so it’s best to inquire about that specifically if you’re unsure of your officially counted days outside of Ecuador).
Following moving to Ecuador and obtaining one’s Residency Visa (s), in and of their first few years of life in our beautiful country, many an expat simply elects to remain as a permanent resident of Ecuador, and not jump through the next procedural hoop in sequence, which is of course to become an Ecuadorian citizen, who is then also able to obtain an Ecuadorian passport.
The above constitutes the same exact rules for foreigners who are married to an Ecuadorian Citizen (i.e. needing to wait 3 years since the date of receiving one’s Permanent Residency so as to be able to apply for Ecuadorian Citizenship at that time). The only exception to this, is that any foreigner who marries an Ecuadorian citizen and becomes a Permanent Resident via an “Amparo Marriage Visa”, can instantly (i.e. immediately thereafter becoming a Permanent Resident of Ecuador) apply to become a Citizen of Ecuador themselves, on the basis of their marriage to an Ecuadorian Citizen, but ONLY IF their marriage to their Ecuadorian spouse has/had ALREADY been formally recorded by Ecuador’s “Registro Civil” (Civil Registry office) AT LEAST 2 years prior to the date that the foreigner wishes to apply for their Ecuadorian Citizenship itself. And of course, any person born in Ecuador, or any person born to an Ecuadorian Citizen, CAN/WILL automatically qualify for Ecuador Citizenship by virtue of their birth in Ecuador and/or through their parents who are/were Ecuadorian Citizens, as or how the applicable case may be, WITHOUT the need for the above mentioned three year wait since the date of receiving one’s Permanent Residency Visa.
The date of the first law school in the United States is debated, but the general consensus is that it was sometime during the late 1700s. We had lawyers before that time, however.
Each state's exact rules are different. In Virginia, for example, a legal apprentice cannot be paid by the supervising attorney. In Washington, they must be paid by the attorney.
Most lawyers do attend law school, but there are some advantages to avoiding it if you can manage it. You'll avoid the high cost of law school and perhaps gain more on-the-ground experience shadowing a working lawyer.
Finally, the reality is that it's hard to pass the bar exam without at least some law school experience. Although not impossible, the pass rates are low. It’s risky to spend years as a legal apprentice if you never manage to pass the bar exam. In fairness, however, this is also an issue faced by students of non-ABA-accredited law schools and even some ABA-accredited ones.
Finally, it's indisputable that the average legal apprentice will have more hands-on experience than most new law school graduates. At most, the average law grad has done one clinic and perhaps a handful of summer jobs, internships, or externships. Most of a student's time is taken up with classes, particularly in the first two years.