Treaty Routes: Ecuador Runs Three of Them
Ecuador is unusual in operating several parallel treaty routes at once. The migration law creates a general category, residente por convenio, for anyone entering under a visa set by an international instrument Ecuador is party to, and the ministry's catalogue then runs separate procedures for the Mercosur Residence Agreement, for the Andean Migration Statute, and for the bilateral migration statute with Venezuela. The Andean route is the cheapest of all: the grant itself is free. Whichever instrument applies, its own terms govern - including the proof of means, which the ministry's rules expressly hand back to the treaty.
At a glance
- Routes the ministry runs
- Mercosur Residence Agreement, Andean Migration Statute, and the Ecuador-Venezuela migration statute
- Statutory basis
- Residente por convenio, a category of temporary residence in its own right
- Means of support
- Governed by the treaty, not by the ministry's general rules
- Andean permanent residence
- 21 uninterrupted months, grant free of charge
- Mercosur temporary residence
- 2 years with multiple renewals, no income test
The term is the general one in article 60 of the Ley Orgánica de Movilidad Humana. The ministry's Mercosur procedure page still quotes that article as it read before 2021, when renewal was available only once.
- Application fee
- USD 50, payable even on the free Andean grant
Requirements
- Nationality of a state party to an international instrument Ecuador is party to that provides for a residence visa
- The requirements set by that instrument, which displace the ministry's general means-of-support rules
- A valid passport or identity document, and the general residence requirements of the migration law
- For the Andean permanent route: 21 uninterrupted months in Ecuador and a temporary residence under the Andean statute or another temporary residence
- Payment of the application fee, which is charged even where the visa itself is free
In detail
Three doors, not one
Ecuador belongs to the Andean Community as a full member and adhered to the Mercosur Residence Agreement in 2011, ratifying it in January 2014. It also maintains a bilateral migration statute with Venezuela. The ministry's procedure catalogue lists all three as distinct visa procedures, and its permanent-residence sponsorship procedure names them together. A Bolivian, a Colombian or a Peruvian can therefore choose which instrument to use, because those three states are parties to both the Andean statute and the Mercosur agreement.
The treaty decides what you have to show
The ministry's own rules on proving lawful means of support - the protocol that governs every other category, down to the number of minimum wages and the acceptable document types - expressly exclude the resident-by-agreement category and hand the question to the international instrument. That is the mechanism behind the most valuable feature of these routes: nationality replaces an income test.
Exceptions by origin
Mercosur Residency - Two Years, No Income Test
Ecuador acceded to the Mercosur Residence Agreement in 2011 and ratified it in January 2014, and runs it as a standalone visa procedure. The temporary stage asks for nationality, identity, a clean record and a fee - there is no income threshold and no health insurance requirement, which is what separates it from every other Ecuadorian residence category. Two features go further than most of the region: your current migration status is expressly disregarded, and the fines an overstayer would otherwise owe are waived. Money is asked about once, at the permanent stage, and then in the form of a tax return or a social security record rather than a balance.
- Nationality of a state that has ratified the Acuerdo sobre Residencia para los Nacionales de los Estados Partes del Mercosur, Bolivia y Chile
- A visa application form
- A valid passport or identity card of one of the signatory countries - a national identity card is enough, a passport is not required
- A judicial, criminal or police record certificate from the country of origin, or of the last country of residence over the last five years
- For dependants up to the second degree of consanguinity and first of affinity who are not nationals of a signatory state, a marriage or birth certificate or a registered de facto union
- Payment of the visa tariff
- For the permanent stage: the temporary Mercosur residence certificate, an Ecuadorian criminal record certificate, and proof of lawful means of support by income tax return or IESS contribution record
- For the permanent stage: the application filed within the 90 days before the temporary residence expires
Mercosur Residency for Associated States - Only Where the Agreement Was Ratified
Ecuador extends the Mercosur residence route to associated states, but the text narrows it in a way the name hides: it covers nationals of Mercosur member and associated states 'that are parties to' the Residence Agreement. Chile, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador itself are parties. Guyana and Suriname are associated with Mercosur without being parties to this agreement, and Venezuela's position is not something Ecuador's own instruments settle. Where it does apply, the terms are identical to those for full members: two years, no income test, migration status disregarded, fines waived.
- Nationality of a state that has ratified the Acuerdo sobre Residencia para los Nacionales de los Estados Partes del Mercosur, Bolivia y Chile
- A visa application form
- A valid passport or identity card of one of the signatory countries - a national identity card is enough, a passport is not required
- A judicial, criminal or police record certificate from the country of origin, or of the last country of residence over the last five years
- For dependants up to the second degree of consanguinity and first of affinity who are not nationals of a signatory state, a marriage or birth certificate or a registered de facto union
- Payment of the visa tariff
- For the permanent stage: the temporary Mercosur residence certificate, an Ecuadorian criminal record certificate, and proof of lawful means of support by income tax return or IESS contribution record
- For the permanent stage: the application filed within the 90 days before the temporary residence expires
Andean Migration Statute - Permanent Residence for Free
Ecuador is a full member of the Andean Community and runs the Andean Migration Statute, Decision 878, as its own visa procedure. The permanent stage asks for 21 uninterrupted months in Ecuador holding an Andean temporary residence or any other temporary residence, and the grant itself is free: the only charge is the USD 50 application fee. Proof of lawful means is governed by the ministry's protocol for this category rather than by the treaty, unlike the Mercosur route where the treaty displaces it.
- Nationality of an Andean Community member state - Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador or Peru
- 21 uninterrupted months of residence in Ecuador
- An Andean Migration Statute temporary residence visa, or any other temporary residence visa
- Applying while in a regular migration status
- The document evidencing the generating fact - the temporary Andean residence visa or another temporary residence
- A valid passport with at least six months to run, or an identity document of the country of origin
- An Ecuadorian criminal record certificate
- Proof of lawful means of support under the ministry's protocol
- The requirements of article 22 of Decision 878
What the law says
«Es la condición migratoria que autoriza la estadía de hasta dos años en el territorio ecuatoriano, renovable por múltiples ocasiones, a las que acceden las personas extranjeras que ingresan al país dentro de las siguientes categorías:»Our translation - not official
It is the migration status that authorises a stay of up to two years in Ecuadorian territory, renewable on multiple occasions, available to foreign persons who enter the country within the following categories:
The two-year term and the multiple renewals come from the opening words of article 60, which govern every temporary residence category under it. The ministry's own Mercosur procedure page still reproduces this article as it read before 2021, when the stay was subject to renewal only once.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state's regulations registry. Hosts consolidated texts of laws, decrees and ministerial agreements, each PDF carrying a 'Normativa: Vigente' marker and an 'Última Reforma' line, with amendments attributed article by article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for currency. The landing pages carry the state's own warning that the information is referencial and may be out of date, and the consolidations are produced by a commercial legal publisher under state hosting rather than by the gazette. A consolidation appears months after the reform it folds in: the July 2025 LOMH reform surfaced in a September 2025 file. For the date and issue number of an instrument, the Registro Oficial is the authority, not this.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Residente por convenio: para quien ingrese al país amparado por una visa determinada por un instrumento internacional del cual el Ecuador es parte;»Our translation - not official
Resident by agreement: for a person who enters the country covered by a visa determined by an international instrument to which Ecuador is a party;
The ministry's own Mercosur page quotes this as numeral 11 of an older version of article 60. In the text in force it is numeral 12.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state's regulations registry. Hosts consolidated texts of laws, decrees and ministerial agreements, each PDF carrying a 'Normativa: Vigente' marker and an 'Última Reforma' line, with amendments attributed article by article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for currency. The landing pages carry the state's own warning that the information is referencial and may be out of date, and the consolidations are produced by a commercial legal publisher under state hosting rather than by the gazette. A consolidation appears months after the reform it folds in: the July 2025 LOMH reform surfaced in a September 2025 file. For the date and issue number of an instrument, the Registro Oficial is the authority, not this.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Art. 77.- Residente por convenio.- Las personas extranjeras que soliciten una categoría al amparo de un convenio o instrumento internacional del cual el Ecuador sea parte, se regirán conforme a las disposiciones de dicho instrumento.»Our translation - not official
Article 77. Resident by agreement. Foreign persons who apply for a category under an agreement or international instrument to which Ecuador is a party shall be governed by the provisions of that instrument.
A complete deferral. Whatever the treaty says about requirements is what applies, and the regulation adds nothing of its own.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state's regulations registry. Hosts consolidated texts of laws, decrees and ministerial agreements, each PDF carrying a 'Normativa: Vigente' marker and an 'Última Reforma' line, with amendments attributed article by article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for currency. The landing pages carry the state's own warning that the information is referencial and may be out of date, and the consolidations are produced by a commercial legal publisher under state hosting rather than by the gazette. A consolidation appears months after the reform it folds in: the July 2025 LOMH reform surfaced in a September 2025 file. For the date and issue number of an instrument, the Registro Oficial is the authority, not this.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Artículo 20. Medios de vida lícitos en procesos de visado para residencia temporal para residente por convenio.- Para esta categoría migratoria se está supeditado a lo determinado en el propio instrumento internacional.»Our translation - not official
Article 20. Lawful means of support in visa procedures for temporary residence as a resident by agreement. For this migration category the matter is subject to what is determined in the international instrument itself.
The means-of-support protocol that applies to every other category is switched off here. This is why the Mercosur route has no income test.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes Acuerdos Ministeriales as PDFs, including the eVisas and means-of-support instrument, and runs informational pages such as the list of nationalities requiring a tourist visa.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for anything time-sensitive on its informational pages. The visa-country list carries no publication date in its body, only a 2020 path in its URL, and the list has changed repeatedly since. Note also that the ministry's own procedure pages mis-describe Acuerdo Ministerial 0000070 when citing it for means-of-support proof: the article is there, but the agreement's title is about digital services.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Solicitud de visa USD $50, Otorgamiento de visa: GRATIS»Our translation - not official
Visa application USD $50, grant of visa: FREE
A procedure page, not an instrument. The consular tariff behind it, Acuerdo Ministerial 0000026 of 2023, prints its visa chapter as a table that carries no text in any published copy we could find - the ministry's signed PDF, the consolidated PDF on gob.ec and Registro Oficial No. 293 of 19 April 2023 are all scans of it - so we have not read the tariff item itself.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
One page per visa procedure, with requirements, fees, validity and a legal basis panel. Pages carry a last-updated date and monthly usage statistics.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what the law says. Its legal basis panels demonstrably quote superseded statutory text - the tourist pages still carry the pre-July-2025 wording of LOMH art. 56, and the Mercosur page quotes an art. 60 renumbered in 2021. Cite it for fees, forms, channels and processing, and read the statute for the rule.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
We read Ecuador's own implementing instruments for the Mercosur agreement and the ministry's procedure pages for the Andean route. We did not read the text of Andean Community Decision 878 itself: the copy hosted on an Ecuadorian government site would not load, and the Community's own gazette index did not surface it. Everything stated here about the Andean route therefore comes from Ecuadorian pages describing it.
The Ecuador-Venezuela migration statute is named on the ministry's procedure pages but we did not fetch a page describing its terms, so nothing is claimed about what it requires.
Being a resident by agreement does not shorten the path to permanent residence for its own sake: the Andean route still asks for 21 uninterrupted months, the same period the ordinary route asks for.
The USD 50 application fee is taken from the ministry's pages for these routes. The consular tariff those pages cite is published only as a scan, so the fee has not been read in the schedule that sets it.
- consolidatesLey Orgánica de Movilidad Humana - texto vigente con la última reforma de 14-VII-2025
Registro de regulaciones del Estado ecuatoriano (gob.ec)
About this source
The state's regulations registry. Hosts consolidated texts of laws, decrees and ministerial agreements, each PDF carrying a 'Normativa: Vigente' marker and an 'Última Reforma' line, with amendments attributed article by article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for currency. The landing pages carry the state's own warning that the information is referencial and may be out of date, and the consolidations are produced by a commercial legal publisher under state hosting rather than by the gazette. A consolidation appears months after the reform it folds in: the July 2025 LOMH reform surfaced in a September 2025 file. For the date and issue number of an instrument, the Registro Oficial is the authority, not this.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
- consolidatesReglamento a la Ley Orgánica de Movilidad Humana - texto vigente con la última reforma de 18-XI-2025
Registro de regulaciones del Estado ecuatoriano (gob.ec)
About this source
The state's regulations registry. Hosts consolidated texts of laws, decrees and ministerial agreements, each PDF carrying a 'Normativa: Vigente' marker and an 'Última Reforma' line, with amendments attributed article by article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for currency. The landing pages carry the state's own warning that the information is referencial and may be out of date, and the consolidations are produced by a commercial legal publisher under state hosting rather than by the gazette. A consolidation appears months after the reform it folds in: the July 2025 LOMH reform surfaced in a September 2025 file. For the date and issue number of an instrument, the Registro Oficial is the authority, not this.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
- administersConcesión de visa de residencia temporal por convenio
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana (catálogo de trámites, gob.ec)
About this source
One page per visa procedure, with requirements, fees, validity and a legal basis panel. Pages carry a last-updated date and monthly usage statistics.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what the law says. Its legal basis panels demonstrably quote superseded statutory text - the tourist pages still carry the pre-July-2025 wording of LOMH art. 56, and the Mercosur page quotes an art. 60 renumbered in 2021. Cite it for fees, forms, channels and processing, and read the statute for the rule.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
- administersConcesión de visa de residencia permanente Estatuto Migratorio Andino
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana (catálogo de trámites, gob.ec)
About this source
One page per visa procedure, with requirements, fees, validity and a legal basis panel. Pages carry a last-updated date and monthly usage statistics.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what the law says. Its legal basis panels demonstrably quote superseded statutory text - the tourist pages still carry the pre-July-2025 wording of LOMH art. 56, and the Mercosur page quotes an art. 60 renumbered in 2021. Cite it for fees, forms, channels and processing, and read the statute for the rule.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source