Job Discussion Forums

[waygukgaijinhaole]

I'm moving to Ecuador in January. I am applying for a Cultural Visa. I understand everything, except the medical check. I get an HIV test, ok, got that. What else am I supposed to get tested for? Does anyone know if there is there a specific form or list of what the physician needs to state? The consulate in LA was vague about it saying "not a physical, just proof of no communicable diseases." Am I supposed to get tested for every communicable disease...Yellow Fever, TB and the Plague?

I am going to assume that they are mostly concerned with my being HIV-free and a letter from my doctor saying something to the extent of "she's is healthy/shows no signs of illness."

Any info from previous visa-obtainers(is that a word?) would be appreciated. Gracias.

[matttheboy]

Although i don't know the specifics about Ecuador i would think you'll have to get a chest x-ray (for TB). This is pretty much standard around the world, in England we sometimes even x-ray Americans entering the country on tourist visas!

In Argentina they also ask for: Hepatitis B test, a VDRL (test for syphilis) and a CBC (a blood test for blood cell abnormalities). Ecuador may well have roughly the same requirements.

[naturegirl321]

Can you get the tests done there? Might save on the expenses. I got a brain scan, lung scan, stomach scan, I forgot the name of it, full blood work, heart thingy, among others and I costs less than 100 usd in China, good doctors as well, stuff like that would have cost me over 2000 in the states.
Maybe you can enter on a tourist visa, get the tests, then change the visa.

[Carina_Cisneros]

Are you sure this visa really gets you anything, in the end, anything over going there as a tourist? The medical requirements are usually a joke anyway. In Honduras and Bolivia --when you get married at least-- you can pay up to $50 for a HIV and other related boood test, for civil purposes, or simply pay $5 for a piece of paper which indicates you do not have HIV. Hmm. Medically sound or decent public policy? Surely not, but that is what it is.....

[waygukgaijinhaole]

The school I'm working for emailed me saying that an HIV-negative test and generally healthy note from my doc should suffice.

NatureGirl--No, I can't get the type of visa I need(Cultural Exchange) in-country. Or that's what the Ecuadorian consulate in LA told me, anyway.

[naturegirl321]

But you could enter on a tourist visa, get the medical, then hop the border to a dfferent country and get the other visa, right? This is Latin America, lots of loopholes.

[moonraven]

I had a Cultural Exchange Visa for Ecuador last year. In Internet you should be able to find a list of the requirements.

The health certificate is the results laboratory tests indicating that you have neither HIV or TB. No chest XRay is needed, but the clinic that gives you the lab results must have their administrator certify the results.

You must also get a police report from the place you are living now, indicating that you have had no run-ins with the law.

You must present the employer's information--indicating that it's a legitimate employer and that the person who has offered you the cultural exchange post is empowered to do so.

If you have questions, call the Ecuadorean Embassy or Consulate. I did that before I went to turn in my stuff in Mexico City.

The other option is to get a tourist visa, then have the school make an appointment for you at the Ecuadorean Consulate just across the border in Peru (more or less where Naturegirl is working, in fact), bus it over there and get the Visa there.

[naturegirl321]

What exaclty is a cultural exchange visa?

[moonraven]

Because the bureaucratic process for getting a work visa in Ecuador is interminable--and with no guarantee that after one jumps through the hoops and pays his/her bucks that the visa will be forthcoming, schools bring foreign staff on one year cultural exchange visas. Theoretically, you are not supposed to receive a salary--so they call it stipend.

[naturegirl321]

[moonraven]

In most South American countries you are either a volunteer or you get paid under the table if you are a foreigner.

I felt really bad, as the average PhD in Ecuador is lucky to make 300 bucks (in a dolarized economy) a month at a university--and I was being paid 2,200 dollars a month tax free.

[waygukgaijinhaole]

Just wanted to post the results in case other Ecuador-bound folks search for this info. Maybe I'll post it on the Newbie Forum, too.

We brought to the Ecuadorian consulate in the Larry Flynt building in LA the following...
- All the paperwork from our new Ecuadorian employer (They knew exactly what to send, but the list is at http://www.ecuador.org/nonimmigrantvisas.htm )
- a letter of good conduct from our local sheriff's office. (It is easier to get a letter saying you have a record than one that says you don't have a record..ugh.)
- A handwritten note from our doctor saying "this person has no communicable diseases"
- a handwritten note from our doc saying "this person does not have TB". (A TB test is not required. We just did it as overkill.)
- a faxed copy of the lab results of our negative HIV test, which our doc had signed and stamped with his return address stamp. (When I called the consulate they said that the HIV results needed to be stamped with an official seal from the doctor. I told them that the doc didn't have one and they hung up on me. Turned out that the return address stamp was enough. They didn't question it at all.)
- the 2 forms, filled out, that you can download at the above link. I'm sure they have them in the office, too. They reprinted one of ours.
- 3 passport photos
- $80 Cash only
- passports

They took our paperwork and $. Asked when we were leaving, so they could state the validity start date. We waited about an hour & a half. Then, they came back with our passports, stamped with our visas and the 2 forms(from above) that we keep to show to immigration. The visa is good for a year.

Here we go!

PS Naturegirl- you were right. We could have gone to Ecuador on a tourist visa and done a visa run. The school is suggesting that for other new teachers who are lagging on their 12-VIII(cultural exchange) visas.

[moonraven]

Some follow up info (once you're in-country):

You will need to take the forms you received from the consulate plus your passport and 7 or 8 dollars to the Immigration office in the city you are in. They will "register" your visa. Then you should arrange for an exit visa (I think it's 4 or 5 dollars)--otherwise if you fly out of the country you will have to bribe someone--the going rate was 100 dollars, so the tiny cost of the exit visa is a better deal.

[waygukgaijinhaole]

I knew about registering in Cuenca, when I arrive. But what about this exit visa? Do I need one every time I leave the country? Having a multiple entry visa stamp on my passport doesn't have anything to do with it, does it? That's just for entry, I guess...that's probably why they call it an entry visa.

[moonraven]

The exit visa is, I believe, good for a year. I flew out of the country twice--to Venezuela and to Mexico--and no one said anything about my needing to get it again.