The requirements
- Programme status
- Open, accepting applications
- Minimum monthly income
- $1,446 a month
- Required savings
- None
- Annual total
- $17,352
- Initial duration
- 2 years, renewable once
- Family allowed
- Yes
- Apply online
- Yes
US$1,446/month (3x basic salary).
How this figure is set: A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: 1446
. Formula: 3 x Salario Basico Unificado; SBU 2026 = USD 482 -> USD 1,446/month for 3 consecutive months.
Income confidence: low · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Reglamento a la Ley Organica de Movilidad Humana (visa de residencia temporal 'rentista' for remote work) - not fetched.
Does this lead to permanent residence?
Direct pathway. PR after 21 months as a temporary resident (art. 63 LOMH).
Ley Organica de Movilidad Humana art. 63 and the administering ministry's own published procedure, 'Concesion de visa de residencia permanente por tiempo de permanencia mayor a 21 meses con residencia temporal en el Ecuador' (gob.ec/mremh): permanent residence is granted on accrediting more than 21 months of temporary residence, applied for before the current status expires.
Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Where it is
Quito sits at 0.18° S, 78.47° W.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Quito. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC−5 Guayaquil (America/Guayaquil)
- UTC−6 Galapagos (Pacific/Galapagos)
Ecuador spans 2 offsets. The table shows the capital's.
The country
- Region
- Americas · South America
- Capital
- Quito
- Currency
- USD
Next door
Ecuador shares a land border with these.
What it costs to live there
$372 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Ecuador spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- Quito
- $811 / month incl. rent
of which rent $321 - Cuenca
- $911 / month incl. rent
of which rent $435
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- Spanish official
- Quechua official
- Chimborazo Highland Quichua limited
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
Where you apply from
There are two routes in, and where you are decides which one you use.
The whole thing runs through the Cancilleria's online portal - application, documents and follow-up - and the visa may be granted either by a regional directorate inside Ecuador or by an embassy or consulate abroad.
Where you apply confidence: high · checked 2026-09-19Read 2026-09-19 from the Servicios Ciudadanos and eVISAS pages this row cites in apply_steps (verified 2026-09-12), which name both the regional directorates and the missions.
Say where you are now and this names your country.
How to apply
- Check you clear the requirements above — $1,446 a month is the figure this row records.
- Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
- Apply in this order — the ministry page above describes the permit, these are where it is submitted:
- Cancillería: the eVISAS portal ↗The ministry’s own announcement of the electronic visa system, which is what turned this into an online application rather than a consular appointment.
- Servicios Ciudadanos: apply here ↗The whole thing runs here — application, documents and follow-up — and the visa may be granted either by a regional directorate inside Ecuador or by an embassy or consulate abroad, so you do not have to be in one place to start.
Checked 2026-09-12. This row cited myecuadorvisa.com, a commercial site, and not the ministry that grants the visa; the portal recorded here is the Cancillería’s own. The official trámite entry on gob.ec describes the same route and sets the income test at three Basic Unified Salaries a month, but that domain did not respond to repeated requests from here, so it is named rather than linked until it can be fetched. - Pay the filing fee. It is $320. Two charges, as in Colombia. USD 50 to lodge the application and USD 270 to issue the visa if it is granted — USD 320 in all, the same for every nationality.Cancillería: visa application and issuance ↗ · checked 2026-09-12
- Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
- Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.
Foreign income tax-exempt; +$250/mo per dependent; e-visa portal.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.