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Ecuador US Consulate Reviews
Average Rating: 3.7
/ 5
117 Review(s)
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| Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Review #5467 on December 30, 2009: |
katraska78
Rating: 
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We arrived in the Consulate at 7,30. We had our appointment at 8,30. So we decided it would be a good idea to get there an hour earlier. We ate a sandwich and had a juice before getting on the line. The line was not so long and there were Consulate employees explaining processes and generally being of help to whatever questions people in the line asked.
They opened the doors at 8,15 aproximately and started letting people in. I went with my husband (the American Citizen) and once we were about to get in, we saw they were not letting the American Citizens inside the Consulate. At this point we have heard so many awful reviews and were so scared that we quickly made a decision based on what we felt, more than what we have been told. My husband stepped aside as he was told to, no questions asked, and I went inside. Once I was inside, I must say I was a little bit scared of the results of not being at the interview with my then fiancee, but just said to myself that things are always the way they are supposed to be, so I looked up and my Freddy was there. They had let him in, with no problem.
I took us about four hours for the total interview process. During that time, two employess of the Consulate (one of them the Consular Officer himself) took the time to explain about the whole process and gave us instructions on each step.
I was interview by this man himself and am very glad about the whole way they treated me and how quick and easy the whole process was.
Our advise to anyone going through this Consulate, as everything in life: LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE INSTRUCTIONS YOU ARE BEEN GIVEN, FOLLOW THEM, TAKE ALL YOUR PAPERWORK READY, TELL ALWAYS THE TRUTH, and everything is going to be just fine and dandy!!!!
 
| | | Guayaquil, Ecuador | Review #5462 on December 27, 2009: |
nutmeg
Rating: 
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
***review for GUAYAQUIL, NOT QUITO (drop-down list doesn't include Guayaquil)***
Hi Ecuamericans!
I know my review is incredibly long but most of it is in form of a list (a list that looked beautiful in Word but looks crappy here). I did it this way because I remember how much I wished I could have found more lists and details at the time we were preparing for our interview. For a summary of overall impressions, scroll to the bottom.
•Appointment day/time: July 28, 2009, 8:30 AM (we were told to arrive 30 minutes early, so we did)
•Total time spent in Consulate: approx. 4.5 hours
•Items BROUGHT to Consulate per VJ’s advice and/or because I thought “better safe than sorry”:
o Jackets
o Paperwork (all organized into manila envelopes and color-coded with different color paperclips):
Copy of everything included in original I-129F
Copies of case-related letters: NOA1, NOA2, NVC letters, “Packet 4” letter (this took nearly 2 months in the Ecuadorian mail—don’t wait on it, just go online!)
Copies of all e-mails exchanged between the Consulate and me (see below “overall impressions” section)
Letters of Continued Intent to Marry
I-134 Affidavit of Support and related items:
• My (sponsor’s) Affidavit; 3 recent bank statements (printed from internet); 2 original employment letters on letterhead; a letter explaining that I haven’t filed taxes in last few years due to low income; tax transcripts for 2005 (a year when I actually filed) and 2007 (reflecting that I didn’t file) (2006 info missing); copies of 2 recent Ecuadorian pay stubs (I, the petitioner, was working and living in his country)
• My dad’s (co-sponsor’s) Affidavit (2 signed originals, just in case); supplements (including list of properties and list of stocks/bonds—both lists signed by him); bank letter, his 2008 tax report and his 2007 and 2005 (2006 missing) tax transcripts/ W2s
Evidence of ongoing relationship (post-129):
• 4 emails (2 from me, 2 from him)
• 3 original cards (b-day. Etc.) and copies
• 5 photos of us together, with our cat, in our apartment, etc.
• 6 original ticket stubs (bus trips taken together) and copies
• 4 original receipts (2-person dinners, hotel rooms)
• copies of my passport (entry stamps and work visa showing that I was living in his country)
Forms: DS 156, DS 156K
Important Ecuadorian documents:
• Beneficiary’s Ecuadorian Birth Certificate—handwritten copy with stamp from Registro Civil de Turubamba, Quito Sur (accompanied by a translation I did myself, per the instructions given to me when I emailed the Consulate—see below section titled “overall impressions”)
• Beneficiary’s Ecuadorian police record (accompanied by a translation I did myself, per the instructions given to me when I emailed the Consulate—see below section titled “overall impressions”)
Medical Exam (in sealed envelope) and X-ray
4 passport photos
Beneficiary’s passport and copies of every page
Petitioner’s passport (just in case)
Proof (receipt) of having paid the $131 fee in Banco de Guayaquil
•Items ACTUALLY NEEDED or requested by Consular Officers:
o Jackets (VERY important—it’s cold in there!)
o Paperwork (organizing things into different manila folders seemed to help since you have to slide everything into a small slot under the interviewer’s window; color-coding—see above—helped me a bit)
Evidence of ongoing relationship (post-129):
• 4 emails (2 from me, 2 from him)
• 3 original cards (b-day. Etc.) and copies
• 5 photos of us together, with our cat, in our apartment, etc.
• 6 original ticket stubs (bus trips taken together) and copies
• 4 original receipts (2-person dinners, hotel rooms)
• copies of my passport (entry stamps and work visa showing that I was living in his country)
Medical Exam (in sealed envelope)
Passport photos (only 2 were requested, I seem to remember)
Proof (receipt) of having paid the $131 fee in Banco de Guayaquil
Forms: DS 156, DS 156K
Important Ecuadorian documents:
• Beneficiary’s Ecuadorian Birth Certificate—handwritten copy with stamp from Registro Civil de Turubamba, Quito Sur (the translation I attached—see above— was apparently not looked at)
• Beneficiary’s Ecuadorian police record (the translation I attached—see above— was apparently not looked at)
Beneficiary’s passport
•Items RETURNED OR GIVEN to us by Consular Officer:
o Evidence of ongoing relationship (post-129):
• 4 emails (2 from me, 2 from him)
• 3 original cards (b-day. Etc.) and copies
• 5 photos of us together, with our cat, in our apartment, etc.
• 6 original ticket stubs (bus trips taken together) and copies
• 4 original receipts (2-person dinners, hotel rooms)
• copies of my passport (entry stamps and work visa showing that I was living in his country)
o Original I-129F packet that had been mailed to USCIS
o Purple half-sheet saying “Congrats, you’re approved” and explaining location of DHL office
•Items NOT NEEDED/ NEVER REQUESTED by Consular Officer:
o Letters of Continued Intent to Marry
o I-134 Affidavit of Support and related items (this was SHOCKING to me!! I thought this would be the most important piece of evidence, but NONE of it—see detailed list above—was ever requested)
o(I can’t remember, but I don’t think we needed these) Copies of case-related letters: NOA1, NOA2, NVC letters, “Packet 4” letter (this took nearly 2 months in the Ecuadorian mail—don’t wait on it, just go online!)
o Petitioner’s passport
o Chest x-ray
OVERALL DESCRIPTION AND IMPRESSIONS:
Our interview process was long (mostly due to waiting time) but went smoothly overall. However, it was clear to me (based on the things that we were never asked to show) that many members of the consular staff didn’t know what they were doing and/or just wanted to get our case over with. After waiting in the 2nd-floor waiting room for about 2 hours, we were finally asked to come down to the interview area below. We waited there probably another hour and were finally “interviewed.” This process consisted of a grouchy Ecuadorian woman asking us for Marcelo’s BC, police record, proof of payment, medical envelope, forms, photos, and passport. Then she left us waiting at the window for a few minutes while she talked with a couple of colleagues about what we hoped was our case. She then returned and asked (in Spanish) for the proofs of ongoing relationship, implying that it was somehow our fault for not having given them to her before. She asked Marcelo one or two basic questions, like “when/ how did you meet your fiancée?” and “have you ever been the US?” We were then told to sit back down. We waited for maybe another 30 minutes and were some of the last left waiting. Then we were called to another window and “interviewed” by a gringa. She asked Marcelo maybe 1 question about having been to the US, then turned to me (the USC) and asked (in English) how we’d met, how long we’d been together, and then, pointing to some of our photos, asked about our cat and other brilliant photographic subjects. Then she told us (in Spanish) we’d been approved, took Marcelo’s fingerprints, and handed us back our original 129F. From there, we were directed to the nearby DHL, where we went to request location for delivery of the visa. Our visa was delivered about 10 days later.
In general, then, it went well for us, but again many of the staff seemed incompetent at best. I couldn’t believe that they never asked for our I-134 and related financial papers, since I was under the impression that these were vital to getting approved. It worked out well for us, but I think it just goes to show that they don’t operate in an systematized, organized way and don’t even seem to have any kind of checklist of requirements for their own use, which leads me to believe that criteria for approval are very subjective and haphazard. I got the impression that it was MY PRESENCE that was the most important factor in Marcelo’s approval.
I should also add that my many interactions with the Consular staff (via phone and e-mail) prior to our interview were extremely confusing and frustrating. Several weeks before scheduling our interview, I e-mailed them to confirm details on requirements such as translations. The response I got directly contradicted their website’s FAQ concerning translation. A fellow VJer who was going through the process at the same time also asked the same question and got the OPPOSITE answer—that is, apparently she didn’t need to translate the BC, police record, etc., but I did! In frustration I called their help number, asked the same exact questions, and got different answers for several of them. So I concluded that I should just bring any and everything that we had, translate all Spanish papers into English, and be prepared for the worst. Needless to say I was relieved we were approved on interview day but frustrated to find that all my work gathering the I-134 evidence and translating different documents seemed to have gone to waste.
My advice, then, is to go PREPARED FOR THE WORST and bring everything I brought (or maybe even more) just in case. Translate the Birth cert, police records, and other “official” Ecuadorian documents just in case. Be organized and play it “better safe than sorry,” because based on my and others’ experiences with the Guayaquil Consulate, if you catch them in a bad mood or if they actually feel like doing a good, diligent job the day of your interview, then they might just ask you for all the papers they’re supposed to need in order to make an unbiased, objective decision, and who knows? Maybe they’ll even want more. Good luck!
 
| | | Guayaquil, Ecuador | Review #5449 on December 23, 2009: |
darwinsfinch
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Tips:
-make sure you go with your significant other-- it truly made it easier for us. He was much more calm as was I an I believe the service was better.
-Lodging: We stayed at Hotel Sol del Oriente and it was a short cabride or 30 min walk to consulate.. away an within walking distance to Malecon. It had AC , wifi which was sometimes not working the best and it was like 22 dollars a night with breakfast.
- You can be with them every step of the process at this consulate , from my experience, eventhough customer service on the phone told my fiance I couldn't come to the interview.
- our interview was in March 2009 and we arrived there at 8;30. Make sure you don't bring anything besides your paperwork, other items must be checked in with a guard. Make sure you eat before hand.
There were no lines or waiting outside the consulate the day I went , and we went through the lane that said American Citizens since I was with my fiance.
There are many cafes nearby the consulate if you need a last minute print of a document or a pass port foto. Make sure you bring some to the interview.
after we checked in outside with the guard an showed are letter, We were greeted by a man inside the consulate in a yellow polo who took our information name and type of visa. They considered it an immigrant visa eventhough it is a K1..non-immigrant. They consider the visa no-migrante like the tourist visas. So dont get worried...
We first went upstairs to the larger waiting area but then moved downstairs to the smaller waiting area for immigrant visas. We were nervous we would miss getting his named called.
In this waiting area, for visa migrante I think there were 3 windows and then the lady who takes your documents, approx 4 rows of chairs. It was crowded. I remember being nervous and waiting for like an hour an a half before the document lady called us to the ventanilla. We slipped our document copies underneith the window. I had organized things in manila tabbed folders (AFFADAVIT STUFF, PROOF OF RELATIONSHIP, CONTINUED CORRESPONDANCE- emails, phonecard statements showing I called to his cellphone and receipts etc ) with hole punches an brass fasteners. Basically everything that we had originally sent in the package plus new pictures and updated info from our relationship, affadavit stuff ( Letter from employer, paycheck stubs, I braught past 3 years of tax stuff, and you'll need it later, so better to start collecting it now!) from the NOA2 until then.
Then we waited for like another hour. Then they called my fiance up for fingerprints in the other room. Then we waited again for like another 30 mins.
Finally, our caseworker called my fiance up to her window. You just stand there while they conduct the interview. She was American and sounded like a native english speaker when she spoke in spanish. She asked my fiance to verify his name and asked if he spoke English. He said he prefers spanish. She swore him in " do you swear to tell the truth", She asked him if he had kids? he says NO! She asked me how I know spanish and inquired about my job and the work I do , and confirmed where I live with me. She then told my fiance he was approved. You get a little purple slip with directions on where to bring your passport so you can get the visa put in it.
You must walk to the DHL office a few blocks up from the consulate. There they have a nescafe stand so you can wait with all the other approvals to send off your passport to get the stamp. You can fill out the orderform online prior to going. it made it a little bit faster for me and my honey.
Anyways, just enjoy your time in guyaquil. Las penyas is cool, and so is malecon. If you get a chance stop at a fruitstand (looks like a garage) with the man that sells ONLY watermelon juice .. crushed up ice cold watermelon in a cup. He sells it at all hours of the day and night! A hot spot when you need something cold!
| | | Guayaquil, Ecuador | Review #5348 on December 3, 2009: |
MoonStar9913
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Hello everyone, I have finally gotten around to posting my review of Guayaquil. We had an appointment scheduled on November 30th, 2009 at 8:30am. We arrived a little before 8am and outside the consulate there are three “entrance-gates” with non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas, and US citizen services written above. There were some people waiting there so I wasn’t sure what to do but we worked our way to the front and asked a man working for the consulate and he told us to go on through. After the preliminary security check, they let us on through and we entered the building but there was no electricity so we had to wait almost an hour until they fixed the generator because we hadn’t passed through the metal detector yet but we talked with the guard while we waited and though at first he seemed very serious, by the end he was cracking jokes.
After the electricity came back on they told us to go upstairs and take a seat. (We had turned nothing in at this point, the guy outside had asked for the beneficiary’s name and that was it…we were worried at first because another VJ couple was going through at the same time and was sent to another direction, to a window for “entrega de documentos” but they did not turn anything in either, we all ended up at the same place) After we had been waiting for maybe a half hour upstairs the man who had taken my fiancé’s name outside came up and filled everyone in on the basic process for the immigration visas. He told us that our names would be called and we would go up one of the curtained windows and turn in all of our documents, then we would go for the fingerprints, and finally we would meet with the consul for the interview. He said this generally takes anywhere from ½ hour to 4 hours. He was very pleasant and was willing to take anyone’s questions.
Then, we waited. And as has been previously stated, that upstairs room can definitely get chilly; I had a jacket and was almost wishing I had a pair of gloves…lol. Though many members have had very negative experiences in the past, overall we felt that Guayaquil’s atmosphere was positive. My fiancé had applied twice for tourist visas in Quito and he felt that the personnel and “air” at Guayaquil was much better. This does not mean that they were perfect, there were also workers there that I do not think that I would ever be friends with but they weren’t as horrible as we had imagined. For example, when names could not be easily heard over the loudspeakers the guards would come upstairs and repeat the name to make sure that the person heard.
At 11:15am we were called to a window and turned in our documents to a 30ish Ecuadorian woman who seemed to be very pleasant. They did the same kind of thing that USCIS does, they make their own folder, so don’t worry so much about what your documents are in. Just make sure that you know where they are and can remove them fairly easily. She took all of the Packet 4 documents (she did not ask for certified translations even though I had them) and then asked for evidence of a relationship, photos, etc. We had taken 14 letters attesting to the relationship (from my congressman, my family and friends, mutual friends, our landlords, and his family) along with my flight itineraries, travel insurance, etc as evidence of my trips, and text messages I had recorded, excerpts from a journal I had been keeping when we first met, our Facebook profile pages (haha), and examples of e-mails between us as well as examples of my e-mails with family and friends where we mentioned my fiancé. Instead of printing out a ton of e-mails I printed out the Inbox and Sent pages of both my e-mail and Juan’s to show all the dates of e-mails between us as well as a few examples from different points in the relationship. I also had about a hundred photos of us together that I put in one of the cheap plastic photo albums you can buy at almost any of the dollar stores here. This is the biggest thing that would hold pictures that would fit through the slot. Definitely do not use anything with a hard cover or it would never get through.
While we gave her all this information she transferred it to another folder and returned things she didn’t need (some items from the original application, my notarized intent to marry, filler papers like table of contents, the duplicate DS-156 form, etc). While she then entered information into the computer she asked us some questions. She asked why I was in Ecuador when we met, how we met and where, she asked all the dates of when I came to Ecuador and when I left (but she let me help my fiancé with these), she asked if I had a ring and I showed it to her, she asked what our plans are for a wedding, etc. She also asked my fiancé how old I am and he stumbled (because he was VERY nervous) and said that I am 25 but he corrected himself and said 24. And he did the same when she asked when we met, he started by saying June and then corrected himself and said January. So, we were not perfect in the interview, he was too nervous to be but she seemed to understand that. We spent about 15min with her and then she told us to go get his fingerprints done and wait until we were called in front of the consul.
After getting his fingerprints done we sat back down but this time downstairs where we could occasionally hear the other interviews. We tried to see behind the curtains to see who the consuls are but we were not quite successful, we think that there is an older man as well as a younger one but we never saw them and couldn’t hear them very well. After waiting another ½ hour to an hour we were called up to the consul’s window. Our consul was a late 30s-40s American woman who does not speak very good Spanish. I had heard her interviewing before hand and her Spanish had a horrendous accent and she did not seem pleasant. I had heard her talking to a man before yes and she told him “Please, yes or no answers!” in a not very pleasant tone so when we were called to her window I was disappointed and afraid. But we were lucky and got the “easy” interview. She told both of us to raise our right hands and swear and we did, and then she asked me, in English, (practically ignoring my fiancé) if I had been on an exchange program when I met Juan and I explained to her how my study abroad worked and the program I came here with and then she asked how long we had been together and I said almost three years (I added, wow, time flies and I actually got a small laugh/smile out of her) and then she reached up for the so-called pink slip (though I must say that it is actually purple) and said that our visa was approved. We said thank you and I all but collapsed before leaving the booth.
We then headed over to DHL and paid our $6 (it is $6 to send it to another DHL office and $8 to send it to your home) and we were done with everything by about 1pm and we had been one of the last people, there were not too many people still waiting after us. The other VJ couple was approved as well though I do not know the details.
Overall we had a good experience and I would suggest that people relax a bit because I know that I have been extremely stressed preparing for this interview and as I said my fiancé was so nervous that he was trembling and answered incorrectly a few answers he easily knew. With that said, I do not want people to think that the process is easy and that they do not need to prepare. Recently it seems that VJers have been having a much higher success rate with Guayaquil this year than last year but I do not know if that is because there has been a change in Guayaquil or a change in the applicants. I was with my fiancé every step of the way and I feel that that is a large reason as to why we had a pretty easy interview, I think they saw the love in how we responded to each other (for example when my fiancé messed up, I told him relax it’s OK, nothing changes, just take your time). So, I would continue to support those who STRONGLY recommend that the USC goes to the interview. In addition to this, I had come very prepared with evidence, I stated what I brought previously but I also had a “just in case” folder with extra copies of everything important as well as things I didn’t know if we would need or not (like the original NOA, e-mails with the embassy, certified translations, etc) which I didn’t end up needing but might have helped prevent me from having anymore hassles. As I said, I also took about 100 photos and a lot of evidence which again, might have helped us to get the “easy” interview instead of the “not-so-easy” one the guy (probably for another type of immigrant visa) before us had. So, take heed of other’s experience, have the USC go to the interview, be organized, be prepared with lots of evidence and then RELAX, hopefully everything will be OK.
(I would have rated the interview as a 4 but my experience with Guayaquil and especially their Visa Information Service (VIS) line before the interview made me drop it to a 3)
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
(updated on December 3, 2009)
| | | Guayaquil, Ecuador | Review #5158 on October 29, 2009: |
Zee21
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Hello all, We had our interview on 10-26-09 in the consulate in Guayaquil. We arrived the day before and stayed in a hotel across the street. The night before we decided to go out for dinner so we grabbed a taxi and started looking. The city of Guayaquil is dirty and a scary. Crime is so bad right now that the military has started helping the local police with road blocks.We were stopped twice and I was taken out of the taxi and searched with my hand against the car. The next morning our interview was at 8:30am so we showed up at 8:00am. There was a line of about 50 people. I guess everyone had the same interview time. We were searched and told to go upstairs and wait. We had a guy from the consulate come and explain to all of us about the process. There was about 35 people in the upstairs room. Then about a hour later the guy that does the interview came upstairs and explained the process to us again. He also told us that he does the interview and his partner does them also but she is a american and her spanish is not very good so speak slow and ask questions. After sitting in the room for about 2 hours my finacees name was called to go downstairs. We went downstairs and was told to sit in this new room until our name was called and we would give them all of our paperwork. We waited another hour and was finally called. We went to the window and she started asking for papers. She never asked for the evidence or the police report. We were told to wait until we were called for our interview. The room we were in was about 15ft-25ft and there were curtins to the left and that is were the interviews were taken place so we could hear all interviews. After waiting about another hour with no water or food we were called for our interview. We were lucky because the american women was our interviewer. She asked a few questions and I told her how we met and then she asked my finacee how many times she had visited me in the states and she asked me if this was my first trip to Ecuador and yes it was. She asked my fincee if she had a ring yet and she held up her hand and showed her. She also asked her if she had bought a dress yet and if she knew the name of the church. She did not know but
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