Country guide Checked 9 October 2026 Money unit: salario básico (SBU) 2026 = US$482

The Ecuador Guide

A U.S.-dollar economy on the equator — highland cities, a Pacific coast and a working port — printed with its official visa tests counted from the 2026 salario básico, its safety levels stated beside the rents, and its gaps.

Print this first: Ecuador runs on the U.S. dollar, and most of its visa money tests are not printed as dollars at all — they are counted in salarios básicos unificados (SBU). The 2026 SBU is US$482 (Acuerdo Ministerial MDT-2025-195, Registro Oficial Suplemento 187, effective 1 January 2026). Wherever this page shows US$1,446 a month, US$17,352 a year or US$48,200, that is derived arithmetic from the official SBU figure — labelled as arithmetic, and to be re-counted the week you file, because every test moves when the SBU moves.

And who this page is for. Settled Overseas writes for everyone weighing a move — salaried workers, remote workers, business owners, investors, families, students and pensioners, one segment among them. Ecuador’s routes split exactly that way: a pension route (Jubilado), an income-from-rents route (Rentista), an investor route, a remote-work visa (Visa Nómada), work and professional routes, family sponsorship (Amparo) and a student route. Retiring is one way in. It is not the country.

The evidence stamp. Checked 9 October 2026 against the MREMH official migration guide on gob.ec (guide pages last updated 31 December 2024), the 2026 SBU accord, the Ministerio de Salud Pública, the Registro Civil, the IESS, the SRI tax regulation, the Ministerio de Educación, Agrocalidad, the U.S. State Department and OSAC, SSA and IRS publications, the two hospitals named on this page, and Rentberry listings opened 25–29 September 2026. Where the official record runs out, this page prints GAP — never a neighbour’s number.

See the routes ↓ Plan with the Ecuador dossier →

Quito, the capital, seen from El Panecillo with the Basílica del Voto Nacional — Quito, the capital, seen from El Panecillo — the Basílica del Voto Nacional over the colonial centre at about 2,850 m. Photo: Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ecuador straddles the equator in northwestern South America: a coastal plain, two Andean chains with a highland valley between them, and Amazon country east of the mountains. The mover’s map on this page is seven places — the capital Quito, highland Cuenca and Loja, the port city Guayaquil, the beach towns Salinas and Manta, and small-town Cotacachi in Imbabura. The Galápagos operate under a special regime and are outside this edition’s scope; the gap is named in the routes section, not silently skipped.

A short, neutral history

The territory was the northern quarter of the Inca Empire before Spanish colonisation in the 1530s; Quito became a seat of the Real Audiencia. Independence came in the 1820s — Guayaquil in 1820, the Battle of Pichincha in 1822 — followed by a period inside Gran Colombia and a separate Ecuadorian republic from 1830. The twentieth century brought the usual alternation of elected governments and military rule, a return to civilian government in 1979, and the adoption of the U.S. dollar in 2000 after a banking crisis. The present constitution dates from 2008. Ecuador was among the first states to recognise rights of nature in its constitution. This page prints the frame, not a verdict.

Ways in, separated by life

Checked 9 October 2026 against the MREMH official migration guide on gob.ec (guide pages last updated 31 December 2024), the 2026 SBU accord and the Registro Civil. The order is by life situation, not by age. Money tests print in U.S. dollars — the currency Ecuador uses — with the salario-básico count beside them. The standard fee pattern is US$50 application plus the category’s grant fee. Visiting first: Ecuador’s general visitor frame is up to 90 days in a one-year period, extendable once by up to 90 more days; the extension fee is one third of the SBU — US$160.67 by derived arithmetic — and tourists may not work (MREMH).

Tap your situation — the matching route cards stay lit.

A pointer, not advice — the card text rules.

Route finder above: the chips narrow the ten route cards below

Retiring on a pension — residencia temporal Jubilado

Pension testA foreign pension of at least 3 SBU — US$1,446/month by derived arithmetic — from a foreign institution
Health gateInsurance valid for the whole visa period; a foreign policy must state that it covers you in Ecuador
Family added on+US$250/month per sponsored person
Fees / termUS$50 application + US$270 grant fee · 2 years

The pensioner route is one segment of this page, printed with the same machinery as every other route. The deciding documents are the pension proof from the foreign institution, the insurance with Ecuador coverage stated on its face, and the fee receipts. Nothing on this card depends on a birthday — it depends on the pension.

Income from rents — residencia temporal Rentista

Income testLawful income from rents of at least 3 SBU — US$1,446/month, derived
Health gateInsurance valid for the whole visa period
Family added on+US$250/month per sponsored person
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · 2 years

For the mover whose money arrives as rent rather than a pension — property income, annuitised rents and similar lawful streams, evidenced as income. The test is the same 3 SBU line as the Jubilado card; the paper trail behind the money is what differs.

Investing — residencia temporal Inversionista

Capital testAt least 100 SBU — US$48,200, derived — placed one of four ways
The four doorsA deposit or title of at least 730 days at a supervised institution; a registered real-estate deed; shares in an Ecuadorian company; or a qualifying State investment / delegated-management contract
Travel freedomThe official guide states for this category: no limit on time abroad, and multiple entries
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · 2 years

The “no time abroad” line is printed here because this category’s own guide page states it. It is not borrowed for any other category on this page — for the rest, absence limits are a stated gap (see the permanent-residence card). If the capital goes into real estate, the property card in the taxes section carries the border-security statute that has to be checked before money moves.

Working remotely — Visa Nómada

Income test, monthly doorAt least 3 SBU/month — US$1,446, derived — shown over the prior three months
Income test, yearly doorOR 36 SBU over the prior year — US$17,352, derived
Who the work is forA foreign employer, foreign clients, or your own company abroad
Health gate / familyInsurance for the visa period · +US$250/month per sponsored person
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · up to 2 years

The remote-work visa is a residence with an income test, not a tourist stamp with a laptop. Keep the three months of evidence clean and consecutive; the yearly door exists for income that arrives in lumps.

Family — Amparo

Who qualifiesThe spouse, recognised partner or children of a principal-category (Art. 60) visa holder
Income add-on+US$250/month per sponsored person (an independently sponsored adult child counts)
Fees / termUS$50 + US$200 · runs for the sponsor’s remaining term, renewable with the sponsor

Family status rides on the sponsor’s visa: when the principal renews, the amparo renews with it. The +US$250 line is the printed arithmetic of bringing each additional person.

Working for an Ecuadorian employer

The testAn employment contract registered with the labour authority, with the employer’s no-obligation certificates behind it
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · 2 years

The employer carries the paperwork weight here — contract, labour registration, certificates. Sequencing matters: a visitor may not start work, so the change of status is granted before the first working day, not after.

Working for yourself — autonomous work, professional services, consultancy

The testSelf-employment or professional services in your own name, evidenced as an activity
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · 2 years

For the mover bringing clients rather than capital. It sits beside the investor card for a reason: if your plan is half services, half company, compare both doors before filing — and take the written fee quote from a preparer before paying either.

Practising a profession or trade — professional, technician, technologist, artisan

The testYour title or trade qualification, registered through the higher-education authority (SENESCYT) where the profession requires it
Fees / termUS$50 + US$270 · 2 years

Ecuador asks regulated professions to be recognised professions. Start the title registration early; it is the slowest document on this card.

Studying — student residence

The testEnrolment at a recognised institution, or a practice placement
Fees / termUS$50 + US$80 · the study term, capped at 2 years

The grant fee is the lowest on this page. Duration follows the course, not the calendar — a one-year programme carries a one-year visa.

Permanent residence — and the cédula chain

EligibilityAt least 21 continuous months of temporary residence; apply before your status expires
Fees / termUS$50 + US$225 · indefinite
Cédula chainOrden de cedulación US$10 (valid 15 business days) → Registro Civil cédula US$5 the first time, US$16 on renewal
Cédula validityA temporary resident’s cédula tracks the visa term; a permanent resident’s runs 10 years

Where this page is silent — deliberately. Whether permanent residence carries an absence limit is not settled by the official texts captured (October 2026): the only no-time-abroad promise in evidence is the investor category’s own, and it is not extended to anyone else here. U.S.-citizen-specific entry conditions were not separately captured either; the 90-days-in-a-year visitor frame in the section note is the general rule as printed. And the Galápagos run a special regime that is outside this edition’s scope: no Galápagos-specific residence conditions were captured, so none are printed.

Check your income against the printed tests. Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar, so the tests run in dollars; if you earn in another currency, the deciding office converts at filing. Ecuador-side fees are additional to the income tests.

Monthly income

US$1,446 / month of pension, rent or remote-work income

3 SBU at the 2026 salario básico of US$482 — derived arithmetic. Covers the Jubilado, Rentista and monthly Visa Nómada tests; add US$250/month per sponsored person.

Enter your monthly income.

US$17,352 over the prior year

36 SBU — derived arithmetic. The Visa Nómada’s alternative door for income that arrives in lumps rather than monthly.

Enter your monthly income.

Capital test — shown separately, never counted as income

US$48,200 of qualifying capital 100 SBU — derived arithmetic: a ≥730-day deposit, a registered deed, Ecuadorian company shares, or a qualifying State contract (see the investor card). Enter your monthly income.

Indicative only — the office that decides is theirs, not ours.

Health paperwork: entering vs staying

In most countries this section separates a visitor rule from a resident rule. Ecuador is no exception: the Ministry of Public Health’s traveller page governs the arrival, and the visa category’s insurance clause governs the stay. Entry rules printed from the MSP page as checked 9 October 2026; the residency gate from the MREMH category guides.

To enter (short stay)

No yellow-fever certificate is imposed, and no COVID vaccine or test is imposed, on the Ministerio de Salud Pública traveller page as checked 9 October 2026. That is a dated reading of a page that changed during 2025–2026: check close to travel, not once at planning time. The same page urges yellow-fever vaccination 10 days before travel to the Amazonian provinces — Orellana, Sucumbíos, Pastaza, Napo, Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe — and to Esmeraldas, and recommends the Traveller Health Declaration for symptomatic arrivals. No current transit rule for long connections was captured, so none is printed.

The care ladder, honestly drawn

Quito is the national tertiary-care anchor — Hospital Metropolitano (cancer centre, maternity, Da Vinci robotic surgery, day hospital, neonatology, emergency; +593 2 399 8000) carries the capital’s deepest opened bench. Cuenca is the southern tertiary anchor — Hospital Universitario del Río (Av. 24 de Mayo y Av. de las Américas; ISO 9001:2015; living-related renal-transplant accreditation; Valve-in-Valve programme; +593-7-245-9555).

GAP — Guayaquil depth. Hospital Alcívar and Clínica Kennedy are named and indexed, but no official services page was opened for either in this edition, so no specialty is claimed for them. The coastal and small-town places on this page are drawn as stabilise-and-transfer on their own pages, with transfer times printed as gaps, not promises.

To stay — the insurance gate

The residency health gate is insurance, not an examination. Every residence category on this page requires insurance valid for the whole visa period, and a foreign policy must state on its face that it covers you in Ecuador. No separate residency medical-examination requirement and no vaccination-for-residency rule appear in the category requirements captured (October 2026) — printed as that dated absence, not as a promise that none can be asked for.

IESS voluntary affiliation — the public door

Foreigners living in Ecuador may affiliate voluntarily to the IESS with a cédula, aged 18+, carrying no IESS debt. A foreign retiree’s contribution base follows the pension from the origin country and never falls below the salario básico. The rate is 17.60% of the base — at the 2026 minimum base that is about US$85 a month (US$84.83 by arithmetic), printed as arithmetic, not a quote. A spouse can be added for a further +3.41%.

GAP — waiting period. No official IESS waiting-period rule for new voluntary affiliates was captured; a secondary figure of about three months circulates. Confirm it at the IESS counter before you count on coverage starting.

Private insurance at older ages

GAP — no published age-band premiums. No insurer-published 65/70/75 premium table or entry-age limit was found for Ecuador in this edition. Blue Box Insurance (broker, Cuenca and Manta) is the verified broker contact on this page; scenario figures in guidebooks — roughly US$110–290 a month at 65 — are planning ranges, never quotes. Price your own age in writing before you price the move.

Schools: vaccination is not an enrolment condition

Under the Ministerio de Educación rule as captured, a health certificate has not been obligatory for matriculation since the 2012–2013 school year, a health condition may not deny a child attendance, and vaccination is not an enrolment condition. In-school health brigades work only with a signed parental consent — or a signed refusal. What an individual private or international school asks for as its own record practice is a GAP: get it in writing from the school.

Politics, briefly and plainly

The system

Ecuador is a presidential republic under the 2008 constitution. President Daniel Noboa Azín took office on 24 May 2025, elected for the term running to May 2029; Vice-President María José Pinto serves alongside him. Executive and judiciary functions concentrate in Quito. This page prints the frame a mover is moving into and takes no position on any policy.

A fact that frames daily life: Ecuador counts its own statistical identity — the Registro Civil issued 167,440 cédulas to legally resident foreigners between 2024 and August 2026, 5,116 of them to United States citizens. You would not be the first household on the ground.

The security map — read it before the rents

Ecuador sits at U.S. State Department Advisory Level 2 overall — exercise increased caution (crime, terrorism, unrest, kidnapping). The map is not one colour, and this page does not paint it as one:

Level 4 — do not travel: Guayaquil south of Portete de Tarqui Avenue; Huaquillas and Arenillas; Quevedo, Quinsaloma and Pueblo Viejo; Durán canton; and Esmeraldas city and all areas north of it. Level 3 — reconsider travel: Guayaquil north of Portete de Tarqui; El Oro outside Huaquillas/Arenillas; Los Ríos outside Quevedo/Quinsaloma/Pueblo Viejo; all areas south of Esmeraldas city; Sucumbíos; and the provinces of Manabí and Santa Elena — which is why the Manta and Salinas pages carry this level beside their rents.

Dates, honestly: the advisory page carried no capturable date line when read on 9 October 2026 (the page index shows October 2025; the text matches the current OSAC country summary of 10 September 2026 reporting an August 2026 reissue). No single issue date is claimed for it — advisory page read 9 October 2026; re-check before relying on it. OSAC separately assesses the threat to official U.S. interests in Quito and Guayaquil as high to CRITICAL; that is OSAC’s institutional assessment, labelled as such, not the traveller advisory.

Taxes — local rules, no U.S. treaty, the pension arrives

U.S. taxes follow you — there is no treaty to fall back on

There is no U.S.–Ecuador income-tax treaty (IRS non-treaty list, IRM 21.8.4). Ecuador does have a 2021 tax-information-exchange agreement with the United States — information exchange, not tax relief. As a U.S. citizen you file U.S. taxes and FBAR reports wherever you live, and any Ecuadorian tax position is worked out under Ecuadorian rules alone, with no treaty tie-breaker.

When Ecuador calls you a tax resident

Residence attaches at 183 days or more in a fiscal period (sporadic absences counted in), or 183 days across a 12-month span crossing two fiscal periods unless you prove tax residence elsewhere — or where the centre of your activities or economic interests sits, even without the day count. Holding more than US$1 million in Ecuador-situs assets carries its own residence presumption.

Property: no general ban — one statute to check

There is no general ban on foreigners buying Ecuadorian property: ordinary urban property is bought by registered escritura (public deed), and your name goes on the register. One statute needs checking before money moves near sensitive ground: the Ley de Seguridad Pública y del Estado (Arts. 38–41) defines a border-security zone of 20 km landward and 10 nautical miles seaward of the borders and coast, plus reserved security areas, where foreign possession, acquisition and concessions are barred except in populated/urban spaces — with two exceptions requiring five years: an Ecuadorian–foreigner marital or de-facto society of at least five years, and an Ecuadorian company whose foreign partners have been domiciled five continuous years. Projects inside security zones require a Defence Ministry report. Shorter or vaguer versions of this rule circulate widely; this page prints the statute, and the flatter formulas are not printed as law here. The Galápagos special regime is outside this edition’s scope, as named in the routes section.

How Ecuador taxes residents — and a five-year door

Residents are taxed on worldwide income in principle. Foreign income that has already been taxed abroad is excluded from the Ecuadorian base (Reglamento RLRTI, Art. 136); income from tax havens, or untaxed foreign income, joins the base with a capped credit for what was paid. The same Reglamento captures a five-year temporary fiscal-residence election: taken once, notified to the SRI, at least 183 days a year in Ecuador, taxed only on Ecuadorian-source income — entered within the first 120 days either with at least US$150,000 invested in real estate or a productive activity (the property held five years) or at least US$2,500/month of foreign-source income, with the income-route elector affiliated to social security while in the country. Print it as an election to confirm at filing, not a plan to assume.

GAP — your pension’s Ecuadorian treatment. No pension-specific SRI treatment was captured in this edition, so no pension-tax claim is made anywhere on this page — and no outbound-transfer (ISD) rate is printed for pension money, because none was verified. A U.S. pension’s Ecuadorian treatment is a filing-time question for a tax professional, not a guidebook line.

Social Security delivery

U.S. Social Security can be paid to Ecuador by International Direct Deposit (request form SSA-1199-OP75 — confirm the current edition at filing). On SSA’s foreign-offices page as checked 9 October 2026, Ecuador is assigned to the Federal Benefits Unit in San José, Costa Rica ([email protected]), which runs periodic services in Quito and Cuenca (21–25 September 2026 most recently) and the proof-of-life mailings (SSA-7162/7161). SSA listings have also carried Santo Domingo for Ecuador, so re-confirm which FBU serves Ecuador when you file — the listing is the fact, not the habit. No totalization claim is made: none was captured.

The U.S. side of leaving

Because there is no treaty, the house, accounts and assets you keep in the United States keep their ordinary U.S. treatment, and Ecuador taxes you under its own residence rules — both systems in view, neither cancelled by the other. Keep the contingency simple and documentable: insurance in force for the visa period, the five-year election considered in the first 120 days rather than assumed, and every figure on this page re-counted against the salario básico in force the week you file.

The places compared

The capital and six other places, each with a dedicated page EN and ES carrying a dated budget snapshot. Rents print as dated individual samples; no median, average or “budget” is calculated anywhere in this dossier. Loja and Cotacachi carry no priced sample in this edition — the gap prints on their cards, on their pages, and by their absence from the slider below. Two places carry a safety level beside the rent, because the advisory puts their whole provinces at Level 3.

QuitoThe capital at about 2,820–2,850 m — government seat and the national tertiary-care anchor (Hospital Metropolitano): six dated samples from US$1,000 (2 bed/2 bath, 113 m², Av. de los Shyris) to a US$4,620 portal-displayed sample, 25–29 September 2026.

Cuenca’s blue-domed New Cathedral over the historic centre

CuencaThe southern highland city on the Tomebamba — one dated sample opened: US$570/month plus a US$100 fee (3 bed/2 bath, Av. Remigio Crespo Toral, listed 25 September 2026). One sample is one sample; it is not a Cuenca rent level.

GuayaquilThe Pacific port on the Guayas — five dated samples, US$250–US$2,970 (25–29 September 2026). The advisory splits the city at Portete de Tarqui Avenue: Level 4 south, Level 3 north.

SalinasThe Santa Elena beach town — three dated samples, US$400–US$4,590 (September 2026). Santa Elena province sits at Advisory Level 3, printed beside the rent, not in a footnote.

MantaThe Manabí working port — one dated sample opened: US$800/month incl. internet and maintenance (1 bed/1 bath, Calle M1, listed 25 September 2026). Manabí sits at Advisory Level 3.

LojaThe southern highland city at the Puerta de la Ciudad — no dated individual rent sample found as of the 8 October 2026 check (re-verified 9 October 2026). The gap prints; no figure is dressed up as one.

CotacachiThe Imbabura leather town — no dated individual rent sample found as of the 8 October 2026 check (re-verified 9 October 2026). No figure prints until one is captured.

Set your rent ceiling — Ecuador

Move the slider to your monthly rent budget (rent only). It counts only the dated samples printed on this page: the lowest dated samples opened for Quito, Guayaquil, Salinas, Cuenca and Manta. Loja and Cotacachi carry no dated sample in this edition (8 October 2026 check, re-verified 9 October 2026), so nothing is counted for them. Portal-displayed “Rented for” headlines are portal-displayed samples, not verified contract rents, and are never reconciled or averaged here. Your city, room count and lease length change everything.

Monthly rent budget US$1,000/month

Useful contacts — verified, listed, and the gaps

We distinguish sourced verification from source-only listing. Every fee is confirmed in writing directly with the firm. Nobody was contacted for this edition; no affiliates, no paid placements. Contacts print exactly as their first-party pages gave them: WhatsApp and email routes, printed numbers with country codes as published. This shortlist is PARTIAL, and its gaps print beside the names: the named Quito immigration partner, every 65/70/75 insurance premium, a FIDI-verified mover, an Ecuador pet-shipping firm and a public Ecuador-side CPA contact were not verified in evidence.

Visas — Cuenca

EcuadorVisas — Attorney Sara Chaca Verified

A named-attorney visa practice in Cuenca, verified on its own site (opened 8 October 2026): visa categories explained, the attorney named and photographed, WhatsApp and phone routes live on the page.

WhatsApp: (+593) 99-296-2065
U.S. line: +1 (941) 306-1957
Calle Larga 6-16 & Hermano Miguel, Cuenca
Email: GAP — the address extracted from the site is a placeholder; use the site’s contact route until a real address is publication-ready.
Landline: GAP — one digit in the extracted number is unverified (Cuenca’s area code is 07); verify the number on the firm’s own page.

Visas — Cuenca (visa practice)

Gringo Visas — Maité Durán Verified as a named visa practice

The founder is named and the practice verifiable, so it prints here as what it evidences: a visa practice. This page attributes no legal-office status to it — none was evidenced — and legal sign-off on any filing sits with a licensed attorney.

[email protected]
U.S. line: 203-648-4511
Cuenca street address: GAP — not published in what was opened.

Law — Quito

AVL Abogados Verified firm with immigration and tax practices

A Quito firm whose own site carries both an immigration practice and a tax practice. GAP — the named Quito immigration partner: the firm is verified; the individual partner for immigration was not evidenced name-by-name, so no individual is printed here. Ask the firm who would handle your file, in writing.

Rentals — Cuenca

YapaTree — Michelle Puga & Jason Scott Verified rental and real-estate agency

A Cuenca rental and real-estate agency, verified on its own site — a rentals relationship, not a visa desk, IESS enrolment or banking concierge, and this page does not describe it as one. Use the contact route on the agency’s site; get inclusions (fees, term, deposit) in writing per listing.

Health insurance broker — Cuenca & Manta

Blue Box Insurance Verified broker

[email protected]
Tel: 0958728985 (as published)
GAP — the broker publishes no 65/70/75 premium table and no entry-age limits; no Blue Box premium prints anywhere on this page. Quotes are written, personal and by age.

U.S. taxes — U.S.-side filing

FileAbroad — Chip Moreno Verified U.S.-side expat tax service

+593-96-284-8410
[email protected]
Scope note: a U.S. return preparer (PTIN/e-file claims are his site’s own). Ecuador-side tax conclusions are outside his stated scope — the dossier treats them as separate questions.

The honest gaps

Movers: GAP — no Ecuador-based FIDI/FAIM affiliate was verified; no mover is named here, and no mover anywhere is described as “FIDI-certified” on this page. Get any mover’s own FAIM status and customs-broker name in writing. Ecuador-side CPA: GAP — a Cuenca CPA (Jacqui Guerrero / G & G) is named in current reporting, but no verified public contact or first-party site was captured, so no name or contact prints as a recommendation. Pets: the rule is official (next card); the firm is a GAP — no Ecuador-based pet shipper was verified.

Bringing a pet — the official Agrocalidad rule

Ecuador’s animal-health authority (Agrocalidad) carries this section; no commercial firm does. Export zoosanitary certificate dated within 10 calendar days of travel; the animal older than 3 months; antiparasitic treatment within 21 days; dogs current on distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus and rabies, cats on panleukopenia, rhinotracheitis, calicivirus and rabies; and at least 14 days elapsed since a first rabies vaccination. Animals travelling in cabin or baggage-hold are nationalised on the certificate alone; a cargo-hold animal needs import-permit documents emailed 72 hours ahead to [email protected] or [email protected]. No fixed pet fee is printed — none was verified.

Did you know…?

167,440 identity cards. Between 2024 and August 2026 the Registro Civil issued 167,440 cédulas to legally resident foreigners — 5,116 of them to United States citizens. Foreign residence in Ecuador is a counted, card-carrying fact, not an experiment.

The first city on the list. Quito’s historic centre was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1978, in the first round of inscriptions, alongside Kraków — the first city centre placed on the List. Cuenca’s historic centre followed in 1999.

One number runs the money tests. Ecuador prices its visa income tests in salarios básicos, not dollars: with the 2026 salario básico at US$482, the pension test is 3 × 482 = US$1,446 a month and the investor test is 100 × 482 = US$48,200. When the salario moves, every test on this page moves with it.

Take a look inside the Ecuador dossier

Illustrative sample — what the paid Ecuador dossier does with the facts on this page, for one example household:

Mr. R., 64, pension US$2,100/month, spouse 61, weighing Cuenca against a coastal year. The dossier checks him against the printed Jubilado test first — US$1,446/month of pension (3 SBU at the 2026 salario básico of US$482), +US$250/month because his spouse is sponsored — and prints the insurance clause verbatim: valid for the whole visa period, Ecuador coverage stated on the policy’s face. It prices Cuenca from the one dated sample opened (US$570/month plus a US$100 fee, Av. Remigio Crespo Toral, listed 25 September 2026) and marks it one-sample evidence, then prices the coastal year from Manta’s single dated sample (US$800, internet and maintenance included) and Salinas’ three — with the Level 3 advisory for Manabí and Santa Elena printed on the same page as the money, not a section away. The health page carries the ladder as opened: Hospital Universitario del Río in Cuenca as the southern tertiary anchor, Hospital Metropolitano in Quito behind it, and the IESS arithmetic priced at the 2026 minimum base — 17.60% of a base that never falls below the salario básico, about US$85 a month, labelled arithmetic with its waiting period flagged as a gap to confirm at the counter. The tax page prints the line this country makes unavoidable: no U.S.–Ecuador tax treaty, a 2021 information-exchange agreement that exchanges information and nothing else, the RLRTI Art. 136 exclusion for foreign income already taxed abroad, the five-year temporary fiscal-residence election with its 120-day entry window — and the pension-specific SRI treatment marked as a gap to be confirmed at filing, never as a promise. The family page carries the Ministerio de Educación rule as captured: vaccination is not an enrolment condition. The property page prints the statute before the scenery: no general foreign-buyer ban, a registered escritura as the mechanism, and Arts. 38–41’s border-security zone — 20 km landward, 10 nautical miles seaward, populated/urban spaces excepted — checked against the map before any deed is signed. And the checklist ends where every move ends: orden de cedulación US$10 inside its 15 business days, cédula US$5 the first time, SSA-1199-OP75 lodged with the FBU in San José — re-confirmed at filing, because SSA has listed Ecuador under two cities.

What the free page cannot do is total your household: your pension against the +US$250-per-person arithmetic, your city against the dated samples opened, your timeline against the 21-month permanent-residence count and the cédula’s 15-business-day window. That arithmetic — your numbers against the printed tests — is the dossier.

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Settled Overseas is an educational guide for people considering a move abroad. We are not immigration lawyers, tax advisors, or financial advisors, and nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. Visa categories, fees, safety advisories and tax rules change — confirm everything with the relevant Ecuadorian authority (MREMH, Ministerio de Salud Pública, Registro Civil, IESS, SRI, Ministerio de Educación, Agrocalidad) or a licensed professional before you act. Checked 9 October 2026.

Sources and check dates

MREMH official migration guide on gob.ec — the jubilado and inversionista guide pages read in full (guide pages last updated 31 December 2024; production site checked 8–9 October 2026); Acuerdo Ministerial MDT-2025-195 (Registro Oficial Suplemento 187) fixing the 2026 salario básico at US$482; MREMH temporary-assignment guidance (90 days in a one-year period; extension at one third of the SBU; tourists barred from work); Ministerio de Salud Pública traveller page (no yellow-fever certificate or COVID documentation imposed; vaccination urged 10 days before the Amazonian provinces and Esmeraldas; Traveller Health Declaration — checked 9 October 2026); Ministerio de Educación (health certificate not obligatory for matriculation since 2012–2013; vaccination not an enrolment condition); Registro Civil cédula issuance and fees; IESS voluntary affiliation (17.60%, +3.41% spouse extension); Reglamento RLRTI Art. 136 (SRI) and the five-year temporary fiscal-residence election; IRS IRM 21.8.4 (no U.S.–Ecuador income-tax treaty); U.S. State Department Ecuador advisory (Level 2 overall; Level 4 and Level 3 areas as listed — advisory page read 9 October 2026; re-check before relying) and OSAC Ecuador country summary, 10 September 2026; SSA foreign-offices page (Ecuador assigned to FBU San José, Costa Rica — checked 9 October 2026) and form SSA-1199-OP75; Ley de Seguridad Pública y del Estado, Arts. 38–41; Agrocalidad pet-import rules; Hospital Metropolitano and Hospital Universitario del Río official pages (opened); UNESCO (Quito inscribed 1978; Cuenca 1999); contacts: first-party pages of ecuadorvisas.com, gringovisas.com, avl-legal.com, yapatree.com, blueboxinsurance.com, fileabroad.com (opened 8 October 2026; nobody contacted). Rent samples: individual Rentberry listings opened 25–29 September 2026, USD as displayed; portal “Rented for” headlines are portal-displayed samples, not verified contract rents. Altitudes attributed city by city (Quito about 2,820–2,850 m; Cuenca 2,538–2,560 m; Cotacachi 2,418 m; Loja 2,060 m as commonly printed, with an older province-level figure of 2,225 m noted as a conflict, not merged). Loja and Cotacachi: no dated individual rent sample found as of the 8 October 2026 check, re-verified 9 October 2026. All checks 8–9 October 2026.

Photo credits

Header image: Quito from El Panecillo, Basílica del Voto Nacional — Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Quito: Quito, Ecuador, a nice view Colonial Center — David Adam Kess, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cuenca: Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción, Cuenca — Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Guayaquil: Vista del Malecón 2000 — Freddy eduardo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Salinas: The beach at salinas — Bonsairolex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Manta: Ecuador Manta Murciélago beach 01 — Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Loja: Puerta de la Ciudad de Loja Ecuador 1 — Rafa Zúñiga T, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cotacachi: Iglesia de la Dolorosa, Cotacachi 01 — Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Flag: Flag of Ecuador, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Images cropped to size; licensors do not endorse this use.