The cedula (pronounced "se-doo-la", not "sed-ju-la") is the national registration card for all residents in Ecuador. This was the last "document" that we needed to get before leaving Guayaquil and heading to the Pacific, and it didn't come without some drama (of course!).
When we received our visas (the day before our trip back to the States), Emily's name on my visa had been misspelled as "Emili". (Her own visa was correct.) On the 24th, we went to the Visa office to request a correction; we were able to pick up the updated copy the next day.
On Thursday, September 26th, we took the MetroVia downtown to apply for our cedulas. Locally, the MetroVia is called "light-rail" when, in actuality, it's just a big bus with a dedicated traffic lane:
The cedula applications are submitted at the Registro Civil building, across the plaza from Iglesia San Francisco (San Francisco Cathedral):
Emily and I decided to try this on our own - without our facilitator. (Brave, I know!) The person that we met with spoke little English but he was very helpful. We couldn't apply for our cedula because we were missing a document. We had the following documents:
- Passports
- Color copies of our passports
- Color copies of our visas
but we didn't have
- A Declarición Juramentad (sworn statement) of our parents' names and their birthplaces
You might have noticed on the back side of my cedula above that there is a place for both my mother's maiden name and father's name. In addition to knowing my information and place of birth, we needed to provide a statement of our parents' names and birthplaces. I have no idea why they want this information, but family ties are strong in Ecuadorian culture and this might just be a cultural holdover. Cedula applications in years past required birth certificates, possibly because they have this information.
To get our statements, we needed to go to a notary. (Notaries are probably worthy of their own blog entry; it's a very elitist industry.) On Friday morning, we went with our facilitator's daughter, Sierra, to get our statements. Sierra not only knows the registration process; she is also an accomplished translator. (She also found the apartment that we are currently living in.) We met her in the same plaza; one of the local notaries is just off the square. I'm glad she was there; we would never have found it otherwise. To get to the notary, we had to find the front door:
go up the stairs:
down the hall:
where we could get our statement. We provided the notary's assistant with the information required (parents' names and birthplaces - no proof required), and four hours later we had our documents:
(The acutal document is three pages long.) For $44, you would think that the page text would align with the paper sheet.
After that, Sierra accompanied us back to the Civil Registry to apply for our cedulas. With all of the paperwork in order, the application was accepted! We were photographed and fingerprinted and told to return at 4:30p to pick up our cards. We were pleasantly surprised; we had been told previously that cedula processing took two days; now, it takes two hours! At just past 5:00p, we had our cards. We are now fully registered as residents of Ecuador. Many thanks to Sierra and Dana (our facilitators) for helping with the visa and registration process:
After that, back on the Friday night rush hour MetroVia back to our apartment:
We are now finishing our plans to move out to beach - Wednesday is our target move date. Can't wait!
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