My wife and I are planning on a 90 day visit to Cotacachi and Cuenca later this year to see which location we would prefer to live. Without making others plans I understand that we would not be able to return to EC until a year after our initial entry date. During our 90 day visit, how early before the end of that visit would we need to begin the process of applying for our 9-I visa so we would have it in hand before our 90 day T-3 visa had expired?

Obviously, we would need to come with our marriage license, birth certificates, and FBI criminal-record reports in hand. What I don’t know is how long the process takes to get the solicitud de visa de inmigrante for the 9-I visa, as well as the hoja de datos para la cedula.

A second question is “Which documents must be apostilled?”. I understand that proof of retirement documents (i.e. Social Security) must be “apostilled”, as well as authenticated by an Ecuadorian Consul here in the USA. Does our FBI Criminal-Record Report also need to be “apostilled” or simply “legalized”?

Thanks for any answers you can provide!