For anyone wanting to work or become a digital nomad in Ecuador, the Ecuador professional visa is surely an awesome route. After coming to Ecuador on a government program to teach English, I fell in love with Ecuador and decided to live here.
I successfully applied for an Ecuador professional visa to teach English in Ecuador and received it. Although this visa has many other requirements, one of the most important requirements is to get your profession registered through Senescyt Ecuador.
And in order to do that, you must get your educational transcripts approved from SENESCYT, Ecuador. SENESCYT is the government entity in Ecuador that verifies your educational qualifications. Your degree must be recognized by them in order to score a freelance visa in Ecuador.
You need to register your profession within three months of arriving in Ecuador.So I would ask you to get started as soon as you get to Ecuador.
If you are a US citizen, jump to Valeri’s experience of getting Ecuador temporary resident visa.
Requirements to Get Profession Registered in SENESCYT Ecuador
Apart from your passport, the only requirement to get your profession registered on Senescyt is to submit the apostilled copies of your educational transcripts.
Each degree has to be registered. For instance, I have a bachelor’s and a master’s and I had to register both of them.
What is an Apostille?
An apostille is basically a form of notarizing on an international level, agreed by many countries. You can only apostille documents in the country/place of origin. Each country’s procedure for this is different.
The educational certificates and mark sheets are the first and foremost requirements for a professional visa. And remember that your certificates, mark sheets, and any transcripts that you present must be apostilled in your home country.
Does it matter if your country is part of the Hague convention countries?
There are conflicting pieces of information about these over the internet that for citizens of countries that are not part of the Hague convention countries, must get their documents certified by the Ecuadorian consulate covering their area.
And if your degrees are not in Spanish or English, then you need it to be translated and notarized as well.
What’s a Certified Translation?
A certified translation must be carried out by translators registered or accredited Embassies, Consulates, language departments of universities, polytechnics or other public bodies. It can be done in Ecuador or in your home country.
I would recommend you to get them apostiled no matter where you are coming from. There have been instances in the past where nationals of different countries ended up in Ecuador without having their certificates apostiled, and their applications were rejected.
In my case, since I have a master’s, I got the certificates and mark sheets for both masters and bachelors apostilled in India before coming to Ecuador.
So don’t take a chance.
How to Apostille & Notarize as a US Citizen?
If you are a US citizen, then the process of apostilling would depend on the state that the diploma was issued in. For example, some secretary of state will not apostille anything over a year old. The document has to either be a certified original or a notarized copy.
You would need to mail the original copy of the diploma and official transcripts to the Secretary of State. You can also ask your university to do the same for you if you don’t want to mail the original diploma yourself.
Once you have the apostilled diploam, you can even notarize them in Ecuador if you want to.
SENESCYT would take the notarized copies of your apostilled diploma and gives you back the original but they want to see an original apostilled diploma as well.
Application Process to Register Profession in SENESCYT Ecuador
When I registered my degrees, Senescyt only received the transcripts in person, but nowadays they are doing it online as well. As the online process also needs you to go personally for an appointment, it’s not completely automated.
Choose the Type of Degree & Apply
To start the registration process on Senescyt, visit the online application page of Senescyt. When you scroll down, you can see the option: Registro de titulos extranjeros.
When you expand the drop-down, you can see the options for different kinds of degrees. The first one if for general degrees, the second one is for PhD holders and, the last one is for people with professional and medical degrees.
Choose the option that fits you. Once you click on it, you will be forwarded to another page on the Senescyt portal. Scroll down to Modalidad de atención.
If you want to do it in person, then choose the option Punto de Atencion al usuario de la SENESCYT. This will show you all the facilities of SENESCYT and you can choose the one that’s close to you.
If for some reason, the portal is down or it’s not accepting the documents, you can always walk into one of their offices. They have offices in Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, Loja, Ibarra, Azogues, and Portoviejo.
How to Register Your Degree in SENESCYT Online?
You can also register your profession in Ecuador online by choosing Iniciar tu tramite en linea. You will need to create an account in the portal by filling in some details. To get started, choose pasaporte and then fill in your passport number and click on buscar.
1.Create an Account in SENESCYT
As you are not registered, it will then display the other fields you need to fill in. Sometimes, the website acts up and you might need to try more than once. Even after registering, some things might not work. You need to refresh and try again if that happens.
Código de Seguridad:
A four-digit security code in case you lose access to your account.
Provincia de residencia:
The province of Ecuador where you are living.
Ciudad de residencia:
The city where you are living.
Direccion:
Your address in Ecuador.
Autoidentificación Étnica:
Your ethnicity.
Once you are successfully registered, you will receive an email from Senescyt with a user name and password. You can log in using those details and then it will prompt you to change the password. After changing the password, you log in again and you would see the option to choose a service.
2.Log into SENESCYT and upload Documents
Choose SENESCYT(ONLINE).
Then you will see the option to choose the service you want to. Since, Ecuador professional visa is a temporary resident visa, you want to choose everything as TEMPORALES.
Then click on SIGUENTE.
After this, you can upload the transcripts.
Here are all the documents you need to upload. Except for the passport, all the other documents must be apostilled. And if your degree is not in Spanish/English, you would need to get the documents translated to Spanish and get them notarized.
You can only upload PDF or XL Sheets.
Passport
Passport bio page and the page containing entry stamp of Ecuador.
Original Certificate
Front and back pages of the original certificate from your university which has been apostilled.
Study Plan
Academic record or study plan or document that verifies the duration of your studies.
Document Verifying the Type of Study
Original documents or certified documents verifying the type of study, and its apostille. Mark Sheets containing the subjects can be used for this purpose.
Document Evidencing 60 Credits
An original certificate and/or document that verifies that the student has completed the equivalent of at least 60 credits equivalent to the ECTS( European Credit Transfer System).
Documents Evidencing Course Start and Degree
- An official document or certificate that proves when you started the said course.
- A document that proves that it was a degree or its equivalent.
Once you upload all the mandatory documents, you will need to choose the zonal office that will process the application. Choose the one that fits you and submit the application.
After the application submission, you will receive an email from Senescyt with further instructions.
Here is the email translated by Google.
3. Pay the Fees for Registering Professions in Senescyt
If your documents are all in order, then you would be notified to pay for the registration.
In order to register your degrees in Senescyt, you need to pay $25 per degree. You can pay it in Banco Pacifico or Banco de Guayaquil.
After making the payment, you will receive a call from an official to set up an appointment. If you don’t, then call the number specified in the email.
4. Personal Appointment
You would need to go for the personal appointment on the agreed date and time with the original documents.
You will need to provide an official email, physical address and contact details of the Foreign Institution where you studied. And if your university is not registered, you might need to provide an official letter from the university.
I didn’t have to provide any official letters even though the university where I did my masters was not registered.
They give you a code after receiving the documents. On their portal, you can check whether the degree is approved or not. It will show approved for the one that’s approved, and en processo (in process) for the one that’s not. And you will get a receipt for the same.
Once it’s there, you can check the registration on Senescyt’s portal.
How Long Does the Registration in SENESCYT, Ecuador Take?
The process of registering a foreign degree can take up to 30 working days, especiallly if your university is recognized in the Senescyt.
In my case, since the university where I did my master’s was recognized, it took only 15 days to register the master’s. However, the university where I did my bachelor’s was not recognized in Senescyt, and it took more than two months to register my bachelor’s.
If your university is not registered, in that case, you would be needed to fill out a form to provide the institution’s details, name, email, and a couple of references (preferably your teachers). You might also have to provide an official letter from the university specifying the course, the total number of hours, and other details, but I personally didn’t have to provide this.
Does Senescyt Accept Online Degrees?
Yes, online degrees are acceptable as long as they have been issued from the same authority accrediting the regular degrees, and if they are equivalent to regular degrees in the country where they are issued.
But there are several courses for which online or distance degrees are not accepted. As per Senescyt’s guidelines, here is the list.
Note that while these are specifically mentioned, there are various courses for which Senescyt doesn’t accept online or distance degrees. You need to check with them at the time registration about that.
- Architecture
- Agriculture
- Alternative therapies
- Applied Chemistry
- Biology
- Biodiversity
- Biopharmaceutical
- Biophysics
- Biomedicine
- Biochemistry and pharmacy
- Chemistry
- Childcare, Disability Studies
- Engineering – Civil, Electronics, Electrical, Industrial, Mechanical, Textile
- Food Production or Food Science
- Geography, Geology, Geotechnics
- Genetics
- Hydraulics, Hydrology
- Electronics
- Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine, Therapy
- Meteorology
- Mining
- Nanotechnology
- Neurosciences
- Oceanography
- Nuclear Technologies
Here is the reference from the official website.
Do You Have to Submit the Physical Documents?
Yes. Although you can upload the documents in the portal, you still will be asked to show them the apostilled copies of the transcripts.
If you lose them or they are damaged or if you are still waiting for it, in that case, you can get a temporary certificate from your university about the same and submit it, with an affidavit. This will vary for different universities. You would need to check with Senescyt about the details.
After Approval, How Long Does it Take to Reflect on Senescyt?
After the status of a foreign title appears on the Senescyt platform as ‘Approved’, the registration will be reflected in approximately 72 hours.
Where to Find the List of Approved Universities for SENESCYT?
SENESCYT maintains a list of universities for different countries, and if you have studied from one of them, your application process would be faster and a bit easier. And not to forget, less documentation.
You can check the list here.
Search for your country’s name in Spanish. For example, Estados Unidos for U.S. citizens.
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If we perform the certificate registration from home online.
Can we postpone the appointment till we travel to Ecuador?
Can they give us an initial acceptance while we, are still at home till we bring the originals at the scheduled appointment?
Thanks
Hi Karym, the certificate registration can be done from home, as long as you have someone who can make the payment for you in Ecuador and make a visit to the office if needed. Not sure about the initial acceptance until you bring in the originals. It’s not really going to save you much time- if that’s what you want.
Thanks so much for this detailed post. Can you tell me what the required level of education is for this visa? If it’s only a bachelor’s, is there any advantage of also registering the master’s or higher level degree (for visa-obtaining purposes)?
Hey Amanda,
Thank you.
You should have a bachelor’s at least. But if you have a Master’s or higher degree, that is definitely useful. It will help you in case you want to be employed in Ecuador. But if you are not planning to be employed in Ecuador, there is no other real benefit.
After submitting the documents and payment online, do you know how long it takes to receive the appointment to bring the documents in person? Is it fairly quick, a few days, a week, or is it a long waiting process with the pandemic?
Thanks a lot for all the info about the Senescyt process
Just may I know the email and the contact number for the uni that they need ,what they do with them ? And they sent an email to your university as well ?
Hi Alan,
They would most probably use it if your university is not on the list. If it is, I doubt that they would send an email to your university.
Hi, thanks for the detailed information. I am not clear on these documents: 1)An official document or certificate that proves when you started the said course 2)A document that proves that it was a degree or its equivalent. What would these be? The transcripts?
Hi Sandra,
Those would be your transcripts or degree certificates, depending on where you are from and your university.
Hi, thanks for the information. I am a pharmacist based in Europe. i want to know do I need to take any exam to authorize my degree and work in Ecuador or just should I apply for it and do not need to take the exam?
Hi Negi,
You don’t need to take any exams to authorize your degree in Ecuador, but you do need to get it registered in SENESCYT following the guidelines provided. After that, you can work independently or work for an employer in Ecuador.
Hello! Thank you for the helpful information. I am interested to learn more about whether an online degree may be accepted by Senescyt, as my husband’s degree was earned mainly online and we are hoping to obtain a professional visa for him. We are currently in the USA and plan to apply for the professional visa after arriving in Ecuador.
How would we contact the appropriate agency to determine if his degree is acceptable for this visa type? Or is there a list of approved universities we can check? We would like to know this ahead of time so that, if his online degree is not eligible, we can pursue other options.
Thanks!
Hi Mrs. Ruseler,
Thank you for your kind words. There are certain areas in which the government will not recognize an online degree, such as medicine, dentistry, engineering, etc. Expats with online degrees have received professional visa, especially when the university was approved.
You can see the list of universities that are preapproved here: https://servicios.senescyt.gob.ec/imagenes/2018/08/listado-de-instituciones-de-educacion-superior-extranjeras_05-05-2018.pdf
Search for Estados Unidos. There are some 350 universities that are preapproved.
To see the whether your online degree works out, visit https://servicios.senescyt.gob.ec/proceso/registro-de-titulos-extranjeros
Scroll down to “Reglamento sobre títulos y grados académicos obtenidos en Instituciones Extranjeras RPC-SE- 12-No.030 -2017”
Download the doc and go to page 14.
The article will soon be updated with all this info.
Hello, I’d also like to review the list of preapproved universities for Estados Unidos but when I clicked on the link you provided above I’m getting an error that says “Page Not Found”.
Has the list been moved or replaced? Do you have a new link for the list?
Thanks for your help!
Michael
Hi Michael,
Yes, that link has been moved. This often happens in Ecuador. 🙂
Couldn’t find the new link. I have uploaded the document to Google drive : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dlJ7gZnR9enRtGudhs1DF8pUG5Siel61/view?usp=sharing
Buenas noches, quisiera saber si en el área de la salud, lo que tiene que ver con maestrías de salud publica, epidemiología si se pueden registrar en la Senescyt?
Buenas noches Monica. Yo creo que si pueden. Por fa mira la lista.
Sabe que fui al senescyt y me dijeron que no porque soy medico, a un amigo que hizo la misma maestría en Epidemiologia le dijeron que si se homologa pero la diferencia es que el es psicólogo y mas raro aun la PUCE oferta un master en epidemiologia online y esos si homologan…
Hi, I have a question re: the following “You need to register your profession within three months of arriving in Ecuador.” — can you please explain where this rule comes from? What if I want to go to Ecuador on 3 month tourist visa, then extend the tourist for another 3 months (6 months total) to give me the time to decide if I want to become a temporary resident and apply for the professional visa. thanks!
Hi Rosie,
You can totally do that. Be in Ecuador for some time and then register the profession. The three-month rule means the professional degree must be registered with 3 months of getting the professional visa. Note that the visa can be applied just with a receipt from Senescyt and when the approval is under process.
Great info, thank you. I already have my professional visa, and I’m living in Ecuador now. Do I still need to register by degree? What will happen if I don’t do it?
Hi Dan,
How long have you been there? Yes, you do need to still register the degree, within 3 months of getting the visa. The visa is given on the basis of a receipt only.
I can’t really say what will happen. Haven’t known any such cases.
Hi Deb,
I have really enjoyed reading this article with lots of detailed information.
Currently I have my university degree listed on the pre approved universities as well as having my degree, transcripts both legalized.
My question is regarding the mode of study letter. My university is making it a pain to get this letter. My degree is in Computer Science & it’s clear an online degree would be accepted (my degree was in person not online by the way) hence why this letter shouldn’t be needed but the thing is my visa agency insist on this letter saying it’s a necessity FOR ALL. Do you have any advice for me or do you know any person recently who didn’t supply the mode of study letter & got approved?
I would appreciate it if you know any visa agency or lawyer I can work with since this whole process is stressing me out.
Thanks Deb & appreciate your work.
Nick
Hi Nick,
I totally get how frustrating it can be. The mode of study letter should not be required as your university is preapproved. I believe you are doing the whole process outside Ecuador? Although I haven’t personally used them, I know of some visa agencies in Ecuador many expats adore. Will email you that info.
I was trying to register for SENESCYT from my home in the US but the application requires a local address and phone number to register when entering info for your passport. Is it only possible to do this application from Ecuador? Or am I doing something wrong? I was hoping I’d be able to apply for the visa at the Ecuadorean consulate in Los Angeles before I left. Is this possible? Thanks so much for your help.
Hi jennifer,
You can get the visa from the embassy in LA. However, the SENESCYT stuff would need you to be in Ecuador or have someone who can do it for you. So I believe that’s why you need a local address and phone number.
Thank you for this information! I will soon be applying for my temp professional visa in Ecuador and wanted to start the process of getting my degree certified (it is not on the preapproved list but it was taken all in person in the US). I wanted to clarify my understanding of the documents required to upload online. Documents 5-7 which are basically asking for credits, start of study, and graduate work. For this could I just upload my apostilled transcript for these requirements? It includes all this information but wasn’t sure if you just upload the same document 3 times? I guess 4 including document 3 (“study plan”).
My understanding is that I just need to upload my apostilled/notarized diploma, transcript, and mode of study letter. Do these documents require translation / official notary from Ecuador as well? I appreciate your help!
Hello, I’ve received an appointment to apply for the Professional Visa on the 18th July. Should my next step be to register my degree with SENESCYT ASAP? What happens if the documents haven’t been approved by the time of my appointment ?
Hi Carlotta,
Yes, you should apply to register for a degree with SENESCYT and get the receipt. The approval can take some time so the receipt is what you need now.
Carlotta,
I tried to apply for the professional visa prior to getting my degree registered (I was in process – I am still waiting over a month) and they wouldn’t let me apply due to the new rules. Get your degree registered ASAP and hopefully you have better timing than I did! Deb – I tried to use the receipt that gave me at SENESCYT when I went in person to present my degree and the visa office (in Manta) did not accept this.
Hi Lyall,
Yes, this can happen in some migracion offices. The article will be updated with this info.
Hi Deb Pati,
thanks for this valuable info. I uploaded my documents in the system 3 days ago but is still stuck on “SOLICITUD INGRESADA”. How long approximately will it take to the next stage ? or am I at the step that takes 15-30 working days?.
Hi David,
Have you received the email from Senescyt? Usually this is the email address : siau@evirtual.gob.ec? Once documents are uploaded, and they check them, you can make the payment.
Alternately, you can reach them on this phone number mentioned in the email screenshot and ask them about it: 593-23934300 with extension 1400, from 8.30 am-5..30 pm.
The payment confirmation is usually fast.
We are currently in the middle of the professional visa process. Apparently there have been some rule changes as referenced in some of the comments.
1. They require registration with Senescyt BEFORE applying for the professional visa.
2. It takes a day or two for the system to provide a payment request once you upload your documents
3. It takes a couple of days for the system to send you confirmation that you can request an appointment however the appointments become available on WEDNESDAYS after 11am
None of this information is clearly indicated on any of the government pages. We learned this from communicating with the Los Angeles office plus visiting Senescyt in person.
Thank you for this update, Dawn. Hope this helps others.
Hi,Deb Pati
I’m quite confusing cause my bachelor’s university is not on the list,but my master’s is. I still need to confirm registering both my diploma in SENESCYT or just master’s will do the job, also in order to get educational qualification in SENESCYT, I need someone in ecuador right now to sign up an account and provide local information instead of me, do you have a service like that? I have leave the comments on contact page as well btw.
Hi Xiaobo,
You need to register both. I have received your email and will get back to you about the service.
Thanks for the confirmation, looking forward to your reply by email.
Hi, my advisor there says that the senescyt website isn’t accepting any appointments for verifications of original degree related documents this moment. Do you know anything about this?
Not really sure. But in Ecuador, it is not uncommon with visas and all types of bureaucracy. So maybe wait a week or two, and then try again.
Hi Deb. Thank you for your detailed information. I am Chinese I graduated from a Canadian university(full-time Bachelor’s) and I found it on the list. But since Canada is not a member state of the Hague convention. Should I mail all of my degree and official transcripts back to the consulate of Ecuador in Canada for the process of apostle process?
And, I am not sure will a bachelor’s degree with half of the credit transfer from a recognized college will count as a full-time degree on SCENESCYT? Many thanks in advance.
Hi Wenn,
Yes, in this case, you can get in touch with the consulate of Ecuador in Canada and let them know about your plans, and they can let you know how to certify the transcripts.
I don’t think the credit transfer would be an issue but I personally don’t know anyone who registered in SENESCYT with a credit transfer. Would be great if you could update how it went- it would be really helpful to others.
All the best,
Deb
I am a bit confused about the apostille thing. It says that the apostille for your degree can only come from the place of origin but then it says that it must be from your home country. So what if you did not study in your home country and your degree was from abroad, where is the apostille suppose to come from. It also says the mark sheets have to be apostille, so who is to apostille that as well.
Hi Jason,
Yes, it can be a little confusing. The country that would do the apostille is the country to which the document belongs to.It has nothing to do with your home country.
I haven’t seen mention of the relatively recent requirement in the text or comments regarding UNESCO/ISCED certification of “education level” and “field of study” codes. This is probably the result of Ecuador joining this international partnership to collect statistical data. I have two Canadian degrees, an BA(Honors) and an MPA (Masters of Public Administration). Neither of my universities has experience with this process, nor is it clear exactly which ISCED data (there’s tons) is required to record. I’d love to get in touch with any Canadian who has already gone through this step successfully. I have emailed Ecuador’s consulate in Canada to see if I could get a guide/template/sample certificate which is accurate, complete, and meets requirements. Haven’t heard back yet. I may have to compose my own “mock-up” letter for the university to duplicate and certify, then submit to the consulate to see if it meets their requirements. Sheesh! The context for this is my eventful application for a “Professional Visa”.