updated: March 30, 2013
In Customs the Household Goods Chief’s Department explained me that because The Foreign Ministery (Ministerio del Exterior), where the visas are issued, have confirmed to Customs that nowadays “they are taking only 2 to 3 months to issue the permanent resident visas to foreigners”, Customs have conclude the period to give “special treatment to foreigners taking the date the permanent resident visa is issued on their passports” to start counting the 6 months allowed to receive their household goods shipments with duty free, and from now on Customs is considering to start counting the 6 months for give duty free to foreigners’ household goods shipments, the date of the last entrance of the foreigner in the country. The 6 months, includes the transit time of the cargo to arrive in Ecuador.
Per this reason, please all foreigners that plan to receive their household goods shipment must check when was their last entrance to Ecuador that is stamped on their passports, and if they are more than 6 months here in Ecuador, they should plan a short travel anywhere to come back to Ecuador, this must be per a minimum of 2 weeks and they have to take care to stamp their passport to have the register when they go out and come back again to Ecuador. It is very important to check the time they have been already in Ecuador as well. That travel should be considering the time when their permanent resident visas is going to be issued, that should be well coordinated.
For people that is not able to travel out of Ecuador and stay that long, they have the option to ship their cargo and clear it paying a bond to customs, but they will have 6 months, after the date of their bond approval, to show their permanent resident visa stamped on their passport to Customs or they will lose that bond to customs.
It is necessary that people know this to avoid they could be charged by customs to clear their cargo with 32% on the total amount of the inventory list plus the ocean freight.
Regards,
Sandra Baquero
Customs & Transport Advisory
SANESTAR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING SERVICES
celular international 001- 593-9-99690583
celular national 0999690583
e-mail: sandy.baquero@gmail.com
Guayaquil, Ecuador