Ecuador Investor Visa Year 2: Renewal and Audit 2026

Maintaining the Ecuador investor visa through year 2 comes down to three obligations: keep the $48,200 investment in place for the full 730-day visa term, stay inside Ecuador at least 275 days per residency year (no more than 90 days abroad), and file a renewal package showing both. This post covers maintaining the Ecuador investor visa - minimum stay, deposit renewal, and what auditors ask for at year 2 - for US clients we have walked through the renewal window in Cuenca.

We have processed Ecuador investor visa renewals for over 25 years from our office in Cuenca. The renewal itself is light on paperwork compared to the original filing. The audit risk is heavier, and it is mostly about discipline during months 1 through 21 of the visa - whether the client actually held the CD, actually slept in Ecuador, and actually filed the FBAR when due. American investors who plan year 2 from the first wire almost never trigger a problem. The ones who treat the visa as a passport stamp and a wire receipt often do.

The 90-Day Absence Rule, Counted Year by Year

Temporary residency in Ecuador, including the investor visa, allows a maximum of 90 days outside the country per residency year under LOMH Art. 65. The clock starts on the date the visa is issued, not the calendar year. A visa issued on April 10, 2025 resets its 90-day budget on April 10, 2026.

In plain numbers, a US investor must be physically present in Ecuador 275 days per residency year - just over 9 months. The remaining 90 days are pooled and can be used in any combination of trips home, vacations, or work travel. The days are tracked by passport stamps at every Migracion checkpoint; the Ministry's internal system reconciles to those stamps when you renew, not to your own count.

Where US clients get tripped up:

• Counting calendar years instead of visa years. The visa year runs from the issuance date. A client who flies to the US on December 1 and returns on March 1 has used 90 days in a single trip, and if the visa was issued in May, that single trip exhausts the year and starts the second year already in deficit.
• Day of departure and day of arrival both count. Migracion counts a partial day as a full day. A 30-day trip with travel days on each end is 32 days against the budget, not 30.
• The 90-day cap is per year, not cumulative. Unused days from year 1 do not roll into year 2. If you stay in Ecuador for the full 365 days of year 1 you do not get 180 days abroad in year 2; you still have 90.
• Reentry refusal is not the only sanction. LOMH Art. 68(3) provides for revocation of the residency if the resident exceeds authorized absences on two separate occasions. The first overstay generates an administrative fine; the second one can cost the visa entirely.

We tell US clients with US tax-residency reasons to stay flexible (sale of a home, an aging parent, a divorce, an inherited property to close out) that the investor visa is the wrong vehicle for the year of transition. The pensionado visa and the digital-nomad visa have the same 90-day cap. The only Ecuadorian residency that lets you be away more than 90 days per year is permanent residency, and you cannot apply for that until month 21 of the investor visa.

The CD or Property Must Stay Intact - Or Be Substituted

The investor visa is issued because of a specific economic substrate: a 730-day bank CD of at least $48,200, real estate of the same value, or shares in an Ecuadorian company. Under Reglamento a la LOMH Art. 66, failing to maintain the investment for the duration of the visa is grounds for cancellation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs phrases this as "el incumplimiento de la obligacion de mantener la inversion por el tiempo de vigencia de la visa, sera causal de cancelacion." Plain reading: break the CD, sell the property, or transfer the shares before day 730 and the visa is canceled.

A few specifics that matter for our American clients:

• Early CD redemption is detectable. The bank's compliance officer receives a copy of the marginal note ("oficio de marginacion") from the Cancilleria when the visa is issued, blocking the CD until the visa term completes. Many cooperatives will not even process an early redemption request without a release letter from the Cancilleria.
• CD rollover is fine, but document it. If your 730-day CD matures inside the visa term (some cooperatives offer 12-month or 18-month terms that then auto-roll), make sure the rollover instrument is also flagged with the immigration block. We collect a new "poliza" certificate every time a renewal happens and add it to the client's file for the eventual renewal audit.
• Interest is yours. Reglamento Art. 66(a) requires the principal of at least 100 Salarios Basicos Unificados, the 2026 SBU is $482, so the blocked principal is $48,200. The 7 to 9% cooperative interest deposits to your companion checking account and is yours to spend or move. Only the principal is locked.
• Real-estate sales are blocked at the Registro de la Propiedad. If you bought property to qualify, the property deed carries a "gravamen migratorio" (immigration lien). The Registrador de la Propiedad will refuse to record a sale during the 2-year term without a release letter from the Cancilleria.

If you need to change the underlying investment - sell the property and move into a CD, or roll the CD into a new business venture - Reglamento Art. 68 allows substitution. The substitute investment must meet the same $48,200 minimum, and the Ministry grants a 60-day term from the day it issues the substitution authorization to complete the move. We file these for clients fairly often when a deposit at one cooperative matures and the client wants to consolidate at another bank.

What the Renewal Filing Actually Looks Like

A US client who chooses to renew the temporary investor visa for a second 2-year term (rather than apply for permanent residency at month 21) files a renewal package that is materially lighter than the original under Reglamento Art. 67:

Notably absent from the renewal list: no second FBI check, no second apostille run, no health insurance certificate, no proof of $1,446/month income. The renewal is an audit of the existing investment, not a reopening of the original file.

The filing fee is the standard visa fee under the Ministry's published tariff - $50 application plus $270 grant ($135 for applicants 65 and over), the same numbers as the original. Processing runs 4 to 8 weeks in our experience.

There is a real choice at month 21, though, and most of our clients make it: apply for permanent residency instead of renewing temporary. Permanent residency under LOMH Art. 63 requires 21 months of completed temporary residency, removes the 90-day absence cap (replaced by a 180-day cap for the first 2 years of PR), releases the CD lien on the underlying investment, and starts the 3-year clock toward citizenship. We file roughly 80% of our American investor-visa clients as PR applicants at month 21, not as temporary-residency renewers.

What Auditors Actually Ask For at Year 2

The Cancilleria does not call them "auditors" formally - the renewal process is a normal administrative review - but the documents they request when something on the file is off the rail are the same ones a US compliance officer would call an audit. Patterns we see:

• Passport stamp reconciliation. The reviewer compares the entry and exit stamps in the passport to the absence-day total claimed on the renewal form. If the math does not work, the file is held until the client explains. We tell US clients to log every border crossing in a spreadsheet during years 1 and 2 so the count is defensible.
• CD certificate dated within the last 30 days. The bank's poliza certificate must show the current balance and the maturity date. Older certificates trigger a request for a current one.
• Companion-account statements (sometimes). If interest has been transferring to a checking account, the reviewer occasionally asks for a recent statement to confirm the principal in the CD has not been touched. Pull 90 days of statements at renewal time and have them ready.
• Cuenca address proof. A utility bill or a notarized rental contract in the client's name, dated within 90 days. PO boxes, hotel addresses, and short-term Airbnb receipts are not accepted - we have had files held over this.
• Marginal note on the property deed (real-estate path). A current certificate of liens from the Registro de la Propiedad showing the immigration lien is still recorded. The reviewer wants confirmation that the property has not been encumbered or transferred during the visa term.
• POA still in force (if applicable). If we filed the original under a Spanish power of attorney, we either confirm the POA is still current or have the client sign a renewed version. POAs do not auto-expire, but if the client moved, divorced, or revoked a US-side power, we redocument before filing.

What auditors do not ask for: US tax returns, FBAR confirmations, or Ecuadorian SRI filings. The Cancilleria is reviewing immigration status, not US or Ecuadorian tax compliance. That said, FBAR and FATCA continue every year the visa is active - the IRS and FinCEN sides do not pause because Ecuadorian renewal is light.

The Year 2 Discipline Checklist We Hand Clients

We give every American investor-visa client a one-page checklist at month 18, three months before the renewal or PR window opens. It covers what to assemble and what to confirm:

• Run a passport stamp reconciliation. Add up the days outside Ecuador in years 1 and 2 separately. If either year is at or near 90, plan no further trips until the renewal closes.
• Pull a fresh CD certificate. Request "poliza de acumulacion al corte" from the cooperative, dated within 30 days of the renewal filing. Verify the principal still reads $48,200 (or higher) and the maturity date still extends past the renewal decision.
• Pull 90 days of checking statements. Even if not requested, have them on file.
• Pull a fresh certificate of liens (property path). From the Registro de la Propiedad of the canton where the property is located. Verify the immigration lien is still recorded.
• Refresh address proof. Utility bill or notarized rental contract dated within 90 days, in the client's name.
• Confirm the POA. If the original immigration POA we hold is more than 2 years old or the client's circumstances have changed, sign a new one.
• Decide: renew or convert. Month 21 is the earliest date a PR application can be filed. If converting, the renewal is not needed at all - the PR filing replaces it.
• File the year-2 FBAR. The CD account triggers FinCEN Form 114 every year the balance exceeds $10,000. The April 15 deadline with auto-extension to October 15 is independent of the Ecuadorian renewal cycle.

The clients who follow the checklist renew or convert in 6 to 10 weeks with no requests for additional documentation. The clients who improvise typically lose 4 to 8 weeks chasing a stale certificate or reconstructing a passport-stamp log from old boarding passes.

What Happens If You Break the Rules

There are three failure modes we have seen at year 2 with US clients:

1. Investment broken before day 730. The visa is canceled under Reglamento Art. 66, cleanly. The client can apply for a new visa under a different category, but the time on the canceled investor visa does not always count toward the 21-month PR clock - the Cancilleria has discretion. This is the worst of the three because it can reset the residency timeline.
2. Absence cap exceeded by under 30 days. A fine is imposed under LOMH Art. 68(3) and the visa continues. The fine is small (typically under $300), but the breach is logged. A second breach in any subsequent year can revoke the visa.
3. Absence cap exceeded by more than 30 days twice. Revocation. The resident is given a period to leave and would need to reapply from scratch under a new visa category. This is the scenario we work hardest to prevent for US clients with caregiving obligations back home.

There is also a less dramatic failure mode worth naming: a client renews on time, then misses the 21-month PR window. They keep their temporary residency for another 2 years but do not move toward permanent status until the second renewal. This is not a sanction, just a delay - the time still counts, the citizenship clock just starts later.

What Our Firm Does at Year 2

Our investor visa flat fee covers the original filing through cedula. The year-2 renewal or the permanent-residency conversion is separate work. We typically charge the firm's $1,400 immigration flat fee again for a permanent-residency filing (it is a new application under LOMH Art. 64, with its own document set), and a smaller fee for a temporary-residency renewal where the documentation is materially lighter.

What we do not charge separately for: the year-1 and year-2 reminders, the year-2 checklist, the passport-stamp count, or the periodic CD-certificate retrieval from the cooperative. Those are part of the firm's standing client relationship for any investor-visa file we opened.

If you are inside the year-2 window now and unsure whether to renew or convert to permanent residency, that is the right month to schedule a 30-minute consultation. The math depends on your travel pattern, your US tax-residency plans, your CD maturity date, and your citizenship timeline. None of those vary by visa - they vary by client - and the right answer for a single US software engineer staying put in Cuenca is usually different than the right answer for a US retiree splitting time between Florida and Ecuador.

Keep reading:

• Ecuador Investor Visa 2026: $48,200 Minimum Guide
• Ecuador Investor Visa in 6 Months: US Engineer Case 2026
• FBAR and FATCA for Ecuador Investor Visa: 2026 US Guide

Renewing or converting your Ecuador investor visa this year? Contact us or call 651-621-3652.