Shopping in Ecuador is an expensive experience. For the recent arrival seeking to set up shop in Ecuador, you might find yourself in need of the creature comforts you would have enjoyed at home. Correa’s government has levied a whole heap of expensive import duties on many luxury items.
For anyone wanting to expatriate themselves and retire here, the costs can be daunting if you want to start from scratch.
Looking at some popular consumer goods here and in the USA one sees a massive disparity. A new Sony Bravia KDL 40” LCD television in the US goes for about $750 on nextag.com while the same price on compraecuador.com goes for about $1400!! almost 200% more. That new ipad– And don’t even think about buying a car. The markup on new import cars is about 40%. I took a look at the websites for the Ecuadorian and US websites for Chevrolet and Toyota to make a comparison of popular vehicles available both here and abroad. For example a Chevrolet Tahoe—starts at $79,390 here in Ecuador and in the USA, $37,280. The cost of a Toyota Corrolla 1.6 Lt. is $24790 here in Ecuador compare it to the USA: $15, 450 Not so economical the economy cars here in Ecuador, eh?
Now I have heard many unconfirmed rumors from expats living here who have their residency that once one has that anyone who has obtained their residency is allowed a one time relocation container shipment sent over duty-free. That means that you can load up on all the luxury items you want from the US or wherever and ship it here tax free along with all your other household items in one shot.
I did a quick calculation on freight from freight-calculator.com to see if it would be worth it to ship and save. A fully loaded 40′ crate with the maximum allowance of 43,000 pounds sent from Long Beach with a declaration of $100,000 of goods(that’s including a car) was estimated to be about $5300 to ship. Well worth it if you think of all the taxes you potentially save just on a car alone.
My advice, get a real good immigration lawyer. I have been trying to get into contact with immigration lawyers but none have been able to confirm or deny this and are looking it for me. There are a lot of ins and outs with immigration law and it often seems as if the government writes their laws in pencil, so get the facts from someone who knows. Fortunately, there are so many expats here, just talk to your hotel or restraunt owner who has already immigrated from North America or Europe or wherever. They will hand you a number or a business card of their lawyer. You’ll be just fine and save a lot of money if you you are a little savvy. And of course once I have obtained the info I will confirm in an upcoming blog.
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my husband and I want to move to cuenca in about 18 months. we are not taking much furniture but have a 2010 suzuki awd, and various electronics, clothes, riding and camping gear, books, etc things of that nature that we want to keep.This owuld weigh way less than 40000 pounds and is worth less than 100,000.
Can you e mail us the anme of any immigration lawyer to get this done with a duty free shipment and also to fascilitate getting a residency vkisa. We will be in cuenca Sept–Oct 2011.
Thanks,
marilyn and Charles
Marilyn and Charles;
There are many good Ecuadorian lawyers that can handle these transactions for you. One of them lives and works out of Cuenca, Grace Velastegui. Grace speaks english and so does her staff. Between her and her husband (also an attorney), you will find them to be accommodating and gracious along with professional and having handled many gringos issues, quite versatile.
Grace Velastegui
Attorney at Law
Luis Cordero 6-41 and Presidente Cordova
Cuenca, Ecuador
Office Telephone: (593) 7-2842225
Cell: 096-110451
Fax: (593) 7-2825801
gracevelastegui@yahoo.com
I have used her and these others as well for many different things in Ecuador for my development Vista Pacifica on the coast.
They have all handled everything from visa, immigration, real estate, POA etc.
Floridalva Zambrano in Porto Viejo
flori@zambranoyasociados.com
Roberto Moreno in Quito and Manta
roberto@morenodidonato.com
I hope that has helped in some small way.
If you ever get down to the beautiful coast, let me know.
http://www.vistapacificahomes.com larryp@vistapacificahomes.com
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks a lot!
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