Kafkaphony- May 2013

Meanwhile we managed to take care of some administrative business during a trip back to Quito. We signed up for healthcare with Ecuasanitas at $127 a month, which includes $25,000 life insurance, plus $7 per person per month for dental coverage and $5 total per month for ambulance coverage, which makes $146 per month to cover us three. I filed for an Ecuadorian replacement for my US license and I thought I would be taking the theoretical and psycho-sensory tests a week and a half later. I also thought that drivers are permitted only 90 days after their date of entry driving with a foreign license.

Quito - scenic view of the old city

I recently returned to Quito to enquire about the state of my application. On my first visit to the ANT office on the other side of the city I lost myself in the city streets and arrived an hour and a half after leaving the notorious driveway at Andres and Caroline’s house. When I finally arrived I queued in line for the license desk and upon consultation I was told to take my query to the international license branch on the second floor (first floor, for my European friends). Happy was I to see that the international license branch was almost empty. Happy was I to be seated by an agent almost immediately after stating my business. I explained my situation to her, she left for a moment to verify the status of my application, she returned. And then she shattered my happiness. My visa, she explained, only had two weeks left on it. The ANT would not issue me a driver’s license for such a short time. I kindly asked her to explain what the hell she meant by saying that I only had two weeks left on my visa. She pulled the copy of my visa approval from my application file and showed me the date listed as “REGISTRATION OF VISA”: November 25, 2012. The Visa was for 180 days and, she elucidated, my visa would expire on May 24. I protested. I showed her my passport with the actual Visa in it and handwritten thereupon, in the line “Date of Expiry,” 03/AUG/2013. She demurred. Why would the ministry of foreign affairs assign two differing dates? The date of expiry is 180 days from this date here, November 25, 2012, on this paper. I contested. November 25, 2012, is the date I applied for a visa at the Ecuadorian embassy in Brussels, and consequently the date the visa was approved. 

Quito - Virgin of the Apocalypse

I reflected that the efficiency of the administration at the embassy in Belgium seemed ironic in the present moment, but I didn’t say that. We continued like this for half an hour before I gave in. Very well, I said, but could she give me the maximum amount of time I was allowed to drive in Ecuador with a foreign license? Only 70 days? Was she positive it isn’t 90 days, as I had been told by traffic police and is listed on the US Department of State website for travellers visiting Ecuador? Oh, she is positive? And is there anything I can do between now and when I come back with a new visa, as she suggests I do, to continue driving? No? Despite that I’ve bought a car, that the administrative approval for a new visa might very well take months, was there nothing I could do? No. And if two weeks is now too short a period to issue me a visa for, could she tell me what the minimum period was, so I could be sure to know for how long at least I had to renew my visa? There is no minimum? There must be a law, or a rule the ministry follows when considering cases? No? Each case is decided by a panel and the panel determines the minimum? And does the panel have a general rule for minimum duration of visa? No? Is two weeks too short? Yes? Two months? Maybe? I see. Goodbye, señorita. I left the ANT completely dejected.

The following day, after talking with Caroline and then with Valentine’s nanny Rita about the best strategy to pursue, and with Sandra who convinced me I was after all right about the expiry date, I returned to the ANT. This time I arrived in twenty minutes. On the second-floor I was escorted into the back offices of the international license branch and seated before a high-level official. He took one look at my application and said “Oh yes, I remember you from yesterday.” I explained my case to him and he began to offer the same protest which had been so sour to me the day before. I interrupted immediately and explained politely but firmly that every foreigner who enters the country with a visa has to register hat visa with the ministry of foreign affairs within the first month of their stay in the country, during which process the ministry activates the visa and registers an expiration date starting from that activation. The date of registration for a visa on the other hand has no relation to the expiration date and, I continued, how little sense it would make to apply for a visa while abroad only to loose time off of your permitted stay for each day you remained abroad. He listened, we discussed, and then he took my passport and application, I imagine to a panel, for review. 

Quito - scenic view of Guapulo

Three minutes later he returned and explained that the agency had interpreted the date of application as the date of activation and therefore had assumed May 25 as the date of expiry. If, however, what I said was true -- and he would verify immediately with an e-mail to the ministry of foreign affairs, so if I could provide him with a phone number to contact me at several hours later -- then the panel would reconsider my application in light of this new development. But, he wanted to know, why did you want a drivers license now if you’ll have to apply for another license and pay the administrative fees again in two months when you have a new visa? How else, I calmly questioned, am I to continue to drive during these two months? What do you mean, he asked. But I’m only allowed to drive 70 days with a foreign drivers license. What? Or is it 90 days -- I don’t know, your colleague yesterday told me 70 but I’ve heard 90 from police officers and I’ve seen 90 online. No, no, he said, with a foreign drivers license you’re allowed to drive for 6 months -- 180 days, exactly the length of your visa. Oh. Could I have a print out of that law, please? Sure I can? Thank you, have a nice day.