Researching Ecuador Digital Nomad Visa

Employer Approval for Remote Work

0:01 And, yeah, just talk a little bit about my research and some of my plans. I've been doing a lot of research coordinating with my employer, and I found out that they are going to approve me to work overseas for up to 30 working days, so about six weeks if you think of five-day work weeks.

0:22 Now, of course, some days are holidays, some days the company is generous as far as relaxing and taking a break. So it's not just like the well-known holidays that I'll get off. If I structured that time off correctly, I might be able to even structure it into like an eight-week trip, considering a few holidays and then also maybe taking a week off.

Ecuador Digital Nomad Visa Research

0:51 All that being said, I wanted to just go ahead and get into the topic of today's video, and that's discussing the Ecuador digital nomad visas. So for those who don't know, Ecuador has been formulating a kind of response to different countries around the world. They're doing these nomad visas.

1:09 Hey, we got our first viewer! I'm just talking some about this Ecuador digital nomad visa. Um, they want, oh cool, a second viewer. This must be a good time for folks. It's good to see everybody.

1:21 So, yeah, so with the Ecuador digital nomad visa, um, you do, oh, thank you, I appreciate it, Tony. Yeah, I like the new haircut too. I found a great lady in San Francisco Chinatown, or I'm more like the Tenderloin. Anyway, in San Francisco, and she is really reasonable, does a great job, and she's super efficient, super popular among the people that work in the hotels in downtown San Francisco.

1:48 And also, I see people in there wearing like medical professional clothing. She charges, I think, 14 bucks, and then I try to tip her pretty generously. But it's mind-blowing, you know, some of the deals you can find in San Francisco for what's notoriously an expensive city.

2:08 I found that if you're willing to, you know, really put the time in and explore, you can find some interesting deals and value. It's possible just because of the high population density. Like she's cutting hair, I'm sure all day long. I think she's there five days a week, eight, eight to ten hours a day.

2:29 But, you know, I think with hair cutting, she's pretty busy. It's not like downtime that could come from some IT or office jobs. Um, I do apologize. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I need to trim it a bit more. I need to, like, take care of this.

2:48 But, yeah, it's, I think it's the best way. Like, now that I'm more focused on my corporate career, I'm not as into the e-commerce sales where I was kind of a solo entrepreneur. Now I'm doing business with a lot of different people, and I really need to be careful. I have a professional presentation that my employer is really awesome.

3:05 They're really generous, they take care of us in a lot of different ways. They provide amazing benefits. It's just all around a great situation for me, and I want to show my gratitude for them by trying to be as professional as I can be.

3:23 I admit, you know, when I'm in my programming days, you know, spending weeks on end behind a computer for most of the day, it can be easy to neglect appearance. I mean, some of these programs are very frustrating and challenging and time-consuming to try to understand or level up.

3:40 And it can be easy to let my appearance slide. But now that I'm in more business-oriented roles, I will make all but because it's trying to look good for business purposes.

4:01 But I think that that helps a lot too with remote work, where maybe, you know, some people feel like, oh, I'm working remotely, I'm not going into the office, I can be more laid back in appearance. And I think that was probably my reaction when I wasn't in customer-facing roles.

4:18 But now that I'm talking to customers on video chat, I think it's just that extra little bit that helps. And I try to be friendly and personal as well, personable as well. I know sometimes these conversations can get kind of dry, and so trying to engage them and being friendly is definitely helpful.

Visa Requirements and Cost

4:40 And thank you for your kind words, Tony. Um, but yeah, so with, I apologize, I'm getting a bit distracted. But with the Ecuador digital nomad visa, um, so I am gonna have to approach it in a little bit different way.

4:52 So, for a lot of people, it's used as a path to permanent residency. So you're going to pay around 450, 460 in total with the expectation that you spend, I think, you may not even be supposed to leave for two years. It's a path to permanent residency.

5:15 My employer has a limitation on how long I can work outside the time than what I would be allowed to do. So what would likely happen? I want to clarify this too with first.

5:30 I'd like to add on, you know, we go, hey Mr. Darcy, it's good to see you. Um, I'm just talking a bit about also, I can be professional, good too, for people that are your friends or you want to have a work visa. Like my employer requested that if I do this, they say, we want you to have work authorization.

5:45 We don't want you to be working, even for us, even in a professional sense. You know, it's a publicly traded company. We don't want you to be breaking their rules. And so this is a way for Ecuador to allow for people like me that we want to be above board, we want to do things according to the rule book, by the book, honestly and transparently.

6:10 In my mind, they can get a fair amount of money for the value they're providing. And what is the value that they're providing? Well, I think that a lot are attracted to Ecuador for the nature.

6:23 It's on the equator, that's where the name Ecuador comes from. And it's got beaches in the west, the mountains in the east, and then apparently the cuisine is also incredible. Like they have people coming there from all over the world to start restaurants to serve the tourism industry.

6:41 To kind of be in a dynamic and exciting place with a lot of population density, where, you know, maybe if they're from a rural area or something, they can't serve those people. So, that being said, there's also supposed to be pretty good internet in Ecuador. I haven't been yet, but I have been to Colombia.

6:57 And the digital nomad visa, um, so the main thing I just need to confirm is I need to make sure there's not like a penalty for. I get, I assume there's not a penalty for leaving early. But $450 is pretty expensive, but I want to follow the rules.

7:10 And I mean, just for two months, I don't think it's expensive if you use it for two years and you use it to convert to permanent residency, potentially long-term. You want to get even more serious in permanent residency.

7:24 But having that sort of pass will give me a lot of confidence in spending the duration there working. And, you know, if I'm in a cafe or something, I'll be able to feel open about talking about working there. And also, I can make content and share with you all about what that looks like and kind of how the internet works in cafes of my choice.

Cuenca as a Digital Nomad Destination

7:47 Particularly areas that I think are really cool. I'm really reading a lot about Cuenca. I think that from the channel, a channel I'm a big fan of, JP and Amelia, they say that Cuenca is like the most beginner-friendly part of Ecuador.

8:02 So, for me, not having been to Ecuador yet, beginner-friendly sounds actually kind of refreshing for a change. Some of the places I've been to, I wouldn't describe as beginner-friendly, like Colombia. I don't necessarily think it's good for a first-time traveler.

8:19 But all that being said, the pricing seems reasonable. I'm seeing a lot of different good accommodation options in Cuenca for like four or five, six hundred a month.

8:33 Yeah, Tony, you're probably thinking of JP and Amelia. They're from Denver. I actually lived in Denver for several years, and I really like their channel. I definitely recommend it for anybody that wants to learn about Ecuador.

8:45 They're awesome. I just love their energy. They're such positive people. Even though you can tell, if you go back and kind of dig through their videos, they've been through a lot. I think JP's had some pretty serious health issues, and Amelia's, you know, struggled kind of with the student loan side of things.

9:04 And so they really break down and talk about how moving to Ecuador has allowed them to have really good medical care and then also be able to make headway financially because it's a lot cheaper than, you know, where they're from. Denver is an expensive city.

9:19 Denver is definitely not a cheap place to live, and I could see why. I love about South America, especially the mountainous parts of South America that I've been to, is it reminds me of what I love about Denver, but without the super high prices, and it doesn't get nearly as cold.

9:37 So those two things are really, really. I think that Ecuador is going to remind me somewhat of Peru from parts of Peru. This would be really cool.

Travel Plans and Photography Gear

9:48 I've still got to research more about like how that's going to look as far as me flying in.

9:58 720. I think it's in my info. You can definitely check that out on my about page of my YouTube channel. But yeah, just a bit more about the camera. I saved some money by unfortunately an icon for service, and I'm hoping that they'll be able to help me by removing it, get that working again.

10:20 Because I think next time I go to South America, I want to bring my camera. I didn't have my nice camera on my last trip, and I really regret not being able to take more photographs. But this time, I think it'll be different. I'll have a nice camera setup. Also, bring my husband my pocket too.

10:40 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. I've got to do more research on. Great to see you, thank you, Denise. I really appreciate that. That's really kind of you to say. I'm feeling great. I'm really enjoying my new job. I've been working this new job for about three and a half months now.

11:00 It's been about three and a half months now, and it's going really well. I like the people that I work with, and I definitely like the company. It's been a great experience so far. I actually found out, Denise, that they're saying I can work abroad, but there is a time limitation, so it's 30 working days. I need to have a work visa, so I'm looking at Ecuador because it seems like there I can pay around $450 US for up to two years of working remotely.

11:29 I do want to maintain my job and not bring bridges or potentially lose it, so I'm going to limit it to that 30 working days. That would give me a couple months to know I'm doing it above board and falling. There's going to be questions or concerns with me doing my work. The cool thing about it is, although I will be working there Monday through Friday, a 40-hour week, when I get off work, you know, when I'm in Cuenca, I can go explore. I can try different restaurants, cafes, hopefully interact or meet with other expats that are living there in Cuenca.

12:07 Also on the weekends, I can do some cool weekend trips. I need to research what the weekend trips are around Cuenca. I'm not super familiar, but it seems like a super popular place for expats. I'm also hearing that it's dollarized, so I'm not going to have to convert my money while I'm there, which just makes it simpler. Like Cambodia was like that as well, and that was something I loved about Cambodia was that they do accept your dollars, so you don't have to convert.

Best Time to Visit Ecuador

12:35 Cambodia is different than Ecuador in that Cambodia does have the real, whereas I don't think Ecuador has an Ecuadorian currency. Anyway, it's really interesting to me to understand the seasonal differences. So right now, even though it's summer here in North America, it's actually winter in South America. So I'm also trying to eye dates where hopefully it won't be quite as rainy and cold.

13:03 Right now, it's probably pretty chilly and rainy, and not the best weather for visiting Ecuador. But I'm targeting more like October, November, December kind of area. Flights do become more expensive into November and December in South America because that is the summer there. So you have a lot of people not just from North America that want to experience that area in the summer, but you also have people within those countries, like people from Peru, you know, they want to go to Ecuador. People from Ecuador want to go to Brazil.

13:39 So there's a lot of intercontinental travel, I think, down there in the summer, especially where people from those areas also put demand on airline tickets. And this, Tony said, let's see here. They use US dollars there. Yeah, that's correct, Tony. They use US. Have you been, Tony? Have you been to Ecuador? I'd love to hear about it if you or maybe one of your friends or family members has been there and checked it out.

14:11 I've never been. I wanted to last year out when I was in Colombia and Peru, but flights were just a bit out of my budget. It was going to cost at least an extra probably $300 to $500 for me to have added that trip. And I thought, why don't I just save it for another trip? Because I don't want to dilute my experiences in Colombia and Peru, trying to add in another country when I'd like to do at least a month in each of the Latin American countries.

Digital Nomad Visas and Economic Impact

14:44 So, like, some of the ones beyond Ecuador that I'd like to see, I'd like to do Chile for a month, Brazil, Argentina. Argentina is really high up there too. But some of these countries don't have digital nomad visas yet, so that's kind of why they're not on my immediate list. But they're definitely in the background, and I'm consistently just kind of checking articles like about what countries have passed some of these programs.

15:12 I think it's interesting to see that a lot of these countries do want to get the business that people like me can provide. Staying in hotels, employing locals, going to restaurants, employing locals, even indirectly. Like you might see an expat restaurant owner, and some people might say, oh, they're exploiting the local affordability, but the reality is, even if they're serving, like, Indian food, they're probably doing a lot of business with local grocery suppliers.

15:52 So, like, one of my buddies in Peru, Chef Amid, he imports some of the spices from India, but a lot of the ingredients he actually purchases locally or he even funds the production of locally. So he's trying to do his own line of specialty yogurt in Peru, and he actually works with Peruvian farmers on that. So it is something where, at face value, you know, we see this guy coming from India, and some people might think, oh, he's just a business person. But the reality is, he's able to help the local people make money in ways that they may have not considered by producing products from places that they're not familiar with.

16:33 So some of these farmers perhaps they've never been to India, but the synergy there is just really awesome to see. Denise says, I know some fellow expat vloggers in Ecuador. Looks like a really interesting country, a lot of natural beauty. Yeah, that's how I feel too, Denise. It seems like Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru have their sort of population and their notoriety.

Historical Architecture and Time Travel Sensation

17:06 I think it felt like, I don't know how to explain it, just like there's a certain amount of tradition or kind of ancient feeling, especially in some of these Latin American capitals where they've still maintained some of the classic architecture of the classic buildings. So you feel like you're in a different time. That's one of my favorite things about traveling, going to places like Ecuador, is that with the history, the museums, the interesting local culture, these kinds of things can give you that sensation of time traveling that you may not have if you're in your home country.

17:45 Or you're in an area that is maybe newer, like the US. I love a lot of things about the US. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have here, but it's fair to say most buildings that you see are relatively new or are new by world standards. So I think the building that I live in right now is around years old, but that's considered ancient here. But actually, you go to places like Cusco, you'll see buildings that are five, six, seven hundred years old, I think in some cases, or at least perhaps were built on the foundations of buildings with that kind of age.

Travel Plans to the UK and Canada

18:24 Something else that sticks out to me about Ecuador is the real variety, right? So like, definitely give a thumbs up if you can. That definitely helps with the algorithm and getting my videos out there. Does anybody have any travel plans coming up? Not just Ecuador, but anywhere else that anybody's thinking about going to? Or Spain?

18:58 I apologize, Denise. My internet connection is kind of iffy right now. I need to fix that. It'll definitely be fixed for the next one. I do appreciate your patience. I'm sorry about that, but feel free to share any questions or comments or any thoughts. Oh, wow, Scotland and England. So, what parts of Scotland and England are you interested in, Denise?

19:36 I've always wanted to go to the UK. Several of my subscribers, especially like, you know, some of the people that I follow, Everyman Has A Story, they're from the UK. I think that's just so interesting. I've had a lot of positive experiences interacting with people from the UK. It's, um, I've always admired what seems like a certain, like, oh wow, they're so, so they're from Scotland.

20:00 So, do they, um, did they move from Scotland to other parts of the UK or to the US? I don't know much about your background, but I'm just kind of curious. Like, Highlands and Isle of Skye, wow. I need to really read up on Scotland. That sounds really, really beautiful and really incredible.

20:21 I think you're probably going to have a blast on your trip and definitely hope you take a lot of photographs. And hopefully, you can share on a stream. I hear, oh, okay, so they moved from Scotland to Canada. Wow, that's definitely a change, I imagine. It's, um, Scotland doesn't probably get as much snow like you get in Canada.

20:44 I've been to Windsor, I liked Windsor a lot. I like to go back and see places like Vancouver and Toronto. Last time I was in Seattle, I wanted to go to Vancouver, but I didn't have my passport on me. I flew up and forgot my passport. So next time I go to Seattle, I'm planning on taking a bus or riding with a friend up to Vancouver and seeing that.

21:07 Toronto just seems like such a cool city. Like everything I read about, I hear about it. I hear a lot of comparisons to New York City or to Chicago, but I think there's just like there's even more to like about it. Because something I love about Canada is the urban development. It just, even like Windsor, I walked around, I was really surprised. It was like a comparable city in the US, you wouldn't be able to walk around.

21:31 But they seem to like have some more perhaps European-style development. From what I've read about Toronto, it's extremely walkable. The public transportation is supposed to be really good, and these kinds of things. I love about living here in the San Francisco area, even though it is the US and perhaps not the most car-friendly as a country, this particular region.

22:00 It does have that in common, I think, with places like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal. One of my good friends actually that lives in Mexico, she's from Montreal. City planners ensure there's a lot of green space preserved. That makes a lot of sense. That's why it's so beautiful in Canada. Why it, like, I got the sensation of like having more personal space, which is ironic because people think of Canada as being a lot more urban, much more higher concentration.

22:30 The population lives in the major cities, but I didn't feel like...

22:34 The major cities didn't feel crowded like I feel in some US cities. Now, I imagine Toronto's probably, you know, since it's a lot bigger than Windsor, that it would feel a bit more crowded. But I imagine that depends on the neighborhood. Like if you're in an older neighborhood or a more suburban neighborhood, that's going to be more laid back and quiet and peaceful.

23:03 I definitely hear a lot of American people, it seems like a lot more American people want to move to Canada and vice versa. Don't want to get too much into politics, but I think that at least in my circle of friends, there's this perception that Canada is more peaceful, more developed, and perhaps a bit more compassionate when it comes to things like single-payer.

23:30 Mr. Darcy, actually, one of my other subscribers, he lives in Canada, and he's told me a lot about the kind of interesting differences. I think he's been to the US as well, but he really likes to go to Mexico.

23:45 I think Canada is safer. I definitely did not feel endangered in Canada at all, even though I came from Detroit, which is right next to Windsor. I felt much safer in Windsor than Detroit.

23:58 Yeah, I just, it seemed like people seemed more at ease. Maybe that was just me, but people were very personable and like telling me about their families and their personal lives and their friends in a really kind of endearing sort of way. I feel like Americans, at least in the big cities, are a lot more reserved or perhaps cautious.

24:26 I didn't get that as much in my time in Canada. I think the people there are like, 'Oh, you've got to go do this, and you've got to go do that. Check out this shop, check out that shop.' And that was really, really cool. I would definitely go back to Canada. It was a wonderful experience.

Living and Working in Canada

24:41 I think that, you know, if I weren't a US citizen, I would love to even live in Canada. The only reason I say that is I thought about moving to other western countries, but something that holds me back is that I am a US citizen. So, I think it would be challenging for me to want to go through the process of immigration and getting a visa and permanent residence and all that, when I do have that here in the US. I'm very fortunate in that regard.

25:08 But I can imagine why people that aren't from a western country would wouldn't want to live there and work there, go to college. I think one of my good friends here in California, Hossein, he did his masters in Alberta. He's originally from Iran, but he lives here in the states now and loves it and enjoys it.

25:33 It seems like more and more every year, thank you so much Denise, that's so thoughtful. I really appreciate that. I love to make it to Toronto one day. It seems like a gorgeous city.

25:46 It's really interesting. I've read a lot about Waterloo because in my field, computer science and tech, there's a university of, I think it's the University of Terrier, Waterloo, maybe Waterloo University. The people, the guys that founded the company I worked at before my current employer, they all went to Waterloo, and so they created this company called PagerDuty.

26:13 That's this information technology kind of digital operations software. And yeah, there's just a whole lot of really good software development coming out of Canada. Also, Shopify is based out of Montreal.

26:31 I feel like Canada hits above its numbers as far as the interesting things that come out of Canada, not just technology, but cuisine, nature. There's it's absolutely incredible.

Conclusion and Future Plans

26:47 But thank you so much everybody for joining. I think I'm gonna wrap up because I have some things that I'd like to get to. But yeah, definitely share in the comments what your thoughts are. If you have travel plans, if you have questions for me, also give me a thumbs up if you haven't yet. I really appreciate it, and I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend. And I'll talk to you soon.