Ecuador or Guatemala
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Ecuador | Guatemala | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 3 years | 5 years |
| Partner can work | yes | yes |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 637 · estimate | $ 976 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 23,4 | $ 35,7 |
| Life expectancy | 77.58 | 72.75 |
| Homicides/100k | 38.94 | 22.76 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 6.5 | 5.8 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Ecuador — 32, Guatemala — 17. Types present in both: work, remote work, study, family, investment, talent and retirement. Ecuador adds: working holiday.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Ecuador: fees range from 30 to 270 USD. Routes with no fee: 5. Routes stating an income threshold: 2; the lowest is 724 USD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 31; the shortest is 60 days. Guatemala: fees range from 25 to 700 USD. Routes stating an income threshold: 3; the lowest is 1,250 USD a month.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Ecuador after 2 years, Guatemala after 5 years. Citizenship: Ecuador after 3 years, Guatemala after 5 years. Ecuador allows a second citizenship, Guatemala does not.
Ecuador in brief
Ecuador has been dollarised since 2000: its official currency is the US dollar rather than a national currency, which removes currency risk for those whose income or savings are in dollars, but deprives the country itself of independent monetary policy. The temporary residence system is governed by the 2023 Ley Orgánica de Movilidad Humana: the rentista, pensionista/jubilado, inversionista and professional categories are defined not by a fixed dollar amount but by a threshold in SBU — the minimum wage, which is revised annually; since 2022–2023 a separate visa for remote employees of foreign companies has been added among them. Permanent residence is available after just 21 months of continuous residence on a temporary visa, and citizenship after a further 3 years of lawful residence as a permanent resident, and the Constitution explicitly permits not renouncing one's original citizenship. A separate part of the country's territory is the Galápagos archipelago: it is governed under a special law, LOREG, through its own body (Consejo de Gobierno de Régimen Especial de Galápagos), and moving there to settle permanently is not among the rights even of a permanent resident of mainland Ecuador — a separate migration qualification is required. Governance indicators (rule of law, control of corruption) and the homicide rate are, according to official statistics, among the weakest and highest in South America respectively.
Guatemala in brief
The Migration Code (Decree 44-2016) divides foreigners into tourists, temporary residents — for work, study, investment, science, or the arts, for up to five years with renewal — and permanent residents. Rentista and pensionado are an exception to the general logic: income from abroad grants permanent residence directly, bypassing the temporary stage (article 78(e)). Naturalisation takes five years of continuous residence under the general route (Nationality Law, Decree 1613, article 33), with an exam in Spanish and an oath requiring formal renunciation of prior citizenship; people born in other countries of the former Federal Republic of Central America obtain status as a Guatemalan by origin through the separate equiparación mechanism, without such renunciation, and Spaniards keep both citizenships under the bilateral nationality convention of 1961. Bringing in dogs and cats requires no quarantine or antibody titre testing provided rabies vaccination is current. Population and business activity are concentrated in the capital agglomeration around Guatemala City and Mixco, while the tourist flow goes to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Antigua Guatemala, to Lake Atitlán near Panajachel, and to the western-highlands cultural centre of Quetzaltenango. The country lies in a seismically active region with several active volcanoes near populated areas and one of the highest rates of violent crime in Latin America.
Other comparisons
Ecuador or… Panama · Costa Rica · Peru · Trinidad and Tobago · El Salvador · Cuba · Guyana · Honduras
Guatemala or… Nicaragua · Belize · Bolivia · Colombia · Greenland · Jamaica · Bahamas · Dominican Republic
More on each: Ecuador · Guatemala. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.