EC · Citizenship by descent

Ecuadorian citizenship by descent

Reaches a great-grandparent. Every answer on this page is what Postern’s rulebook returns, word for word, with the law it cites. The free check runs the same rules.

Last verified 25 September 20267 sourcesNot legal advice

EC · PARENTLIKELYThrough a parentCitizen by birth (Art. 7(2))EC · GRANDPARENTLIKELYThrough a grandparentCitizen by birth (Art. 7(2))EC · GREAT-GRANDPARENTLIKELYThrough a great-grandparentCitizen by birth (Art. 7(2))
Routes
Citizen by birth to the third degree (Art. 7(2))
Dual citizenship
Kept on every open route

The stamps assume no one in the line became a citizen of another country before the next person in the line was born. What changes each answer is below.

On this page
  1. 01Who qualifies
  2. 02Dates that matter
  3. 03Mothers’ lines
  4. 04Keeping your citizenship
  5. 05The routes and the law
  6. 06The documents
  7. 07What it takes
  8. 08Where the records live
  9. 09Law changes
  10. 10Other doors
  11. 11Sources

01Who qualifies

Who qualifies, generation by generation

LIKELY

Can you claim Ecuadorian citizenship through a parent?

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

With a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent born in Ecuador, you are Ecuadorian by birth and register at the Civil Registry or a consulate.

LIKELY

Can you claim Ecuadorian citizenship through a grandparent?

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

With a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent born in Ecuador, you are Ecuadorian by birth and register at the Civil Registry or a consulate.

LIKELY

Can you claim Ecuadorian citizenship through a great-grandparent?

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

With a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent born in Ecuador, you are Ecuadorian by birth and register at the Civil Registry or a consulate.

02Dates that matter

The dates that matter

No date named in Ecuador’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.

03Mothers’ lines

How mothers’ lines were treated

Ecuador’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father. Where its reasons speak of mothers or fathers, they say:

04Keeping your citizenship

Dual citizenship with your home country

You keep your citizenship.

On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.

05The routes

Every route, and the law behind it

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

Open through a parent, a grandparent or a great-grandparent

  • LIKELY
    Through a parent

The law

06The documents

The documents, as the rule lists them

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

Through a parent or grandparent or great-grandparent

  • Your Ecuador-born ancestor’s birth certificate
  • Birth and marriage records for each generation to you, apostilled and translated

Most countries also want proof that no one in the line became a citizen elsewhere before the next birth: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter that none exists.

07What it takes

What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides

Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2))

Time
A few weeks to a few months at the consulate or Registro Civil, once the ancestor’s birth record is in hand.
Cost
About $150–400: registration fees, apostilles and certified translations.
The hard part
Finding the ancestor’s original Ecuadorian birth registration, especially for a great-grandparent, and lining up the birth and marriage record for every generation in between.
Who decides
The Ecuadorian consulate for your address, or the Registro Civil directly if filing in Ecuador.
The first record
Your Ecuador-born ancestor’s birth certificate, from The Registro Civil, Identificación y Cedulación. Search or request the certificate online with the name and canton of birth; older records may need a written request to the local Registro Civil office. registrocivil.gob.ec

How it’s filed

Where
The Ecuadorian consulate for the applicant's residence, in person. Ecuador has many consulates in the U.S. (e.g. New York, Newark, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami); the Cancillería lists them all. New York: 800 Second Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10017 (cancilleria.gob.ec/newyork), found via WebSearch, not fetched directly; confidence: secondary, verified 2026-09-25. unverified: each post's jurisdiction. office list
How
In person; you appear in person
Appointments
Cancillería online appointments (citas.cancilleria.gob.ec), or by contacting the consulate. unverified: whether this service is bookable online at every post or by email; captcha not checked.
Fee
About $55
Decision
1–13 weeks
What goes in the file (6)
  1. The applicant's foreign birth certificate, apostilled, with an apostilled Spanish translation
  2. A certified copy of the foreign birth inscription (the long form), apostilled and translated
  3. The applicant's valid passport or ID (adults)
  4. The Ecuadorian parent's cédula or passport (physical or digital); for a grandchild or great-grandchild, the Ecuador-born ancestor's Ecuadorian birth entry and the birth records of every generation in between, apostilled and translated, to show the line
  5. A special power of attorney if a third party files
  6. Payment receipt: USD 50 registration + USD 5 DIGERCIC fee
What goes wrong (6)
  • The consul registers the birth directly into the Registro Civil system; after that the person can get a cédula and passport.
  • Art. 7(2) reaches descendants to the third degree of an Ecuador-born person: child, grandchild and great-grandchild, directly. No intermediate generation needs to register first, but every link must be documented.
  • The ancestor must have been born in Ecuador; a naturalized Ecuadorian ancestor does not count for this route.
  • Ecuadorians by birth keep their nationality when acquiring another (Art. 6), so a naturalization abroad in the line does not matter.
  • unverified: how consulates treat third-degree cases in practice; the gob.ec entry states the right but gives no extra checklist for grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
  • From CA, GB, AU, NZ, ZA, BR, AR: the same registration at the Ecuadorian consulate or embassy for your residence; Argentine Spanish records need only the apostille.

Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗

Estimates are honest ranges from official fee tables and what families report; where a fee or time could not be confirmed, it says so.

08Where the records live

Where each record lives, and how to ask for it

  • birth

    Dirección General de Registro Civil, Identificación y Cedulación (DIGERCIC)

    Found by the person's cédula number, or by name, date and canton of birth. Order the copia íntegra del acta registral (the full entry), which shows the place of birth, since Art. 7(2) needs the ancestor to have been born in Ecuador.

    Ask
    Online, in Spanish · request page ↗
    Fee
    6 USD
    Takes
    1–4 weeks
    Good to know (3)
    • USD 6 per copy, plus USD 2 when the requester is a third party (e.g. a grandchild asking for a grandparent's record). Paid online with an international card; ready within 72 hours as an electronic document. Consulates also deliver copies abroad.
    • Old books not yet digitised need an in-person request at the Registro Civil (or through a consulate); allow the long end of the range. unverified: how far back digitised records go.
    • Before civil registration (1901 in Ecuador, unverified), births are in Catholic parish registers.

    Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗

  • marriage

    DIGERCIC (marriages celebrated in Ecuador)

    Ask
    Online, in Spanish · request page ↗
    Fee
    6 USD
    Takes
    1–4 weeks

    Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗

Translations

Into
Spanish
Who may translate
Any certified translator; the translation itself is legalized
About
$25–$80 a page

The foreign birth record must be apostilled and translated into Spanish. A translation made abroad must itself be apostilled; a translation made in Ecuador must be notarized.

Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗

The passport

Where
The Ecuadorian consulate, by appointment (Registro Civil or Cancillería booking), with the new cédula or the registration. Delivery time depends on whether the post prints passports or only captures data.
Fee
About $90
Time
1–9 weeks

Checked 25 September 2026 · source ↗

09Law changes

Recent and pending changes

The legislative watch has no pending bill or recent ruling recorded for Ecuador.

The watch re-reads the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person re-checks the rule before anything here moves.

10Other doors

If descent doesn’t reach you

4 residence programs lead to Ecuador without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.

11Sources

Every source on this page

1 laws and official pages behind the answers, then the offices and pages behind the records and filing. Records and filing checked 25 September 2026.

  1. LawConstitution of Ecuador 2008, Art. 7(2): persons born abroad to a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent born in Ecuador (third degree of consanguinity), and Art. 6 (dual nationality) · Art. 7(2); Art. 6
  2. RecordsThe Registro Civil, Identificación y Cedulación: Your Ecuador-born ancestor’s birth certificate
  3. RecordsHow to file: Citizen by birth (Art. 7(2)) · checked 25 September 2026
  4. RecordsCancillería online appointments (citas.cancilleria.gob.ec), or by contacting the consulate · checked 25 September 2026
  5. RecordsBirth records: Dirección General de Registro Civil, Identificación y Cedulación · checked 25 September 2026
  6. RecordsRegistro Civil en Línea (portal ciudadano) · checked 25 September 2026
  7. RecordsThe passport: where, the fee and the wait · checked 25 September 2026

Not legal advice. Postern’s rulebook is written from the statutes and tested against documented cases; where the law is unsettled, the answer says “possible” or “unsure” rather than guess.

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