The Government of Ecuador hopes to give or renew residence to more than 324,000 Venezuelans during the first stage of the new immigrant regularization process that will begin this Thursday, in a country that is home to more than half a million migrants and refugees from Venezuela.

The phases of the new migration regularization process were advanced this Wednesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, at a press conference with delegates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The beneficiaries of this process will be granted the Exception Temporary Residence Visa for Venezuelan Citizens (Virte), with a term of two years, renewable only once.

The first stage is aimed at Venezuelan citizens and their family group who have legally entered Ecuador before June 1, when the decree of the new migration regularization process was issued.

Most of them have expired Temporary Residence Visa Exception for Humanitarian Reasons (Verhu), issued during the previous regularization process, or temporary residence Unasur.

Then, from November 16, it will be the turn of foreign citizens of other nationalities who have also legally entered the country, and from February 17, 2023, Venezuelans who have entered Ecuador irregularly will be able to regularize themselves.

The regularization process is a migratory amnesty, which will consist of three steps that applicants must complete virtually and in person before the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Directorate of Civil Registry, Identification and Identification, respectively.

Applicants will be able to obtain the visa with a Venezuelan passport that has expired a maximum of five years ago or with a valid identity card that they used to enter Ecuador before August 26, 2019, when visas began to be requested for migrants from from Venezuela.

According to UNHCR, there are more than 500,000 Venezuelans in Ecuador, 62% in an irregular condition.