Ecuadorians benefited from mobile consular day
O
n the weekend of March 21-22, 2015, the consulates general of Guatemala and Ecuador visited Las Vegas to provide various consular services to their compatriots. For both communities, these days are a great relief as they carry out their paperwork without having to travel to Los Angeles where both main offices are located. They save time and money.
“The government of Ecuador is allowing various procedures online from the consul’s website.”
Consulate Services Rendered.
The Guatemalan consulate in Los Angeles offered a consular day on both dates, where approximately 500 people from that country took advantage of the services offered, according to data from the new consul general Francisco Cuevas who took office a month ago. Two vice-consuls, a first secretary, the consul general, information staff and those filling out forms, was the working team of the mobile consulate that sought to give the best care to its nationals in Nevada.
Embracing Change.
Recently in the Central American country the identification of the National Registry of Population (RENAP) and the Guatemalans in the USA were updated and trying to renew these documents, explained Cuevas. “The documents before 2011 were feasible to falsify, the new National Registry of Population identification, can only be processed personally in Guatemala, but in the United States we are still accepting the previous papers,” said the Guatemalan diplomat.
The president of the Club of Ecuadorians, Nora Uribe was a key piece for the representation of her country to consider Las Vegas as part of their agenda…
T
he Renap is the new form of identity in Guatemala, and the Consulate has to verify by means of a database before making any process, that is why the new birth certificates have a bar code and the information must coincide with the base in this Central American country. This new process caused a delay of up to 2 hours of waiting for users in Las Vegas, who despite that, prefer to line up in their city than to move to Los Angeles. Like the case of Ovidio Ortega who came to update his passport. “At 9 am I was already formed and thanks to the visit of the mobile consul I do not even know the office in Los Angeles.”
It is twice a year that the Guatemalan delegation visits Las Vegas. “In cities where there are many compatriots we want to do it up to 3 or 4 times and Nevada would be included in this new scheme of work to serve as many people as possible,” said Cuevas. According to data of the consul general are a million and a half of Guatemalans in the United States and in California an estimated 800,000. Nevada, New York, and Chicago follow him as the states with the most “chapina” community outside his country. In addition to the Consulate’s attention, the Mi Familia Vota organization set up a working desk to provide information on the benefits of DACA and DAPA, which is a value added to the visit of those who came to carry out their procedures. Similarly, on Saturday, March 21, for the second consecutive year, the Ecuadorian mobile consulate visited Las Vegas to provide its compatriots with various procedures without having to move to the city of Los Angeles, California, where their fixed offices are located. Uceda School provided its facilities for this mobile consulate. From 8 am, Ecuadorian families began to arrive to obtain their passports, notary powers, birth certificates, electoral registration and permits for minors to travel and receive by correspondence. Angélica Mendoza, who has lived in the United States for 14 years, traveled to Los Angeles in November last year to perform some paperwork.
“I got up at 3 in the morning to make the trip to California, I arrived at about 8 to do my paperwork, luckily there were almost no people and they attended to me fast and I was able to return to Las Vegas that same afternoon, to almost $ 500 dollars, “explained one of the people who benefited from the day.
This time with the visit of the mobile consulate, Mendoza only spent $ 100 dollars to obtain three different documents and spent a couple of hours of his time. The president of the Club of Ecuadorians, Nora Uribe was a key piece for the representation of her country to consider Las Vegas as part of their agenda.
“They had forgotten us, but I let the consul Diego Jaramillo know that we are well organized to receive them and the community has grown to more than 1,200; so we need your services, “he said. The first secretary of the Ecuadorian consulate, Cecilia Arboleda, was in charge of the work team and explained that, “It is very important for us that Ecuadorians do not move as much and it is easier to bring the consulate where they live, be the information and not the person.” According to data from Arboleda there is at least one person from Nevada daily at the Consulate in Los Angeles, “it is not for lack of budget that we do not come more often, but that the jurisdiction of representation encompasses the entire West Coast of the United States”. “The government of Ecuador is allowing to carry out various procedures online from the consul’s website.” After California and Nevada authorize driving licenses for undocumented workers, the work at the consulate has increased in the issuance of consular identification cards and birth certificates, as documents necessary for the issuance of this type of licenses, said Arboleda. If you wish to contact the Ecuadorian Club in Las Vegas contact 702-465-1762.
Cristian De la Rosa / El Tiempo
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