Mr. Milquetoast
La Plataforma is like a shopping mall of government agencies, including the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Affairs), el de Educación (o sea SENESCYT), IESS, the Registro Civil, etc. But if you are an extranjero (foreigner), then all the supposed convenience of La Plataforma goes right down the toilet. In fact, among the litany of inconveniences is the fact that you can't even use the toilets in La Plataforma because, well, custodians clean the bathrooms all day long! And this becomes a major inconvenience while you spend all day navigating the labyrinth of lines, requirements, and confusing, unhelpful government workers. If, like me, you want to apply for a Professional Visa, you'll find you can't apply for it using all of the documents you spent so much time and money getting in order over the past few months because, well, the government website gives you different requirements than the officials here at La Plataforma do—now suddenly you need six months of bank statements instead of three, now they need to be notarized, and now you need to register your título extranjero (foreign degree) before you can even begin applying for the visa. But you can't register your degree at the SENESCYT office here in La Plataforma—even if your university is on the pre-approved list of recognized universities—because, well, no reason really. Even my dear companion, who obtained her Professional Visa back in the US of A, could not register her degree here. Nor could she register for her cédula (ID) at the Registro Civil office here because, well, not that either the government website or the consulate back home told us this, but, according to this one guy at the desk here, you cannot apply for your cédula until you have a state-approved health-insurance plan. So, basically, you can't do anything here at La Plataforma but wait in lines and waste your time inside some Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucratic bullspit and existential absurdity. ¡Buena suerte!
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