APPLYING FOR MEXICAN RESIDENCE
By Jackie Peterson

All you have to do to get a lively conversation going among foreigners here in Mazatlán is mention your recent trip to the local office of Immigration to get your residence documents. Everybody has an anecdote to share on that subject, and sometimes it's a horror story. When you come right down to it, most problems seem to stem from a simple lack of communication. The receptionists in the lobby who do most of the work on documents don't speak much English, and in general the clients don't speak much Spanish. Take what happened the other day. A couple who live here and own their home here decided to get FM-3s (residence documents) rather than continue to go back and forth to the border on six-month tourist cards. They noted all the things they needed, which are posted in both English and Spanish on the lobby wall at the Immigration building. But where holders of the FM-3 who want to renew it for another year need pay only an annual fee (currently 867 pesos), new applicants pay an additional processing fee of 318 pesos. Furthermore, they need three copies per person of Hacienda Form no. 5 for the processing fee, plus three copies of the same form for the annual fee. For a couple, that amounts to 12 copies of Form 5. And, because the couple in question did not understand, they went to the bank to pay the 318 apiece and then found they'd have to go back to the bank a second time to pay the 867 apiece -- all of which could have been paid at one time. When told of the confusion some people are running into on this, Lic. Edgar Chang, one of the top officials at Immigration, noted that the total -- 1185 pesos - "is a lot of money for some people to put out at one time." He seemed to need reassurance that most foreigners who apply for residence documents come prepared to pay the fees and get the paperwork going as soon as possible. Then there's the matter of copies. When you go to Immigration to request residence documents, you're given an application form to fill out and required to present an original and two copies of that, plus your last three months' worth of bank statements, your passport, and a form letter you have signed in which you ask permission to reside in this country. Taken together, all these originals and copies amount to a stack almost as thick as the Mazatlán telephone book. And they are required whether you're applying for a new document or a renewal. (The only difference for the newcomer is the need to bring photos, too.) Lic. Chang spoke at a recent meeting of Friends of Mexico, A.C., an association comprised mostly of U.S. and Canadian citizens. He got a big round of applause when he said that henceforth, only one copy of every paper would be required. Still, it's surprising there isn't a rut in the two blocks of sidewalk between Immigration and the hardware store that has the nearest public copy machine. It seems like every procedure at Immigration requires copies of something, and that store is also where you buy as many Form 5s as you need. Then, of course, after you pay your fees at

the bank, you may want your own copy of Form 5 with the bank stamp showing the money has been paid. One way or another, you're going to that hardware store no matter how you prepared by getting copies of everything in advance. As for the passport, all they need, according to Lic. Chang, is copies of the page or pages showing your photo and the expiration date. On this one, you do need two copies, though, since Immigration does not make you give up your passport. One problem that bugs half-year residents is the fact they're supposed to renew their FM-3s well before the expiration date, yet it isn't always convenient to get back here and get the renewal in progress before that date. Apparently, the Mexican consulates in the U.S. and Canada don't process FM-3 renewals. Because Immigration is in the midst of a six-month campaign to encourage all the foreigners in the country to "regularize" their residence status, the agency is bending over backwards to make the procedure of obtaining and renewing an FM-3 as painless as possible. So, says Lic. Chang, they're willing to give you a 30-day grace period BEYOND your FM-3's expiration date to renew, since you have to do it here. But wait -- if you show the expired document when you enter México, it's likely to be confiscated by border officials. It's up to you how you safeguard an expired FM-3 until you can get it to the Mazatlán office of Immigration. As for the couple who recently started the machinery on obtaining their FM-3s, they were cheerful enough that despite the 12 forms, the copies, and every other delay they encountered, they managed to complete all the requirements in just 3 1/2 hours on the same day. They were told it would take a couple of weeks before they received their brand new FM-3s, and only then would they have to turn in the other six forms showing they'd paid the 867 pesos apiece. Meanwhile, they were given temporary documents to show that their papers were in the works. Dealing with the bureaucracy is never easy. It's no different in México than in the United States, where the Immigration Service has a reputation for ill-tempered clerks. It can be just your luck to plan your trip to the Instituto Nacional de Inmigracion, which is about 4 blocks south of Aleman on the Prolongacion de Aquiles Serdan, on a day when everybody in the world has shown up ahead of you. The women behind the front counter still work with typewriters, sometimes by the hunt-and-peck method, although computers are beginning to appear on the desks of the bosses upstairs. Too, they are dealing with about five dozen different nationalities, some of which may have special agreements with México regarding their citizens' status in this country. Fees for the FM-3, however, are now standardized, says Lic. Chang. Everybody pays the same, everybody goes through the same procedure you're going through. So keep a positive attitude. Wait your turn with a smile. Bring a book. The wheels of progress in México move slowly, but they always get there eventually

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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