VISA

Yeah, yeah, I know, it has been a long time.  Well you got three in one month, I thought that would keep you happy for a while.  The truth is that nothing of any interest has happened to me.  Or, could it be that after seven years of living here. all the weird crazy stuff about Mexico now seems normal to me?  This will be a two or three part as well, and the finale won't be until late March.  Don't panic I will think of some thing to write about before then.

For seven years I have entered Mexico with a six month tourist visa.  Then I leave of a few days to a few weeks and return on another six month tourist visa.  This is not entirely true as I did have for the first two years what was then called an FM3.  It allowed me to stay one year before getting a renewal.  But the last time I renewed it, I had to make seven trips to the Immigration Office.  The Mexican red tape and bureaucratic nonsense drove me nuts.  So I decided not to renew again as I was leaving Mexico a couple of times a year anyway.  But eventually I got tired of being forced to leave every six months when I had no reason to return to Laguna anyway.  Yes, I still have a few friends left who are not dead or stuck away in rest homes,  My thought was that I have visited them dozens of times since moving here and none have visited me.  The only guest I have ever had was Noriko who came all the way from Japan.

So last year I decided to try for a Temporary Residency which allowed me to stay here for one to four years.  Several years ago Mexico changed the procedure so you had to return to your own country to start the process at a Mexican Embassy.  Ahead of my trip last year, I began trying to connect with the Consulate in Santa Ana.  Getting through their web site was impossible for me as almost everything is in Spanish,  I tried phoning them for weeks.  If a recording ever came on, it told you to press "1"  "2" etc. but all in Spanish so I never knew which one to pick  Finally I managed to get a real person who spoke reasonable English (mind you this is in the U.S.)  Only to discover that Santa Ana does not give appointments for Temporary Residency.  They told me to contact West Los Angeles or San Diego.  Well San Diego was much closer to Laguna and I found on the Google map that it was located just a few blocks off the freeway.  Weeks more to hack into their web site only to find out that they were booked for months.

That ended that, but since then the Mexican Government has started to crack down on people who use the tourist visa to live here permanently.  I cannot say for sure, but I would bet that it is in retaliation for the way Trump is treating Mexico.  Stupid really since tourism is one of the biggest sources of income for Mexico.  Nobody ever said they were smart or logical.  Jennifer ran into that when we returned from Guatemala and was told it was her last six month visa.  She had to get a residency card.  She has now started her process by going to the consulate in Las Vegas.  She is actually Canadian, but a friend of ours learned that in Vegas you did not need an appointment and usually could get your stamp in one day.  So much for returning to the country where you are a citizen.

After the fiasco with Santa Ana Consulate, I tried to get an appointment in San Diego.  But they were booked solid for months.  But I had until March on my last six month visa and decided to do it then.  So I started four months in advance.  I could not get through the web site for an appointment, which cannot be done by phone.  Small wonder since they never answer their phone.  I tried for a month.  Everything is in Spanish but finally I got a page that had a box "click here for translation"  Thank God, I thought.  But when I clicked on it the screen said "this page is not available in English"  What the F... language did they think I wanted?  Chinese??

I decided to call my computer guru who has helped me for years.  He worked for an over an hour and could not get through to make an appointment,  He did manage to send emails to San Diego and to the Embassy.  They do not accept emails!!  It seemed hopeless and I was almost ready to try Las Vegas (even though  I loath the town) but I had already booked my flight.  By booking in advance I got a really cheap ticket but I still had to get an appointment.  Another friend of mine who is not only very good with computers, but had already obtained his Permanent Visa in Las Vegas.  He did get through but they were only accepting appointment 2 1/2 months in advance (and all of those were booked),

You might think that it is because Americans are leaving The U.S. in droves because of what Trump has done to us.  Maybe, but the real reason is that Trump is deporting all the children that were illegally brought to The U.S. and most have no birth certificate (most are born in homes)  The Mexican Government will not accept them.  They have a very strong immigration against Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, etc and who knows who these kids are.  Some can barely speak Spanish have no relatives in Mexico.  So they flood the Consulate trying to get documentation as they must leave.   It is tragic, but not my immediate problem.

John had to check every night and every morning as they added only one day at a time.  Finally he managed to get me my appointment of March 12th at 9:00.  This will give me a whole week for my second appointment to get my passport stamped.  Once you return you have 30 days to apply at the local Mexican immigration office for your residency card.  Otherwise you must return to The States and start all over again.  Also when you return to Mexico you must tell the immigration man to only stamp it for 30 days.  If he gives you a six month stamp, you must return to The U.S. and start all over again.
They do not make it easy and John also told me I must use a lawyer here for the second part as it is the most difficult.  The form you must fill out is in Spanish (of course) but if you use a Spanish dictionary, you will not know what the word or passage means.  It seems they use colloquial Mexican phrases and words.  Will it ever end?  /Stay tuned!