I know you've secretly been wondering 'What's the weather like down there?' So here's a storm report.
This is our rainy season, so it's not surprising that there have been storms, but I haven't seen storms like these since I was a kid in Indiana. That was when (I was in the third grade or so) my bed was under a double window and when a storm approached, I would be up on my knees on the bed, leaning against the window sill watching the lightning until Mom came in to check on us and shooed me away from the window ('You'll be struck by lightning!')
Living in southern California for many years, storms weren't so exciting and I had forgotten about them until last spring when I joined my sister and her husband in our old hometown of Brazil to spiff up a 1898 farmhouse. Boy, we had some storms there. In fact, we had a weather radio that sounded an alarm when a storm was predicted to hit.
After a few dry 'rainy seasons' in SMA, this year the storms are back with a vengeance! The last two nights it has rained, but quietly and softly. Last night we didn't really notice the sound of the rain at all - but things were wet when we awoke.
However, two nights ago all heck broke loose! I think this storm came in from the north; our storms usually arrive from the south and we can see them coming. A friend with a restaurant on the northern edge of town posted on FaceBook that they're received 1.99 inches of rain -- while the rain was just starting here on the southern edge of town.
Not sure how much rain we received, but it was one humdinger of a storm. Lots of lightning - really close and loud. We even lost power at one point in time, coordinating with a particularly close lightning strike.
Once we went upstairs to bed, you could watch out the french doors: lightning far enough away to be behind the hills lighting up the clouds from below; lightning higher in the sky lighting up the clouds from above; and the lightning right above us, crashing and reverberating enough to send the dogs into hiding between the bed and the dressers.
Then the rain began and it was a downpour. Not quite strong enough to wash all the dirt off the sidewalks down the block from last week's storm, but a storm proper.
I kept expecting to hear my mother's voice - 'Get away from that window!'
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Visa Game
Our ability to stay in Mexico legally depends upon having an appropriate visa. We've always had FM2 visas as that was a requirement before getting permanent resident status. There was also an FMM (tourist) visa good for 180 days at a time and the FM3 visa, a lesser visa that did not qualify you for permanent visa status. We knew we'd be staying here, so went directly to the FM2. The sooner we qualified for permanent resident status and didn't need to renew annually, the better.
Permanent residents qualified for a) no annual renewals and b) unlimited time out of the country. Under the FM2/3 (and the new Residente Temporal visa) time out of the country is limited to 75 days per year. And we're not gone more than that, but when they check for our permanent visas will they catch all the comings and goings? What if they think we've been gone since last year???
Then in 2011 the laws changed and a Residente Temporal (temporary resident) visa was created that encompassed the old FM3 and FM2 holders and also a Residente Permanente (the permanent resident). Of course, passing a law did not mean a great deal as the rules for applying the new law took about a year to formulate.
What they came up with was a rule that if you had a valid FM2 or FM3 visa, it would be good until your current visa's expiration date, at which time you would transition to the Temporal or Permanente visa. There were some good points to the law: Temporal visas were only good for 5 years, but after the first year you could purchase a renewal of one to 4 years. If you chose the 4-year renewal, you wouldn't have to deal with annual renewals until your visa expired. You could also change to the Permanente visa once you had cycled through the time period for the Temporal - or leave the country, visit a Mexican consulate for a preliminary approval for a new Temporal visa, and then return to Mexico and finish the application process. (Although there seems to be an interpretation that only one Temporal visa is permitted. One must move from Temporal to Permanente.)
We had originally used the services of a facilitator to gain our first FM2 and each renewal every August. It still involved going to the INM building and sitting around to be processed - in addition to the return visit for fingerprints and to pick up the visa.
Last year we sort of did it ourselves, using the services of a Notorio Publico whose office was across the street from INM. For a reasonable fee we walked in, answered some questions so they could fill out the forms, took another form to a local bank to pay the visa fee (fees are not paid at government offices in Mexico; fees are paid at a bank who gives you a receipt for the payment and then sends the funds on to a government bank). Upon our return to the Notorio with proof of payment, they took our visa photos, handed us the completed packet and we went across the street to go through the process of applying for the renewal.
This year, with the changes in the law, we thought it best to again use a facilitator and a friend recommended one. We talked to him, laying out our position and wrinkles that needed to be accommodated. We also emailed another facilitator about our situation, but received only a brief reply that repeated some of what I had written to her. We also briefly considered a few other facilitators, but decided against using them.
So we went with the first person we actually talked with. Because it would be perhaps a little tricky to financially qualify for the Permanente out of the hat this year (more later), he proposed that we renew at the Temporal level this year, giving us our 4th year, and then apply for the Permanente visa next year, when we would have satisfied the complete term at the Temporal/FM2-3 level and not be required to show financials.
The financial situation arose because of DOMA - the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Because of the years of service to my employer in California, I qualified to have my health insurance premium paid by my retirement association. And because we are legally married in California, Michael's health insurance was also paid. However, the IRS is a federal agency and when it was time to file our taxes, his share of the health premiums were suddenly 'imputted income' on which taxes were due! I can tell you that the first year this came as a shock. So we adjusted our withholding amount, but that lowered the amount of retirement benefits I actually received at our bank - hence the trickiness. So I eventually cancelled the additional withholding and saved it in an account at the bank after being paid our monthly pittance so we would look more financially secure.
With the Supreme Court striking down DOMA, we have hope that the IRS will no longer require 'imputted income' for our health premiums, but we're waiting for our retirement association to tell us so - just as they are waiting for the IRS to re-write their requirements.
The other wrinkle to this business is that we had begun attending the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the summer. To make that journey more worthwhile, we scheduled our visit during one of the weeks that one could enjoy a different opera each night and see their entire season in one fell swoop. The first year we tried this, we had purchased tickets to a buffet on the grounds and the seaters at the event put us at a table with two other local guys, with whom we really hit it off. We visited each other during the rest of the year (they enjoyed the beach cities in California) and that sort of thing. We've been back annually since then.
To avoid the crush in town, we switched from the week of Indian Marketplace (or 'Indian Markup,' as it's known locally) to an earlier week that still featured the entire season. But this put us at odds with our visa renewals.
You can apply up to a month earlier than your renewal date, so that was okay. However with the changes to the visa situation, the visas were no longer available in just a couple of weeks, but went through Mexico City and took up to two or three months to be processed.
Our new facilitator recommended that we apply as usual for the Temporal visa renewal and request a 60-Day Exit Permit to travel on while our visas were in process (existing visas are turned in with your application). So we had our new photos taken at a studio that made you look like a person instead of a gangster (to which we walked in the rain, arriving looking like drowned rats although we had just had our hairs coiffed), while still following the legal requirements for the pictures - hair off the forehead, both ears visible, no smiling, et cetera. We filled out a bunch of paperwork, and gave him the photos and our filing fees at a subsequent visit.
After filing for our renewals, we could apply for the exit permit, so yesterday we met the facilitator at a local bank to pay the exit/entrance permit fees, sign more paperwork, and off he went to INM.. That's when he called us and asked about the extra set of photos! Well, we managed to get them to him and he went on his way to INM again.
A friend of ours, who had applied for her Permanente visa, just got it back in two-weeks time -- a record! -- but we really couldn't plan on that with our renewals, so the exit permit was still a go. We will get that permit before we leave for Santa Fe and have to run around at the airport to get it stamped. If we also get our visas before we leave, so much the better. The exit permits were not terribly expensive and the extra pictures were included in the original price for the photo session.
As we leave for Santa Fe in just about 2-1/2 weeks, it's nice to have things coming together. Next year will be trickier, as it includes leaving the country on our Temporal visas and returning after they have expired and using the 60-day grace period to apply for our Permanentes. I'm hoping that they've streamlined the issuing process by then and we can get our new visas before leaving the country, but we'll see. We may even skip the opera next year which would give us a bit more time before we travel.
Oh, and the current thoughts from Aduana (Mexico's customs department) is that once we have a Permanente visa, we are no longer 'temporary' residents so our 'temporary' car permits are no longer valid and we can no longer drive a foreign-plated car, So our South Dakota-plated car must be sold (in the US) or nationalized. Just another thing to worry about!
Permanent residents qualified for a) no annual renewals and b) unlimited time out of the country. Under the FM2/3 (and the new Residente Temporal visa) time out of the country is limited to 75 days per year. And we're not gone more than that, but when they check for our permanent visas will they catch all the comings and goings? What if they think we've been gone since last year???
Then in 2011 the laws changed and a Residente Temporal (temporary resident) visa was created that encompassed the old FM3 and FM2 holders and also a Residente Permanente (the permanent resident). Of course, passing a law did not mean a great deal as the rules for applying the new law took about a year to formulate.
What they came up with was a rule that if you had a valid FM2 or FM3 visa, it would be good until your current visa's expiration date, at which time you would transition to the Temporal or Permanente visa. There were some good points to the law: Temporal visas were only good for 5 years, but after the first year you could purchase a renewal of one to 4 years. If you chose the 4-year renewal, you wouldn't have to deal with annual renewals until your visa expired. You could also change to the Permanente visa once you had cycled through the time period for the Temporal - or leave the country, visit a Mexican consulate for a preliminary approval for a new Temporal visa, and then return to Mexico and finish the application process. (Although there seems to be an interpretation that only one Temporal visa is permitted. One must move from Temporal to Permanente.)
We had originally used the services of a facilitator to gain our first FM2 and each renewal every August. It still involved going to the INM building and sitting around to be processed - in addition to the return visit for fingerprints and to pick up the visa.
Last year we sort of did it ourselves, using the services of a Notorio Publico whose office was across the street from INM. For a reasonable fee we walked in, answered some questions so they could fill out the forms, took another form to a local bank to pay the visa fee (fees are not paid at government offices in Mexico; fees are paid at a bank who gives you a receipt for the payment and then sends the funds on to a government bank). Upon our return to the Notorio with proof of payment, they took our visa photos, handed us the completed packet and we went across the street to go through the process of applying for the renewal.
This year, with the changes in the law, we thought it best to again use a facilitator and a friend recommended one. We talked to him, laying out our position and wrinkles that needed to be accommodated. We also emailed another facilitator about our situation, but received only a brief reply that repeated some of what I had written to her. We also briefly considered a few other facilitators, but decided against using them.
So we went with the first person we actually talked with. Because it would be perhaps a little tricky to financially qualify for the Permanente out of the hat this year (more later), he proposed that we renew at the Temporal level this year, giving us our 4th year, and then apply for the Permanente visa next year, when we would have satisfied the complete term at the Temporal/FM2-3 level and not be required to show financials.
The financial situation arose because of DOMA - the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Because of the years of service to my employer in California, I qualified to have my health insurance premium paid by my retirement association. And because we are legally married in California, Michael's health insurance was also paid. However, the IRS is a federal agency and when it was time to file our taxes, his share of the health premiums were suddenly 'imputted income' on which taxes were due! I can tell you that the first year this came as a shock. So we adjusted our withholding amount, but that lowered the amount of retirement benefits I actually received at our bank - hence the trickiness. So I eventually cancelled the additional withholding and saved it in an account at the bank after being paid our monthly pittance so we would look more financially secure.
With the Supreme Court striking down DOMA, we have hope that the IRS will no longer require 'imputted income' for our health premiums, but we're waiting for our retirement association to tell us so - just as they are waiting for the IRS to re-write their requirements.
The other wrinkle to this business is that we had begun attending the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the summer. To make that journey more worthwhile, we scheduled our visit during one of the weeks that one could enjoy a different opera each night and see their entire season in one fell swoop. The first year we tried this, we had purchased tickets to a buffet on the grounds and the seaters at the event put us at a table with two other local guys, with whom we really hit it off. We visited each other during the rest of the year (they enjoyed the beach cities in California) and that sort of thing. We've been back annually since then.
To avoid the crush in town, we switched from the week of Indian Marketplace (or 'Indian Markup,' as it's known locally) to an earlier week that still featured the entire season. But this put us at odds with our visa renewals.
You can apply up to a month earlier than your renewal date, so that was okay. However with the changes to the visa situation, the visas were no longer available in just a couple of weeks, but went through Mexico City and took up to two or three months to be processed.
Our new facilitator recommended that we apply as usual for the Temporal visa renewal and request a 60-Day Exit Permit to travel on while our visas were in process (existing visas are turned in with your application). So we had our new photos taken at a studio that made you look like a person instead of a gangster (to which we walked in the rain, arriving looking like drowned rats although we had just had our hairs coiffed), while still following the legal requirements for the pictures - hair off the forehead, both ears visible, no smiling, et cetera. We filled out a bunch of paperwork, and gave him the photos and our filing fees at a subsequent visit.
After filing for our renewals, we could apply for the exit permit, so yesterday we met the facilitator at a local bank to pay the exit/entrance permit fees, sign more paperwork, and off he went to INM.. That's when he called us and asked about the extra set of photos! Well, we managed to get them to him and he went on his way to INM again.
A friend of ours, who had applied for her Permanente visa, just got it back in two-weeks time -- a record! -- but we really couldn't plan on that with our renewals, so the exit permit was still a go. We will get that permit before we leave for Santa Fe and have to run around at the airport to get it stamped. If we also get our visas before we leave, so much the better. The exit permits were not terribly expensive and the extra pictures were included in the original price for the photo session.
As we leave for Santa Fe in just about 2-1/2 weeks, it's nice to have things coming together. Next year will be trickier, as it includes leaving the country on our Temporal visas and returning after they have expired and using the 60-day grace period to apply for our Permanentes. I'm hoping that they've streamlined the issuing process by then and we can get our new visas before leaving the country, but we'll see. We may even skip the opera next year which would give us a bit more time before we travel.
Oh, and the current thoughts from Aduana (Mexico's customs department) is that once we have a Permanente visa, we are no longer 'temporary' residents so our 'temporary' car permits are no longer valid and we can no longer drive a foreign-plated car, So our South Dakota-plated car must be sold (in the US) or nationalized. Just another thing to worry about!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Happenings (and a dash of weather)
Lest you begin to think that all we have in San Miguel is weather, a few notes about goings-on:
We have a friend who started a hostel. The owner of the building wants more business, but puts the kabosh on every idea our friend thinks of. Grrrr....
We have another friend who hosts a twice-weekly program in English about San Miguel happenings, who has done so well that he has recently been given a Spanish-language weekly program!
Another friend has recently met someone who lives in the South Pacific and is trying to figure out how to make it work out.
Yet another friend wants us all to go on a weekend-long retreat in the hills above Puebla.
Drama, options, frustrations!
Michael and I were supposed to attend a birthday party in 'nearby' Léon for the mother of a friend of ours who was celebrating a momentous birthday. We were unable to reach the owner of the puppy farm to board the dogs, so I stayed home with the two dogs. Michael enjoyed the partying; the dogs and I enjoyed the quiet.
Yes, 'two' dogs, not 'three.' Coca's health had been sliding and it was time to release her on the Thursday before the weekend of the party in Léon. She now presides over our entryway from her rather nice, ceramic urn.
Our 4th of July dinner party was held on Saturday, July 6th. Local groups held fundraising events on the 3rd and 4th. Why not a dinner on the 6th? We had planned on branching out and adding an additional person to our little group of stalwarts - and had done so. However, she cancelled at the last minute to support an old friend who was ending a difficult relationship. Guess we'll see her when she returns to SMA. We may even have finished the leftovers by then! [Note to self - Don't make so much! We finished one batch of ribs last night, but there's another in the freezer plus the rest of the Baja Chicken and side salads.]
Yesterday Michael and I went to see the facilitator who is helping us with our visa renewals this year. We would probably have done it ourselves (like last year), but there have been changes in the laws and our visas come due while we will be out of the country! A bit of help was needed. So we met Eduardo in his 'office' in the courtyard at Starbucks in the Centro Historico. Gave him a lot of information and will return to see him on Thursday to sign papers and hand over the government fees that will be due.
I must say, it will be handy to have someone else do the running around for us (government fees are not paid at government offices, but at local banks). We only had to get the necessary photos. [Accomplished a few days ago in the rain!] And since the renewal of our visas will most likely not provide us with physical visas before we need to leave the country for our annual visit to Santa Fee for the opera, Eduardo will handle getting us a temporary exit/entrance permit. So we'll be seeing him a few more times in the next week or so.
After leaving Starbucks, we picked up some more Controy at La Europea and began our walk home. Stopped for lunch at Hecho en Mexico - yummy as usual - and noticed a huge black cloud south of town as we walked along. Decided that if we wanted to be home before the rain reached us we would need to take a cab or bus, we opted for the bus ride (5 pesos vs 30-35 pesos). Riding the bus is always an adventure - and the bus was crowded when we got on it. Eventually snagged a seat and bounced and jostled along the street towards home (Michael bravely stood the whole way). Those topas (which double as crosswalks) are murder on a bus with a poor suspension system. The bus finally stopped at Mega (the big store we live near), so we hopped off and quickly walked the two blocks home - just in time to avoid the first drops of rain from that storm cloud.
Boy, did it rain! Not much thunder, but lots of rain and wind. Found out that the french doors in our bedroom are not impervious to wind-driven, slanting rain. And one of the windows in the cupola at the top of the stairs to the third floor even leaked a bit on the stairs leading up to the rooftop terrace.
If you're on FaceBook, Michael posted some pictures he took of the water shooting out of the bajantes de agua that drain rooftops and the huge puddle (read: lake) that formed at the bottom of our street which marooned a pickup truck (water up to it's windows). About an inch-and-a-half in less than an hour and our street slants downward so there's' lots of run-off. We need rain, but that was a bit much. Perhaps a lot of it will run off and end up in the presa??? There has been rain (usually with a lot of thunder and lightning), but it's been lighter precipitation-wise. Even today there continued to be light rainfall throughout the night.
Oh, and Fiyero was at the groomers in the afternoon, so Michael got to carry him around the local lake on the way home.
So, I managed to sneak some weather in this post, after all!
We have a friend who started a hostel. The owner of the building wants more business, but puts the kabosh on every idea our friend thinks of. Grrrr....
We have another friend who hosts a twice-weekly program in English about San Miguel happenings, who has done so well that he has recently been given a Spanish-language weekly program!
Another friend has recently met someone who lives in the South Pacific and is trying to figure out how to make it work out.
Yet another friend wants us all to go on a weekend-long retreat in the hills above Puebla.
Drama, options, frustrations!
Michael and I were supposed to attend a birthday party in 'nearby' Léon for the mother of a friend of ours who was celebrating a momentous birthday. We were unable to reach the owner of the puppy farm to board the dogs, so I stayed home with the two dogs. Michael enjoyed the partying; the dogs and I enjoyed the quiet.
Yes, 'two' dogs, not 'three.' Coca's health had been sliding and it was time to release her on the Thursday before the weekend of the party in Léon. She now presides over our entryway from her rather nice, ceramic urn.
Our 4th of July dinner party was held on Saturday, July 6th. Local groups held fundraising events on the 3rd and 4th. Why not a dinner on the 6th? We had planned on branching out and adding an additional person to our little group of stalwarts - and had done so. However, she cancelled at the last minute to support an old friend who was ending a difficult relationship. Guess we'll see her when she returns to SMA. We may even have finished the leftovers by then! [Note to self - Don't make so much! We finished one batch of ribs last night, but there's another in the freezer plus the rest of the Baja Chicken and side salads.]
Yesterday Michael and I went to see the facilitator who is helping us with our visa renewals this year. We would probably have done it ourselves (like last year), but there have been changes in the laws and our visas come due while we will be out of the country! A bit of help was needed. So we met Eduardo in his 'office' in the courtyard at Starbucks in the Centro Historico. Gave him a lot of information and will return to see him on Thursday to sign papers and hand over the government fees that will be due.
I must say, it will be handy to have someone else do the running around for us (government fees are not paid at government offices, but at local banks). We only had to get the necessary photos. [Accomplished a few days ago in the rain!] And since the renewal of our visas will most likely not provide us with physical visas before we need to leave the country for our annual visit to Santa Fee for the opera, Eduardo will handle getting us a temporary exit/entrance permit. So we'll be seeing him a few more times in the next week or so.
After leaving Starbucks, we picked up some more Controy at La Europea and began our walk home. Stopped for lunch at Hecho en Mexico - yummy as usual - and noticed a huge black cloud south of town as we walked along. Decided that if we wanted to be home before the rain reached us we would need to take a cab or bus, we opted for the bus ride (5 pesos vs 30-35 pesos). Riding the bus is always an adventure - and the bus was crowded when we got on it. Eventually snagged a seat and bounced and jostled along the street towards home (Michael bravely stood the whole way). Those topas (which double as crosswalks) are murder on a bus with a poor suspension system. The bus finally stopped at Mega (the big store we live near), so we hopped off and quickly walked the two blocks home - just in time to avoid the first drops of rain from that storm cloud.
Boy, did it rain! Not much thunder, but lots of rain and wind. Found out that the french doors in our bedroom are not impervious to wind-driven, slanting rain. And one of the windows in the cupola at the top of the stairs to the third floor even leaked a bit on the stairs leading up to the rooftop terrace.
If you're on FaceBook, Michael posted some pictures he took of the water shooting out of the bajantes de agua that drain rooftops and the huge puddle (read: lake) that formed at the bottom of our street which marooned a pickup truck (water up to it's windows). About an inch-and-a-half in less than an hour and our street slants downward so there's' lots of run-off. We need rain, but that was a bit much. Perhaps a lot of it will run off and end up in the presa??? There has been rain (usually with a lot of thunder and lightning), but it's been lighter precipitation-wise. Even today there continued to be light rainfall throughout the night.
Oh, and Fiyero was at the groomers in the afternoon, so Michael got to carry him around the local lake on the way home.
So, I managed to sneak some weather in this post, after all!
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