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!
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