Permanent(e) at last!

Yes, we're nearly there!  But first, a bit of history:

When we moved to Mexico four years ago, it was for the long run, not just a place to go for a while.  So as soon as we could, we filed for an FM2 Inmigrante visa.  Skipping the lesser FM3 visa allowed us to move forward at a speed about 4 years faster.

Then the law changed.  They lumped both the FM3 and the FM2 into a Residente Temporal.  (Why did we pay more for the FM2, you might ask...?)

Finally, we qualified to apply for the Permanente Residente, but the law had changed yet again and unless we could file our paperwork in person on the day before our Temporal expired, we were out of luck.  And we couldn't - we'd be floating around the Caribbean on that date and a facilitator couldn't stand in for us.

And since the laws had changed again (and our Temporal visas would have expired), we would need to 1) apply for a visa at a Mexican consulate in a country to which we were entitled to travel; 2) get permission to remain in Mexico for no more than 30 days on our tourist visa; if granted 180 days, we would be out of luck as the standard-length FMM would be considered an abandonment of our intention to become a permanent resident; 3) apply for a 'real' visa card within 5 days of landing in our home town and all within 30 days of arrival in the country.

Now to our current situation.

To obtain the Mexican Visa that was pasted into our passport, we had to jump through some particular hoops: proof of solvency, proof of marriage, have a valid passport good for an additional 6 months, passport pictures, and pay the fee for the visa (the least of our worries).  So we got the special passport pictures (Mexican) and took them with us, made copies of everything (Mexico is big on copies, but one needs to provide them with the original documents), and have proof of solvency (another technicality that caused concern).

Solvency if provable if you present 12 months of bank statements with an ending balance of $3,500 (plus a lesser fee for any additional people) - we weren't sure that each month would have quite enough money in the bank; OR an ending balance of $450,000 US; OR a property deed for a Mexican  house worth a minimum of $450,000 US; OR, if retired, a social security benefit letter for a minimum of $3,500 US/month + the extra people fees.  With my SSAN letter and government pension, I could qualify under that option ($3,500/month plus $1,500 for Michael as we were legally married).  So we brought our SSAN letter and a year's worth of Direct Deposit statements from my retirement association.  (They don't issue a letter each year as does SSA.)

We thought we were good to go.  Michael even called the Visa Department of the Orlando Consulate to verify that we actually had an appointment for that Monday at 8 AM.  Yes, good to go; fine.

So we go off and cruise for a week with Facebook friends, then return to WDW for a few days of additional vacation.

On Monday morning we call a Lyft taxi and trundle off to the Consulate from WDW Animal Kingdom Lodge, arriving just at 8 AM.  The guard whisks us into the waiting room and delivers us to the window for Permanente visas.  And then the fun began.

First of all, they seemed to think that we were to be there on Tuesday morning, not Monday, as the consul had taken a few days off and they thought he would be in by 10:30 - or not.  Or, we might need to come  back the next day to get his signature.  As it turns out, we were still there when he arrived!

Then they insisted that we have our bank statements, not the letters that we had brought.  Well, we had them - back in Mexico.  So the clerk tried to find a local branch of the library so we could walk there and print out our bank statements and copy them.  (Oh, and we needed two copies in addition to the original - one for each of us.)

When she couldn't find a nearby library listed on the internet, she did let us use her computer and printer to get the needed bank statement forms and she ran all the additional copies!  What had begun as a problem turned into a helpful experience.  Whew!

Then we had to have an interview as to why we wanted the visa, they took our photos (in addition to the ones we brought with us), and ran a fingerprint check (want to be careful about who they are letting enter the country, I guess; we might be terrorists).

All of this takes time, as there was lots of going to a back office and conferring about our progress.

Finally, we were called up again (what could they want now!?!) and sent to the cashier to pay for our visas and off we went to call for another cab.  Animal Kingdom Lodge is about 25 miles from the consulate, so we were happy to have discount codes for our rides to and from WDW.

So, armed with our Mexican Visa pasted into our passports, a couple of days later we flew home to Mexico.  The plane was only partially full (good), but another, larger plane stuffed full of people had landed before ours and they were mostly foreigners (US citizens) standing in a great, long, snaking line (bad).  A lot of college-age guys in suits with lots of paperwork in their hands.  So we waited and chatted with the nearby folks in the same line.

The line was eventually whittled down to about two lines in length when we noticed that agents were packing up, turning off their lights, and going home!  A guard came over and took those at the end of our line to the Nationals' section where there was still an agent working.  And even though we were at the end of the line, she wouldn't include us in that group!  Grrr....

Eventually, someone opened up the Diplomat line and we were scooped off to go through that section.  At least the agent there was familiar with our pasted-in Visa so that presented no problem.  We had been warned that if the agent mistakenly marked 180 days on the visa paperwork instead of 30 days, INM (Immigration) would consider it our fault, not the agent's, and we would need to go back to the foreign country and start over again.  No longer could we simply walk into the local INM office and file for a visa; we had to begin in a consulate.  Luckily Orlando had one so we could visit them while we were at WDW.

So we had our new Permanente visa card pictures taken the day after we arrived (Thursday), met with our facilitator (also on Thursday), he got the new paperwork on Friday and we signed it and took it to the bank for payment and he filed it on Monday - within our 5-day  limit.  Whew!

Now we wait for an appointment to go in and give them our fingerprints and finally to pick up the Permanente Visa the next week.  Whew again!  Another couple of weeks and we should be set - for life -- or until the government realizes that this jump to permanente due to the new law to the permanent status eliminates everyone's annual visits with accompanying payment of fees!  So we'll expect to eventually be told that they want us to come in for some sort of interim check-up, but grumble as we might, we're used to change.

And we'll soon be legal - again.  We nationalized our van last year in anticipation of the change (Permanente folks cannot drive a car with foreign license plates, you know).  That should just about do it except for the annual car license renewals, emission check-ups, and that sort of thing.  At least there will be one less savings account for the visa fees on the Excel spreadsheet.