Guanajuato Mexico - Visas

Visa Requirements

One of the more bizarre examples of what I alluded to in the previous chapter about Mexico being, how shall I say this, a land of inconsistencies, is trying to get your FM3 visa.

The FM3 visa allows you to stay in the country without having to return to the border every 6 months for renewal, as is the case with a tourist visa. However, you have to meet certain income requirements to qualify for this visa.

If you’ve ever visited Mexico , you know you have to pay a small fee to get a tourist visa to travel within the country. This allows you to stay in the country for up to 6 months before it expires. You have to return to the border to renew that visa. Many expats do just that. I know of an author who wrote a famous book about living in Mexico a few years ago who still functions on a tourist visa.

An FM3 visa allows you to stay in the country without having to return to the border to renew it. You must renew it yearly, but you can do it without leaving the country. The tourist visa, however, must be renewed at the border.

If you apply for an FM3, there are certain requirements you have to meet, mainly regarding your monthly income. And, of course, there are hoops through which you will have to jump like a little circus dog. But, that is Mexico.

To apply for an FM3 visa, you have two choices. You can go to a Mexican embassy in the U.S.A. or come into Mexico on a tourist visa and then apply in Mexico. That is the alternative we chose. However, if you apply while in America, you will have extra hoops to jump through that, in my view, are positively nightmarish.

Since I have never applied while in the United States, I am relaying information to you from other expats who obtained their FM3’s while still in America. What they relayed to me was a horror. Later, you will see why it is simpler and easier to wait until you arrive in Mexico to get your FM3.

My friend, Howard, told me when he applied in Texas, this is what he had to go through:

1. Fill out the application using a typewriter. Filling out the online form and then printing it out is not acceptable.

2. Provide bank records proving you are financially solvent and meet the income requirements.

3. Provide a marriage certificate, if coming in as a couple.

4. Provide a birth certificate.

5. Make three copies of your passport—every page, even the blank ones.

6. Provide a letter from your local police department stating you are not a hardened criminal.

7. Provide a statement from your doctor that you are free of communicable diseases.

8. Get passport-type pictures made.

9. Present all of this with the fee and wait, wait, wait.

When my wife and I applied in San Miguel de Allende, we had to provide:

1. Our passports

2. Our tourist visa

3. Our marriage license

4. A copy of our rental agreement

We paid a service in San Miguel de Allende that does this full time. In two weeks, we had our FM3’s with absolutely no hassle. They do all the work, make all the copies, and take all the pictures.

Everyone, without exception, who has told us he or she applied for an FM3 visa alone has had to endure the nightmare of Mexican bureaucracy. They have had to go back, and back, and back again to the Immigration Office. Even while here in Mexico, there are those expats who try to save some money and do the paperwork themselves. Without exception, they have to make endless trips back and forth to the Immigration Office.

There are lawyers, individuals, and services that will get your FM3 for you. Everyone we know, without exception, who has used this service has gotten his or her FM3 without so much as a hangnail. This begs the question, “Why?” The only possible answer I have is when the Immigration Officers see a gringo face coming without the escort of a Mexican who provides this service, they suddenly forget everything and cannot give you any accurate information.

Case in point: Last year, we foolishly tried to renew our FM3’s ourselves. We waltzed in with the forms and money in hand, only to have the Immigration officials tell us the income requirement had changed. You see, you have provide bank statements for the three months prior to your visa renewal date which show a minimum monthly income. The Immigration boys told us we had to make $1000.00 EACH a month. We rushed over to the Consulate’s office, only for that official to tell us we needed to make $1,200.00 EACH a month. We called one of the services, which told us yet a different amount.

We found out much later the Mexican government had indeed changed the income level required but apparently no one knew about it or what that new amount was….

This happens all too often in this country.

The moral of this story is: go to San Miguel de Allende—NEVER GO TO LEON—and hire one of the services to do this yearly deed for you.

1. Never apply for the FM3 in America.

2. Never try to do it yourself.

3. Never go to Leon.

4. Always go to San Miguel and hire one of the services to do it for you.

In San Miguel de Allende, you can find these services right next door to the Immigration office as well as across the street from the Immigration office. We have dealt with the folks across the street.

Visa Web Sites

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/visa.html

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/immigration.html

http://www.consulmexny.org/eng/downloadable_files/mexican_visa_app.PDFl

Working Papers

http://virtual-showcase.com/wwwboard/messages/3187.html

Foreigners Living in Mexico

http://www.tomzap.com/living.html

Visa Issues

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/immigration.html

http://www.consulmexny.org/eng/visas_fm3.htm

http://www.consulmexny.org/eng/visas_fmt_us_canada.htm

http://www.consulmexny.org/eng/visas_fm2.htm

RELIABLE VISA SERVICE:

Escritorio Publicoa

Tramites Migratorios, Llenado de Formatos

APOLINAR SANCHEZ TELLEZ, JOSE LIS PALACIOS GUERRERO

Calz. De la Estacion FF.CC. #29, FRENTE A MIGRACION

San Miguel de Allende, GTO.

tel. y Fax 415-154-8232, Celular 044-415-103-2039

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