Thursday, January 10, 2013

Visa under the new rules

I decided to deal with my visa early this year rather than wait till the last minute and was interested in the new process. I got to Immigration a minute before 9am and got ticket #11. It was a quarter to 12 before I finished with my paperwork. The reasons for it being so slow were people coming in for new cards that had arrived, people making a second trip to be finger printed and half the people didn't know the rules had changed and had to have all the options explained to them. I had a great interviewer and the prettiest one in the building. I was pleased with myself that I didn't have to revert to English once. She allowed me to be finger printed the same day when I told her I drive a kid to school every day. Others are making 3 trips but I'll make only two.

I took in the online form and a request letter but all they wanted was my old visa, my passport and 6 months of bank statements. The income level was not mentioned so I assume renewals are using the same levels as before. Only new applicants need to meet the $1900-2000us levels. I walked away with a 2 year visa that will be ready in 3-4 weeks with a cost of about 4800 pesos.

I was surprised to see so many people that didn't know the rules had changed. I guess they don't spend much time on the Internet. Two couples were forced to move to permanent resident because they had 3 or 4 renewals. Their only other option was to leave the country and apply at a Consulate. The guy interviewing them also asked if they owned a house and needed their fideicomiso (bank trust) and copies of tax records. Why he as asking about owning a house I have no idea because it will not effect the outcome. These poor uninformed people didn't know the difference between a fideicomiso and a presta nombre which is what they had but insisted it was a fideicomiso. Maybe they just wanted to shake their heads YES to everything because they were so lost?

Captain of the Port of Manzanillo

New Immigration Office

3 comments:

John Calypso said...

Congrats getting through it all and to getting the prettiest girl in the office. It is surprising how many people are caught by surprise about the new rules by now.

sparks said...

I understand that people don't use the Internet like we do ... especially older folk. This has been coming for almost two years and you'd think just talking to friends would give them a clue.

Not knowing the difference between a fideicomiso and a presta nombre is even more surprising

John Calypso said...

"Not knowing the difference between a fideicomiso and a presta nombre is even more surprising"



How could these people be property owners and NOT know this??? Beyond strange!

The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

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