Proceso de Residente Permanente

 

Denise and I have been wanting to get our Permanent Resident status since coming to Mexico and buying a condo. Having permanent residence makes us a true part of the Mexican community and also allows us to exempt capital gains from taxes when we sell (with some restrictions), access Mexico’s health care system, and apply for the INAPAM senior discount card, and more.

 

You must begin the process in your home country which for us is the USA. We followed this process https://www.gob.mx/tramites/ficha/visa-de-residencia-permanente/SRE236 which also includes a link to the Spanish visa application, though we used the visa application form we found at our local consulate in Boise.

Visa Application in English

 

Note that each consulate has authority to grant residency visas and you should be sure to follow their requirements as they may vary from consulate to consulate. The previous link pointed to the official Mexico government requirements. I emailed our Boise consulate to verify their requirements, and called them to setup an appointment (as Boise is not part of the online appointment system for the Mexican Consulates).

 

In October we filled out a visa application form, got a passport photo,  and gathered a years worth of bank statements each proving enough savings, or enough income. Key things with these statements was to have each our full names that matched our passport with our US address. We also made them look as official as possible. We printed all of our statements from online sources.  We applied individually and showed individual financial records. If you apply as spouses you will likely need to have a marriage certificate as well, which we took with us just in case. If you go this route note that you will likely need to have your marriage certificate apostilled for use in Mexico as well. Make sure to allow enough calendar time to do this before hopping on the plane to Mexico.

 

Later in October we went to the consulate in Boise, ID. We had all our paperwork and an appointment at 3 PM. We went in to our appointment right away with no waiting. The gentleman asked us a few questions, and then took our paperwork and told us to wait 30 minutes. 30 minutes later we had Residente Permanente Visas in our Pasaportes, and we each paid our $36 cash. As to our financial statements he took the first page of each statement (that showed name, address, and balance) and gave the rest back.

 

Before getting on your flight make sure you have a complete set of documents that you will need in Mexico to complete the Canje of your RP Visa for your residency card. We took our financial records, copies of passport, marriage license (which we weren’t using for the process), etc. We also went online and did the following forms (following this official INM process) but you can let Holga do these in Mazatlan for you (except for the FMM and Passport of course):

• Estancia form, which is available at the INM website:  https://www.inm.gob.mx/tramites/publico/estancia.html
• Letter requesting the canje of the visa. I found one online and modified it. But we ultimately we used Holga’s letter which I also recommend that others do as well.
• Original and a copy of your passport.
• FMM card/form which was provided at the airport. Make sure the agents have it marked as canje for 30 days and NOT as visitor for 180 days.
• Formato básico which can be downloaded at: https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/426925/Formato_Basico.pdf
• We also created a Pago de Derechos form (Mexico form E5 which you can get here) but we elected to get one at the INM counter. Our form would have been fine in all likelihood and saved one trip to the INM.
• Special infantile sized photos are also needed, which we assumed we would have Holga (see below for more info on Holga) do for us.

 

In Mid-November we went to Mazatlan. Upon arriving at the airport, we showed the immigration agent our RP Visas, and our FMMs where we had preemptively written “Canje” on both halves. He correctly stamped our visas and marked us Canje 30 days. On Friday, 3 days after arriving, we went to start the Canje process.  Instead of actually going to INM first, we went to Holga first. We got to her place (with the coke awning one block north of INM on Aquiles Serdan) at 8:20 AM and waited a few minutes for her to open.

She checked our paperwork (I had pre-filled the forms online) she said they were incorrect, and we paid her 500 pesos each do the paperwork and photos. She took the information pretty much directly off the forms we had already filled out, and only asked a couple of questions. This took a total of 30 minutes. And even though our forms may have been more correct than she let on, for 500 pesos her work was a good value and accepted by INM right away. I highly recommend using Holga because she appears to have a good relationship with the INM so her work is trusted by them.

 

After Holga we went over to the INM building and got a number, it was now a little after 9 AM and we were #15. Less than 30 minutes later we were called to the counter, and they took our papers, passports, photos, and FMMs, and stamped them, had us sign a few documents. Then they gave us our passports back and a piece of paper we signed that has our Pieza and NUT on it. They never asked for and needed our bank statements, though on the advice of others we did have them with us. We were told to wait three weeks to get an email from INM. Once we had that we could come in for our fingerprints (between 9-11 AM only).

 

With all of our documents now submitted at INM we each got both a piece of paper from the INM with a NUT number (this your process number and uniquely identifies you) and a pieza, and an Email with a password; to follow up on the application status at: https://www.inm.gob.mx/tramites/publico/seguimiento-tramite.html. I checked our status each day. Each time you go to the INM show them your paper with the NUT# on it.

 

So far, really easy!

 

Exactly four weeks later our status was updated to “Record the data for the issuance of your immigration document” and there was text below with a link to Register or Update the personal data. Clicking this link took us to an online form similar to the Formato Basico which was previously submitted. We each filled out our form and saved it. A confirming dialog box saying “Se guardaron los datos correctamente”. Was displayed hopefully conveying that the form was accepted. When I went in to check status immediately afterward, the above link was still displayed.

 

Date	Processing status	Location
11/22/2019	the procedure has been registered	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/02/2019	The type of procedure has been assigned	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/20/2019	Record the data for the issuance of your immigration document	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa

For the issuance of your Migration Form, register or update your data here .

 

We also heard that for 2019 there is a two-week shutdown for Christmas at the INM for Dec 20 through Jan 2. This alert was also accompanied with a warning that backlog following January 2^nd will likely result. This additional delay will likely mean that we will need to pay 2020 rates.

 

It´s now December 23^rd and although we went down to INM and it says closed until January 3^rd, we were pleasantly surprised by receiving an email today saying we are all approved and we need to come in to pay and be fingerprinted.

 

Also, our status now shows:

Date	Processing status	Location
11/22/2019	the procedure has been registered	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/02/2019	The type of procedure has been assigned	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/20/2019	Record the data for the issuance of your immigration document	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/23/2019	Trade was issued	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa

For the issuance of your Migration Form, register or update your data here .

 

 

Attached is what our letters looked like:

INM_Letter_23dec_modified2

 

We had to wait until after the holidays to pay and get fingerprinted, but that was fairly straightforward.

 

On Friday January 3^rd we went to the INM office about 8:20 and were the first ones in line. Because I am on crutches they let us come inside to wait while everyone else had to wait outside. At about 9:05 we went to the desk, they asked for our NUT# (we showed them the paper we got earlier) and got our Payment of Rights form (Pago de Derecho) which we were told we had to take to Santander or Bancomer to pay along with our 5,206 pesos each.

 

The fee on our letters we got from the INM said 5,065 MXN, but our payment forms had the new value of 5,206. Bummer. By the way, I am positive we could have printed this payment form ourselves since we had, but elected to de-risk things by getting the form from INM. Except for the fee increase, everything else was identical between the form we printed and the one we got at INM.  I would recommend filling it out in the morning and being first in line at the bank and then go to INM. This would save a trip to the INM.

Note – Here is a Google Map which shows where the two banks are in relation to the INM.

So we hopped an Uber and went to Santander near Plazuela Republica. It was packed when we got there at 9:30 AM. They were on number U004 and we received number U044. So we waited an hour, and paid. No muss, no fuss, just a bit of a wait.

 

We hopped a taxi back to INM and got there at 10:50 (they said we had to be there by 11 AM for finger prints). We waited twenty minutes or so, and were called to get finger printed. At the same time they gave us copies of our CURP certificate (which you can also get online at https://www.gob.mx/curp/ using the CURP # on the certificate. After we were both fingerprinted, they told us to come back in two weeks for our cards!

 

I also got my RFC following the process discussed on the following site https://www.chapala.com/webboard/index.php?/topic/77457-question-about-obtaining-rfc-online/  and using the instructions at https://www.chapala.com/webboard/index.php?/topic/77457-question-about-obtaining-rfc-online/

 

We are still waiting for our two weeks, but noted on the process status website (same as always: https://www.inm.gob.mx/tramites/publico/seguimiento-tramite.html) that it now also says “A Payment has been registered” (see below):

Date	Processing status	Location
11/22/2019	the procedure has been registered	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/02/2019	The type of procedure has been assigned	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/20/2019	Record the data for the issuance of your immigration document	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
12/23/2019	Trade was issued	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa
01/07/2020	A payment has been registered	Federal Delegation in Sinaloa

 

Two weeks after being fingerprinted are status is still showing a Payment has been registered, and no additional updates. Since the woman at the counter said t come back in two weeks, we return anyways. We get there about 8:20 AM and are second in line. Another woman trying to pick up her Residente Permante Card is there already.

We wait until the office opens at 9 AM and go in. Ten minutes later we are being told that the laminating machine is broken again and that we should call before returning. We are told to call in one week, but it is clear that the time-frame is not determined.

Just two days later we see online that our status has been updated to the below:

01/18/2020

Your immigration document has been issued. Present yourself at the delegation where you completed your procedure