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Forced to go Permanente?!


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So we learned of a new policy today with regard to people who have lived in Mexico for years and who are at present with a residente temporal document.

Before the local office was not honoring prior years on FM2 and FM3 to count towards the 4 years to be permanent unless the renewal number was reflected on the current immigration card.

Then recently the new format of the cards does not have the renewal number on them.

Today we attempted to do a 2 year temporal renewal of someone who had a 1 on the back or their card and they did not accept the renewal saying that they are now doing a search of all prior years and people who have been here 4 years will be required to go permanent.

People will need to review their prior years and history with immigration prior to applying for renewals or you may find they will not accept your temporary renewal and then you will have a fine time getting your money back from the bank.

Kind of funny as today we were notified that we won an immigration appeal for someone who has lived here many years and they failed to count prior years for him to jump to permanent without financials even though we included copies of the prior documents. Go figure!

This is good news for some but for others is little time to prepare for disposing of their cars in short order.

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Spencer,

I have a temporary resident card that expires March of 2016. I don't need to do anything till that date. Right?

Why would you think you need to do something before yours expires?

Spencer is telling us that the Chapala office is now doing what other offices have been doing and that is tallying up all previous years on FM2s and FM3s but not just allowing people go permanante but making people go permanente when a person renews.

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The fact is that they usually do not get stopped and checked if legal, but we do. When they get stopped they may have to pay 500 pesos to move on, but we won't get off near that cheap. Such is life here.

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Well, this brings up an interesting question:

Suppose you let your FM3 expire and a few months later you got a temporal. Theoretically, there is still the record of years of FM3. Would they count those years and allow you to go Permanente after just a year on Temporal?

We actually did this with the wife's FM3 because of car issues. That has been resolved. Now we're wondering if they will count those back years of FM3 and she can just get a Permanente when the one year of Temporal runs out.

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The string of previous visas must be continuous in order to go directly to Residente Permanente. That is how we did it in Guadalajara, when Chapala INM was less than cooperative.

On the subject of going Permanente and still having a US or Canadian plated car: Read the fine print on your insurance policy and note the requirement that the Importada Temporal must be in force. Once you fail to renew a temporal on time, or change your status to Residente Permanente, you insurance is no longer valid. Of course, that brings up the question of later driving the now illegal car out of Mexico on a Retorno Seguro without insurance for the trip. Another Catch-22, I think. Maybe getting stopped and having the car confiscated is the easiest solution after all. :010: Just do not have an accident, as the doubble whammy of invalid insurance and possible confiscation looms. :018:

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The string of previous visas must be continuous in order to go directly to Residente Permanente. That is how we did it in Guadalajara, when Chapala INM was less than cooperative.

On the subject of going Permanente and still having a US or Canadian plated car: Read the fine print on your insurance policy and note the requirement that the Importada Temporal must be in force. Once you fail to renew a temporal on time, or change your status to Residente Permanente, you insurance is no longer valid. Of course, that brings up the question of later driving the now illegal car out of Mexico on a Retorno Seguro without insurance for the trip. Another Catch-22, I think. Maybe getting stopped and having the car confiscated is the easiest solution after all. :010: Just do not have an accident, as the doubble whammy of invalid insurance and possible confiscation looms. :018:

When went to permanente last April, I was not able to deal with my vehicle until June, when I drove it back to Canada. My insurance policy with Lewis and Lewis was still in effect, and although I was sure they would not honor it if I was driving the vehicle here, I figured that since the Retorno Seguro I got when I was ready to drive it back states that I was legally allowed to drive it to the border, that the insurance company would have to honor that it was being driven legally during that time. There was no fine print on my policy stating the Importada Temporal had to be in effect. Luckily the trip went smoothly and I didn't have to put it to the test.

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... they are now doing a search of all prior years and people who have been here 4 years will be required to go permanent.

This is interesting and it actually makes sense. INM sounds like they are insisting that if you live here "permanently" you need to attain that status. What will be really interesting is if they further tighten things up. What about the people who make a border run every six months, and effectively live here permanently on an FMM/Visitante visa? Are they going to stop allowing that? It would make sense...

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Local agents have asked for the retorno seguro to be able to write an insurance policy as told to me by clients.

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But.....will local insurance agents write a policy for the trip, acknowleging the Seguro Retorno instead of an Importada Temporal?

we had no problem getting insurance from Jesus Tejada. Our FM3 and importada temporal as well as our auto insurance with a Parker expired while waiting for our RP cards. We left our South Dakota plated vehicle in the carport and used our Mexican beater for 3 months. When we got our RP cards we had Spencer get our Returno Seguaro letter. Parker would not insure the vehicle, but Jesus did and also inspired us to drive in the U.S. For a week while we went to Auston,TX and got our nationalization done on Nuevo a laredo on the way home. No problems
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we had no problem getting insurance from Jesus Tejada. Our FM3 and importada temporal as well as our auto insurance with a Parker expired while waiting for our RP cards. We left our South Dakota plated vehicle in the carport and used our Mexican beater for 3 months. When we got our RP cards we had Spencer get our Returno Seguaro letter. Parker would not insure the vehicle, but Jesus did and also inspired us to drive in the U.S. For a week while we went to Auston,TX and got our nationalization done on Nuevo a laredo on the way home. No problems

That is good news. We are also clients of Jesus Tejeda and AXA.

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I never did understand how you can be on a temporary visa for years and years. You are here either temporarily(and temporary does not mean forever) or permanently. This does not surprise me at all.

It seems you would be here temporarily if you do not live here year round. Some of us go back and forth, year after year. Some stay seven months, some more, some less.

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Once upon a time, keeping an FM3 forever was simple and cheap, with the annual renewal in the patio behind the Palacio Municipal being almost a social affair, meeting the same crowd on the same schedule each year. Then, the rules changed, INM changed their local procedures; not always in accordance with what seemed intended, and confusion and delays resulted.

Now, things are settling down and becoming Residente Permanente does seem to be the solution, in spite of the effect that it has on expat cars; a situation that might better have been grandfathered in the process, but was not; especially for those of us who innocently brought down J-cars.

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