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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/07/2018 in Posts

  1. My wife and a couple friends have been trying for two months to apply for DIF cards. They went to Chapala and were told what was the required for documentation. With the documents in hand they made 4 trips to Chapala each time being told they had no cards available and to come back next week. They even tried on one occasion to go to the office in Joco with the same results. As they were being told the cards had to come from Guadalajara, they decided this week to go there instead. The first location was closed due to renovations. With difficulty they located another office where there were long lineups. One of the friends speaks quite good Spanish and went over to another desk to ask if they were in the right place and was told if she wanted to ask a question, she had to go to the back of the line. She said she fully understood they would have to go to the back of the line but just wanted to be sure it was the right line. Again she was told she had to line up just to ask that question. So the question is despite being told we are welcome to apply for these cards, in reality do they simply not want us to have these cards? Has anyone else experienced such a run around?
    2 points
  2. I have to just say that I am surprised at how many foreigners will go through this whole procedure, to try to get a 50% discount on their 200 dollar property taxes, from a municipality which desperately needs their tax money. I am only guessing but I bet the staff who weren't very friendly were thinking the same thing. When they see foreigners living what is "the high life" compared to theirs, travelling, eating out in restaurants often, buying all kinds of things those workers could never afford, simply even owning a home which many of them never will, and then wanting to save that $100 because they have heard that they too are "entitled" to this discount, it might make them somewhat upset, don't you think?
    2 points
  3. Mexico is another word for waiting. It's the culture. No one is more impressed with the use of despotic power than the gov't worker in this country. Whatever they can do to add pointless copies of paper and bank payments, they will do. It's the job, man. It's not aimed at expats; haven't met a Mexican yet who doesn't hate it.
    1 point
  4. I was under the impression DIF cards were a thing of the past and that INAPAM is the one to have. Always have been problems with no blank cards, including INAPAM. I seem to remember it took months for them to get new cards so I asked for their phone number and called until they were in then hurried down on the Thursday , then the only day for cards, and had no problems. Don't take any of these delays personally, it's just the way it is.
    1 point
  5. Of course I personally don´t think you are correct in your assumptions about all these things and your particular entitlement that you feel and are projecting onto other foreigners is why you think this way. Of course most Mexican´s don´t care about your so called superior socioeconomic status as you might think they do.
    1 point
  6. I went to Guadalajara almost two weeks ago for my Inapam card; the doors open at 8 and they take the first 100 people on line. This card is for all Mexicans who reach the age of 60 and, for nationals, it provides discounts on property and water taxes as well. The fact that expats are eligible for some of the discounts is, for me, a bonus to living here; we certainly are not the target market. We left Ajijic before 6; it was almost 7:30 when I got on line and I was #88. The people at the head of the line were queued prior to 6 am. The wait is outside, standing, and you stand to complete a questionnaire: take a pen or buy one from the pen salesman, along with your photos and required docs and photocopies. They allow 40 people (the number of seats inside) to enter as a group: you cannot take someone in with you...they must wait outside or elsewhere. If you don't read Spanish fluently, you will need assistance: this was the case for many elderly-looking Mexican citizens who could not understand the form. To the best of my observation, nobody spoke English there, either.. Once it is your turn to approach the painfully slow process at one of two desks, the process takes about 15 minutes. There at 7:30, I was out the door at 1:20 pm. Be sure to carefully proof the info on your card when the worker hands it to you: the man in front of me was returning because they had typed his name incorrectly and, as it didn't match his ID, his municipality wouldn't accept it, of course, so...in line again, start over.
    1 point
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