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I am trying to get my permanente in Houston and have not been able to get an appointment to submit the application and documents. You can only get an appointment by email and they have not answered my two requests for one. I went in person today and got nowhere. I did not plan to stay here more than through the end of this week and right now I am contemplating driving to either Austin or San Antonio to see if I can get in the day I arrive. Anyone have advice? Also- Spencer McMullen, what is this?

  1. Document proving your legal stay in the United States (I-797, I20, "advance parole", etc.)
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2 hours ago, guacamole said:

I am trying to get my permanente in Houston and have not been able to get an appointment to submit the application and documents. You can only get an appointment by email and they have not answered my two requests for one. I went in person today and got nowhere. I did not plan to stay here more than through the end of this week and right now I am contemplating driving to either Austin or San Antonio to see if I can get in the day I arrive. Anyone have advice? Also- Spencer McMullen, what is this?

  1. Document proving your legal stay in the United States (I-797, I20, "advance parole", etc.)

Houston Consulate is horrible. I have much more detail I can give, but I think the bottom line is sufficient.   I have been there many times.  If you are a US citizen, you don't need to prove your legal stay. 

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Orlando FL, made an appointment via email and it took less than 2 hours.  

PS: The big hold-up is at the Chapala INM.  Finalization of RP had been taking 30 days earlier this year, but it seems paperwork submitted since April is running 60+ days.  We are at 6 weeks with Chapala INM and not even a callback for fingerprints.  

Just a heads up as this delay can be costly.  Can't register a car without final RP, so we've had to extend monthly car rental (at $750 USD per month).  We have return airline ticket to US in early July....cost to change tickets (2) is $600 USD.   Hopefully we can get a Travel Letter instead.  

Not certain we can get a Menaje de Casa without the final RP (waiting to hear from Orlando Consulate on that issue).  

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I have a friend who had an appointment with the consulate in Austin last Friday and she has to go back on the 13th to complete it.

I used Laredo and was out within a couple of hours but you have to have an appointment.  I had a problem with the online appointment and so I called and got the appointment over the phone.

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Our information is over three years old, but at the time:

Seattle had a bunch of extra hoops they wanted us to jump through, like getting an official police record. Our schedule didn't allow for that.

Austin was friendly and tried to help but people were on vacation and the office was packed with Mexican nationals needing assistance, so everyone was overworked. (This was in December and January, so my recommendation is don't go there anywhere close to the winter holidays.)

San Antonio seemed to think their job was to keep people *out* of Mexico, not help them get in. Deliberately unhelpful. Don't recommend going there ever unless there's a new consular since 2014.

Laredo was both helpful and fast. Our first attempt failed on a technical reason we didn't anticipate, but at the second attempt I was in and out in under an hour.

 

 

 

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Yeah, go to another consulate--life is too short to put up with morons.

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As noted Laredo but yes an appointment is a must. When prepared it takes about about 1 hour. Staff are there to make it happen. Lots of negative feed back re: Houston, Dallas, Miami, Austin, San Antonio.

Los Angeles for those nearby requires no appointment.

Montreal and Boston have positive feedback. Toronto requires two visits.

Link here for appointments: http://www.soniadiaz.mx/immigration---visas.html

When driving be sure to stop when entering Mexico with a pre-approved visa. You need a TIP for your vehicle and a FMM marked CANJE. Both will be for 30 days. If TIP is ordered on-line usually it will be for 180 days even with a pre-approved visa. It happens quite often those entering at Laredo fail to stop for both FMM and TIP and that requires a return trip to the border.

Pre-approvals give you 6 months to enter Mexico and once you do 30 days to start the process.

With a 30 day TIP be sure you go to Aduana when visa is submitted at local INM and again when visa is issued to protect deposit. 

 

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