Congratulations, Sam! Soon, these trips to the INM will be a thing of the past for you, as your application for permanent residency has been approved, but I wonder if you'd do a favor for the benefit of others who may still need to go through this process? Please go to the Inicio - Instituto Nacional de Migración website, click on "estatus de su tramite"; then, sign in, using the pieza number (including all the zeros!) and your contrasena. What you will see displayed is all the processes that have been completed in your case, so far. One of them will include the word "presentarse". Will you please copy and paste the list of notices, with the dates, and post it here? It will be of interest to both you, and us, because it shows how the online system can be used to stay informed of the progress of an individual case. ___________________ By the way, I'm glad your application for the Permsio to leave the country went so smoothly for you. They now seem to have one person assigned to handling these, and once the application is approved, and the online notice to "presentarse" is published, she stands ready to prepare the Permiso while you, and others, wait.
I'll have to see if my wife can do this as she has the paperwork back home. I won't be back till the 19th. Be interesting to see what it does say as they once said it was ready before and to just check online, I did and it wasn't. I think this time it's good though, i'll let ya know.
The 19th is coming up soon, Sam, so you will be able to do it yourself! Here's what it will look like, but with different dates, of course: 22/07/2013 El trámite ha sido registrado 23/07/2013 Ha sido asignado el tipo de trámite 14/08/2013 Presentarse en una oficina del INM 14/08/2013 Registre los datos para la expedición de su documento migratorio 30/09/2013 Un pago ha sido registrado 02/10/2013 Su documento migratorio está en proceso de elaboración. 12/10/2013 Su documento migratorio ha sido expedido. Preséntese en la delegación donde realizó su trámite. That last notation, indicating the finished document is ready to be picked up shows how much the turn around has speeded up since earlier this year, when it was taking 4-6 weeks in many cases for the document to be made ready, after the fingerprinting and payment stage had been completed. It also shows how much more thorough the online notifications are now, even including a notice showing the card is ready to be picked up, something that didn't used to appear. The thoroughness of the notices now given make some trips to INM, just to check on the status, unnecessary. [This is not an example of how fast this can all be done, as it involved long absences from the country of the applicant, at two different points in time during the process.]
My whole process took 24 days start to finish. This is what my final search of my case revealed but I deleted the Ubicacion (Location-Delegation QRoo) to get to the meat of the deal. Fecha Estatus Trámite Ubicación 06/09/2013 El trámite ha sido registrado (Docs rec'd & in the system) 07/09/2013 Ha sido asignado el tipo de trámite (Assigned for processing) 13/09/2013 Presentarse en una oficina del INM (Come to INM) 13/09/2013 Registre los datos para la expedición de su documento migratorio (Pretty much means bring your money, your photos and your fingers) YOU NEED YOUR PASSPORT EVERY TIME YOU WALK IN THE DOOR AND YOUR TRAMITE EVERYTIME AFTER DAY ONE. 17/09/2013 Un pago ha sido registrado (Presumbly this is the $1,000 to start the process and it is now official) 18/09/2013 Un pago ha sido registrado (Presumably this is the real money - $3,815) 23/09/2013 Su documento migratorio está en proceso de elaboración. (Sent to DF for preparing the card) 30/09/2013 Su documento migratorio ha sido expedido. Preséntese en la delegación donde realizó su trámite. (Come get your card) IF YOU ARE 60 OR MORE, PREGNANT, HAVE YOUNG CHILDREN OR INJURED, READ ON - You now pretty much go to the head of the line. But you pregnant gals better have a bump. You don't need to get there at 7:30 to be 30th in line. Get there about 8:30 and they let you in starting a few minutes later. The people who don't get the free pass, will still be line until 9 am. Sit as close to the front row as you can. If you are there to pick up your card, no matter what type, someone will ask TARJETAS? and you scream YO and hand him or her your tramite before anyone else can react. Now they don't give you the Ficha for picking up your card. They retrieve them in the order you scream YO. Guess who was the first to get their card the day I got mine. To my knowledge, all of this stuff after the calendar part is new, since the election and the new honchos are now in place. The people doing the work are pretty much the same as before, though I miss some old faces and see some new ones. It seemed to me that, once they start letting them in at 9 am, they let you in a few at a time, making a short line where everyone starts (except we special folks). Eventually, but I was long gone by this time usually, you sit in this snaking line of chairs, working your way to the front, seat by seat. When the back row is empty, the admit a few more to fill those seats.
Thanks for the tip, T.J. My wife will be going to pick hers up this week. Sam, it's the 19th! Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed your holiday.
By total coincidence, I ran into 3 friends the day I picked mine up, all picking theirs up. And another friend who was renewing her Inmigrante. Small world.
The change in the law which made it possible for people to come to Mexico, when they had never been here before, when they didn't speak a word of Spanish or know anything about Mexican culture, and get permission to live here permanently- and work here if they choose, merely by showing a certain level of financial resources- has opened the floodgates to this class of immigrants. Expect changes to the law in the next two years: it makes no sense to give an unlimited right to work here to tens of thousands of foreigners who qualify in this way, as the current law does.
People can come from all over Europe to England (and we can go anywhere in Europe), soon from Bulgaria and Romania as well, to work without speaking the language, no knowledge of the culture, and with no financial resources, just an EU passport. I don't think here in Mexico is really a "flood gates" situation, and I don't think they will need to amend the law. People will only come to work if there are jobs to do and a need, and if they live via their own financial means and inject money in the economy then it's surely a good thing? In England, after a while they can claim welfare benefits, they have access to NHS healthcare, free schools etc. Here in Mexico I don't see the type of immigrants being a strain on Mexico's practically non existent welfare system somehow.
I can't say you're missing the point without talking with you, but it seems you are. As things now stand, to work here lawfully, as an employee, the foreigner must be offered a job by an employer who has authority from INM to hire foreigners, and that employer must seek specific permission from INM to hire that person; then, that person must get a visa, issued abroad, so he can enter Mexico to accept the offered employment. For the permanent resident, the situation could not be more different: any employer who wishes to can hire them, even if the employer is not authorized to hire foreigners, because no permission of any kind is required- not for the employer, not for the employee.
