Job Discussion Forums

[Flo]

We are in the process of obtaining FM3s. How much should this really cost us? I have alread spent over $600 pesos just on filing the papers, and my employer told us that we still have to pay another $180 USD when the paperwork is finalized. Is someone trying to rip us off somewhere in this system? By the time the visa is paid for we will have used up near a month's pay.

[ls650]

[saraswati]

I don't know if what they charge varies from state to state, but I do know that the fees increase quite often.

[moonraven]

The cost of the FM-3 in 2004--in all of the immigration offices (costs for all tramites also posted on the Gobernaci�n website) is approximately 1,700 pesos. If this is the first time, you will pay another 400 pesos for the change of status from Tourist to Vistante NoInmigrante. Other costs before filing the paperwork include Hacienda forms, photcopies and the required photgraphs. The cost of the FM-3 has increased approximately 100 pesos annually.

Perhaps you consider this an exhorbitant price--approxiamtely 200 dollars, but compared with what the US Embassy charges folks who want to initiate a similar process in order to work in the US, it's pocket change.

[MixtecaMike]

Pocket change for some perhaps, but for the past four years I have had to pay FM3 fees for my self, fair enough, I am working, for my wife, who is expressly forbidden to do do anything here except look after me, for both of my children, whose only government benefits are the alleged benefit of attending a state school. Almost $7000 pesos this year, plus another $600 because the local INM office usually wants a notarized copy of our passports.

Mexican immigration is a total rip-off set up to milk gringos and especially to f* with Central/South Americans. They are pissed because Mexican mojados get sent home and so they take it out on other nationals.

If the US charges more it's because a legal worker in that country will earn a REAL wage, not a pocket full of cacahuates.

[moonraven]

Give me a break, Mike. It's really getting to be old news being the target of your anger. You think the immigration folks are ripping you off--shout at THEM.

I also fail to see the logic in your cost/benefits "analogy" between Mexican and US immigration costs and expected salaries. If you are so angry and disappointed that you don't make a big salary, maybe you should be angry at yourself for not having done some research about salaries before you came to Mexico.

Every country has the right to charge for such things as work permissions, visas, etc. Mexico is very inexpensive in comparision with even most other Latin American countries. What I am hearing here from you, as usual, is your denigration of Mexico--"pinches tercermundistas, no deben cobrarme nada", etc.

[MixtecaMike]

What you hear is based as usual on your totally erroneous prejudiced image of people who disagree with you, or who doubt your all-encompassing wisdom.

What I was saying was "pinche gobierno m�xicano, por que pasan todos sus d�as chiando de los pobres "indocumentados" BTW a word only used for Mexican mojados, other nationals are "ilegales," mientras que jodan sin parar a los migrantes legales, or those that want to legalize their status.

You were the one who started making comparisons with other countries, I didn't post the obvious question, "Moonraven, why are you so down on the US, are you again demonstrating your hangups about your true cultural heritage?"

If you have read my previous posts, and of course you have, seeing as you reply to so many of them, you know I came to Mexico as a step up economically speaking from Guatemala. I am not the only person on this board with a family and other responsibilities, I can assure you, so my opinions are valued by some people.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, what makes you think YOU are the target of my anger, I have told you repeatedly you are a funny old joker, at least from this point of view. There should be a sit-com written about your life, the crazy old lady who things she is singlehandedly saving the Mexican revolution and prehispanic culture. This is not anger, by the way, you are a joke and as such I laugh loudly in your general direction. HA HA HA (JE JE JE)

[moonraven]

Maybe you could make a pilot of that sit-com, and make some REAL MONEY, Mike. (I suppose someone forced you to work for bananas in Guatemala, too.)

How old did you say you were, 13?

You responded to my post on this thread, so don't start with your obfuscations about whether I read your posts or do not read them.

[ls650]

To the original poster:
I hope your question was answered.... Yes, about $200 US or 2000 pesos will be the cost.

[thedude72]

Mike and Moonraven:

You two really should kiss and make-up or go to counselling. Every thread I read you are bickering about something.

You two should just chill out. You both have a lot of intelligent and insightful observations about life in Mexico, which is very helpful to Newbies like me. But enough with the bickering already, it was funny at first, but now its getting tiresome.

Thanks

[moonraven]

Thanks, dude, for your recommendation. However, I do not feel that Mike and I will reach any sort of rapprochment in this lifetime. And probably not in any other either, as Mike is right about my being prejudiced: I am prejudiced against whiners and snivelers.

It also doesn't calm my troubled waters that he writes atrociously in our host language--another way of being disrespectful to the country that has given shelter to him and his family.

[Gringo Greg]

I think it fruitless to compare Mexico with the US in immigration charges.

Maybe better to compare Mexico with other countries.

A workpermit/visa combo in Thailand costs $170 for your first time and $120 for renewals. Dependents pay $100 the first time and just $50 for renewals. Children under 7 don't need to pay anything.

In the Philippines, a work visa is about $80 a year.

I think Mexico's visa rates are way too high, and I guess that is not my only opinion.

Mike, don't get too down on Moonraven, she is just jealous of the fact that you have children and a loving wife. She is too old to have any of these and she regrets the choices she made in her life. She lashes out at other because of this. Do an internet search on her name and you can see "her poetry" and her real worth.

Greg



Greg

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I personally don't find the cost of a work visa in Mexico too much of a burden to handle. A couple of things I don't particularly care for are 1) the long amount of time a person must live and work here before he can apply for a change from inmagrado to inmigrante status, and 2) the restrictions regarding types of work a foreigner can do here legally. With nepotism being so prevalent in hiring practices, it's not like foreigners would take lots of jobs away from Mexicans. Additionally, I've had to turn down quite a few very short-term jobs (most currently for the city government,) because it wouldn't be worth the time and money to add those jobs to my work visa. Frustrating for all involved, because they can't find an acceptable, qualified local person who's able to do those short-term jobs.

[moonraven]

The last thing Moonraven needs, Gringie boy, is a wife.
She has a lovely, very successful daughter,
all the male companionship she has ever wanted,
many names (Internet will not help you there),
a slew of wonderful friends,
and she regrets absolutely nothing.
(Strains of Edith Piaf singing "Non, Je Regret Rien")

[MELEE]

I also think Mexico's visa fees are too high. In Japan, my work visa was FREE. And in Ecuador, my cultural exchange visa was supposed to cost US$60 for a year, but the consulate in Boston at the time didn't like to charge students and recent grads so he didn't charge us. (but we did have to pay to get a lot of the papers required like proof of clean criminal record and a medical certification).

Last year I had to pay immigration for my visa, and almost an equal ammount for the right to get married, and then I had to pay foriegn affairs three times that amount for the right to buy a tiny little piece of Mexico. The fees and the hassel of immigration here is the ONLY reason I'm considering naturalizing after my two free tickets to Mexican citizenship arrive this fall. (Tim its not to late for you to become the father of a Mexican! )