Job Discussion Forums

[MixtecaMike]

[ls650]

[thes80]

Call me a troll if you must, it doesn't matter. IS560 - I usually enjoy your insightful posts. What has happened to you?

I still don't understand this nonsense of the Gringo Dance, but if someone feels better having their own religion, who am I to knock it?

I will attempt to explain this again s-l-o-w-l-y so that all readers will hopefully undertand it. The cost to change employers is 1700 pesos. In two months I would have had to pay another 1700 pesos to renew the visa so that it is good for another 12 months, or until I change employers again. On top of that, my new employer would not have been able to file my paperwork for 45 to 60 day, which is more than the 30 days allowed by INM, in which case I was looking at either paying a fine or being revoked all together. Finally, I never did change my address with migration since they are only open until 1:00 and I worked until 2 everyday. My boss told me to have the landlord write a bogus letter saying I just moved there, blah blah blah. The owner of the house lives in Europe. Getting a letter in a timely manner is not possible = another fine.

So, in the end I was looking at 2 scenarios.
1. Paying almost a month's pay for something that I could do in another country for free = morally wrong.
2. Paying the money and having the visa denied = leaving the country anyway with even less to live on = more morally wrong.

BTW, Canadians can go to the U.S. to work. Their employer pays for their visa, lawyer fees, etc. I have several Canadian friends that work in the U.S. as well as other countries (not Mexico) and they have never paid a penny or had to deal with hastles like the ones at INM.

I left Mexico because I could see the writing on the wall. Why would I pay such ridiculous fees to a foreign government when I would never do it for my own government either? I have my values.

Y'all have fun with the Gringo Dance!
Theo

[Samantha]

[moonraven]

I don't think he is a troll--only his persistence and agressivity fit the troll template. But I think he has a really serious problem with understanding that the world does not revolve around HIM. That is characteristic number one for anyone who does the Gringo Dance.

He seems to think that the scenario that he described of paying 1700 to change employers and then paying another 1700 for the FM3 renewal was somehow applied only to him. Balderdash. It's SOP. And his insistence that he should be able to do everything without paying shows another problem of cognitive connection to the real world.

I see nothing immoral whatsoever in what he recounted for us. Fines are applied to folks who are too dense or too self-involved to figure out how the INM policies work.

The real deal is that he was miserable in Mexico and is leaving--but thinks he needs to save face by blaming others for his decision.

He needs to learn to have the courage of his decisions.

[MELEE]

[moonraven]

I have also seen some very skillful Gringo Dancers who were not from the US. Just not as many of them.

And I have also gone out of the country and come in on a tourist visa in order to avoid double FM3 charges. I turned in the old FM3 to INM at the Mexico City airport, and received a tourist visa. I told them I was not going to be working, that I would be writing instead. What do they care, anyway?

[MixtecaMike]

Poor little me, the innocent Antipodean caught between the ugly American gringo dancers and the belligerent and unwashed Eurotrash.

Korean immigration is a positive breeze, compared to Mexico, with the (rather expensive, but generally employer-paid) exception of the visa run to Japan.

I'll be passing through the EEUU Mexicanos in a couple of months, luckily only as a transmigrante this time.

[Flo]

I work in Puebla, and I have to say that things at the migration office here are not business as usual. My advice is to get a lawyer and things will go more smoothly. The lawyer will cost you a pretty penny, but your visa will be processed immediately and with out any of the typical "red tape"

Last year we had 6 or 7 foreign teachers at our school. Two of them were immediately knocked off by immigration. First of all, we all filed our paperwork as we were supposed to, but 4 months later we still didn't have our FM3s, so we were all working illegally. One teacher was part-time and had another job. At the other job she got nailed by INM and couldn't work anymore. Another guy had let his old visa expire or something, and he was deported (at his own expense). He was allowed to come back to Mexico after 30 days. Finally, when all was legal, their jobs had been given to other teachers so they had to look for work elsewhere.

As for the rest of us, we kept taking time off work to go to immigration to check on our Visa status. After making no progress in 4 months, our boss recognized a lawyer there that owed her a favor. He went in the back for about 5 minutes and we were told our visas were ready. We had to come back the next day, or course, to get them, but we would probably still be waiting if it hadn't been for him.

Another teacher went to renew her FM3 and it was taking well over a month. She ended up having problems with the ownership of her house since her old one had expired and the new one wasn't done. A lawyer had to fix that one too.

Anyway, try not to critize so much until you have actually experienced what someone is talking about. Not all INM offices are alike.

[Samantha]

That sounds very non-user friendly alright. Especially since FM-3's have nothing to do with home ownership in Mexico. It sounds as if it is time for a government change in that INAMI office! Bring on the election.

[moonraven]

It's useful to learn the fine art of complaining to the right people. Works like a charm for unjamming log jams.

[MELEE]

Okay, now that I have my FM3 back in my hands, I'll give a brief report on my recent experience.

I'm on sabbatical, but getting paid as if I were working, and I haven't left Mexico so I need to renew as if nothing was different. However, when my FM3 renewal was due, I was in Morelia, Michoacan, and not in a position to pop down to Oaxaca City to turn in my papers and pop down again three weeks later to pick them up. I have twin infants (soon to be toddlers! ) and I was going through the hoops of IMSS and ISSTE to see who would take out my gull bladder faster and better (ISSTE won by the way). I didn't want to miss an appointment I'd been waiting for for months and I didn't have much help taking care of the babies. Also, I was looking into naturalization (but have put that off for at least another year). So anyway, I let the thing expire. oops! I called IMN in Oaxaca to find out what the fine was and sent off all my papers, but I didn't send my original passport because I needed it! and I refuse to get a notarized copy every year when they already have one in my file and I haven't left the country since before by current passport was issued. So anyways, they sent my papers back to the university where I work. When I finally got back to Oaxaca State, my girls got sick and I didn't want to leave them to trudge over the mountains to Oaxaca City. So by the time I finally went to renew it, it was 3 months expired. I took every paper that showed that I've established a life in Mexico with me, hopping that at least I wouldn't be deported, and accepting that the best outcome would be having to pay a lot of money in fines. They guys at IMN were SOOOOOOOOO unbelievly nice, and just asked me to write a letter explaining the situation and they'd waive the fine. They didn't even ask for any papers from the hospital or the pediatrician to confirm my situation.