Job Discussion Forums

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[MELEE]

[Samantha]

Guty, The way I understand it is that the marriage needs to be first registered in Mexico (if you didn't get married here), followed by you living legally on FM3 or FM2 for minimum 2 years before you can apply to naturalize. The timing of your FM3 expiry date also comes into play in this process and I think Melee touched on that as well. If your two qualifying years is up but you have only 4 months left till your FM3 expiry, they most likely won't accept your application until your next prorroga (renewal or extension).

What do you mean if you are still together? Does she hate the rain in Jolly Olde? Is she speaking English with a British accent now? Best wishes for your future whatever you decide to do.

[Polly0607]

Samantha,
To answer some of your questions...
1. The marriage must be registered even if you were married in Mexico. I was married 10 years ago in Mexico and still had to register my marriage when I asked for an FM3 3 years ago.

2. You have to have at least six months left on your FM3 when you apply for citizenship. This is why I didn�t apply this year. My renewal took a little longer than expected, then I got sick. By the time I got around to it, I only had a few weeks to put the paperwork in. I will try again next year.

On a personal note,
It is very sad that some people log into this discussion forum expecting certain answers to their questions. When they don't hear what they want to hear, they sometimes become hostile.

Moving to another country is very complicated. If you can learn something from those who have already done it, do so. It can save you a lot of heartbreak and frustration.

The posters on this board have been trying to help englishsetter with his dilemna and have only received grief because of it. I have seen this several times on this board over the years and I truly hope it stops before we all get tired of being helpful.

P

[Samantha]

Right you are Polly. I was thinking as I typed, that the permission to marry and the registration of said marriage would sort of flow as one process with INAMI, but upon recollection it took us a goodly amount of time to wander back in with our marriage certificate (to be filed heaven knows where in their piles of papers!) So it definitely is a series of steps. You get permission to marry a Mexican, pay the fee and get married. Then you must take a copy of your official marriage document in for filing in their paperwork dungeons.

Incidentally, though no one has asked, the fee for permission to marry a Mexican is not that cheap, but the Immigration fee to divorce him or her was lots more according to the fee menu at our Immigration office. Is there a message there? It's more than just paperwork I suspect, since the actual paperwork should be fairly equal. I don't know if that paperwork is done before or after the lawyers do their thing and I don't want to know!

[delacosta]

timely topic for me...
i start my sabatical, tentatively in march of 2007, and wanted to start my naturalisation process before i leave to canada. i know i've spoken to you about this before melee but i cant remember the details right now.

so i should: start the process 6 months before my fm3 expires, which is feb26 2007, which would mean its already too late, by a few days. i will have to renew my fm3 anyways i believe to get paid my salary, regardless of whether i'm in mexico or not. oh yes, i'm married to a mexican and have been here more than 2 years so will go via that route. does when one got marrid have any bearing in the process?
and polly you said the whole process takes about a year? so i would have to be in mexico for a year to get this done? does anyone know if it can be done from abroad at a consulate or embassy?

guy, have you bothered to become a citizen? i've never till now thought that it was worth the hassle and am considering it now in case i decide to pursue other employment opportunites here during my sabatical or sometime in the future and could then eliminate the fm3 immigration dance.

also just to make sure that my life is full of the maximum amount of beaurocratic jump hooping imaginable my wife and i are going to begin the process of her getting canadian residency, just in case we decude to go that route...

anyone know that dance routine?

[Guy Courchesne]

No, I haven't taken that step, becoming Imigrado. Enough time has passed and I'm easily eligible. I've stayed tied to my wife as a family dependent.

I've never wanted bureaucratic headaches from either Canada or Mexico, so I've stayed in a comfortable limbo. Too many questions...what if we have children? Adopt children? What if we want to live in Canada instead of Mexico? I don't want to cut off any possibilities for the future, though I might simply be paranoid about it.

[lozwich]

Someone once told me that you definitely have to surrender your previous citizenship to become a Mexican citizen. As in, hand over your passport and swear black and blue that you renounce your old citizenship forever.

Is that true?

[saraswati]

A friend of mine, an Argentinian, went through the naturalization process a couple of years ago and had to verbally renounce Argentinian citizenship but was never required to hand over her passport.

[ls650]

[MELEE]

I'm in the process right now, and as saraswati said, you verbally renounce, but they don't take your passport off you.

Guy, becoming Imigrado and naturalizing are two different things. Imigrado is perment residency status as still part of IMN's jurisdiction, naturalizing is becoming a citizen and part of Relaciones Exteriores jurisdiction.

delacosta,

[Polly0607]

You will have to take the sabbatical without applying for citizenship. You could be called to SRE at any time to answer to your papers and when they can�t find you, your application will be back-burnered.

Try again in February 2008, when you have just gotten your FM3 renewed. You�ll have better luck.

MELEE is right. Inmigrado is a status that immigration can give you, in other words, landed immigrant. Citizenship is done with the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE).

Mexicans are now allowed to have two citizenships, so you won�t have to give up your passport. My kids and my husband have both. I�m the only one with Canadian citizenship only. Can�t wait to put in my papers in February 2007 and hope that I can stop dealing with immigration.

Guy, I�m not sure why you think getting a more permanent status here in Mexico, either Imigrado or citizenship would give you more bureaucratic headaches. It actually gives you less, once it is all completed. Neither Canada nor Mexico cares what status you have in the other country. There is no dilemna.

[Guy Courchesne]

You're probably right...and I wasn't quite aware of the difference between imigrado and naturalized. My primary concern is children as it's been a top issue between my wife and I, where adoption is a likely route for us within the next few years. Whether to adopt here or in Canada is what I'm worried about.

[Polly0607]

You should probably skip right to citizenship. I think it would be difficult to adopt in Mexico without it.

Adopting in Canada or in Mexico, the legal route is very long. It is also complicated. For example, some states provide different rights for parents. My colleague adopted a brother and sister from Vera Cruz. Adoptions are final there, but in some states the biological parents could eventually get their rights back. Check this out.

I will not endorse the following metho, but some people have taken unwanted babies and registered them as their own. In Mexico state, registrations are still not done in hospitals.

I think it will be more difficult and take longer in Canada. First you would have to go back and establish yourself once again. There are fewer babies available as well. It could take more than twice as long than in Mexico.

I have another colleague that adopted a child as well. They say it takes about two years in Mexico.