Job Discussion Forums

[Drizzt]

Hello everyone,

Well I've decided to make the leap and finally tie the knot. My girlfriend is a Chinese national and I am American. She is coming to see me here in Mexico on a tourist visa but we want to get married here as well. I already have my FM3, so I'm assuming after we get married she will be able to get some sort of dependency/residence visa and stay with me until my contract is up.

Can I do it?

Any pitfalls I should be aware of?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Sgt Killjoy]

A saunter down to the local immigration office will let you know what no one else can probably answer to you. Most westerners can change a tourist visa into an FM-3 for work or just about anything else without leaving the country.

I am not current on this info, but just a few years ago, this option was not available to all nationalities. Immigration had/has a list of countries that it is acceptable to change tourist visa to Fm-3 for.

Your local immigration office will tell you the current regulations and how it affects an Fm-3 dependent visa. You could do me a favor and post what you find out(see if the Philippines or Thailand falls on the good or bad list).

[Samantha]

It seems that Immigration in Mexico sometimes only grants 30 day tourist visas to some nationalities so that is something to check. If you are organized and have all the appropriate paperwork it should work out. The process of foreigners marrying in Mexico is fairly easy. The Judge (or someone who assists with foreigners weddings) will tell you what you need.

As Sgt. K. says, ask your Immigration office what paperwork is required for her visa. A Canadian teacher I know just got his wife added as a dependant and he had to jump through some hoops in the process. Part of that was because their marriage certificate was in a box in Canada and had to be located and apostilled (legalized). You wouldn't have that problem, but they will tell you exactly. Good luck and let us know.

[danielita]

Samantha, your Canadian teacher's experience reinforces to me how different each Migracion office is. I added my husband to my FM3 as my economic dependent and I just submitted two letters: one saying that I was working on this FM3 number at this school and that I would support him. The other letter was from my husband asking to switch his tourist visa to an FM3 economic dependent status because I am working on FM3#....

Just a couple of photos, our passports and voila, 4 days later, my husband has an FM3. No marriage certificate required. For all they could have known, he could have been my brother....

[ls650]

Speaking of immigration paperwork hassles... three teachers here are renewing their FM3s.

One, 'Jane', has a major problem: she OVERpaid. She says that the staff verbally told her the cost was 1950 pesos, so 'Jane' completed a SAT5 form at the local bank to pay Mexican Immigration 1950 pesos. The problem is that when she took the paperwork to Immigration, they told her that the cost is actually 1904 pesos - and that the amount must be exact. The immigration clerk told 'Jane' that they can not accept an overpayment - even for 46 pesos.

The clerk told her, "We can't refund it here. You have to go to the main office in Oaxaca City, cancel your visa paperwork, get a refund, and then we'll start everything again."

As you can imagine 'Jane' was unhappy, but stayed calm in the office. I said to her, "Ask if you can just give them a letter saying that the university made a clerical error, and you freely release any claim to the 46 extra pesos." She asked the clerk that, and pointed out to him him that would be a lot easier both for her and for immigration to not have to do the
paperwork a second time.

The clerk replied, "You're right. We can probably do that, but I need to ask the office in Oaxaca City for permission first." Now she has to wait and see what Oaxaca says...

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[Prof.Gringo]

Just be sure that you keep a copy of everything that you give to INM. When I did a tramite to add an employer to my FM-3, I was told a few weeks later that I needed to pay the fee. I had already paid the fee and submitted the bank receipt with my original paperwork. Someone, somehow lost the proof of payment and they were saying that I had to pay again. I had a copy of my bank payment which I had stamped at INM with their official seal and date. I was able to show this to them and they accepted it (kinda hard to deny I paid when the copy has their official stamps all over it). I only had to write a note on another tramite form and wait for them to give me my FM-3 back.

[ls650]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[Aabra]

[Samantha]

Aabra wrote:

[MamaOaxaca]

I've already talked to the OP about this at the water cooler, but then I thought, hey, in this business there just might be some lurker dude out there working in Mexico with a Chinese girlfriend he wants to marry. So I thought I'd post. I happen to know that Chinese cannot change from a tourist visa to an FM3 for work, because our school has employed two Chinese professors. (No we don't teach Chinese, they were ceramic engineers.) They had to have their FM3 before hand. But being as this is Mexico, it might be different for a dependent FM3 so I've asked the OP to check with INM just to be sure. I also know from past experience that Russians and Indians also have to arrange their FM3 before hand, just FYI there.
On Abra-Sam topic, while yes there are many other religions in Mexico the vast majority of the country is Catholic and the Mexican Catholic church is very fussy about us non-catholics infiltrating their ranks. In the US a Catholic priest will marry a Catholic to a non-catholic just asking the non-catholic to promise to raise their children Catholic. In Mexico a priest will not marry anyone to anyone who has not been properly baptized, confirmed, presented, and communioned in the church. And Sam is right, Church weddings are legal so you have to do the civil anyways. To do the civil you have to get permision form INM because marrying is not one of your approved activities. Of course you have to pay for that permission, then the civil registry will ask for an official government translation of your birth certificate. It's kind of a pain to get married as a foreigner in Mexico and might be worth the price of a weekend get away in one of those small Caribbean countries that specialize in destination weddings.

[Samantha]

I've learned something new, Melee. I thought the only time you needed permission from INM was if you were marrying a Mexican. I have a friend who does wedding planning and she hasn't mentioned that, but then again she must just help tourists for their 2 week vacations and honeymoons. Interesting.

FYI, none of my Mexican family or their spouse families are Catholic and I have been to several non-Catholic weddings amongst our circle of friends, too. I have always seen the legal civil ceremony come first, and then the much more beautiful church ceremony. They are usually held within a day or two of each other, though one foreign teacher I know was moaning because he married his fiance and then had to wait 3 weeks longer for the church wedding and the honeymoon (Catholic affair, that one, and something to do with arriving relatives).

[Aabra]

[Samantha]

There was nothing condescending (or flaming) in my post at all. If you don't like my writing style, well so be it, but I like to see correct information provided to Mexico newbies and in the archives.

You proclaimed that if getting married in Mexico, you had to prove you were Catholic. I pointed out that wasn't so. I'm sorry that you consider being corrected as negative, flaming or condescending, but if you go out on a limb like that in giving advice, please be prepared to be corrected if it isn't fact.