Job Discussion Forums

[GueroPaz]

Hi, I'm new here. After 898 years in Thailand, I think it's time to make plans to move back to Mexico next year (Jan. or Aug.), to teach as an independiente. So, I have a few advanced or intermediate questions, if you don't mind helping out.

A. Should I get the apostille for my Thai TEFL cert made at the Mexican embassy in Bangkok?

B. Should I get my BA that I earned in Texas, authenticated/apostillicated at the Secretary of State in Austin, in person?

C. For which visa should I apply to become an independiente in Mexico? I am pensionado y retirado, with more than the required monthly income. US citizen.

D. Medical care. I have a good health plan, and can afford the better hospitals, but want a teaching hospital. Does that almost necessitate a huge metro area like DF, Guanajuato, Monterrey, etc? What about Veracruz city or Acapulco?

E. Swimming. I need a coastal city or some place where I can swim year round for less than 10 pesos per day admission.

F. Sex. I'm gay.

Any answers would be appreciated or humorously entertained.

Thanks, y'all.

[MELEE]

Wasn't it Siam 898 years ago?


I'll post again in the afternoon, after class!

[Samantha]

A) Here is the link with contact information and prices. http://www.sre.gob.mx/tailandia/

B) Someone from the USA can better answer this one, or read sticky post about apostilling at top of page.

C) If you are are retired with pension, or have other income from abroad the name of the FM3 is "rentista", but if you are going to be working in Mexico, you will need an FM3 which permits you to work.

D) I�m not sure I understand the question. Do you mean you want a Doctor in training to practise on you? IMSS Hospital is living dangerously enough for me. Or perhaps Red Cross or General Hospital.

E) There are sports clubs with indoor pools for monthly memberships. The ocean on the Pacific gets cold in the winter months.

F) What's the question?

[MELEE]

A. Should I get the apostille for my Thai TEFL cert made at the Mexican embassy in Bangkok? If Thailand is a signer or the Hague Convention then you need them (the Thai government) to give you an Apostille. There is a link in the Apostille Sticky at the top of the forum to a list of signer nations. If they are NOT a party to the Hague Convention then you do need the Mexican Embassy to legalize the document Sam provided you with the link for that--if those prices are up-to-date, it looks like it would be cheaper for you to process your FM3 there, but it also looks like they don't do independiente FM3 only for working for a company.

B. Should I get my BA that I earned in Texas, authenticated/apostillicated at the Secretary of State in Austin, in person? Yes, you could probably do it by mail, but if you are going to be in Austin it would be faster to go in person.

C. For which visa should I apply to become an independiente in Mexico? I am pensionado y retirado, with more than the required monthly income. US citizen. I assume you want to teach private lessons or free-lance at a variety of schools and that's why you say independiente? Well there is an FM3 just for that, search the forum, it's a bit mysterious, but some people here have actually gotten one. If you don't want to work legally you can go with the Rentista, which is what the retirees have, but it will be illegal for you to work. If you get a full time job at a school, they will sponsor you for an FM3 specifically for working at that school.

D. Medical care. I have a good health plan, and can afford the better hospitals, but want a teaching hospital. Does that almost necessitate a huge metro area like DF, Guanajuato, Monterrey, etc? What about Veracruz city or Acapulco? All of the state hospitals (IMSS AND ISSTE) are teaching hospitals. As far as I know in Mexico, the private hospitals are NOT teaching hospitals, but I've only ever been in really small private hospitals or in the ISSTE And IMSS hospitals. Sam's obviously never been to one. This is probably a better question for Mexico Connect or one of those board where all the retirees hang out. They'd know more about healthcare than most of us do. Mexico has many many large cities, they just happen to pale and look small next to it's mega capital. Other large cities on or very near the coast are: Hermosillo, Cuidad Obregon, Cuilacan, Matamoros, Tampico, Poza Rica, Acapulco, Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Villahermosa, and Merida.


E. Swimming. I need a coastal city or some place where I can swim year round for less than 10 pesos per day admission. I'm going to be bold and ask you, Why so cheap? seems you've got plenty coming in from your pension and you want to work on top of that. I've never been to a pool that charged less than 20 for an adult. The going rate around here is 35. There are loads of pools, if you went everyday you could maybe work out with the owners to pay a lower weekly or monthly fee. The climate is swimable most of the year, in the cities I mentioned above I imagine it would be swimming climate all year round.

F. Sex. I'm gay. I certainly hope you don't expect us to find you a partner!

[Samantha]

Melee wrote:

[Guy Courchesne]

[GueroPaz]

Thanks to everybody for your prompt , helpful replies. I'm checking the Mexican embassy now. I understand that Thailand is not a signatory to that Hague convention for apostilles, but that the Mex. embassy in BKK might be able to help. It isn't clear from their consular website that they help farang (foreigners) unless we're permanent residents of Thailand, which 99.19% of us are not. I can email or phone them, in English or Spanish. As Melee or Samantha pointed out, it appears they only issue FM3's for employees of Mexican companies. I can try the Mexican consulate in Houston.

By 'teaching hospital' I mean one connected to a faculty of medicine that grants medical degrees, and faculty members are specialists at the hospital. Sometimes you can find remarkably skilled surgeons in relatively small cities such as San Cristobal de Las Casas, but specialists are generally only in the bigger cities. However, the republica is not just DF, and Guadalalalajara also sounds too large.

I don't trust the post for sending my degree through the mail and return, so I plan to stop by Texas on my way to wherever.

Matamoros, even Tampico and Monterrey, are a bit too close to Texas. How big is Poza Rica? I stopped there for lunch once; I know it's a big oil town near Papantla. I always liked Tuxpan.

Yes, the Gulf is too cold in winter for swimming. I lived south of Tapachula on the beach, and swam in warm water on the first of January. A swim club would be fine, with an annual membership. I'm spoilt here, paying only sip baht (US$0.27) per visit. I saw a public or private pool in Veracruz near the first class bus station.

The part about being gay was just an informational point for random comments about what it might be like for a gay gringo. I've read almost ten pages of the topics/threads in the Mexico forum, so I understand that gay life in Mexico is not repressive or confined to a given neighborhood. However, if you wish to find me a boyfriend....

Independiente status just sounds convenient; I've done a fair share of tutoring in my life, including ESL in Texas, and I enjoy it.
Again, thanks for the comments.

[Samantha]

The one thing you should keep in mind when receiving advice on this forum is that Immigration is handled differently in each location. Quite differently in some cases. In fact, not just Immigration. Wages, hours, prices, local customs, even the language is unique to a particular area.

You may be surprised to learn that many jobs in Mexico are part-time, necessitating teachers work in more than one location. And not nearly all schools want to be involved with handing over their paperwork (several reasons) and will stall around getting things together.

One size does not fit all here, so please remember that if you don't see the words "this is the way it is in my area". Good luck!

[TheLongWayHome]

[GueroPaz]

Thanks, Sam, for warning me that the govt. offices here, and the local dialects, are perhaps as diverse as the ones here in Thailand. In other words, unpredictable.

Once I was waiting for a bus, near the border of Chiapas and Guatemala, with a couple from Spain. Pine forest, with orchids. Cold, clear lakes. Big yellow school bus comes careening around the corner, filled with 48 Mayas, two pigs, several chickens. I say to the Spaniards, "Como le dijo' la nina Dorotea, a su perro 'Toto': 'Pienso que no estamos en Kansas, todavia."

But then we were in the marketplace in Ciudad Cuatemoc, Chihuahua, on our way to the lavanderia, when a pickup passed us and a 9 year old boy shouted, "I'm from Kansas!!" At that laundromat, 14 year old Maria explained that she got the American 25cent coins to operate the washing machines from her brothers: "Tengo quatro hermanos en Omaha!" Before I realized how it worked, Maria explained that I had to 'buy' her 25 cent coins to operate the machines. She offered me about $3 worth of gringo coins for the peso equivalent of $1.40. I started this long lesson that the currencies were unequal, conversion ratios, etc. Finally Maria kindly tells me, "These funny shiny metal pieces are not money; they are just tokens for the machines."

Starting out independiente, and building up my hours by reputation, is fine. Can I work at a language school or private school like that, and they'll be happy to get my recibos and they won't have to pay payroll taxes for me?

One last question: my computer keyboard cannot type Spanish, but I know how to use a Spanish keyboard. How do I install it?

[cangringo]

Guero,

If you have a degree you should have no problem getting an independiente...you have to make sure to be clear that this is what you are applying for. As Sam says it is very different in different areas. In Monterrey we found out they are not very friendly and helpful and it was difficult to get anything done. We would have been able to get our fm3 to teach at a school but we could not get our independiente because we don�t have degrees, however they did no mention this to us until the day they told us to leave the country.

Also Monterrey is a very large city and there are pools there but if you are the kind that likes swimming a lot I do not recommend it. It�s also quite industrial and not very pretty although people who live there will tell you it is.

We really like it here in La Paz on the Baja and since we are on the Sea of Cortes, it doesn�t get as cold in the winter as the Pacific. However, the medical care here apparently leaves something to be desired. The best recommendation I had was to get your own doctor and then if you have any sort of emergency you call your doctor and they meet you at the hospital. That part is a little disconcerting.

The immigration office here is very small and they are very helful.

I have a question of my own about the independiente...the immi office here mentioned an exam that we can take since we don�t have degrees and then we can get our independientes. Has anyone every heard of this??? No one else here has heard of it.

[Sgt Killjoy]

I have a feeling that the 10 pesos a day is something important for Guero Paz! It took me a few seconds to figure it out!

Mexico is a nice place, I miss it to after so long.......

[geaaronson]

The FM3 independente work visa is the only independente that I know of, (heavens forbid, I have to add this parenthetical aside or I am grammatically guilty). I got mine in Merida which I strongly advise as a possible coastal city with a nice nearby beach. Actually several, and none have entrance fees. If you wish to go with the crowd, drink Tecate with 300 other beer guzzling Mexicans on the sands, with boutiques and fish restaurants galore, then Progresso only 18 miles from Merida is the place for you. Or you can wander further east or west on the Gulf coast for 15 miles in either direction and there are less frequented beaches, all at no entrance fee. Or you can take the 1.5 hour bus to Celestun, spend the time on the beach and go visit the flamingos in their national preserve.
If youre going back to Austin, I would get the apostilling done there at the secretary of state. In georgia it was dirt cheap. $4, if I remember correctly, and I got both degrees apostilled, just in case. Had to have a notary sign it first and that was a hangup in my case as my notary`s handwriting had changed slightly and the secretary of state of Georgia had it on her computer database. I had to go back to the notary and have another copy signed, which she did incorrectly and had to make a third trip back to another notary.

[GueroPaz]

Thanks, geaaranson, for the tip about Merida. I once spent a week or so at Puerto Progreso (shallow water!) and visited the doll house ruin at Dzibilchin (sp), etc. I didn't realize it's only 30 km from Merida to the beach; that's not too bad. Plenty of work in Merida? Is that water swimmable all year?

[geaaronson]

No there�s not much ESL work in Merida. You won�t find much work in any of the coastal areas in Mexico. They are all highly sought by gringoes and not much work to start with. Acapulco will probably be your best bet, followed by Villahermosa, but then there won�t be all that much work at either for that matter.