Job Discussion Forums

[the peanut gallery]

Now that I have your attention, here is the real story

I have been living in Spain for the last 7 years with my Mexican better half. Last year we got married (Registro Civil in Barcelona, Church service in Mexico). At the end of this year we will move back to Mexico. We are pretty clueless as to what we will need to register and legalize our wedding in Mexico upon our return. Permanent residency will be my ultimate goal. Does anyone have any experience with this process? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, I will obviously need to find a job. I'm assuming I need an FM2, but have heard (and read on this forum) that there are a few different variations of said document. Does anyone know what is best for someone in my soon to be situation (married to a local, no firm job offer but pounding the pavement)?

Thanks in advance for all who take the time to reply.

[TheLongWayHome]

Tricky one... you can get an FM2 as the spouse of a Mexican (either working or as a dependent) - whether you have to be legally married in Mexico is another question. It's not absolutely necessary to have an FM2 if you're married to a Mexican. You can just as easily get an FM3 and save yourself $1000+ pesos a year.

If your goal is citizenship, then you can apply for it after 2 years of marriage to a Mexican or as soon as you have hijos mexicanos. You can also go through 4 and a bit years of an FM2, get inmigrado status then apply for nationalization.

I imagine it would just be a question of getting your marriage certificate validated here.

[Phil_K]

Are you European? If so, don't go down the citizenship route, because technically you are required to renounce your own nationality, and as a citizen of the EU, it's too much to lose. I say technically, however, as I've heard many cases where naturalized Mexicans have gone down to their Embassy and got a new passport without problems. There is little difference in the advantages between naturalization and inmigrado (permanent residency).

[notamiss]

[MotherF]

Some things have changed since TLWH got his info on becoming a citizen. You now must reside in Mexico for two years immediately leading up to your application for natuaralization as a spouse or parent of Mexicans.
See the details here.
http://www.sre.gob.mx/tramites/nacionalidad/default.htm

You will need to get an Apostille on your Spanish marriage certificate before leaving Spain. Your spouse will have to take that to the civil registry to get his marriage registered. You will probably also need an apostilled copy to get yourself on the "registro national de extranjeros".

[the peanut gallery]

TLWH / notamiss

I held an FM3 for 3 years last time I lived in Mexico, and as you point out, is a good option for the medium term. Since we are moving back permanently and my spouse also will not be employed (she also needs to get the CV's flying out the door) do you know if its possible to be her dependant, considering she wont be able to demonstrate income? I wouldn't thinks so. That is the problem that i can see: without a firm job offer, and the likelihood of not qualifying as a dependant, how do I move from FMM to FM2? If 180 days on my FMM pass without a job offer I would then need to leave the country. Hence my concern over the application for the FM2.

Phil K

My UK passport disqualifies the practicality of Mexican citizenship for me. I think permanent residency via the FM2 is my best bet.

MotherF

Thanks for the info.

[Guy Courchesne]

No, you will not be able to list yourself as her dependent if she can't show an income I'm afraid.

[the peanut gallery]

Yeah, logical Guy.

Anyone else want to weigh in with where that leaves my options?

[TeresaLopez]

Unless things have changed recently, you don't have to have a job, there are several options for showing you have enough $$ to support a spouse. One of them is, of course, a pay stub, but other option is to show your three last bank statements, idealing showing more or less the same balance each month. They don't specify an amount, but when I got my FM2, we showed several bank statements with an average balance of around $20,000, though it varied from month to month. That was fine with them. So you might want to print out the list of requirements and see if there is a way around the job thing. My husband doesn't have a job, but several businesses, so they accepted the bank statements as proof of income.

[Guy Courchesne]

Various forms to print out as Teresa states are found at http://www.inm.gob.mx/index.php/page/tramites

[notamiss]

[Mrs L]

And it works the other way round too. My Mexican spouse is about to become a British citizen without losing his Mexican nationality.

[mejms]

I've got a question too. I'm due to renew my FM-2 for the second time in March next year. I've been told in immigration that I'll need to renew the FM-2 for the second time and then, after picking up the renewed visa a few weeks later, I can begin the process to become a citizen. I'm more interested in citizenship than permanent residency because of the time restrictions in being out of Mexico when you're a permanent resident. I don't remember the exact times, but if you're a permanet resident and out of Mexico for a certain amount of time within a couple years, you lose your residency.

I'm from the states. Does anyone know if Mexico requires you to renounce your nationality? I've heard of it. Also, does anyone know of other advantages/disadvantages of being a Mexico citizen versus permanent residency. Say, social security checks, for one?

On another note, we're going to have a baby in December. Does anyone know if this changes my possibilities in becoming a citizen? If I don't have to go through with another visa renewal in March, that would be good.

And anyone know how much the road to citizenship costs?

[mejms]

I'm lazy. I asked all those questions and then just went the website some gave as a link and got them answered, so I'd just like to focus on this question:

[TeresaLopez]

Yes, in theory you do, but the US doesn't really recognize it, and you can keep your US passport if you want.