Permanently a Resident!

 

You may recall that at the beginning of August I began the process of applying for my permanent Mexican residency visa.  My two year temporary visa was going to expire in August, and, since I am married to a Mexican citizen, I was eligible for a permanent visa.  Since obtaining my temporary visa had been such a pain in the derriere, we contacted an immigration lawyer to facilitate the process.

I assumed that I would have my visa before leaving on my trip to Ohio in September, but then I read that it can take between two to eight weeks to receive it.  I had to get a special document allowing me to leave the country and return while my application was being processed  By the time I returned from Ohio, more than eight weeks had passed.  There was still no word on my visa.  I was starting to worry a bit.

Then, last Monday, we received word from the lawyer's office that the visa had been approved.  We were to meet the lawyer's assistant at 10:30 at the "Instituto Nacional de Migración".  There I was to be fingerprinted, have my photo taken, and receive my visa card.  The assistant met me outside and led me to the side entrance.  He gave me a document that said that my visa had been approved, and that was my pass to enter the building.  I was to go to the biometrics office upstairs.  However, when I reached the stairs, the policeman told me to take a seat.  "Old geezers", the disabled, and families with small children don't have to trudge up the steps.  (I guess in the two years since my last visit, I had passed the threshold of being considered an "old man".) There was a separate biometrics office for us on the ground floor.

Judging from my experience when I got my temporary visa, I figured that I would have a lengthy wait.  I think the wait would have been shorter if I had been upstairs in the large biometrics room where there might be one hundred or more people waiting their turn.  Downstairs there were perhaps a couple dozen people waiting, but there was just one employee shuffling papers, doing the fingerprinting, taking the photos, and running to and from the office where the cards are printed.

I had entered the building around 11:00 AM and it was not until 1:30 PM that I left with my permanent residency card in my hand.  My new status gives me all the rights of a Mexican citizen, except, of course, for the right to vote.  I am even allowed to seek employment in Mexico.  Yeah, right.  As if this retired "geezer" is going to go back to work!