Catemaco immigration

After anyone has been living permanently in the Mexican provinces for a while, the joy of "HAVING TO" travel twice a year to a nearby major city with an immigration office to renew an FM2 or FM3 visa becomes a major hindrance to enjoying Mexico.

Many choose to go the route of becoming an "imigrado" which basically gives them absolutely no more privileges than their FM status, except they do not need to waste their lives and money on yearly renewals of their visa.

Some opt for Mexican citizenship, especially those in the zones not fit for foreigners to buy (50 kilometers within the coastline and 100 kilometers within the border).

This choice of citizenship is usually available after having spent 5 years of residence in Mexico on FM visas without any notable blemishes. It also requires a knowledge of Spanish , a few other
quirks, and a penchant for waiting for eternity.

Apparently, like most anything in Mexico, citizenships are for sale. A dimwit monolingual bigot resident in Catemaco, Veracruz apparently recently received his citizenship after paying someone on the Mexican west coast 70,000 pesos to arrange for a passport.

So now he can buy property along the Mexican coast and save himself the fideocomiso costs, now running around 600 + dollars per year less the 2 yearly trips to renew an FM visa less the outrageous annual fees that Mexican immigration charges to annually renew visas.

Considering all that - maybe this dimwit was a smart Catemaco bigot.

Catemaco Migra-ine

Living in beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz has a few problems specific to only gringos with FM3 visas.
An FM3 visa holder has to visit the immigration office once a year which requires two days.
I have now discovered a new wrinkle which might require an extra two days. Within the FM3 visa it states that a change of address must be recorded within 30 days.

Like the fool that I am I requested a change of address with my request for an extension of my FM3 visa. The foolish part, of course was that I mentioned that I changed my address more than 30 days before I requested the extension.
So, naturally, in their usual helpful way at this government office, they did not inform me of the penalty for not informing them of my change of address within 30 days.
So today I had to pay a 500 peso multa (fine) for my failure to lie.

And it dawned on me, that some stupid FM3 foreigner living in different hotels in beautiful Catemaco, while seeking a home, would legitimately have to pass more time in Veracruz City than living in any other place in the state, while filing change of address forms.

I do believe that the Veracruz City government tourism office has bribed the Mexican Immigration office to enforce that change of address rule. Otherwise, I would not expect a Mexican government agency to be so stupid.

And if you wonder why I posted these stupid photos, it is because it is absolutely forbidden to take photos within the immigration building, which is really a very beautifully restored historic building. So, naturally, accidentally, my camera clicked.

60,000 pesos to escape from Catemaco?

Hell, I´d possibly marry someone for that.

Did those caciques that control the Mexican economy get involved in emigration?

Some of these prices being quoted for passage across the US border are similar to the prices being charged for an old car in Mexico before the opening of the customs borders.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz is not exempt from the attempted exodus. My carpenter recently returned after leaving me hanging on a bed room set, and is now looking for work. To hell with him!

It is not the few national guards shipped to control the US border, it is the sentiment of danger being experienced by possible Mexican emigrants. I hope it continues, I would hate to lose another good gardener.

Meanwhile I have a suggestion:
Catemaco´s port of Balzapote, long known for transportation of square groupers (packaged marijuana) should be available for passenger transit. Get aboard and visit the Texas or Florida coast. This poor village has recently been fighting to get some beneficial returns from Veracruz miners intent to devour some of its hill sides for fill operations elsewhere.

A passenger terminal staffed by agents of Mexico´s Immigration Service would really be a benefit to the Balzapote community.

Catemaco Pollo

I had been building a home in beautiful uptown Catemaco for 2+ years and forced myself to stop because I had trouble walking my hillside terrain on the edge of Laguna Catemaco. It was a big job and employed many workers. I had been in construction for many years in another life and found my albañiles (construction workers) to be better or on par with anyone I ever worked with.

And that was after paying them only about 15% of my labor cost in the USA.

So, today, my last survivor from the original crews, whom I had converted into a maintenance gardener, advised me he is heading north. His cousins have work for him in Canada.

Since I pay this person well (at least 20% above the going rate), pay his insurance, which is unusual in Mexico, provide him with dozens of opportunities to earn extra money, allow him benefits of free cement, paint, any fruit he can pick, firewood, etc, - pay him a 15 day year end bonus, plus holidays, sick days, vacations, etc, plus use of my property for baccanalias - I began to think I´m not just a patron (boss, in Spanish), but also perhaps a little patronizing.

So, this extraordinarily hardworking man, who now has a tiny concrete house with gorgeous wooden windows just meters away from Laguna Catemaco, and 2 lovely children, a very accomodating wife who daily delivered his lunches, 2 cows, several small pieces of terrain, and a bicycle I bought for him after I drove over his old one - he now heads for Canada.
The pollero (people smuggler) that will take him to Canada will collect 25,000 Mexican pesos, around US 2,200.

So I told him Canada does not require visas of Mexicans, just a passport, and some reasonable responses at the immigration point in Canada. And I told him, a Mexican passport is obtainable within a few days, if you have a Mexican birth certificate and voter registration card and costs as little as 700 pesos for 1 year´s validity.

And I told him, excursion round trip fares from Mexico City to Toronto are in the neighborhood of US 600 dollars. (He needs to show a roundtrip ticket to fool the immigration officer).
And I estimated he will have to work for 3-4 months to pay for his trip there and back before sending 50 centavos to his family.

I guess, that´s where the "patronizing" aspect comes in play again. He would prefer to go the pollero way. Incidentally, the pollero does not guarantee work, the cousins do.

At least he is not as dumb as the son of an American friend here in beautiful downtown Catemaco, who advised his dad he will cross the border illegally to make some some effort to support the woman he impregnated. Apparently my American friend never got the idea across to his Mexican son that he is entitled to a US passport.

I wish all of them well. Frankly, if I were a countryside youth in Mexico, I would go NORTH.
Unfortunately most of the ones who do, come back to Mexico, build a second story on their home, throw a giant party, and revert to their previous life.

Mexican emigration

Perhaps someone adept at crawling across 30 miles of Arizona or someone who previously lived in a tent in Southern Pakistan, would possibly consider this column righteous.

The Mexican Immigration authorities, content with millions of their compatriots escaping to the land of milk and honey, maintain a bureaucracy designed to keep US citizens out of beautiful downtown Catemaco and elsewhere in Mexico.

Unable to convince its own citizens to pay taxes, the Mexican government imposes US 125 to 250 yearly fees for legal non-Mexicans, who have proved that their income arrives from OUTSIDE Mexico, and do so only after at least 2 yearly trips to an immigration office with about a pound of paper work.

Whatever happened to neoliberal equality among nations? Why can an illegal immigrant to the US get free healthcare, and buy whatever he wants, while my buddy who wants to invest some money into a Mexican bank account to invest in Mexico, has to spend several hundred man hours into kissing inept bureaucrats behinds, before being permitted to do so?

As I explained to my mystified Gringo buddy: Actually, most everybody in Mexico does so. This is neither an ethnic nor personal nor anti-American insult.