By Paola Velasco
Recently we have heard numerous comments from the foreign community in San Miguel de Allende about issues they are experiencing processing their legal stay in Mexico. We spoke with a lawyer who has specialized for over 15 years in this area. Our source prefers to remain anonymous so as not to affect the process of any current clients.
The National Institute of Migration (INM) is a federal program, but each office has a specific way of handling processes. Each office decides on working hours, document reception hours, and even business days. For example, Monday December 12 is not an official holiday in Mexico, but some Immigration offices were closed. Each office makes these decisions at the last minute.
Some Immigration offices continue to allow a program called regularization, a temporary program that falls under Electronic System for Migratory Proceedings (SETRAM, spelled in Spanish), not Immigration. It allows a person to request a Temporary Resident visa for four years if they have an expired FMM tourist card and have entered Mexico and are registered in the INM database. Some immigration offices began accepting these requests on December 31, 2020, others starting a year earlier. Other INM offices do not allow regularization. There is a fine associated with this process, and that fine can be two to three times higher in some INM offices. This includes the Immigration office in San Miguel.
Another major problem is that resident visa cards cannot be issued the day a person presents the documents to Immigration. There are often problems with software, the printer, or the computer system. Sometimes there is a lack of cards. The delay in obtaining a visa can be days or weeks. This has important consequences for applicants who need to travel outside of Mexico, and creates an additional cost. Visitors with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for their car can only extend their permit for 30 days. In San Miguel, this is resolved by going to the Customs offices at the Querétaro airport. Without a Temporary Resident card, though, the car permit cannot be extended within 30 days. That means that they lose their TIP deposit, which is US$200-400.
Earlier this year, there was a national appointment system. One could make an appointment online, and get a designated time and place based on availability. With a scheduled appointment, the resident card was issued. The program was working well, but with no explanation it stopped working. Now each office runs differently. In Mexico City, if one arrives around 7am, one can usually get the card that day. In Mérida, people line up starting at 6pm the day before. In Puerto Vallarta, the appointment system works. Usually, the person can get an appointment in a few days. In Nayarit, each applicant must arrive around 2am to be served that day. No one is permitted to stand in line for someone else.
In San Miguel de Allende, through the fall of 2022 there was an appointment system, though the wait could take up to three hours. This system provided some security to the applicants. However, about six weeks ago all appointments were cancelled with no reason given. Now, in order to be seen at the INM office in San Miguel, people arrive around midnight. Some come in from Querétaro or the city of Guanajuato. Only 20 people are served each day. The first person to arrive starts a list, and names are added as people arrive. When the office opens at 9am, the staff reviews the list, and confirms that everyone is present. Anyone over the number 20 is told to leave, and come back another day. The wait can last all morning. There are no bathrooms, and people wait in their cars or in the cold sitting on chairs. There are children, the elderly, the disabled, etc. If a family of five arrives, at 9am they can be told that only two people in the family can be served. That means the family has to spend three days waiting outside. If they come from another city, they have to stay in a hotel or drive to San Miguel on three days. If there are problems with the computers, printers, etc., they may have to come back again.
These are just some of the problems that are being experienced in the Immigration office in San Miguel de Allende. Changes and decisions are being made with no regard for the public.
