I’m a big fan of learning how and trying to do things by yourself. Even when it comes to bureaucratic Mexico. We’re going to talk about when I needed help, when I attempted things by myself – mostly successes and one slightly expensive mess-up.
Temporary Residency with a Lawyer
When I applied for my Temporary Residency in Playa del Carmen, I was still a newbie in Mexico. My Spanish conversation skills were subpar and government processes made me queasy. On top of that, transportation around Playa del Carmen is a little difficult and fighting with the taxistas about not being gringo-priced was a pain (comparative to now living in Mexico City, where public transportation and Uber or Didi is easy as pie, and affordable). I hired a lawyer to help me with my first official Mexican government process there, and she was fantastic.
For those in Playa del Carmen who would like assistance, here’s my recommended lawyer:
Teresa Rubi Mendiola: https://mendiolasspc.wordpress.com/
Here is a wonderful website with updated immigration info from a trusted immigration lawyer in San Miguel de Allende:
https://soniadiazmexico.com/category/visas/
My Regularization Temporary Residency Experience
Teresa helped me with a special temporary residency program that was available in 2020-2025. (The regularization program has now been sunset and is no longer available). This required me to send digital documents to her, she made my appointment, informed me what to bring to the office on the day of my appointment. Once at the office, my case file was prepared. I had to go to the bank next door to pay two government fees and bring the stamped payment receipts back to include in my file.
We went to INM together as a small group of around 10. She had us sit in the waiting area while she was at the desk dealing with all the nuances of documents. I was called up an hour or so later to sign a document. They warned me that there may be an interview conducted, but I didn’t have one. I sat back down and waited for them to call me for a photograph. They took my photo, printed my card and I was officially a 4-year temporary resident!
Sounds lovely to hire a lawyer, right? Of course it is. You don’t have any heavy lifting. And if that’s your preferred method to pay someone to print a simple set of documents for you, cool! If you want to save the (possibly) thousands on a lawyer fee, I’m going to explain how to do these processes on your own in easy walk-though steps.
Story Time
Now, story time where you get the privilege to learn from my mistakes if you’re ready this.
I have successfully completed a few government processes in Mexico City on my own, by doing my own research and watching some YouTube videos.
Mexican Driver’s License
I got my feet wet with applying for my Mexican drivers license (I lost the ability to hold a US drivers license when I changed my domicile officially to Mexico), so I prepared myself and obtained my first Mexican drivers license.
Read about how to get a Mexican drivers license here (coming soon)
Renewing your US Passport from Abroad
Next, my US passport was expiring. I needed to get it renewed from Mexico for the first time. That didn’t specifically involve interacting directly with the Mexican government but it did involve me needing to get it done as quickly as possible after my final trip outside of Mexico before I had to set my residency appointment. I was lucky that it required only some simple paperwork, a photo, a payment and a trip to DHL. Luckily, my passport renewal only took a few weeks and I received an email that it was ready to be picked up. One of the easiest processes!
How to renew your US Passport from Mexico (coming soon)
A BIG issue to avoid BEFORE changing your Residency
Thirdly, I began having friends who received their 4-year temporary residency around the same time I did and we were all coming to our expiration dates, which means the next path is to convert to permanent residency. I knew my time was coming soon (be sure to check the date on your card, it’s very important not to miss windows for renewals and changes), so I was paying close attention to their processes and asking questions.
One big issue that I kept hearing about was the massive penalty the applicants were being hit with if their address wasn’t up-to-date. Renewing/converting to permanent is already not terribly cheap, so I wasn’t about to lose extra money by not having my address up-to-date since I had recently moved into a new, permanent apartment.
Address Change with the Government
Therefore, my next government experience – this time my first time at INM (Instituto Nacional de Migración) – was to do a change of address to avoid any penalties when my time came to change my residency.
How to change your address in Mexico (coming soon)
Change from Temporary to Permanent Residency… Attempt 1
Great, so now I’m up-to-date and starting to prepare for my residency change, which I knew the first thing I needed to do was make an appointment within 30 days of the expiration date of my temporary residency. I created a trámite early to begin looking at appointments to try to understand how they release new calendar dates. There’s not really a rhyme or reason to exactly how the government releases appointments. But more or less, dates are released 19 calendar days in advance, with no weekend or holiday dates released.
Making an Appointment and Preparing Documents
I was able to book my appointment on day 30 before the expiration of my temporary residency with a lot of vigilance. I reviewed all of the requirements on the INM website. I felt good about it. I had all my ducks in a row with my paperwork. I felt over-prepared with 3 copies of everything, a USB drive with all the documents in case I needed anything extra, digital copies on my iCloud drive.
INM for my Appointment
I took an Uber and arrived to INM in Polanco 30 minutes before my scheduled appointment. I went to the side door to check in, confidently handed them my printed appointment confirmation (not my first rodeo). The agent checked me in and told me to sit in the next seat. The seated line took about two hours. You’re not allowed to have your phone out, so I brought a book.
When my turn arrived, my agent asked for my documents and passport. He flipped through and told me that I was going to need to pay the $13k pesos residency fee today. I told him, I am prepared for that, should I pay now? He said not yet. He moved around my paperwork, entered some info into the computer system, made copies of things. After about 10 minutes, he had me sign my NUT (Número Único de Trámite) form and told me that I will receive an email with an update on the status. I asked about how long and he replied typically 5 days right now.
He never had me pay the $13k pesos he mentioned. That felt strange. Did he forget to have me pay? Will my file get denied because I didn’t pay? I just decided to stay calm and wait for the reply in the next handful of days.
Nearly three weeks had gone by. At this point, I had called the office (with help of my neighbor) to see if they can check the status and if any problems ensued due to not paying. They ensured that the payment isn’t holding up the process, and it can take up to 30 business days for the result. I explained that I can’t wait that long due to a trip. She told me that I may need to do a Permiso de Salida y Regreso in that case.
I decided to reach out to a lawyer out of desperation to get some answers. A friend recommended me someone. I texted him and he gave me a bit of information, explaining that not paying was weird but they will just have me pay when I go in for my fingerprints and photo. The following day after I messaged him, I finally received an email from INM with their decision.
The Email NO ONE Wants to Receive
I quickly revised the two-page result document. Something seemed wrong. I called my Mexican friend to translate the document to me, to make sure I understood exactly what it said.
They denied my request to change to permanent residency because I had forgotten to put my middle name on the trámite form. Every other part of my submission was fine.
Back to INM
I recreated the document stack and went into INM first thing the following morning, assuming this would be an easy fix since it seemed that I just needed to correct the one document. Turns out, that was far from the truth.
I was advised to go to the information desk. I spoke with an agent who was bilingual, luckily. I can speak Spanish but it gets difficult when I’m emotional or upset. I come to find that the entire first submission was denied, meaning my file was closed. I needed to submit a new trámite with a completely full new document set… with a new appointment. This is the part that was impossible, due to my upcoming trip.
The agent told me that I can come back the day before my trip and that he can squeeze me in as an emergency appointment. I needed to bring copies of the appointment calendar, showing no appointments are available by the time of my trip (this is so silly), all my documents for a new packet for my change of residency. I also needed a second trámite and documents for Permiso de Salida y Regreso (Permission to leave and return – this document is necessary if you have a trámite in process and you have to leave the country).
He told me to be there as early as possible before opening at 8am to be one of the first people in line. I asked if he’ll be working on Friday and he’ll remember this conversation to help me. He said yes and wrote my name in his notebook for that day; my name was the only name on the list.
Giving in to receiving help
I left in a panic. I messaged the lawyer and at this point, he requested payment for him to help (this was a slightly dumb, impulsive decision on my part). He had me send documents to him and we planned to meet that evening to review the document packet. My intention -really- was to hire someone who would have connections to get me in for an appointment and get this corrected as quickly as possible. This, he kind of promised, but mislead me – he didn’t have any connections inside to help.
We met and reviewed the document stack that he printed out for me (it was identical to the new one I had already created ::eye roll::). I signed where I needed and we chatted about what to do next. Although the agent told me to come back in 3 days, my lawyer thought it could be successful to go the next day.
He explained to me that not only was this my fault, but also the fault of the agent who accepted my first document packet. It is his responsibility to review the documents and to deny immediately if he finds any errors, not accepting the processing fee. This very well could have been why he didn’t have me pay the $13k pesos. He knew the error existed and yet accepted the $1800 peso processing fee. All while waiting nearly 3 weeks to decline my submission.
Then the lawyer had the audacity to say “this is why people hire professionals, so that little mistakes like this aren’t made.” (Remember this, it’s going to come back into the story)
Back to INM again
I return back to INM the next morning and talk to the same agent at the information desk. He confirms that he cannot do anything until the day before my trip. He flipped to the day in the notebook, verified my name was there and reassured me that he will be prepared to assist me that day, reminding me to bring printed copies of the appointment calendar and an extra copy of my flight itinerary.
I leave and text my lawyer that this was not a successful visit. He tells me to listen to the agent and return when he stated. (Reminder, he promised me that he had connections to help me – he did none of that)
The night before my emergency appointment, I decided to lay out all of my paperwork on the ground of my living room to review all the info and ensure there were no mistakes. I had two sets of documents to review: the change of residency and the permiso de salida y regreso. I looked through to verify that my name was spelled correctly everywhere, and my middle name was included. I review my CURP number and my passport information.
Low and behold, I find a mistake on one of the trámites that the lawyer had prepared. He put the wrong year of expiration for my passport. I circled it, and sent him a text telling him that he’d made a “small error” on my documents. (Let’s go back to when he told me “this is why people hire professionals…”) He nonchalantly says “Oh yeah, you’re right. Let me get you a new document.” I told him not to worry about it, that I had already recreated the trámite with the correct information, printed it and replaced it in the packet.
Be careful with lawyers. Just like you attempting to do this yourself – you are human who can make a small mistake like missing a middle name or misprinting a number. This lawyer’s error could have cost me a lot.
And again…
I woke up early, prepared myself in case I may be getting my photo taken. I took an Uber around 6:30am to INM. I was lucky to arrive early enough to get a spot in line very close to the front for the information desk. I arrived to the information desk and the agent remembered me. He looked through my documents, clipped my passport to my document file and told me to take a seat.
After an hour or so, he called up a group of about 15 of us. He handed each of us our packets and led us to a line on the other side of the building. We thought that the line looked reasonable and wait time wouldn’t be too crazy. Boy, were we wrong!
About 2-3 hours later, I finally arrived to the desk agent. He was a little cold at first but eventually warmed up with me. He reviewed my documents. He asked if I had already paid the processing fee the first time and I told him yes. He looked shocked and said “wow, that’s a lot of money.” I said, “I know” with a look of shame.
He reviewed each section of the trámite against my passport and wrote a check next to each part as he went through. I told him I appreciate his diligence in his work. He then asked me for my temporary resident card. I told him that I don’t have it because it is in the old file that they have here at INM. He didn’t fully comprehend what I was telling him and ended up needing to talk to him supervisor about it.
I was worried this was going to cause a problem. He came back after talking to his supervisor and said that they will need to request someone to get the file to obtain the card to put it into the new file. Then he proceeded to finish the process (yay!). I paid my processing fee and my residency fee. He had my sign a new NUT and sent me over to the Permiso de Salida y Regreso desk.
Permiso de Salida y Regreso
This was a straight forward process. I had all the documents prepared and had to wait about 30 minutes to work with a desk agent. She asked me a few questions about my trip and made a copy of my NUT to include one in the file. She did some entries into the computer, made some copies and told me to take a seat and she would call me back up.
Another 10 minutes later, she called me back up to give me the official Permiso document. She explained that it needs to be signed and stamped at the airport when I leave Mexico and again when I return to Mexico. Then I will need to return to INM to submit the signed document to them.
How to do a Permiso de Salida y Regreso (coming soon)
Approval!
A few days into my trip, I received an email that my change from temporary residency to permanent residency had been approved. It told me that I have 3 days to go in for fingerprints and photo – but since I had the permission to leave during the process, I was fine to do this as soon as I came back.
The day after I returned from my trip, I went into INM in the mid-afternoon. I submitted my signed Permiso de Salida y Regreso and then went into the line for my biometrics: fingerprints, photo and card. More about this here…
How to change your Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency (coming soon)
* This article was written without AI. I do love AI for certain aspects of my life and work, but writing a story is not one of them. I hope you enjoyed this AI-free article.
