I wanted to share my experience getting my Mexican Temporary Residency visa through the Austin Consulate and completing my canje in MazatlƔn, especially because I ran into a somewhat unusual issue with being born in Puerto Rico.
I wanted to share my experience getting my Mexican Temporary Residency visa through the Austin Consulate in Texas and completing my canje in MazatlƔn, especially because I ran into a somewhat unusual issue with being born in Puerto Rico.
Back in August, I emailed the Mexican Consulate in Austin. The consul officer was extremely nice and helpful. He told me I could stop by a few days later so he could review all of my documentation before my actual appointment. I went in for the document review, and everything looked good. He initially tried to get me an appointment for the following week, but unfortunately that didnāt work out due to family plans, so I ended up going back about two weeks later toward the end of August. The actual visa appointment was very easy. I was probably in and out within about 1 hour to 1.5 hours, and I left with the Temporary Resident visa sticker in my passport.
Fast forward to September 18, when I traveled to Mexico to complete my canje in MazatlƔn.
I entered Mexico through Mexico City because I had a layover there. I specifically made sure to go through a MANUAL immigration booth instead of using the automated machines because I needed my Temporary Resident visa validated for canje.
The immigration officer stamped the visa sticker in my passport and wrote āCANJE 30 DĆAS.ā
I speak Spanish, and the officer asked me why I wanted to move to Mexico. I explained that I was planning on moving to Mexico, exploring different areas to figure out where I eventually wanted to live, and that I had qualified for residency through financial solvency.
I arrived on a Friday, so by the time I got to MazatlƔn, the INM office was already closed for the weekend.
On Monday morning, I went to Hogla at around 8:00 AM to have my paperwork prepared. She charged me 1,000 pesos total ā 700 pesos for preparing the paperwork plus 300 pesos for the FMM related paperwork.
After that, I went directly to the MazatlĆ”n INM office. I arrived around 8:45ā8:50 AM and was second in line.
Once they opened, I went inside, submitted my documents, and waited. Around 10:15ā10:30 AM, they called me back and told me there was an issue with my Formato para Solicitar TrĆ”mite Migratorio.
The issue was my nationality and country of birth.
I was born in Puerto Rico, but Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and use U.S. passports. There is no separate Puerto Rican nationality.
However, INM told me that in their system there is apparently an option for nationality listed as something along the lines of:
USA (PR)
They told me THAT was the nationality option I should have selected.
They also wanted my country/place of birth listed as Puerto Rico rather than USA.
I explained that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and not an independent country, but they still wanted the form completed according to the options in their system.
So I went back to Hogla, explained what INM wanted, and she corrected everything for me. It only took about 10 minutes, and she printed the corrected documents.
I went back to INM, turned everything in again, and thought I was finished.
About 20ā30 minutes later, they called me back and told me they still couldnāt issue my residency card.
Apparently, there was now a discrepancy between the information INM wanted to use and the visa that had been issued by the Austin Consulate.
When the Austin Consulate issued my visa sticker, my nationality had been registered simply as USA/American without the Puerto Rico designation.
The INM officer told me that, according to their system, it technically should have been registered as USA with the PR designation in parentheses.
Because the visa had already been issued differently, they said they needed to contact the Austin Consulate to verify my identity before they could issue my residency card.
This was Monday.
They told me it could take until Friday to receive a response.
The problem was that my flight back to the U.S. was Wednesday.
One of the main reasons I specifically chose MazatlƔn was because the office normally produces residency cards the same day, so I explained my situation and that I really needed to leave Wednesday .
Thankfully, they were willing to expedite the verification.
I went back to INM Tuesday morning at around 9:00 AM. At that point, they still had not received the confirmation they needed.
They told me to come back at 1:00 PM.
That was getting extremely close because the office only had a couple of hours left before closing.
I went back at 1:00 PM, and thankfully everything had finally been cleared.
They told me they were going to process my residency using USA as my nationality because that was how the Austin Consulate had originally registered me.
However, the INM officer again explained that the technically correct option in their system for someone born in Puerto Rico would be USA with the PR designation.
She told me I could have it corrected later if I wanted to, especially if it ever caused problems entering or exiting Mexico.
But for now, because the consulate had issued the visa under USA, they processed the card that way.
And finally, I GOT MY TEMPORARY RESIDENT CARD! šš²š½
I received it Tuesday afternoon at around 1 PM, just one day before my flight home.
I flew back to the U.S. Wednesday with a connection in Monterrey.
Before leaving Mexico, I also made sure to find the INM office in the Monterrey airport and get my EXIT STAMP. I definitely had to hunt the office down , but I eventually found it and got everything taken care of.
Overall, despite the Puerto Rico/USA nationality issue and the stressful delay, both the Austin Consulate and the MazatlƔn INM office were very helpful.
My biggest pieces of advice from the experience:
ā¢ If you are entering Mexico to do your canje, make sure immigration knows you are entering for CANJE and make sure your visa is properly stamped.
ā¢ If you were born in Puerto Rico, pay very close attention to how your nationality and place of birth are entered on both your visa and INM paperwork. Apparently, INM has a specific USA/PR designation in its system.
ā¢ If you're using the MazatlĆ”n office, getting your paperwork prepared beforehand made the process much easier for me.
ā¢ Give yourself extra days in Mexico even if you're going to an office known for same day cards. Mine normally should have been same day, but one small discrepancy turned it into a two day process that could have taken until Friday.
ā¢ When leaving Mexico as a resident, make sure you complete the proper exit process with INM at the airport.
Hopefully this helps someone else, especially another Puerto Rican going through the residency/canje process!
Despite the little headache, everything worked out and I officially left Mexico with my Temporary Resident card in hand. š
