Got my permanente card today...and the process was painless

After five years as a temporary resident, I renewed as permanent. The whole process took three months from the time the renewal was filed to the time I picked up the card at the Chapala immigration office...that includes a week or two delay due to the Christmas holiday. My passport was the only documentation that was required. I only had to go to the immigration office two times, once to be fingerprinted and once to pick up the card. The fee to the government was about 5,500 pesos and the fee for the immigration lawyer was 2,000 pesos.

Congrats! We had a similar experience. I'd like to think it went smoothly because we were well organized but I think it was also a bit of luck.

Thanks for the data. It is very helpful.

Z

Your Spanish is passable,why did you need an immigration lawyer?

viajero wrote:Why did you need an immigration lawyer?

So I wouldn't have to deal with this...

Okay,two grand doesn't sound unreasonable,but I've been doing my own immigration stuff for nine years and never found it that difficult,just a matter of filling out the forms properly.

It was worth every nickel of it to me just to avoid having to deal with the bureaucracy, waiting in line at la migra and at the bank, etc...

viajero wrote:Okay,two grand doesn't sound unreasonable,but I've been doing my own immigration stuff for nine years and never found it that difficult,just a matter of filling out the forms properly.

Me too. Got my permanente card in less than 6 weeks

Did you have to go to Guad, or did you do it all in Chapala?

The Chapala office handled everything.

I agree with SmartAlex. I will do anything to avoid dealing with the bureaucracy and all the petty stuff that seems to pop up when I am least in the mood to deal with it. When I can afford to pay someone else to do it for me, I do.

Yep, me too. I usually get Spencer's people to do this kind of stuff.

Lady Otter Latté wrote:I agree with SmartAlex. I will do anything to avoid dealing with the bureaucracy and all the petty stuff that seems to pop up when I am least in the mood to deal with it. When I can afford to pay someone else to do it for me, I do.

For people who can't speak Spanish paying a facilitator to fill out the forms probably makes sense,personally I have never found the INM that hard to deal with.

Lucky you.

Had Spencer do ours, no problem at all.

who the haitch would wanna do woik if ya kin hire spencer's outfit ta do it.

It isnt rocket science but some of the benefits of having us do it are:

Free appeals if you are denied in almost all cases (so far I have won all my appeals and they were due to immigration making mistakes).
Someone to prepare all papers.
Someone to wait in line at immigration
Someone to wait in line at bank and make payment(s)
Someone to check on status if things delay as well as go to hearings for you or with you
Professional advice suited to your specific situation and needs, maybe you think you need permanent but would be better suited by temporary for example.
Less than .01% of our people are denied. This only has happened when they have an undisclosed criminal record or they entered as a tourist.
More than 5 years and 1,000 satisfied clients and growing
2 in house court translators, no need to farm out and pay more or wait longer for translations
6 licensed attorneys
Latest technology used to get you in and out quickly and digitizing of documents to avoid wasting paper and saving the environment
We can request your birth / marriage certificates from the US and apostilles and get most within days
Phone support when you are at a consulate outside Mexico and they decide to misapply the rules or ask for unnecessary documents which you do not have
We go to immigration daily are only 2 blocks away unlike many firms in Ajijic that only go every 2 to 3 days and whose representatives ride the bus in, we ask about your file daily and if another copy of something is needed it arrives at immigration within minutes thereby not wasting precious time.
2 offices to serve you, Chapala and Guadalajara (changing offices this week to be in Chapalita a few blocks from Riu hotel).
Us Phone and fax numbers, easy to reach and banks may not email bank statements but they will fax them to a US number.

Most of us know the value you offer Intercasa so thanks!



Z

Smartalex - glad to hear it went well for you and appreciate your posting - we go permanente this fall and had been hoping that all the bugs would be ironed out by then.  (Now if we could just nationalise our car at the border!).  

Although we could definitely do it ourselves, we'll be using Spencer/Intercasa's services for this because a) it makes the whole process much easier, and b) we owe Spencer for all the free advice and counsel he's given us over the years, this is a chance to throw a little business his way, in thanks and c) did I say it's easier that way?

I think the process is finally starting to work well. My wife worked with Spencer in renewing her temporal (long car related story behind that) and it was completely painless.

Now going in the other direction, we recently had the "pleasure" of trying to help a young Mexican lady get a US visa so she could be taken on a graduation trip to Disneyland and the process couldn't have been less friendly, honest or decent. In contrast to our local Mexican INM folks who have always been very nice to us, the U.S. embassy staff were arrogant, dishonest and downright nasty to the girl.

They treated her little better than a criminal. I was embarrassed for America and am still mad as hell about how she was treated.