New Rules for Work Visa Renewal (July 2015)

Last month, June 2015, immigration circulated an internal update to their offices with changes to how they would treat renewals for people who have work permits. There was no change in the current immigration law or its regulations. This change was made at the whim of higher-ups in immigration.

This change will apply to people who did not originally enter Mexico with an offer of employment work visa and will only apply to those who entered with a regular temporary visa and who later changed to a visa with permission to work.

People renewing work visas obtained which were changed from temporary visas will be required to submit bank statements to prove that they either have income from outside Mexico or savings that meet the published Residente Temporal guidelines (400 times minimum wage or 28.040 pesos for income or 20,000 minimum wage or 1,402,000 pesos in assets.

This makes no sense as one who is working in Mexico will not have income from another job outside Mexico. Also, the income limits are different for applications within and outside Mexico as outside the limits are less. Which income / asset standard will they apply? What is one qualified at the consulate for a lesser amount and now within the country they need to show a higher amount?

To be clear, the law and procedure manual published on November 8, 2012 still states in Article 34 that for renewals one only needs to present a letter showing the person still has the same job and how long the job lasts. No other type of renewal visa asks for income documentation to be submitted. The only time a person needs to submit income documentation is if they renew late (regularizacion) or they change the condition of stay (cambio de condicion de estancia) to one where income / assets need to be proven.

I am confident that we can win this on appeal or federal lawsuit but that is extra time and money and while we are on appeal they will not allow you to travel unless we file an amparo so you need to plan to be stuck in Mexico for a while. The first administrative appeal can take 4 to 6 months from the time you are denied until we receive a resolution and if we need to file a federal suit in the administrative tribunal (TFJFA) it can be another year extra until you get things back to normal.

Those of you out there who are in this situation would be advised to save your money and plan accordingly so you will not have problems when it is time to renew.

Lic. Spencer Richard Mc Mullen is an attorney and official court translator who has offices in Chapala and Guadalajara and specializes in immigration and administrative law and has litigated in all courts and wins his cases.

Lic. Spencer may be reached at 376-765-7553 Chapala / Guadalajara (33)1592-3801
www.chapalalaw.com