Renewal or New FM 2 Costs

Have any of you recently renewed or applied for a new FM 2 with a facilitator?

What is the government cost and how much did your facilitator charge? Who did you use?

The FM2 renewal cost is $2801. I did mine myself. It's easy.

They opened an immigration office at lakeside,it's very easy to renew, why would you want to pay a facilitator?
Chris

We charge $3,500 pesos. There are at least 2 visits plus trip to the bank and the papers. Some people like someone else to wait in line, etc and do all the paperwork. Its like taxes, some like to do their 1040's, others don't mind paying a small fee to H&R Block.

[quote="Intercasa"]We charge $3,500 pesos. There are at least 2 visits plus trip to the bank and the papers. Some people like someone else to wait in line, etc and do all the paperwork. [/quote]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Intercasa wrote:We charge $3,500 pesos. There are at least 2 visits plus trip to the bank and the papers. Some people like someone else to wait in line, etc and do all the paperwork. Its like taxes, some like to do their 1040's, others don't mind paying a small fee to H&R Block.

Is the $3500 your fee, or it is the total fee including the FM2 cost? If it includes the latter, it is a small fee, IMO. Otherwise.............

$3,500 total (including government fees) if it is an on time renewal, but you need to also get photos.

hound dog wrote:[quote="Intercasa"]We charge $3,500 pesos. There are at least 2 visits plus trip to the bank and the papers. Some people like someone else to wait in line, etc and do all the paperwork.

A fool and his money are soon parted.[/quote]

Gee, guess I'll have to fire my housekeeper and gardener. I'm still able to clean my house & mow my lawn.

Intercasa wrote:$3,500 total (including government fees) if it is an on time renewal, but you need to also get photos.

Is this for a NEW FM 2 ? I now have an FM 3.

Don't worry about making any changes right now. In a few weeks, the whole system will change. FM2 and FM3 will go away. There'll be new visas, new rules and a period of mass confusion.

Rolly wrote:Don't worry about making any changes right now. In a few weeks, the whole system will change. FM2 and FM3 will go away. There'll be new visas, new rules and a period of mass confusion.

So what does one do if your FM 3 expires around the second or third week in November ?

Renew it, but don't spend extra money for an FM2. The new rules may be in place by then anyway,

A little extra money for an FM2 might be worth it to John...he wants to sell his house and it MAY mean that he doesn't pay capital gains.

Then again, the rumour mill has it that only Inmigrados and Citizens will now be exempt on their principal residence. Que lastima.

The rumor makes sense but if I were to apply for an FM2 just to be tax exempt rather than become a permanent resident, I sure would not talk about it on the internet, just in case.
Brigitte

My bet is that the new Residente Temporal (combined FM3 and FM2) is going to look a lot like an FM3. I guessing that the FM2 provisions more or less disappear. Inmigrado becomes Residente Permanente.

So back to my point: Why spend extra money for something that is about to disappear?

If you are selling a home you need and FM2, otherwise it doesn't make sense to change right now.

We are telling people not to change or that in our opinion there is little to no benefit unless selling a property and best to wait for the new laws (regulations, manual) to come out before making the change so they can make an informed decision.

Intercasa wrote:$3,500 total (including government fees) if it is an on time renewal, but you need to also get photos.

Well, Spencer, with my "fool and his money" comment regarding the $3,500 Pesos fee for the FM-2 renewal, I was a bit presumptuous thinking that was the net fee to your firm. If the FM-2 renewal fee is, as Rolly says, about $2,800 Pesos, then $3,500 Pesos for the total fee including a facilitator is not unreasonable since the facilitator is charging only $700 Pesos for the service since that is just over the equivalent of $50USD at today´s exchange rate to hire help to complete the process. Now, I presume things have changed somewhat since we got our inmigrado status in Guadalajara last October when, while waiting our turn, we used to observe facilitators marching into that INM hellhole up there in the federal building with his/her charges like a mother duck and her ducklings. The process must be much easier now in Chapala. We never used facilitators to help us with the visa process but, last year in Guadalajara when going for our inmigrado at INM, I, for a while wished we had since the INM officers had just received their authority from Mexico City to do their own inmigrado issuance and they were nit picking everything to the point of absurdity but finally passed us. Thank God that, except for the possibility we may have to go to INM to change our inmigrado cards to wahetever the new visa are after the changes occur, we´ll never have to see INM again.

Our next goal is for at least one, and probably both of us to become Mexican citizens. The next decision for us is to decide whether it is best to approach SRE in Jalisco or Chiapas as every SRE office seems to have its own agenda and nothing is ever very clear in our adopted country.

"The FM2 renewal cost is $2801. I did mine myself. It's easy."

A friend of mine is doing the renewal of FM2 himself in the State of Queretaro. Last Friday, he went to the bank and paid the $2801MXN fee and received his receipt for same. This week, he returned to Immigration with the receipt and they said that it should have been for $2800MXN. He was willing to write off the $1MXN difference but they wouldn't have any part of such and required him to return to the bank and pay another $2800MXN and bring back that receipt. At that point, they would issue a refund for $2801MXN that he could take back to the bank to get his money refunded. Only in Mexico could such a big deal be made over $1MXN!

Rolly wrote:My bet is that the new Residente Temporal (combined FM3 and FM2) is going to look a lot like an FM3. I guessing that the FM2 provisions more or less disappear. Inmigrado becomes Residente Permanente.

So back to my point: Why spend extra money for something that is about to disappear?

Jaybus, where does that leave us Rolly? We've been waiting for 3 years now to apply for inmigrado status.

raqueteer wrote:
Jaybus, where does that leave us Rolly? We've been waiting for 3 years now to apply for inmigrado status.

My guess (and hope) is that your time on the FM2 will carry forward to count on the time to move up to Residente Permanente.

Chinagingo,
Your friend was lucky, we once overpaid by $2,000 Pesos because we misread the amount we needed to pay and they refused to let us either pay again in the correct amount or give us a credit. They say it was not possible and kept the money. Interesting that is is a big deal about $1 but no problem if it is an extra $2000.
Brigitte

Rolly wrote:

raqueteer wrote:
Jaybus, where does that leave us Rolly? We've been waiting for 3 years now to apply for inmigrado status.

My guess (and hope) is that your time on the FM2 will carry forward to count on the time to move up to Residente Permanente.

Thanks Rolly, since we also had at least nine years on an FM3 maybe we could just progress to inmigrado, have to wait and see I guess.