It’s mid-July and my work visa expires next week. A month ago I retained someone to help me with it. I was assured that all that was required was a photocopy of my passport, a photocopy of my migratory card and a photocopy of a utility bill. A simple process. After all, it’s only a renewal. 

Two weeks later I messaged the office to find out what was happening. Oh, more information is needed. I provide all of the information. A messenger arrives at my home the following day to obtain my signature on some documents.

Then the following day I receive a text that the messenger will be back to get my passport and migratory card as the originals are now needed to file the documents. This was on a Thursday. The messenger promised I’d have my passport back on Friday.

True to his word, the messenger returned my passport to me on Friday, along with the migratory card. The papers had not been filed. Why? They required three types of documentation from the school where I now teach. Except that they have also asked for documentation from the school I no longer teach at which is in Guadalajara.  I now live in Mazatlan. And the director of the school where I teach here in Mazatlan is out of the country. OK, we still have two weeks to get this done before the visa expires.

This past week brings us closer to the deadline and the entire process has now been revised. The school cannot provide me with the documents I require. On Monday, I registered at El SAT and was assured that everything could now be filed with INM. I would just be registering as an independent worker rather than an employee at a school.

Instead of the messenger arriving in the morning on Tuesday, with the revised documents, I got a message asking for more details of my last employer in Guadalajara. And now more documents have got to be filed. 

To my surprise the messenger arrived with the new documents a couple of hours later. So once again I signed my life away to documents in Spanish that I did not completely comprehend. Yes I got the main idea. But even with English legal documents, there is legalese that is not possible for a layman to decipher. At any rate, everything will be filed at INM this afternoon and then I can breathe again.

Wrong! Nothing was filed! More documents required! Daily the messenger arrives with more documents that require my signature. And because I moved to another city and am teaching at a different school, there is now a monetary penalty. And of course there is now a new fee to file these documents as well.

It is now Friday and time is running out. Will this visa actually happen? Stay tuned for Part 2……………