Okay. So everything has changed… but some things have stayed the same! It is just a matter of determining which is which and that is sometimes very difficult.

For example, the immigration in Progreso is in the same spot with the same people. Well almost! Due to the demolition of the old water tower in front of the immigration office, the immigration office has actually moved to the pier temporarily. You can reach Alejandra, who is the nicest woman alive, at 969 934 7042, at her new temporary office until the danger of the demolition passes.

So what is exactly happening with the immigration process for families who have been here. Again I will say that every family is very different and different things may be required of you based on how your family is put together. For example, our family is quite simple, all born in Canada, all passports current, most of us born in Calgary with one of us born in Toronto. Pretty simple! While we were quite afraid of what to expect with all the new changes, our renewal process has been very smooth so far. I say so far, because we are still waiting on Lyn’s visa as she stayed in Canada longer than the rest of us and is a little bit behind in the process.

You have a choice of how long to renew your visa for and to pay upfront for multiple years. In an effort to avoid having to do this one more time, we chose to pay for the remaining two years this time and our visa is now good until the four years are up at which time we will take a look at the options available to us for becoming permanent residents of Mexico.

So, our only complication was that we would be out of the country when our visas expired this year. But this was no problem. You have 55 days to return to the country after it has expired and then 5 (FIVE) business days to proceed to the immigration office and prove the dates you were out of the country and most importantly the date you returned. Then the process starts.

This year the process was:

1. Bring in old visas and passports to the office
2. Pay for the cost of the visas depending on what options you chose
3. Get an ID number to check in two weeks
4. Fill out an online form for each person
5. Bring in new Infantil photos as required and get fingerprinted
6. Wait for new visas to arrive
7. Pick up visas

Alejandra at the immigration office in Progreso is very helpful and is able to provide a lot of advice based on everybody’s personal situations. Be patient with her as there is a lot of red tape in Mexico but she is fabulous to talk to. This time she remembered how small Evan & Noah were when we arrived here two years ago. She is amazed at how much Spanish they can speak and is very impressed.

I am not sure that this article will be very helpful to people as it really went easy for us this year. I do know that there are a lot of issues people are having getting here for the first time, but I have not heard of anyone who has been unable to accomplish their goal of moving to Mexico.