Visas and Stuff

When we first came down to Mexico last August, we applied for a tourist Visa (FMT) which allows us to stay in the country for 6 months. It costs about CDN$25.00 / person.

We let that one run out, which technically left us as illegal migrants IN Mexico for a few months. Now we need the next level of Visa, the FM3. It allows us to live in the country for up to a year, but we cannot work for a Mexican company and we cannot preach with this visa. It is likely to cost us about $1300.00 for one years visa. (for the whole family). It is needed to be able to import our vehicle down to Mexico. We need to do that because our Saskatchewan Plates and Insurance runs out in August and with us not living in SK anymore, we can't have SK plates. (I think it's the only province where that is the case... they want to avoid haivng young people live and work in Alberta (where insurance is expensive) and have SK insurance (where it's cheaper for young people).

It is quite an excercise in patience to get this done. So far we have had 3 appointments with the person who is doing the paperwork for us (and translating). We need to go again tomorrow, and hopefully then we can actually have an appointment with the Immigration officials. There they will decide if our kids need to pay for their FM3's. If they do, we'll need to make 2 more appointments to get that done. We have no idea how many other appointments we will need after that, but I'm pretty sure it will be no small number!

After that, when we return, I will need to apply for an FM3 Religious workers visa. Currently it needs to be done in Mexico City, so we need to hire a lawyer in Mexico City to do the application for us. apparantly, though, there is a chance that this summer or fall they will changes the regulations and allow it to be done through the office here in Tijuana or Rosarito.

Please pray that these things go through, because there is always the chance of being denied a Religious workers visa. There are still a large amount of Roman Catholics in Mexico City who oppose Evangelical work in Mexico- Pray that God intervenes.

I need to go to church now, but I'l be posting again later today or tomorrow about a meeting we had regarding our future ministry direction- some exciting stuff! Looking forward to sharing it with you!


Until next time,

Mike