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 Vallarta Living | January 2008 
Becoming a Mexican Citizen Just Became a Whole Lot More Complicated
 Alex Gesheva - Guadalajara Reporter
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| | Bonnie Sumlin, the General Director of HELP! (the Manzanillo Foreign Community Association A.C.,) can help expats who want to obtain Mexican Citizenship. For more information, contact Bonnie directly at bonniehelpsinmexico(at)gmail.com. |
Thinking of making Mexico your permanent or semi-permanent home and perhaps even applying for citizenship? Choose your paperwork wisely. A new, stricter application of immigration law in Mexico has cut off the FM3 visa status pathway to applying for naturalization based on living in-country for five years.
Just a few months ago, FM3 non-immigrant status could count towards the five-year residency needed for Mexican citizenship. Now, only FM2 status holders need apply.
“I’d like to emphasize for anyone who was advised differently prior to October 15, which is when this change went into effect, that there was no irresponsibility, bad faith or poor advice involved,” said Salvador Casian Santos, a foreign-service functionary and head of Jalisco’s Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores. “Lawyers and advisors who told their clients differently were not at fault: they were following accepted practice at that point.”
According to Casian, the law has not changed. The new measures will simply “correct a previous inaccuracy in applying the law.”
Casian’s argument hinges on a redefinition of the concept of residency. Based on a careful re-examination of Article 42 of the Ley General, this interpretation holds that since FM3 visitors are non-immigrants and therefore their stay in Mexico is temporary, they are by definition not residents.
“In Article 44, referring to immigrants, a resident immigrant is a foreigner in Mexico who is interning with the clear purpose of living here. That’s not the purpose of an FM3,” concludes Casian.
While the legal gobbledygook can be occasionally intimidating, the changes have very simple, clear implications, if only for a very small group of people. Of 186 naturalization applications received in Jalisco by the end of August 2007, only 62 were through the residency pathway. Only 19 of all applications were from North Americans. Those who already applied under the old rules but have not yet received an answer are in an awkward position.
“Sixty percent of the applications currently sitting at the central office in Mexico City could be automatically rejected,” says Alvaro Becerra Sanchez, a migration/naturalization lawyer in Guadalajara. “That’s going to end up causing problems.”
Casian firmly denies that the changes are in any way politically motivated: after all, there are no changes to the law. Becerra and others, meanwhile, theorize that the timing of this stricter approach to residency is at least in part due to the Zhen-Li Ye Gon scandal. An important office reorganization in Mexico City, resulting in imposing six to eight month delays in an already lengthy process, may also have played its part.
Considering how open Mexico is to perpetual immigrants (FM2 Inmigrados,) it’s actually surprising that North Americans apply for citizenship at all. But the reasons Canadian and U.S. expats often offer are less about convenience and advantage and more about an intangible sense of belonging.
“We want to be as Mexican as we can be,” says Bucerias resident Oliver Kollock, whose application for citizenship is being processed, and whose wife Rita recently became a citizen. “We want to have Mexican passports, especially if we visit places where they don’t like Americans so much. This is our home.”
Rita Kollock diligently waited in all the right lines, and Oliver views his two years of waiting for the response to his application with a very Mexican philosophical patience.
“It’s OK, I never expected it to be rapid,” says Kollock. “I’m preparing a bit more for history. Nobody asked Rita anything, but I want to be ready, just in case.”
Those considering applying for Mexican citizenship should also know that the brief written exam on language and history (a standard requirement in all countries) is now far more strictly applied.
“It’s not that frightening of a thing. Of a databank of 300 questions, maybe 50 are commonly used, six will be chosen for you and you need to get four of them right,” says Becerra. “But obviously, you will need to improve your Spanish skills as much as possible.”
Becerra believes that, ultimately, any moves that make the naturalization process more professional and organized are a good thing. But there are bound to be some bumps at the beginning.
“I would advise anyone interested or potentially interested in Mexican nationality or in long-term residence to change your status to FM2, start making your time count,” says Casian. “Again, this is a permanent measure, we are finally enforcing the spirit of the law, it is not intended to inconvenience or target anyone.”
Becerra is planning a set of classes on Mexican immigration requirements and history through the Lake Chapala Society. For more information, please contact the LCS, ask for more information through the Immigration department in the downtown Guadalajara federal building or consult a lawyer. |
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