Mexico

[jendrian]

You're all absolutely right, apparently since 2002 it's not an official requirement.

HOWEVER, anyone who's ever had any contact with Mexico's bureaucracy should know each office has their own requirements. I got a new passport on 2009, and they requested my military service card.

So there's that. If anything, you could go and try argue with them if they don't request it for you, but I wouldn't be so hopeful.

But who knows, maybe you'll apply in one of the offices that stays updated on what's required and what's not  , I hope you do. Good luck!

Edit: Oh right, if anyone wishes to know which office asked me for it: The SRE office in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco (La pila seca)

[Huron]

You're all absolutely right, apparently since 2002 it's not an official requirement.

HOWEVER, anyone who's ever had any contact with Mexico's bureaucracy should know each office has their own requirements. I got a new passport on 2009, and they requested my military service card.

So there's that. If anything, you could go and try argue with them if they don't request it for you, but I wouldn't be so hopeful.

But who knows, maybe you'll apply in one of the offices that stays updated on what's required and what's not  , I hope you do. Good luck!

Edit: Oh right, if anyone wishes to know which office asked me for it: The SRE office in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco (La pila seca)

One thing I have learned after living in Mexico for many years is to print out the law that backs up what you are trying to say, especially with “Dependencias Federales” like the SRE.  Local offices often think they can change the federal rules but they cannot.  I have had more than one issue with INM that way.  (My local INM office did not want to record my same sex marriage certificate from Mexico City,  INM is a Federal department and my regional INM office thought they did not have to record it because they told me “no hacemos eso en Jalisco”, (we do not do that in Jalisco.)  I make a big deal about it and would not leave until I spoke with the person responsible for the office.  I asked him if as a regional office of a federal department they do not have to follow federal law, I told him that I would be contacting Mexico City.  He changed his mind and recorded the certificate in my FM2 Mexican immigration document. 

A lot of times in Mexico they give you the run around but if you are persistent and know the law and are willing to stand up for your rights you can get things done.       

[jendrian]

well if you're right you're right, but I think it's easier for them to try and get the military service card than it is to aggressively tell them they're wrong.

[solosunseeker]

My husband got his passport 2 years ago without the military card but it looks like he will be applying for the primary card tomorrow, as he will need it to got the federal police clearance.

FYI - Cancun Office no military card require for passport.

[mikeyvr]

You dont need military service / card to get a passport in Mexico , they remove that requirement long time ago

[sillymemo]

Hopefully someone can help:
my sponsor mailed me the forms and specified me to fill them out with block letters but I forgot to do so and I did it with regular letters(not using caps), so now that I mailed him back the forms he is concerned that it will be an issue. personally I dont think it is, but does anyone knows if it shoud be ok?

[bonbon9]

Hopefully someone can help:
my sponsor mailed me the forms and specified me to fill them out with block letters but I forgot to do so and I did it with regular letters(not using caps), so now that I mailed him back the forms he is concerned that it will be an issue. personally I dont think it is, but does anyone knows if it shoud be ok?

It will be ok, as long as the handwriting is clear. I filled up mine on the PC using normal capitalized letters, just like this post is written. We have been approved for sponsorship and my file is in process. If something had been wrong the file would have been sent back some time ago.
Nothing to worry about

[sillymemo]

It will be ok, as long as the handwriting is clear. I filled up mine on the PC using normal capitalized letters, just like this post is written. We have been approved for sponsorship and my file is in process. If something had been wrong the file would have been sent back some time ago.
Nothing to worry about

thank you bonbon for your advice
 

[solosunseeker]

I just found this forum about a week ago, my life would be very different right now if I had found it sooner.  I would like to share some information about our experience with this process with the hopes that others can learn from it.  Here goes....

We were married - January 2010.
My husband completed his medical - January 2010.
I submitted the complete application - February 2010.
My portion was approved in - March 2010.
My husbands portion was received in Mexico - March 2010.

This is where it all went wrong. The Embassy sent my husband a package April 2010. - He did not receive it.

I faxed the embassy his correct email address and phone number, as I was concerned that we had not heard anything - July 2010.
I called CIC to question, they told me that the embassy had not indicated any problems with communication, and that we need to continue to wait.  I was assured that if there was a communication problem, the embassy would contact CIC and they would contact me. - July 2010.
I contacted my MPs office and asked at what point should we done a case inquiry, they told me to wait until January - October 2010
I asked for a case inquiry - January 11, 2011
I was informed about the package that was sent in April and the embassy called my husband - January 12, 2011
My husband purchased a pre-paid courier for the embassy to send a new package - January 13, 2011
My husband re-complete his medical - January 28, 2011

He is currently working on obtaining everything he can without the official package from the embassy.  It has still not left they office. 

Throughout this entire process I have checked the Client Application Status website daily, the only thing that was ever posted was "We started processing XXXX application on March 12, 2010."

I can not even begin to express the emotions this has caused.  We have lost at least 6 months maybe a year, thousands of dollars in airline tickets, thousands of dollars for lost wages, countless life events that my husband could have been with me for, health affects from living with prolonged periods of stress and why???  According to their own documents and procedures this should not have happened.

All I can do now is say, follow the forums, tell others about the forum, watch what is happening to others application so that you can judge if your application is moving along properly and follow up I don't care if you think that you are bothering the CIC or Embassy.  Stop being a polity Canadian. Maybe if enough people push, the CIC and Embassies will be force to develop a more transparent program.

Good Luck to all.

[sillymemo]

Hi All,
I got a question, I am a bit confused with this: regarding the form APPLICATION FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN CANADA IMM 008, question 14.-mailing address; is that my partners canadian address or my address in mexico? and for 15.- residential address, I understeand that is the address where I am currently living in mexico, am I correct?

[mrandmrsromero]

solosunseeker - I AM SO SORRY to hear you had to go through all of that!!!!  My heart is in my throat wondering how many of us are going to have to go through a similar horror show before we know what is going on?!  My portion was approved early November and we have heard *nothing* from the Mexico City office yet.  I would have thought some sort of acknowledgement of receipt might have been received by now at least.  I emailed the office to follow up after Christmas and received a short reply saying we would hear from them once the file was opened.  Which did not reassure me whatsoever given that we don't even know for certain that they even have the file!  Makes me wonder after reading your story.  Oy the worry!!!!  Any updates for anyone else waiting to hear from Mexico City office?

[La_Ardilla]

I will let you know our timeline.  I am sponsoring my common-law partner from Mexico, he has lived in Canada with me since July of 2009, but our relationship began way back in 2005.  We filed in November, received sponsorship approval in December and finally received acknowledgement of receipt yesterday, February 2nd.  This AOR came after I attempted to send some additional information and documents supporting our relationship.  I received 3 responses to these requests (I had to send 3 separate files due to size constraints).  All the responses from the embasssy indicated that they did not have our file yet.  I politely responded that we had received notification through e-cas that the file had been received in Mexico on December 22nd.  Two days later, we received the AOR through e-mail with a promise of a letter to follow with additional information regarding police certificates, barcodes, etc.. 

[jendrian]

Well to be fair to the canadian embassy, the people losing and delaying your letters is the mexican post office. Mine was sent from dec 22 and it arrived on jan 10, two and a half weeks later.

Furthermore, the bank has sent me stuff through MexPost that has taken anywhere from 2 weeks, to 2 years (yes YEARS) to get to me.

The problem is Canada Post is so freaking good they think MexPost is gonna be the same, and... that's just not it. They should use at least certified mail to ensure it's gonna arrive and quickly at the destination. But I don't trust MexPost with photocopies of documents, let alone something truly important and irreplaceable.

....

On another note, I was just in Mexico city on Jan 31 delivering my police records to the embassy, I have directions to go from PGR to the embassy walking too if anyone would like to know, or through the subway if you don't like walking. For the subway you're basically looking for the station "Auditorio" which is on the 7th line, and then just walk south for around 10 min on a street called "Ruben Dario"; you'll see a bunch of other embassies too (which is nice), and the canadian is the one with the 3 languages haha.

Anyway, the experience was pretty straight forward, you go in the embassy (to the metal net door), leave all your electronics in a safe box, and wait for your number to be called. Then you just leave the documents along with the letter requesting them, and that's it. They did take a little while to call my number but nothing particularly bad.

eCAS was also updated finally, and it shows that they received my application on Mexico city on nov 4, after it being sent to Mexico city from Oct twenty-something, but it was pretty fast. It's been supposedly "in process" since at the embassy in Mexico city but it wasn't 'til Dec 22 that they requested my police records, a request I received two and a half weeks later (thank you MexPost) and I couldn't fulfill until a couple days ago.

Oh for anyone interested, the trip to PGR to get the Carta de Antecedentes Registrales (CAR) was less than pleasant, but the guy who handles them is very nice and very polite. It's unpleasant first because PGR's lobby is tiny, and it gets crowded quickly, specially in the morning. There are 3 "smart-automatic" elevators that won't come up or down for you for a loooong long time, and apparently no one's figured out that instead of lining up randomly on the elevators, they could line up by floor...; anyway, it took exactly 10 natural days for my CAR to be done, and you can't pick it up at 8 am like it says in the slip of paper, it has to be 9+. Oh and if the guy says you're gonna need a letter sized envelope if you're gonna go personally to the embassy... you won't.

That's about it, I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[mrandmrsromero]

Well to be fair to the canadian embassy, the people losing and delaying your letters is the mexican post office. Mine was sent from dec 22 and it arrived on jan 10, two and a half weeks later.

Furthermore, the bank has sent me stuff through MexPost that has taken anywhere from 2 weeks, to 2 years (yes YEARS) to get to me.

The problem is Canada Post is so freaking good they think MexPost is gonna be the same, and... that's just not it. They should use at least certified mail to ensure it's gonna arrive and quickly at the destination. But I don't trust MexPost with photocopies of documents, let alone something truly important and irreplaceable.

MexPost:  2 YEARS!!!!!???  Thanks for the heads up on that one.  Hearing this, I will do my best to avoid using MexPost to send anything.

[jendrian]

There's an option on MexPost where you can "certify" your mail for a fee (of around 80-100 MXN for a small box), and they give you a tracking number and everything. It's only the regular cheap "send!" section that's that bad. But then if you're paying already 100 or so, there are other private courier services that work better.