# Mexican embassies - ADVISE as they seem to be hard to contact



## LoveAll-IslandMan (Jul 30, 2016)

The phone numbers for both Mexican embassies in Kansas City and Chicago (St. Louis was closed down some time ago) do not work. 

They have not responded to my email from 1 week ago.

I live 6 hrs away from each and long car rides like this are not good for my back. I was hoping to reach them to ask a few questions, potentially set an appt and to make sure I bring whatever they need so I might get a temp resid visa for San Jose Del Cabo. 

Any thoughts or advise? If you happened to have gone to either of these Mexican embassies please shed a little light if you can.

Thank you!!!! : ) Have a smooth day!


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

I believe there is only one Mexican Embassy in the USA and that is in Washington DC, I think you mean Mexican Consulate?


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## LoveAll-IslandMan (Jul 30, 2016)

chicois8 said:


> I believe there is only one Mexican Embassy in the USA and that is in Washington DC, I think you mean Mexican Consulate?


Yes, sorry, the Mexican Consulate (I thought they meant the same thing). Can I go to a Mexican Consulate to do what I need? Do I need an appt in advance? Why don't the phone numbers work? Thanks for any insight you can share.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

You don't need to go to DC, Chicago/KC consulates are fine. 

The seattle consulate responded to my email eventually, but it was long after I'd given up assuming they wouldn't. Maybe about a two-week response time. And they basically answered by saying "bring everything you have", which didn't help much with my question on whether what I had was sufficient.

When I eventually took my documents to them there weren't really any surprises. I just showed up unannounced around 3 pm one afternoon after I had finished other business I'd had downtown. There was no body else there waiting for anything. The Consulate seemed a little disconcerted that I had shown up so late in the day, he was apparently preparing to go home a couple hours early.

I am retired early and living on savings but have zero income to show because I'm too young for Soc Sec. The letter from my bank about my balance was just something the bank printed out on their plain laser printer in black and white and then signed, and the consulate didn't really accept it, saying "anybody could print that out". I agreed with him, it wasn't on colored letterhead, and I could have done it at home more easily than getting it at the bank. I just shrugged and said I'd told the bank that, but they had assured me they did it like that all the time for people sponsoring relatives to live in the US and the US embassy accepted it that way. The consulate shook his head at that, but I think made a copy of it.

But I also had real colored-paper letterhead statements from my investment companies showing balances sufficient to live for many years in mexico and one of those seemed to be sufficient by itself. They kept copies that they made of the statements (with a notation on them that they had made the copy of a valid original) and returned the originals. I had brought the title to my house, because I'm planning on selling it and the money just from that would keep me in Mexico until I hit 65, but they weren't interested in that at all.

I filled out the form while I was there. They had me write something on the back of the photo I gave them, probably my passport number and signature.

Incidentally, I'd gotten 2 new passport photos at a FedEx office because I'd had to renew my passport ahead of all this. So I had one new photo left over. But I also found three 10-year old passport photos left over from the prior passport (when I had bought four and used only one). My appearance was still pretty similar, not much change from 46 to 56, and I had a beard in both, but in the 10 years it had gone from just a little gray to completely gray. I had both photos with me, and tried giving him the older photo first and he took it just fine. So I still have one newer one left (and two more old ones).

In the end, because I was planning a short apartment-hunting trip before my final trip, the consulate told me to come back after the apartment-hunting trip and apply then, because, he said, once I went into Mexico on the "canje" visa I'd have to stay until IMM finished the processing and granted the RT. (That's not quite consistent with what some here have said, that I can get something from IMM that will let me go back to the US during the RT processing).

But I was happy enough with the result, the main thing I was concerned with for that trip downtown was whether my financial documentation would be enough to satisfy them about my means of support.

They kept my application paperwork, but I didn't pay anything. And he told me to "email him" after I got back when I was ready to move forward. I don't know how that's going to work as I still haven't done it. I think I will need to make another trip over there to give him my passport, but maybe what he'll do with the email is schedule an appointment. 

I may discover I have to bring all that paperwork again and start over from scratch if they don't still have the application and picture from before.

I don't see how you can work this process with any fewer than two trips to the consulate a couple weeks apart. And if you are moving household goods you need to be all packed up and inventoried and take your inventory with you on your final consulate trip. 

If I were you, I'd just plan on a day to drive there, an overnight in a cheap motel, a day to visit the consulate, another overnight, and then drive back on the 3rd day. If all you're doing in a day is driving the six hours, you'd have plenty of daylight to rest for 30 minutes after each hour of driving. 

If what you normally drive is something like an old pickup with teeth-chipping suspension, maybe you could look into renting a car and driving that. You could get a higher-end land-yacht style rental with big cushy seats and a can't-feel-the-road suspension.

Another option is to see if there is some kind of bus or train that will take you, though I don't know where you are. Maybe you could drive to St Louis and then take something. Probably a land-yacht rental would come out cheaper.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

@eastwind - we had very similar experiences at the consulate. Fortunately we lived only an hour's drive or so. We took a test visit to the consulate with all our paperwork (financial stmts etc). Actually I only brought the reports for one investment account (with a decent balance) - and left the retirement accounts home (just in case they for some reason wanted _more_, which in the end they didn't. If we brought 6 months of statements, they wanted 12 months in the end - no problem. At the time I had no idea there was a permanent versus temporary option. We also were planning one final house hunting trip to Mexico before moving and the extremely helpful guy at the consulate told us to return, with our menaje, when we got back from the trip. We couldn't close a deal on the house we wanted to buy so we signed a year's lease. When we got back to the US we brought the lease, menaje (rather crude), and our financials etc to the consulate. When I handed everything over to the guy I said something like - this is it, we want to move to Mexico forever. I truly believe up to that point whatever paperwork we had completed was for temporary residency. Anyway - he told us to go for lunch and come back in an hour or so. When we came back he had a big smile on his face and said - congrats, you have been approved for permanent residency. 

For us that was the easy part. Next we had to start the process to get the four pets approved for the trip. That was a lot of back and forth. Visit the approved vet, get the approved shots etc, go to the nearest international airport and visit the US Ag people. I think we also took a trial run with that process. 

I'm glad we did all this stuff when we were younger. It really takes a lot out of a person (or couple). Combine all that with loading up a trailer and driving I don't know how many thousands of miles (pets in tow).


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

LoveAll-IslandMan said:


> The phone numbers for both Mexican embassies in Kansas City and Chicago (St. Louis was closed down some time ago) do not work.
> 
> They have not responded to my email from 1 week ago.
> 
> ...


Perhaps have a look at the info at this link :
https://embassy-finder.com/mexico_in_usa

Do the numbers match those you have been trying ? 
If so - perhaps try a different consulate closer to the border. Maybe ask them to confirm the contact info closest to your location.

Good Luck.


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