# Veracruz



## tastark06 (Feb 26, 2018)

My wife and I are in the planning stage and thinking of moving to Veracruz in a few years. We visited a couple years ago and loved it. Plan is to save up some money for the move and to get a place. I would have to work once we got settled. She’s from Mexico as well. I know there are visa issues for me. I know a good bit of Spanish but would want to become fluent in it. Any advice for moving in general to Mexico and also specific to Veracruz? Also I know teaching English is an easy go to for jobs for Americans but would prefer just about anything else. Thanks in advance. 


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

You will require INM permission added to your visa in order to work, until you become Residente Permanente, & later a naturalized citizen. Check with the nearest consulate to see if you can get approved for Residente Permanente, which will allow you to work with simple notification to INM instead of needing their permission and employment by an approved employer.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

It's one thing to vacation at a Mexican destination and fall in love with it and another thing living there 
24/ 7/ 365.....I guess the high temps and humidity will not bother you since I see your from Alabama, although Veracruz's summertime humidity is 100% and has 3 times the rainfall as back home...GL


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## tastark06 (Feb 26, 2018)

chicois8 said:


> It's one thing to vacation at a Mexican destination and fall in love with it and another thing living there
> 24/ 7/ 365.....I guess the high temps and humidity will not bother you since I see your from Alabama, although Veracruz's summertime humidity is 100% and has 3 times the rainfall as back home...GL




I understand. Although I’m American I love the Hispanic culture. I grew up in east Africa also so no the climate is not an issue to us. 


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

In terms of residency and work permit, you have the advantage of being married to a Mexican national. That will make it easier to be approved, plus you have the option of applying at the Mexican Consulate in your country of residence (the only option for most people) OR entering as a tourist and then applying from within Mexico as the spouse of a Mexican citizen.


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## tastark06 (Feb 26, 2018)

ojosazules11 said:


> In terms of residency and work permit, you have the advantage of being married to a Mexican national. That will make it easier to be approved, plus you have the option of applying at the Mexican Consulate in your country of residence (the only option for most people) OR entering as a tourist and then applying from within Mexico as the spouse of a Mexican citizen.




I figured being married to a national would make it easier. Also I thought of trying to find a job where the company might take care of the paperwork. Easier said than done I know. 


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

To me Veracruz is Hot, muggy and appears to have death squads... link below:

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/death-squad-tactics-alleged-in-veracruz/


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chicois8 said:


> To me Veracruz is Hot, muggy and appears to have death squads... link below:
> 
> https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/death-squad-tactics-alleged-in-veracruz/


But the coffee at La Parroquia is out of this world!


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Isla Verde said:


> But the coffee at La Parroquia is out of this world!


We have come to enjoy the 'Expreso' coffee at Costco. We just feed it through our very normal coffee maker.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

lat19n said:


> We have come to enjoy the 'Expreso' coffee at Costco. We just feed it through our very normal coffee maker.


La Parroquia is a famous coffee shop, perhaps the oldest one in Veracruz. You go there to enjoy the atmosphere as well as the outstanding coffee. Quite a different experience from drinking coffee from Costco at home!


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Isla Verde said:


> La Parroquia is a famous coffee shop, perhaps the oldest one in Veracruz. You go there to enjoy the atmosphere as well as the outstanding coffee. Quite a different experience from drinking coffee from Costco at home!


Ah - that may be true - but a 6 - 8 hour drive for a cup of coffee doesn't seem sensible. 

In reading the package - the coffee we drink is Blason espresso. It comes from Oaxaca.

I think I can count on my hand the number of times we have had a coffee at a Starbucks - so much for atmosphere...

Where do you get your coffee in Mexico City ?


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## tastark06 (Feb 26, 2018)

Isla Verde said:


> But the coffee at La Parroquia is out of this world!




Yes love some coffee at night from La Parroquia


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

The coffe at La Parroquia is way overrated..There have a bunch of diferent locations and the last time we had it was in Villahermosa.. very disappointing but the food there was good and we had fun to see how they pour the coffee and how you lift the top to ask for more coffee.. Vera Cruz coffee is okm but Oaxaca and Chiapas have better coffee.
I bet the Paroquia became famous when there was not much decent coffe served in Vera Cruz and the ritual they follow became famous and the atmosphere at the original place is great but the coffee do not hold a candle to good cappuchinos or expressos of today...IMHO..
We like La Seva coffee which I think is a chain drom Mexico CIty, We have a brancj here in Chiapas and that is whee we buy our coffee. Yik here is the locals ´s favorite but we like La Selva better.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> The coffe at La Parroquia is way overrated..There have a bunch of diferent locations and the last time we had it was in Villahermosa.. very disappointing but the food there was good and we had fun to see how they pour the coffee and how you lift the top to ask for more coffee.. Vera Cruz coffee is okm but Oaxaca and Chiapas have better coffee.
> I bet the Paroquia became famous when there was not much decent coffe served in Vera Cruz and the ritual they follow became famous and the atmosphere at the original place is great but the coffee do not hold a candle to good cappuchinos or expressos of today...IMHO..
> We like La Seva coffee which I think is a chain drom Mexico CIty, We have a brancj here in Chiapas and that is whee we buy our coffee. Yik here is the locals ´s favorite but we like La Selva better.


Back in the Dark Ages (of coffee making in Mexico), which for me was the1970s, in Mexico City the only place I could find a semi-decent cup of coffee was Sanborn's. In most places, when you asked for "café con leche", you were served a large glass of hot milk accompanied with a jar of Nescafé and a spoon. Citlali, I have the feeling that your comment about the reason for the fame of La Parroquia has some truth to it. By the way, there is now a branch in Mexico City near the Zócalo. The next time you're in town, I'll invite you to have coffee there, and we can grade its quality on a scale of one to ten.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

lat19n said:


> Ah - that may be true - but a 6 - 8 hour drive for a cup of coffee doesn't seem sensible.
> 
> In reading the package - the coffee we drink is Blason espresso. It comes from Oaxaca.
> 
> ...


A six to eight hour drive is a bit much to deal with, even for a good cup of coffee! 

Sanborn's has a nice atmosphere, but the coffee is not good at all.

I don't make coffee at home very much, instead treating myself to a good cappuccino once a day at one of the nice little cafés in my barrio.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Ok .. I have not been to the one in Mexico CIty, only the Vera Cruz and the Villa hermosa. I loved the atmosphere of the place especially in Vera Cruz , the coffe was ok but I really like my cafe au lait way stronger that theirs.. Of course I cannot refuse an invitation to go there because I enjoy the place, so I will be glad to go!.
By the way in Oaxaca outside of Oaxaca city you still get Nescafe... how awful can it get? The traditional drink in the morning is chocolate not coffee and when I stay in the villages in Oaxaca i dread the morning without decent coffee. Unless you are in a coffee growing place, you get chocolate..or the dreaded nescafe.. At least in the highlands in Chiapas we get coffee de olla and I would not dare showing a can of Nescafe but then we are in coffee growing area and people hate Nestle and Nescafe.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> Ok .. I have not been to the one in Mexico CIty, only the Vera Cruz and the Villa hermosa. I loved the atmosphere of the place especially in Vera Cruz , the coffe was ok but I really like my cafe au lait way stronger that theirs.. Of course I cannot refuse an invitation to go there because I enjoy the place, so I will be glad to go!.
> By the way in Oaxaca outside of Oaxaca city you still get Nescafe... how awful can it get? The traditional drink in the morning is chocolate not coffee and when I stay in the villages in Oaxaca i dread the morning without decent coffee. Unless you are in a coffee growing place, you get chocolate..or the dreaded nescafe..


Thanks for accepting my invitation - it will be great to catch up in person!

So the dreaded Nescafé can still be found in villages in Oaxaca. Perhaps that's because coffee-drinking is not part of their culture, so they have no idea what real coffee tastes like. Too bad for them!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Yes coffee was grown for export and chocolate is the indigenous drink but I bet that in the coffee growing areas of Oaxaca they drink coffee. . I do not know but I am going to ask the gardner in Ajijic. His father grows coffe and he drinks lots of coffee so it may be the same as in Chiapas and people who grow coffee drink coffee.
In the valley of Oaxaca , chocolate is what is being offered in the morning in the villages or nescafe if you do not want chocolate. The people there (in the valley) are not violently anti Nescafe like they are in Chiapas but then coffee is not their cash crop either.

Nestle here in Chiapas is hated by the indigenous who grow coffee in the highlands. There is a plague here killing the coffee plants and the government is giving reistant plants to the indigenous to replant. Most people destroy the plants because they say they are of inferior quality and they accuse Nestle of having come up with those plants to lower the price of higher class coffee..


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

tastark06 said:


> My wife and I are in the planning stage and thinking of moving to Veracruz in a few years. We visited a couple years ago and loved it. Plan is to save up some money for the move and to get a place. I would have to work once we got settled. She’s from Mexico as well. I know there are visa issues for me. I know a good bit of Spanish but would want to become fluent in it. Any advice for moving in general to Mexico and also specific to Veracruz? Also I know teaching English is an easy go to for jobs for Americans but would prefer just about anything else. Thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What no one has mentioned is that if you find work in Mexico, the pay will probably be one-fifth the U.S. scale. The only way to get U.S. or western pay is to get transferred in by a foreign national. I was fortunate enough to do that long ago but lived like a king.

Teaching English will only get you a few hundred a month. I don't know from personal experience, but many online horror stories of foreigners working selling time shares, high pressure, shady practices and high turnover.

Before I moved to Mexico for an international company (many fewer opportunities nowadays as most companies find numerous qualified Mexican candidates comfortable working in international companies), I did live in Veracruz a few months. A friend introduced me to a Lebanese immigrant who fled that country's civil war with nothing and was doing well. He set up five or six storefront stall businesses, one selling fruit juice, one tortas, another fish, one local Veracruz shirts, all within same neighborhood. Each in itself cost little to set up and took in little, but together, he was able to buy a new, expensive car (never saw his house). He was a jovial guy who treated his workers with respect. His workday consisted of visiting each store in turn to talk to workers, glad-hand customers, going over books, then spending much of rest drinking coffee with fellow entrepreneurs and having traditional 3-4 hour Veracruz main meal starting at 3:00 pm.

Seems a lot better than teaching English if you have the entrepreneurial bent.


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## JCarmine (Jun 9, 2018)

Hello all,
I am currently living in Veracruz city. In the process now of receiving my permanent residency status. I receive a little over $2000 usd a month from VA for being a combat wounded veteran. I am renting a 3 bedroom home in a place called Dream Lagoon. (Very secure and beautiful) I pay $400 a month usd (which is a bit too much) that covers rent and all utilities. I flew back to Florida and drove my truck here so I have a vehicle. I speak VERY LITTLE Spanish which makes it a bit more difficult of course. I hope to locate Spanish lesions here soon. 
I do not know of any other American expats in area. 

Feel free to ask me anything about the city of Veracruz. I will be happy to answer if I can or at least try to locate an answer.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

JCarmine said:


> Hello all,
> I am currently living in Veracruz city. In the process now of receiving my permanent residency status. I receive a little over $2000 usd a month from VA for being a combat wounded veteran. I am renting a 3 bedroom home in a place called Dream Lagoon. (Very secure and beautiful) I pay $400 a month usd (which is a bit too much) that covers rent and all utilities. I flew back to Florida and drove my truck here so I have a vehicle. I speak VERY LITTLE Spanish which makes it a bit more difficult of course. I hope to locate Spanish lesions here soon.
> I do not know of any other American expats in area.
> 
> Feel free to ask me anything about the city of Veracruz. I will be happy to answer if I can or at least try to locate an answer.


I was wondering how you manage to drive a foreign plated vehical with a Residente Permanente visa/card in Mexico?


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## JCarmine (Jun 9, 2018)

I drove into the Mexico thinking I could apply for my resident card in Mexico. ( I have a permit and sticker on the truck for six months) I flew back to the US to get my paperwork. Soon I will have to drive back out of the country. Then I will sale my vechile and purchase something here in Mexico.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

As soon as you get your Residente Permanente card, your car becomes illegal and your insurance invalid, regardless of the sticker. So, you should put it in the garage and not drive it.
When you know you are ready to take it out of Mexico, you will need to apply for a Retorno Seguro, in order to drive it legally. That document will be good for only about five days, so be ready to leave as soon as it is issued. See your lawyer for help in getting it from Aduana/Banjercito.
Remember to stop and have the sticker removed on your way out & get the receipt to keep forever.
If you are stopped without a Retorno Seguro, as a Residente Permanente, they will probably confiscate your car. There could be other consequences. We were once in the same situation, and our lawyer got the permit and we drove the illegal vehicle out safely.


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## JCarmine (Jun 9, 2018)

RVGRINGO said:


> As soon as you get your Residente Permanente card, your car becomes illegal and your insurance invalid, regardless of the sticker. So, you should put it in the garage and not drive it.
> When you know you are ready to take it out of Mexico, you will need to apply for a Retorno Seguro, in order to drive it legally. That document will be good for only about five days, so be ready to leave as soon as it is issued. See your lawyer for help in getting it from Aduana/Banjercito.
> Remember to stop and have the sticker removed on your way out & get the receipt to keep forever.
> If you are stopped without a Retorno Seguro, as a Residente Permanente, they will probably confiscate your car. There could be other consequences. We were once in the same situation, and our lawyer got the permit and we drove the illegal vehicle out safely.


Thanks for the info!


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