# Constancia de Antecedentes no Penales



## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Today we visited Fiscalía General for our state to get our letters stating that we were not criminals in our ongoing quest to get Mexican citizenship. We each had to pay 161 pesos (online) and set an appointment. We had to present a copy of our credentials, the apostatized and translated birth certificates and our proof of address.

They took at least two photos, at least two sets of fingerprints. It is nice how you can do that these days without getting ink all over your fingers…

We were told we would receive an email within 24 hours with a copy of the letter and we should return tomorrow for the original. It will have a lifetime of 30 days. So we need to get the federal letter quickly and then return to SRE.

They were very friendly / efficient. It was a little interesting that they split up my wife and myself - and I had to fend for myself with my Spanish language skills - good practice for what is to come I guess.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

lat19n said:


> Today we visited Fiscalía General for our state to get our letters stating that we were not criminals in our ongoing quest to get Mexican citizenship. We each had to pay 161 pesos (online) and set an appointment. We had to present a copy of our credentials, the apostatized and translated birth certificates and our proof of address.
> 
> They took at least two photos, at least two sets of fingerprints. It is nice how you can do that these days without getting ink all over your fingers…
> 
> ...


Every state/municipalidad must be different. In Jalisco/Guadalajara it cost 20 pesos and they gave me the letter immediately. I had to do it twice.


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> Every state/municipalidad must be different. In Jalisco/Guadalajara it cost 20 pesos and they gave me the letter immediately. I had to do it twice.


Immediately, doesn't sound like much of a background check... Even in the US when we solicited the letter from on local police dept to get entry into Mexico it was not immediate. Perhaps you have a very honest looking face.

Edit : Yet at the same time - as I understand it, when we visit Mexico City for the federal letter it is a one day affair and we will return home with a letter - so who knows.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

lat19n said:


> Immediately, doesn't sound like much of a background check... Even in the US when we solicited the letter from on local police dept to get entry into Mexico it was not immediate. Perhaps you have a very honest looking face.
> 
> Edit : Yet at the same time - as I understand it, when we visit Mexico City for the federal letter it is a one day affair and we will return home with a letter - so who knows.


For both federal and state, they just ran a computer check of some database, so it is pretty quick. Much as I like to think I look honest , I doubt that had anything to do with it. They printed everyone's form after a couple of minutes. I don't know what happens if your name comes up in the database.


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> For both federal and state, they just ran a computer check of some database, so it is pretty quick. Much as I like to think I look honest , I doubt that had anything to do with it. They printed everyone's form after a couple of minutes. I don't know what happens if your name comes up in the database.


Well I just received our emails. I guess the key phrase is ""NO SE ENCONTRO". it also looks like it is good for 60 days. "La presenta constancia cuenta con una vigencia
de 60 días naturales a partir de la fecha de expedición.". And I asked the guy in front of me today, on the other side of the counter - with his New England Patriots Jersey and he said it would be good for 30 days...

Perhaps Mexico - at least in the larger metropolitan areas is entering the 21st century. I just hope they don't let the US have too much influence. We had to visit (I think) 4 different windows during the process and one had a banner of AFIS - read FBI.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

AFIS is a database system for identifying fingerprints. I presume an international criminal database system used by governments.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

AFIS stands for Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Apparently throughout Latin America they’ve adopted the English acronym. In Spanish it’s “Sistema Automatizado de Identificación Dactilar“ or “Sistema Automatizado de Identificación de Huellas Dactilares” but for short it’s referred to as AFIS even in Spanish. For instance in Guatemala the police fingerprint unit is called “La Unidad AFIS”. I presume the English acronym is used because that’s what the software is called (AFIS software). The database could be at the national or international level. I wonder if each state in Mexico has their own database, or if it all goes into a federal database. Since SRE requires both the state and federal _no penales _ letter, the state might have their own database.

As used in Latin America, AFIS is referring to the technology, not to which law enforcement agency or government is managing the database.


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

We went to pick up our official/original letters today. I'm not sure those people see many North Americans - they kind of remember us. Same with the folks at SRE.

The very pretty letters we received today, with fancy signature and blue stamp, diifers from the very fancy emails I received yesterday in that there is no mention of a 60 day shelf-life. The woman at the office handed us the letters and a small piece of paper with an address and said - ok now you have to have these apostatized. That may be because when I setup the appointment on their website it asked for a reason for wanting the letters and nationalization was not an option and we were told to simply chose Apostile. 

When we got home we called SRE and they said - just bring us the original and 2 copies - no need to have it apostatized. Now for the federal letters ...


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

apostilles are for foreign documents or Mexican documents to be used abroad, no need to get apostiles for national documents done for national use.


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

citlali said:


> apostilles are for foreign documents or Mexican documents to be used abroad, no need to get apostiles for national documents done for national use.


Thanks - your explanation makes sense. In hind-sight we should have entered Mexico 5 years ago with apostatized versions of our US birth certificates. In my case the state I was born in insisted that I request my birth certificate from the city I was born in, have that sent to our Mexican home (no other possibility) and then turn around and send it back to another address (in the same state) to be apostatized and finally returned to us in Mexico. That is crazy.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

lat19n said:


> We went to pick up our official/original letters today. I'm not sure those people see many North Americans - they kind of remember us. Same with the folks at SRE.
> 
> ...


I have the same experience pretty much everywhere. Unlike the US, immigrants with an obviously different appearance are not all that common in Mexico, except maybe in Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende. There is a restaurant on the Perergrinación a Talpa (pilgrimage). I eat there one night a year during a two week period when maybe 2 million Mexicans pass through the town. They always remember me.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

.. so it is just the way it goes sometimes.I had to do the same in France


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## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Well we now have our Federal letters as well. We lucked out that the Executive bus pulled over to let us off just about in front of the place - saved us 30-60 minutes. We got in line with everyone else but they asked our age and pulled us out. There were hundreds of people on line - but it was very well organized/efficient. We were sitting in front of someone in about 5 minutes. All told we were in and out (letters in hand) in about 45 minutes.

The process was very different than the State process. No cameras. No fingerprints. Two things stuck out. My wife's original apostatized birth certificate was black and white - no color. The woman helping us did not like that. She went off to her boss and came back about to tell us she could not accept it but in the mean time my wife found an 'original' of the translated certificate and it had the translator's BLUE seal. Well that worked for the woman. The second thing was that we do not use maternal names in Mexico. My wife's paternal name on her birth certificate was her father's - not mine. Well the woman didn't like that much either... But in the end we got our letters. So from here on out we are going to always carry around originals of everything in a separate folder just in case.

So at this point I think we are all set to go with SRE. We will give them a call on Monday and see what is next.


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