# How necessary to get temp visa paperwork done before tourist visa expires?



## ninagris (12 mo ago)

We're in a weird situation. My husband is getting naturalized via birthright. I'm going to then get temp residency as his wife. We're waiting for our apostilled papers to come in the mail, but time is also running out on our tourist visas. They expire at the end of August, and idk if we'll have our marriage certificate in hand by then. 
He'll probably be ok and have all his papers in order in a week or 2. If my visa expires before we get all my papers together, how is the INM going to view that? I tried to talk to them about it the other day but that was pointless. The woman I spoke with was just flat out wrong about a few things, so I don't really trust anything she had to say. 
Anyone here able to get their papers done in country after their visa expired?


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

When you get in weird situations, you often get different answers from different officials. If you can go and ask again without the first person seeing you do it, you might get a different/better answer. If that person hears you asking the same question of someone else they might get annoyed at you.

When you originally got stamped in on your tourist visa, how many days did they give you? If less than 180, then I think you should be able to get it extended to 180 in-country by visiting INM (and finding a clerk that knows the rules).

But if not, or if getting it extended to 180 doesn't get you enough more time, can you afford to book a quick round trip flight to another country and back for the both of you? If you did that in the next week or two, before the papers come, then you could get 180 days and be completely relaxed. You don't say where you are or if money is that tight. A cheaper but more tiring option, depending on where you are, is a bus ride to the nearest border.

The way things move here, I would not want to assume that your husband would get his citizenship by the end of August even if he had all the paperwork today. My rule is everything with bureaucracy here always suprises me in how long it takes (no matter how pessimistic I am in my estimate).


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## ninagris (12 mo ago)

I have 180. But I'm realizing there are a few other things to do in the US so I might just bite the bullet.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

One comment: You mention that your husband will have "all his papers in order in a week or 2". When I got my citizenship, by naturalization, not birthright, it was 6 months between turning in the last of the paperwork and receiving my Carta de Naturalización.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> One comment: You mention that your husband will have "all his papers in order in a week or 2". When I got my citizenship, by naturalization, not birthright, it was 6 months between turning in the last of the paperwork and receiving my Carta de Naturalización.


He is a Mexican citizen by birth. They only need SRE to process his Mexican passport by him presenting the needed documents. In TJ the SRE stated they can get this processed in 2 weeks where before it took 3 months - they stated this before Covid.


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