# Obtaining Temporary Resident Status for a Dependent



## tothehilt (5 mo ago)

My wife and I are going to apply for our TR. She meets the pension income requirement, but I do not. I do however, meet the 100x MW requirement for a dependent, but it is unclear to me from reading the rules whether I can use that to meet the requirements for the TR, or if she needs to be receiving this amount in addition to her SS amount. Her SS amount does not equal the requirement for both of us.

If we cannot get TR for both of us at once, is it possible that I can get TR status _in_ Mexico after she has established her status? It seems, again, that that is what the rules say, but I am not certain I am interpreting it correctly.


----------



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

You can qualify as your wife's dependent if she has 300x and you have 100x minimum monthly income. But being her dependent may turn out to be limiting in some ways - I don't know.

But another way is that you can each qualify independently using the two different criteria, income and savings. She can qualify using her 300x income, while you can also qualify independently if you have an IRA or 401k or similar savings of 5000x. 

It's 172.87 pesos for the MW in 2022. Different consulates use different exchange rates, but lets say 20 pesos/dollar. So 5000x MW is 172.87 x 5000 = 864,350 pesos, or about $43,000 that you'd have to have in an IRA or 401k. I think most people that have been making regular IRA contributions will have that amount. The IRA would need to be in your name, and you'd have to show statements with that balance or more for the past year.

It always does depend on the consulate, so your mileage may vary. If you try at one and get rebuffed, try at another, even if you have to travel a ways to get there. You might get lucky and the consulate might use the friendlier UMA numbers, but from what I've heard all the consulates are using the MW. (In country, when you go to renew after a year, they'll use the UMA)


----------



## tothehilt (5 mo ago)

eastwind said:


> You can qualify as your wife's dependent if she has 300x and you have 100x minimum monthly income. But being her dependent may turn out to be limiting in some ways - I don't know.
> 
> But another way is that you can each qualify independently using the two different criteria, income and savings. She can qualify using her 300x income, while you can also qualify independently if you have an IRA or 401k or similar savings of 5000x.
> 
> ...


 Thank you for such a detailed response!
I will be in Mexcio for 4 months but my wife only for a month. Is a month an adequate time slot to allow for completing the process in mexcio to receive your TR card. I have heard that they keep your passport and one month might be pushing one's luck.


----------



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

tothehilt said:


> Thank you for such a detailed response!
> I will be in Mexcio for 4 months but my wife only for a month. Is a month an adequate time slot to allow for completing the process in mexcio to receive your TR card. I have heard that they keep your passport and one month might be pushing one's luck.


It depends on the particular INS office that you do your process at. Some use a newer process and you can complete in a day. I'm not sure if all offices have converted to that new process. The old process was longer, depending on how busy that office was. The office I used in Cancun used to take about 3 months. One month would be tight for even a very unbusy office using the old process. It required you to be approved, then come back in to drop off your pictures and be fingerprinted, then that was sent to Mexico City and the card made there and sent back. So you'll need to find out specifically about the office near where you are staying. 

If it's the one-day process then they take your picture using their digital camera. If it's the old process, they will say you have to supply a number of photos. That's one way to tell, but if their instructions haven't been updated it won't be a good clue. If you go the first day and all you are allowed to do is file paperwork, and not the photos, then it's the old process for sure.


----------



## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

It’s worth mentioning that if an applicant for residency submits their documents at an INM office and they have to leave Mexico before they get their residency completed, they can get a paper which is a one-time exit and entry document that allows them to leave Mexico (I think for up to 60 days) without jeopardizing their application. It currently costs 484 pesos. The information is here.

In my experience, they don’t keep your passport – you bring the passport and copy of same, and during your visit to the office, they check the copy against the passport (this action is called _cotejar_). They keep the copy and you get your passport back right away. It’s as though they have certified the copy for their purposes, so they don’t need to keep the original. But I can’t guarantee 100% that it’s the same at all offices.


----------



## 255 (Sep 8, 2018)

@tothehilt -- My wife and I just went through this same scenario. We read online last year the requirements for permanent residency (and didn't meet them financially,) so we waited until this year to apply. "Low and behold," the financial requirements increased -- we no longer qualified for permanent residence, but did for temporary residence (I for pension and my wife for income, as she's still working.) We scheduled an appointment at the consulate, gathered our documents and went to our appointment. Unfortunately, my wife is self-employed and they wouldn't accept self-employment income (they only wanted W-2 income, with pay stubs.) They said, no problem -- we'll process you first, then process her as a dependent. I initially thought we wouldn't get hers, because I am only about $400 over the minimum requirements and everything I'd read online, said I needed an extra thousand, per dependent. They took our pictures and we came back in about two hours to pick up our passports with brand new temporary visas attached.

I had read, on this forum, about different immigration offices having different equipment, so knowing it might be longer at some locations, we chose Mexico City thinking they had the "latest and greatest." Unfortunately, it took us over two weeks to secure an appointment! No issue, we loved it. We have traveled all over Mexico and haven't yet settled on "the spot" for us and we'd never been to Mexico City, but had many friends that raved about it. On the day of the appointment, everything was completed in one day with no issues. The Mexico City INM office is a very busy place.

We stayed in Mexico City for a month, but it took us16 days to get our temporary resident cards. Conversely, @AlanMexicali responded to a recent thread that Puerto Vallarta is usually a walk-in situation, with no appointments needed. I think a month in Mexico should not be an issue for your wife, whichever INM office she processes for her temporary residence card. Cheers, 255


----------

