I decided after 4 years of travelling all over Mexico, learning Spanish, studying photography, taking dance classes, volunteering at orphanages, teaching English (anything to distract me from my life as an unhappy domestic goddess) that I wanted to work full time at an international company, get back to my roots as the career woman I was in Canada. I had been living in Mexico on a tourist visa and flying home every six months. I felt confident in my Spanish by then so it was time to search for jobs.
Someone told me about a lead for a job at an international food company, but I lost the opportunity because they required someone who already had their papers, so I asked my fiancé to take me to the nearest immigration office. Off we went, it was an hour's drive to another town, I was expecting a large office with lines and "take a number" type of place, much like our passport offices in Canada. When we arrived, it was a tiny office with a glass door and one little metal desk in the middle of the room, I don't even think there was a phone on the desk, it was 9am and the door was still locked, all of a sudden a huge red cockroach came out behind the desk and my fiancé said to me, "Oh, here comes the manager", we had a good laugh!
When the officer finally came out, he told me I needed an job offer letter from a company first before I could get approved for a working visa…so how was I going to do this if the company required a work visa first? I tried every way possible to do it the honest way and nothing worked, I came home each time from the immigration office with frustration and in tears, finally my fiance's company gave me an offer letter to get the ball rolling, but still, it took another 3 months to get it approved. One time I went and the officer was trying to pick me up, asking me if I wanted a Mexican boyfriend!? I had to go back many times and face rejection, I would take everything they asked for, and they would tell me it had to be notarized or that I was missing something else that wasn't on the list. I finally switched to another immigration office 2 hours away from my town, because they had more experience with foreigners and when they saw that I had each and every one of the 26 pages notarized, they said, "This isn't necessary", but they approved me the first time and then it took about one month to get my little green FM3 booklet/visa. Now I was ready to start the job search...
Someone told me about a lead for a job at an international food company, but I lost the opportunity because they required someone who already had their papers, so I asked my fiancé to take me to the nearest immigration office. Off we went, it was an hour's drive to another town, I was expecting a large office with lines and "take a number" type of place, much like our passport offices in Canada. When we arrived, it was a tiny office with a glass door and one little metal desk in the middle of the room, I don't even think there was a phone on the desk, it was 9am and the door was still locked, all of a sudden a huge red cockroach came out behind the desk and my fiancé said to me, "Oh, here comes the manager", we had a good laugh!
When the officer finally came out, he told me I needed an job offer letter from a company first before I could get approved for a working visa…so how was I going to do this if the company required a work visa first? I tried every way possible to do it the honest way and nothing worked, I came home each time from the immigration office with frustration and in tears, finally my fiance's company gave me an offer letter to get the ball rolling, but still, it took another 3 months to get it approved. One time I went and the officer was trying to pick me up, asking me if I wanted a Mexican boyfriend!? I had to go back many times and face rejection, I would take everything they asked for, and they would tell me it had to be notarized or that I was missing something else that wasn't on the list. I finally switched to another immigration office 2 hours away from my town, because they had more experience with foreigners and when they saw that I had each and every one of the 26 pages notarized, they said, "This isn't necessary", but they approved me the first time and then it took about one month to get my little green FM3 booklet/visa. Now I was ready to start the job search...
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