Expert: Ron - 10/1/2004

Question
Hi, my husband and I are planning on moving out of USA, we were thinking that Mexico would be a option. I do not know alot about it, and I am willing to learn. How do you get into Mexico? What would be the first steps to take? Thanks so much for your help! Jennifer Reed

Answer
Hola Jennifer: Well I can provide a little information, but you have a lot of reading and research to do as well. It is a good idea to have basic Spanish and that might be the best place to start. You might find night classes like we did at local high schools or colleges. My Spanish however remains poor but I can get by in our area of Mexico and the resort areas. We choose to live in an area with a large population of Americans, Canadians and Europeans and many of the Mexicans know some English. However when shopping in the large cities at WalMart, Costco, etc it is rare to find English speaking sales clerks.

I depend on my wife who is almost perfectly bilingual.

By moving to Mexico you will keep your American citizenship, you can't become Mexican. However you can live here permanently using different immigration visas.

At the border or when flying into Mexico all you need is your birth certificate to get your FMT, also called the Tourist Visa, good for up to 180 days.  If living in Mexico permanently it is better to upgrade to an FM3 or FM2. More information is available at

http://www.canadianclubmx.com/Immigration.htm

I can suggest 2 good books to start your research: Carl Franz's THE PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO MEXICO, and Don Adams' book HEAD FOR MEXICO THE RENEGADE GUIDE. Don's book would be my first choice and in it you can read my story. Both should still be available through Amazon.

Also read some of my other answers in All Experts about cost of living, etc. One of our neighbours Karen Blue has a website of particular interest although she no longer does monthly articles.

http://mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/blue/askblue.html

Not everything is perfect in Mexico but we can't imagine living anywhere else.

Hopes that helps, we live here and we love it,
       
         Ron