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5 Months I am waiting for a temporary resident visa in Cancun

When the Mexican Embassy in The Hague Netherlands handed me over my passport with my brand new visa I felt so proud. Finally, I was going to travel through the country of Mexico. It gave my life that exciting buzz I need so much. Exploring is in my blood.
The lady told me it was valid for 6 months, and within one month after arrival, I had to apply for my resident card. Canjé, Tramite, it would take no more than a few weeks, she told me.

So happy I went to the Cancun Immigration office and processed the whole thing. Two months maximum they told me there at the desk.

And now I am 4 months further in time, almost 5, and nothing has happened. Oh well, something has happened. As soon as I left the office I got an email, with a website, login verification, and a number to check my status.
And every time I check nothing has changed. I have contacted lawyers, they all promise heaven until you say the paperwork is in process, then they gro very silent. Only one lawyer told me that he had a client also waiting from February 2019 for his card. So I am not the only one. Very comforting.

The wildest stories are told: lack of plastic cards, the officer has left the building with a pile of files and ours is in it and lost, and INM in Mexico city told me that there is nothing I can do to speed up the process, just wait, they try to calm me down on Twitter. Sit and wait. I should have been in Puerto Vallarta by now, owning a motorbike and maybe even a bank account, getting ready for my first road trip. Setting up a home base, get a cat, you know, stuff like you have a life.

But not me, I am stuck here in the Riviera Maya where the beaches and the sea are totally unswimmable due to sargassum and I cannot do anything! For any day now I can get called in to either be fingerprinted or not since that was done in the Netherlands, so maybe to just pick up my card. There also multiple stories about that part of the process. But the truth is: nobody knows anything, my file might be lost and nobody knows about it. Not even the immigration officers themselves.

So frustrating!

And in the meanwhile, I am sitting here in a studio, which is quite nice, but I am still living out of a suitcase, for I am not supposed to live here, I want to move. If they do not hurry I might as well stay here, for the longer, it takes the narrower the timeframe to apply for the other 3 years. I first have to process my moving house and state, and then I can apply for a new visa, which has to be done 30 days prior to the expiration date.

I am frustrated, even when I want to leave the country I have to pay money, and I can only stay away a few days otherwise they will cancel my visa. I feel captivated. Imprisoned and I dislike it. I dislike it so much that at the moment I seriously doubt if I want to stay in this taco country.

When you are caught in the middle of a process like this and your own future plans you cannot do anything but wait. But with no beaches to entertain me, there is little to do, since I do not like free tequila shots, and I do not like to blow or get stoned, drunk, or fuck around, like other people my skin color like to do here.
They set the tone for how people see me here and how they treat me. And I dislike it. I dislike it so much…..well there is the circle I dislike it so much that I wonder if I came to the right country.

But that is a bit harsh to judge for I am in an American subdivision here, this has nothing to do with Mexico and Mexican culture. So I know nothing yet. I want to go up those dirt roads, to small villages and meet locals, eat in small eateries and get to know the real Mexico.
But I can’t, I am stuck.
Waiting for my paperwork that is still “sin resolucion”

 

 

 

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