I've been a tourist for a whole year now, renting an apartment in Oaxaca City, and making side trips from there. In July 2017 I made a trip to the Guatemala border to get a second 6 months tourist visa, which I blogged about, and you can read in the July section of this blog. That border run went surprisingly easy, and I skated by without actually having to cross the border. This time wasn't so easy.
I'm writing this up in some detail, at least partly to help anyone considering or carrying out a similar trip to obtain a new tourist visa. Stories of such border runs vary widely, and it seems that different border crossing points, and even different clerks within one crossing point, or maybe even different moods of any particular immigration clerk, can produce widely different results. Last July I was lucky, and got a clerk that was new and not quite knowing what to do with my somewhat unusual situation, and I was never asked to go to Guatemala, and only at the last moment only did this clerk, all ready to stamp my passport, realize that I actually hadn't crossed the border. Stamp it he did anyway, and I was saved both expenses and hassles.
This time around I had had time to hear a few more stories about border runs for visa renewals, and in the few I heard about, all the results were different by a long margin. One person recently, like me in July, was never made to go to Guatemala. Another was only given a three months visa, and a nearby neighbor or mine ..... only seven days! That last one was at the Hidalgo border crossing, a little ways south of the often recommended Talisman crossing, which is the closest to Tapachula. Tapachula, in the Mexican State of Chiapas, is as close as you can get to the border easily from Oaxaca by bus.
First a bit more on the woman given seven days. After returning with her mere seven days, she hired an immigration lawyer, who told her that it says on the back of the visa that "you are entitled to 180 days," and he even took her to the local airport, where officials there confirmed that they would accept her visa when leaving the country within 180 days. However, that same lawyer emphasized the need for her to start the process for a residential visa after returning to USA withing that 180 days. By the way, visas are not actually for six months, although they are often referred to that way, but for a maximum 180 days, which is a bit less than six months. Some people have got caught up on that, and had to pay a late fee, when showing up just short of six months, but more than 180 days.
OK, onto my trip. First the bus. I thought I was using reasonable Spanish standing at the counter to buy my ticket, a few days prior to my departure date, but the clerk was not understanding me, and had me wait for the clerk next to him, who spoke very good English. It was just as well, because this new clerk showed me on her monitor details of bus choices that I hadn't realized existed, and I ended up choosing to pay a bit extra for a bus said to be more comfortable. Since I have problems sleeping on buses, this seemed a good choice, and it indeed proved to be so. If ever I travel on an overnight Mexican bus again, I will definitely look for the ADO luxury level bus. The seats were bigger, there was more leg room, and the seats leaned way back. There even was private earbuds provided for listening to the movies shown, so people not wanting to watch the movies weren't annoyed by the movie's sounds. The promoted WiFi, however, like the WiFi later, in the Tapachula bus depot, was extremely spotty at best.
My plan for the twelve plus hour overnight bus ride was to study a few appropriate Spanish phrases to use at the border. I've been studying Spanish for a year and a half now, slowly on my own with the help of online apps, but my Spanish is still very limited. The immigration lawyer mentioned above had given some tips on dealing with the Mexican immigration officials, such as: don't say you are here to study Spanish, but rather to travel and see different parts of Mexico .... and to banter and joke with the officials with such lines as, "Would you want to return to Trumpland?" Of course it would have to be done in Spanish.
I arrived at the Tapachula bus depot at about 10 am, having gotten at least a couple of hours of sleep, an accomplishment for me. The next thing to do is to take either a taxi, as I had done my first go at a border run, for 200 pesos, or hail a collectivo van. There seem to always be taxi's waiting just outside the bus depot, with a sign saying they are "authorized" taxis. Turning around the corner to the main street in front of the depot, collectivo vans wiz by, with a guy hanging out of a door or window shouting where each is going. I waiting there a few minutes, but not really knowing how vans to the "frontera" would be marked or announced, once again opted for a taxi. When I first spoke up about wanting to go to the "frontera," a driver asked, "Hidalgo?" NO! I said emphatically, but, using my limited Spanish, indicated that I wanted the closest border crossing, which I soon learned, is called "Talisman."
Now taxi's can only take you so far, and where I got left off, for another 5 pesos, I followed previous advice, and took a 5 peso tuk-tuk to within easy walking distance of Immigratión. Twenty or so people were ahead of me, but within half hour or so I was at a window trying to explain that I was there for a new six month's tourist permit. Like at the bus depot ticket windows, I was soon given to a young woman who spoke pretty good English.
Now the worst part of the whole experience. I hand her my passport and about-to-expire visa, and she asked if six months ago I paid my fees for the visa. It seemed like a totally dumb question, since there it was, a fully official visa, and of course I answered "yes." Then she asked if I had proof of paying for it. I was definitely taken aback at that. This is the kind of thing where you need to have your wits about you, but it still seems to me she was just playing me. Anyway, she insisted that I needed proof, and sent me to the cashier to pay for the about-to-expire visa over again.
Knowing full well that proof of my paying must be in their computer, I remained passive, and paid up the 500 peso fee (about 28 USD by current rate of exchange) and returned with this very generic 8.5x11 printed out "proof" to the front counter, and the same English speaking clerk. There I did my best to try and get, as I had done 6 months previously, and I had heard another had gotten away with, not having to across the border. No luck, and after going in circles with my request and the clerk's insistence that I need my passport stamped in Guatemala, I said, "OK," and set out to cross a new frontier.
Now there were two fast talking hustling young men who had been hassling me and who had walked me from my tuk-tuk to immigration, who now, along with, as many on both sides of the border will do, trying to get me to exchange Mexican pesos for Guatemalan Quetzales.
Now these obnoxious dudes actually did help me somewhat, in that I had had the impression that the Guatemalan Immigration was right across the border (which is indeed practically right outside the Mexican Immigration) and they walked me the block and a half or so to the rather small and relatively dingy Guatemalan Immigratión. Walking straight ahead up the busy street, on the left, would be guides in tow, I reach my goal. Once you see it there is a very obvious sign across the whole front of the building, so, once knowing that it is a little bit of a walk, it's easy to find.
Now this hustling duo, one of which was wearing around his neck a large official looking ID, were obviously much more into trying to hustle some money out of me rather than any altruism, but shake them I could not. Anyway, they took me right into Immigration, to a desk around to the left and to the back of the one room (I really can't remember if there was a counter with clerks and windows in the front area or not, I was in such a state) and with some words from my two leeches, I was told a price of 200. I tried to pay with 200 Mexican pesos, but of course that is not the local currency in Guatemala. Also, I had rather stupidly never checked to see what the exchange rate is, and tried to get that info from the clerk when he directed me to the front porch to find an exchange guy.
Anyway, there on the front porch was a guy with a huge wad of bills in one hand, and the same official looking ID around his neck as one of my two escorts. I feel lucky here, as, checking exchange rates online later, he did indeed give me a very reasonable rate of exchange, about 580 Mexican pesos for the 200 Quetzales that I had been asked for. The official online rate says approximately 540 vs 200. Definitely, anyone going to Guatemalan Immigration, WAIT to exchange your money until finding a guy like this on the Guatemalan Immigration porch!
At this point I'm definitely getting a bit nervous about my money situation, as I don't have a lot more with me than what I know is going to be another 500 peso fee back on the Mexican side.
Anyway, the guy at the desk takes my newly gotten 200 Quetzals, stamps twice in my passport, telling me, one entry, one exit, and I head, leeches close on my tail, back to Mexico.
No receipt given, no paperwork to fill out. I might add, with what was probably this very same clerk, or at least at the same desk, a friend faced with demand for money was able to bargain down the price, claiming what she offered was all she had, while showing money from one of three or four places where she was carrying her funds. I didn't have it in me to try any such thing however, and was soon back in Mexican Immigration, hoping for no more hassles and to get another 180 day tourist permit.
I did get my new 180 days, and for the posted amount of 500 pesos, but it took probably close to two hours, or at least what seemed like that amount of time. This was mostly because when standing in line for the cashier (in Mexico, where you pay, and where you get your final paper and passport stamped, are two strictly separate counters) the cashier and a American surfer looking dude left the building together, and didn't return for what seemed like close to an hour. A fellow English speaker said that the clerk had said, as the duo were leaving, that he (the cashier) had business to attend to with the guy he left with.
Sooooo, eventually, twice stamped passport, new receipt and a strong wish to get this all over with, I return to the counters, where now two (no English speaking woman) windows out of maybe a total of four available, are open, with no waiting. Everything went easily enough at this point, and I soon had a new 180 days tourist permit. While it was being prepared, the English speaking clerk came out of a back office area, and told the clerk who was helping me, to ask me "if I had gone to the mercado (market)," apparently in reference to how long it took me to get back from the cashier. I guess she never noticed that the cashier was the one who had maybe left to do some shopping. Anyway, her smiling as she did this reminded me of the lawyer's advise to try and be joking with the clerks, something I utterly failed at. The other thing perhaps of note, is this final clerk asked me how long I had been in Oaxaca, and when I answered "cerca de un año ..... almost one year," it didn't at all put him off, but even maybe seemed a bit impressed. One hundred and eighty days were filled in. YES!
Note: When handed my final visa and stamped passport, my 500 pesos receipt was stapled to the visa. It IS remaining stapled there! I am NOT going to be asked again for proof of having paid and NOT have that receipt!
Later, with a very long wait for my return bus, leaving for Oaxaca at 9pm, I lucked into a meeting with a traveler from Holland, just up from a short stay in Guatemala. He had spent time in Guatemala although he preferred Mexico, because he had a return ticket flying out of Mexico City, and had to time things, so he thought, to have no more than three months in Mexico, because that is the maximum allowed to a visitor from Holland. As we talked on and on about visas and border experiences, he got curious and concerned about just exactly what his new visa stated, as he really wasn't sure what time they had given him, but only assumed it was for the maximum (for him) three months. He was very surprised to see, when I pointed out where on the form it is scrawled in, that he had been given 180 days. A pleasant surprise to be given twice what he thought was legally allowed! Anyway, we talked on and on for at least a couple of hours, until his 8pm bus arrived for boarding. Meeting such an intrepid and outgoing traveler greatly helped to pass the time.
Eventually, about 10:30 the next morning, I arrive back at the Oaxaca ADO bus station, exhausted but happy. My hope is, in another six months to be able to travel to USA where I have children and grandchildren. Meanwhile, I hope that this extensive blogging might help at least one person have an easier time than I had getting a new permit at the often confusing Mexican-Guatemalan border.
Peace and Love to all,
Jay
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