Although marriages to another ethnicity are becoming quite the popular thing nowadays, in some circumstances it's not easy peasy. Being always honest and frank, I would love to share with you a little about the ins and outs of this whole sha-bang and the things you may not know.
Since coming to Mexico in 2007, there is always a requirement to have a visa in this country. Crusade helped me stay legal before. I had to get a birth certificate apostilled. (Can't explain it fully but it's like a super notary) Then arriving in Mexico, I had that paperwork translated with my immigration lawyer and then we proceeded with the documentation. The cost is huge...mostly because I use a lawyer so I don't mess up. It costs about $500 a year. When we got married, we had to translate my birth certificate again...appartantly the office needed an "approved translator" for that one. We had to do a bunch more paperwork, pay about $300 and we were set. My visa had to be switched over so that I would be a dependent on Gabo. We had to prove his income (almost impossible with him being a freelance musician), submit his birth certificate, official ID card, etc and pay $600.
This does not include the massive process of getting Gabo his resident visa in the states.
The bottom line is this. We love each other...a lot. Marriage has it's ups and downs. Bi-cultural marriage throws a whole different learning curve in the mix. Adding a little bit of stress as you wait for immigration offices to decide if you are legal plus thousands of dollars.
Our hope and prayer is that we both can naturalize in the opposite country in the next 2 years. Meaning both taking civics tests, Gabo mastering English and finding witnesses of Gabo's life here to prove he is a Mexican. We don't know what the Lord has for us. We always want to be above reproach in our paperwork and the way we handle these things.
We also are constantly confronted with immigration related topics in the US. Neither one of us are experts in that...we live in Mexico. We look for ways to constantly honor God with our responses and encourage others to do the same. We are learning a lot.
Hope you can learn something from us as well. Let me know if you have any questions.
2 comments:
All of that work is not awesome, but Gabo IS! Praise God for that. It's sure worth it.
Sounds a lot like our situation! I'm married to a Russian, living in Russia. I have seen it all in terms of paperwork and there seems to be no end in sight. Thankfully that's the main challenge right now.
Once we start having kids, I'm sure some questions will come up, but for now the red tape is what keeps us on our toes.
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