Regularize your status in Mexico!!!

FM2 (Mexico) regs to be streamlined

Immigration Commissioner Cecilia Romero said the mexican government is streamlining procedures to help foreigners regularize their immigration status.

She said her office, a division of the Interior Secretariat (Segob), will simplify procedures for foreigners in Mexico seeking to establish themselves in the country permanently.

"The tradition was that to be a permanent resident of Mexico one had to be a temporary resident for five years," she said.

"But in the coming months the FM2 form (which shows proof of legal residency status in Mexico) will be granted" to those who request it and fulfill the requirements, Romero said at a meeting in Mexico City with some 70 consular representatives from different countries.

The measure will only benefit immigrants who settled in the country before Jan. 1, 2005, and who have ties to Mexicans, have a job or carry out activities that are legal, honest and beneficial for the country, Segob officials told EFE.

This new initiative is part of the government´s 2007 Immigration Regularization Program that Romero´s office, known as the INM, set in motion on Dec. 23.

Romero added that Mexican authorities are looking for ways to simplify the lives of all those who want to visit, work, invest or study in Mexico.

"We want to open the doors of the INM so that they can put their papers in order and can walk the streets with the certainty that their rights will be respected in our country," Romero told the consular representatives.

She said that currently 0.5 percent of those living within the nation´s borders are of foreign origin - roughly 5.1 million people out of a total population of 103 million.

Of these immigrants, 95 percent hail from Central America, Romero said.

The commissioner said that the INM is committed to pursuing a "comprehensive" policy that puts a priority on the dignity of all people.

She said the Calderón administration recognizes the wealth of contributions by immigrants and is committed to ensuring respect for migrants´ human rights and dignity and streamlining the INM´s procedures.