Demand for passports increases

The vacational period caused demand for demand for Mexican passports to increase by 7%, the delegate for the Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) in Tijuana, Silvia González Giammattei, informed.

She explained that in June, 8,266 documents were granted, while in prior months the average was 7,700.

In the first few days of July, continued the federal official, 2,904 Mexican passports have been granted, which represents about 300 per day.

She added that the wait time to receive the passport is still 45 minutes after the secretariat receives documents from the solicitants.

In addition, those who solicit the passport after 1:00 p.m. will have to wait until the next day to receive the Mexican passport.

In reference to the problems encountered by those who seek the passports, she said a common one occurs when the name on the birth certificate is not the same as the name on the form of ID which is presented.

"We recommend that the people take care to have their documents in order, because there are problems where the name on the birth certificate and the name on the ID they present. There are a lot of cases with this situation."

González Giammattei added that another recommendation is that the solicitants of the Mexican document let them know if they have had a passport previously.

"Normally, they say they've never had a passport, and it's the first time they go through the process", she said.

She said that when a person does not inform that he previously had a passport, the SRE's system detects the previous passport and does not permit a new one to be issued.

This causes the person to waste time and makes him think the SRE doesn't want to issue him a passport, she explained. When the person doesn't have the (previous) passport, they should file a report with the Public Ministry to the effect that their passport has been lost or stolen.

According to SRE statistics, passport requests have fallen 3% in 2005. In 2004, the federal agency granted 47,014 Mexican passports through July 12, while in the same period in 2005, 45,741 have been granted.

The highest demand is for the one-year passport (84%), followed by the two-year (12%), and the remainder were five-year passports.

The Mexican passport is a pre-requisite to obtain a visa from the US. In Tijuana alone, Mexico has issued 45,000 passports so far this year. Once a Mexican has the passport and US tourist visa in hand, he can enter the US through the land ports of entry and stay for 10 years without having to renew the visa. His passport might expire after 1 year, but he doesn't have to show his passport to get across the border, only the visa. That's likely why 84% of the people request the one-year passport.

Ping

Please Freepmail me if you would like to be included on the Mexican/Hispanic Media ping list.

"She added that the wait time to receive the passport is still 45 minutes after the secretariat receives documents from the solicitants.

3 posted on 07/14/2005 1:24:36 PM PDT by knarf (A place where anyone can learn anything ... especially that which promotes clear thinking.)

The 8,266 applications represents only about 3,000 different people. Each Mexican applicant gets at least two official passports, primarily, to assist in illegal activities while in the EU. The issue of prior passports was built into the system to flag the circumstances when a bribe could be demanded. "We can't issue you a passport because our records show you already have one! Oh! OK, you got it!" There is, of course, no record of the matricula cards issued by tbe Mexican consulates in the US and, therefore, no cross referencing matricula cards and Mexican passports. What Mexican official would want to see that report?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.