martes, 21 de febrero de 2012

A Head's Up for Coahuilans

This morning we went to the passport office to get the kids' Mexican passports. Immediately, we were slapped in the face with a nasty surprise. Thanks to the ex-governor's impressive levels of deficit spending, all passports issued in the state of Coahuila are slapped with an aditional $1220 fee. That's about 3 times the total cost of the baby's passport. (As an additional comparison, last year the fees that the state applied to passport applications were around 200 pesos . . . yep, we're that far in debt.)

Thanks for that, ex-gob!

Unfortunately for those who came up with this genius pay-off-the-debt measure, they failed to take into account that the two biggest cities in the state, Torreon and Saltillo, are a short drive to neighboring states. Which is why the passport office was eerily silent this morning. Now, instead of the state government collecting 200 pesos from each of the roughly 30 people that would file for a passport daily, they can now rake in 1220 once every two or three days from some poor schmuck who just doesn't have the time to go to Monterrey.

But, the good news is that it's no longer necessary to make an appointment to renew your passport in Saltillo!

3 comentarios :

bordersaside dijo...

Well Im glad you guys found a way around that. Although I am curious to why you are getting the kids passports. We only the got the girls US ones because to get back into Mexico you dont need a Mexican passport but to get into the US you have to have a US passport. So instead of two we only got them one. They have their birthcirts here but not passports. Just curious to what the benefit is in case we should go ahead and get one

Jill dijo...

I think it's rather unnecessary, too, but Mario insists. So the kids have two passports each. I suppose it makes things easier in customs, but . . . well, Mario feels that it's worth it.

But if it were up to me, they'd skip that piece of paperwork!

Jill dijo...

Update: we got wind that the state smartened up and lowered their taxes on passport applications. True story. They're now charging "only" a little more than $600 (on top of the federal fees, of course).

However, it is a significant enough drop to make going to Monterrey (and taking the day off of work to do so) unnecessary.