Moving to Gto with a cat, and temporary residency—this year!

[junruh]

My husband and I are from Portland, Oregon – though we intend to move to Gto this year. It was great to find GTOLIST, thanks to Louisa Rogers, a friend of a friend. The prospects of connecting to others seems a lot less daunting, now.

We are leaving the U.S. because we think things will become even more chaotic than they are now. Happily, we’re newly retired and getting Social Security, so we can make our escape. And, yes – we want to move out of the U.S. because our Social Security paychecks will stretch further almost anywhere else in the world.

We’re headed to Mexico because it will be different - which, I think will be invigorating - and it will open a world of new experiences. I traveled for work in Mexico, but I really fell in love with Mexico when I saw the movie, Hecho en Mexico… you can see it on Amazon. My husband is originally from Nicaragua and Venezuela, and he has traveled in Mexico in the past. I’m leaning on him a lot more these days to help me understand how things work in Latin America. I know it will be an adjustment to move to Mexico, but I think we can do it.

I hope you can help me figure out the order in which we need to do things to get temporary residency and move to Gto. I’ve been getting most of my info from Mexperience and their ebooks... link to Mexperience.

A complication is our cat – we intend to bring her, too. Please check the steps below and let me know if this plan should work.

1. The first thing we need to do is get a certificate stating our cat is dewormed (she doesn’t need it) per the requirements for bringing her to Mexico. After this is done, we have to move her to Guanajuato within 6 months because the certificate can’t be older than 6 months. (Or is it a year?) I’m guessing we can bring her into Mexico even if we’re not residents – does anyone know if that’s true? The entry point will be the Mexico City airport.
   
2. Also, it seems that we need to rent an apartment in Gto before the rest of the process, because we need an address in Gto – partly for practical reasons, but also for the residency process.
   
3. We complete the Canje process (part 1) in Portland. Fortunately, we have a consulate in town.
   
4. We complete the other health certificate requirements for our cat in Portland.
   
5. We move out of our house in Portland and park our stuff in storage.
   
6. We sell our house (!!!)
   
7. We then travel to Gto with our cat and move in to the apartment.
   
8. At that point, we have 30 days to complete the Canje process (part 2) at the INM office in Leon.
   
9. After we that, we wait 4-6 weeks to get our residency cards.
   
10. Once we have the cards, we can move our stuff from Portland to Gto.
    

Any suggestions or corrections?

It involves quite a bit of coordination, but I can tell you that it’s a lot less complicated than getting residency in Costa Rica, which we considered. Some U.S. expats there recommended a service that would ensure that every “i” was dotted and “t” crossed. The service would have cost over $5,000 USD for the two of us.

And, what happens if we goof it up? Does anyone have experience with doing things in the wrong order, or not having some requirement in place at the time it was needed? I get the sense that there is some wiggle room, and that it depends on who you ask, or even a tip can help finesse a little problem.

The biggest problem that could snarl up the plan is if we can’t bring our cat until we have our temporary residency. I hope that’s not the case. Hopefully, someone in GTOLIST has some experience / info on that.

Thank you –
Janet

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Janet Unruh my Facebook
From Portland, Oregon (since 1993) and before that, San Francisco, California, and St. Louis, Missouri.
Retired, married to Francisco Arteaga, with one son, Dalton (he’s 25). Instructional designer with master’s in engineering and technology management from Portland State University.
Author, Recycle Everything; Why We Must, How We Can and The Tyranny of Psychopaths, a novel. They’re on Amazon, but just ask me for a copy.

Interests: new ideas and ways of self-organizing amid the ruins of current political and economic structures, such as basic income, coops, and sustainable living. And, wandering around in Mexico in a state of enchantment.