In this episode, I am going to discuss the legal processes and issues my wife and I have been experiencing in becoming an ex-pat in Mexico. This includes getting a resident visa, the various identification numbers you need to acquire, getting an apostille for your marriage certificate, having new wills created, acquiring a Mexican driver's license, and a few other tidbits of information. This will not be legal advice as I am not a lawyer but it will give you some things to think about. This will be specifically about Mexico but you will run into the same issues no matter where you choose to go.
For those new to this podcast, my wife and I moved to Ajijic Mexico in 2018. My wife retired and I moved my business south of the border. At that point, I periodically started blogging and podcasting about our experiences. Much to my surprise those episodes have been very popular.
We have crossed a number of legal thresholds like both of us are now permanent residents, and we both have Mexican driver's licenses. We bought a house in Ajijic in October of 2021 and bought a new car in Mexico in January of 2023. Buying a new car was painful as there is very limited availability of new cars at the dealers. The process was simple once the cars had been delivered but the wait was painful.
We chose to live in a very walkable place in Mexico and therefore, the 3 months we went without a car was okay. We did realize that we did not need the car very much but there were times when it was handy to have. Instead, we hired a professional driver to take us places. For example, my wife needed to have her hearing aids serviced and we hired a driver to take her into Guadalajara twice, once to talk with the audiologist and drop the hearing aids off, and another time to pick them up.
This episode is sponsored by Career Pivot. Check out the Career Pivot Community, and be sure to pick up my latest book, Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life Third Edition.