Has anyone done the
process to regularize their situation personally in Cancun?
Should we make an appointment or go directly? asks a Facebook user in a group of Argentinians in that Mexican city.
"The best thing is to hire a lawyer, since in Cancun the Immigration Office is very screwed," answers a woman.
"It would be better if you do it in Mexico City, they are not so demanding," another user responds. "A lawyer is going to charge you a lot of money to do a procedure that you can do yourself. In the DF you do not need an appointment, you do need to fill out forms , pay some stamps in a bank and return to Immigrations. If you can justify your stay,
in a few hours you will be regularized
. "
The legal situation of Argentines who reside permanently or temporarily in the Riviera Maya represents a separate universe.
Last Sunday, five Argentines died as a result of a violent crash on a route that connects Tulum with Cancun
when they were returning to this city, after regularizing their immigration status.
They had crossed into Belize, a small country south of the Yucatan Peninsula, bordering Mexico.
Two other Argentines who remain hospitalized in Playa del Carmen were also traveling in the damaged vehicle.
Micaela Papiermeister remains in reserved status.
And
Lucas Figallo,
who suffered multiple fractures, posted a story on his Instagram account this Wednesday, in which he details his state of health.
Argentines who died in Playa del Carmen.
According to reports, a lawyer had charged them 10,000 Mexican pesos, the equivalent of 500,000 Argentine pesos, to transport them from Cancun so that, once their passports were stamped in Belize, they could enter Mexican territory again and, in this way,
obtain another six months of legal stay
.
In reality, the lawyer did not transport them or accompany them, but rather she managed the procedure.
The Attorney General's Office of the State of Quintana Roo handles the hypothesis that one of the Argentinians she was driving could be linked.
“We all came to see what's going on, to try our luck,” says Jaime Kloner (38), an Argentine who has lived in Playa del Carmen for twelve years, a paradise resort 68 kilometers south of Cancun, “and the way
of obtaining a work visa"
.
He is one of the many Argentines who reside in that Mexican city, who currently number between 20,000 and 25,000: almost 10% of the local population.
The figure was estimated in October 2022 by the head of the Argentine consulate in Playa del Carmen, Lautaro Filchtinsky.
That figure has likely increased, but there is no updated data.
According to Kloner, most Argentines begin their adventures in the Riviera Maya in a similar way to the one he traveled through.
He went to try his luck in 2012 and spent four months adrift, looking for
jobs.
It was then that, two months after his legal stay expired, a cosmetics company hired him and processed his work visa.
Since then, it's just a matter of renewing it.
“The beginning is very similar in all our cases.
We come young and with savings, we rent an apartment for four or five to amortize the expense and, while we get to know the area, we explore possible jobs.
From
waiters, receptionists or selling tours in the city center;
Some venture into the real estate field, locating tenants who are looking for houses in the area, working on commission, in that case,” Kloner lists some of the areas that allow Argentines to make a living there, in the Mexican Caribbean.
The relationship between Argentines and Mexicans, he says, is
one of love and suspicion.
On the one hand, the inventiveness, the spark of the Argentine is very popular with Mexicans, because she is capable of solving situations with notorious cunning, something appreciated by those sides.
“But the Argentine's 'vivada' is also known, and dishonesty is not liked at all.
There is also another aspect, and that is that as a consequence of the fact that the Argentine, sometimes, solves with ingenuity and speed, it happens that he is left with hierarchical positions in the places where he works, for example in tourism and hospitality.
The suspicion grows and one often hears: 'Damn Argentinian, go to your country,'”
says Kloner.
But to be able to occupy a hierarchical role in any job, you need stability, and for stability you need
regularity in roles
.
The opposite of tourist status, which does not allow you to be employed, at least in white.
Currently, Kloner maintains, a work visa is obtained by justifying a residence address and paying
a fee that usually ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 US dollars.
-Why, then, are there constant crossings to Belize or Guatemala?
-Those who make these crossings are usually not sure that they will have luck here, or that they will want to stay for a considerable time.
Really, here they usually understand and
do not put too many obstacles in granting a work visa
.
You just have to know how to justify what is said in the Immigration office.
From the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún and Playa del Carmen are located, they tell
Clarín
that requests were discovered that ghost companies made to the Mexican State so that certain immigrants could work legally.
They charged them to process their visa and then disappeared, leaving them helpless and without many options to survive.
For the State, then, it was better to offer solutions and avoid unpleasantness.
For this reason, there are currently two ways: either pay the State the fee for processing the visa, or pay managers and lawyers to process
expenses and income to renew the stay several times as tourists.
Furthermore, they maintain: sometimes, it is not even necessary for immigrants to make the trip to Belize or Guatemala, but rather they hand over their passport to a person who collects various documents and
has them stamped at the border
.
A business as profitable as it is clandestine.
However, Kloster also adds that
the majority of Argentines have their papers in order
.
Therefore, there are Argentine restaurants, grills and bakeries;
also blacksmith shops or tourist ventures;
The Argentine looks for it, and well.
“Today Fifth Avenue, the main avenue in Playa del Carmen, is Argentine
.
You walk and the accent is ours.
And we are the hardest workers, he would say, in this hyper-tourist area where a lot of people and a lot of money come,” she adds.
He himself is an example of the progress of Argentines in the area: he started as a cosmetics salesman for the company that employed him, on the beaches and streets of Playa del Carmen, then in Paseo del Carmen, one of the busiest shopping centers.
He later began to train other sellers, since that sector is profitable: the creams range between 100 and 7,000 dollars, and tourists pay for it.
“They come from all over the world with fat wallets.
I made between 2,500 and 5,000 dollars a month working as a salesman
,” says Kloner.
He comments that, over the years, he was able to help more than 250 Argentines begin their journey in Playa del Carmen, so that they have an initial blank job and thus establish themselves.
Later, he began to be an ambassador for that company that employed him and worked in Monterrey, Cabo Lucas (Baja California), Mexico City, also Barcelona and other places in the world.
But he returned to Playa del Carmen, because the landscape and the family weigh more: his two children were born there.
“It is a very recent city: in the nineties, there were almost no people here.
In thirty years, it multiplied its inhabitants by thirty.
In addition to being paradise-like, there are many opportunities to progress here.
Only one has to help with their legal situation: if you are in good standing, no one will screw you.
Not the police, not immigration, not anyone,” concludes Kloner.
S.C.