So as inexpensive as being here is, it still costs money. My plan was to stay 6 months and scope it out to see if it’s feasable for the whole family to live here or not. There are 3 ways to come to Mexico. As a tourist, you can enter and stay for 180 days. At any time during this period, you can visit a local immigration office and apply for an additional 180 day extension. If you choose to stay longer, you must apply to get a non-permanant resident visa. For those of us in the north, this means a trip to Ottawa to apply and be interviewed. Canadians are a special breed of people.
* It is tempting for some Canadians and American citizens to go to the Mexican Consulate in Belize, which works for Americans, but Canadians must have all their documents formally “legalized” by a Mexican Consulate BACK in CANADA – because Canada is special and refused to sign the Hague Convention. …*see original source here.
In addition, you must prove you have a monthly income of $1642.52 CDN to qualify. Other qualifiers include retirement pensions and you must prove a bank balance of $27,777.777/month for the previous 12 months.
As mentioned in my Reality post, a foreigner cannot just walk into a business and apply for work. Like most countries, Mexico will only hire foreign workers if they have a skill or trade that is in high demand and are unable to meet that demand by local workers.
This scoping out adventure I am on may or may not become more permanent, so I chose to come here on my tourist visa only. If I were to seek employment here, I would need a letter of employment offer on official letterhead from the business, and would have to apply for this special work visa when I apply for my non-permanent residency.
In the event someone just wants to stay here forever (and I totally get that some days), you must apply to become a permanent resident after 4 years of being a non-permanent resident.
So where does this leave me? In Mexico, after leaving a job and co-workers I adored in Nova Scotia, to pursue my love of writing, my love of sunshine, and my love of helping others. Obviously I needed to finance this trip somehow and still have a monthly income that will pay my Mexican bills. Having a husband at home in Canada handling things there, is a huge relief. We would never consider leaving as a family unless finances were strong and debt was minimal. Although I could easily live here and plow through our savings or rely on my husband to look after the bills, I wanted to be self sufficient.
Last winter I started studying for my TEFL certificate. I was very frugal and found a wonderful 150 Hour Master course that was available online for about $40 USD. Study Online
This was like stepping back into school with past perfect participles and adjectives and CVCs and verbs, pronouns…..it was a little overwhelming at first. It also taught me about using using body language to teach, how to create exciting lesson plans and to be very patient with learners. I completed my course and obtained my certificate in August 2015. I was ready to teach English!
I immediately started searching for online positions as I knew it was work I could take with me. I happened upon several companies in China and Vietnam who had positions open for teachers. I was interviewed and hired and started working in December.
I cannot tell you how amazing it is to teach these children. They are so wonderful to work with and the company I work for, VIPKIDS is amazing. My classroom is my computer screen. I use a headset to work with the student. We see the same screen and sing and laugh and learn together. My classes are only 25 minutes long and I must be available for 15 classes a week during peak times. Peak times are of course, 6pm – 10 or 11 pm Beijing time, which is 13 hours ahead of Cancun.The pay is determined by your practicum score and they pay in USD by a money transfer to your bank account. If you would like to teach like I do, and you have a Bachelors degree or Associates degree in child studies plus your TEFL certificate, please click here to apply.
Teaching online pays my bills in Mexico and where it is a non-Mexican company I do not require a work visa to do it from here – or anywhere in the world for that matter!
My love of teaching is growing so much. I was also fortunate to find an ad on Craigslist close to Christmas looking for english speaking teachers in Cancun to volunteer teaching children at a local church. I replied and soon struck up an online friendship with the man heading up the program. On a side note, it was flukey and maybe a bit weird – but we discovered just before I moved down here that we were going to be living in the SAME BUILDING!! We chuckle now – we are where we are by no fluke.
Not long after arriving here I was also contacted by a woman I met, who teaches at a small private school on the other side of the city. She asked if I would be interested in teaching there one day a week. I agreed and I teach phonics to children in pre-kindergarten up to grade 6. I absolutely love it there. The kids hug me and thank me everytime and work so hard on using proper pronunciation. The best lesson yet was showing the difference in using a long u sound and a short u sound in the word “puppy”.
I am working with children, teaching, and earning enough to pay my rent and buy groceries in Cancun, and my work day is usually finished by 8:30am. I am so blessed that this allows me to volunteer at the church and school. At home my work day was so long and by evening I didn’t want to move off the sofa. I missed volunteering so this is very rewarding being able to volunteer again.
woman43 