Mexican Passport Renewal

[John Shrall]

For anyone interested, we renewed our Mexican passports today for the first time. Things have changed a little and surprisingly, for the better.

You have to call for an appointment. There is a website for appointments but at the moment it only works for Mexico City.

The office to choose is located at Plaza Patria, north of the Country Club between Av de las Americas and Avila Camacho.

After spending a lot of time getting copies of different sized cartas, they didn't even look at them. Once your docs are examined and OK'd, you're sent into a noisy room with about 200 people either sitting or standing. Since there was no signage or help you have to figure out that the line for drop off is on the right side of the room in a roped off area with a single row of chairs. Think of the snaking chair car tag process in Chapala before they went online.

There were 6 windows with employees taking your docs, making notes and in short order sent you to the second waiting area, that being for the photo, retina scan and signature. No more fingerprints. Names are called over the PA system sending you to one of many photo stations. If you're tall be prepared to bend your knees a lot because the camera setup is rigid and not designed for you. 

When that is complete, you're sent to the final waiting area for your completed passport. The lady calling names wore a mask and couldn't project so with the PA and noise from all those in the waiting area it was impossible to hear her. Often, she identified people by the photo and called them up.

With a couple of signatures and about 2 hours after we arrived, we walked out with renewed 10-year passports. If you're over 60 the passport is half price which is $1,890 pesos.

 

[Natasha]

1 hour ago, John Shrall said:

The office to choose is located at Plaza Patria, north of the Country Club between Av de las Americas and Avila Camacho

Maybe in your opinion, but we much prefer the one on Avenida Mexico for access from  lakeside area.

[Mostlylost]

11 hours ago, Natasha said:

Maybe in your opinion, but we much prefer the one on Avenida Mexico for access from  lakeside area.

Avenida Mexico SRE office closed years ago

[ibarra]

There was a post recently about going to Ocotlan for renewals.  

[John Shrall]

I was told that the Plaza Patria office is the only one in the Guadalajara area that has printing equipment on the premises allowing for same day pickup.

[Natasha]

2 hours ago, Mostlylost said:

Avenida Mexico SRE office closed years ago

Hhmmmmmm.....  I'll take your word for it, but odd it still shows up as an available location when doing a search on gov't web page.  Will be interesting to see what's the word for our next renewals  in  5 years IF we're lucky enough to live that long... 🤞

[Mostlylost]

2 hours ago, Natasha said:

Hhmmmmmm.....  I'll take your word for it, but odd it still shows up as an available location when doing a search on gov't web page.  Will be interesting to see what's the word for our next renewals  in  5 years IF we're lucky enough to live that long... 🤞

 

[ibarra]

We would appreciate any information you may have regarding renewing a Mexican passport in Ocotlan.   Website, etc.

[Mostlylost]

https://www.gob.mx/tramites/ficha/renovacion-de-pasaporte-a-personas-mayores-de-edad/SRE113

[John Shrall]

It appears that the tramites site is allowing online appointments at the Plaza Patria location. This is new since I renewed my passport in April when a telephone call was required.

You do have to take the time to set up an online account before proceeding. 

[jrod]

On 9/3/2023 at 2:43 PM, John Shrall said:

It appears that the tramites site is allowing online appointments at the Plaza Patria location. This is new since I renewed my passport in April when a telephone call was required.

You do have to take the time to set up an online account before proceeding. 

Plaza Patria is a great location for passports--there is a very on-the-ball woman there who sets the lines, pre-checks docs, and brings organization to an otherwise chaotic governmental facility. It's a wait, for sure, but impressively organized. And you can go to City Market, restaurante Chai, Dairy Queen, and other jewels while you are there!

[John Shrall]

I agree. The Plaza Patria location for passports is organized chaos but getting a passport renewed in a couple of hours is worth it.

If they would only install signs pointing to the office at the back of the building on the upper floor the process would have been a lot smoother. We kept asking vendors where it was but all that did was to narrow the search until we saw a line of waiting people which is a clue for any government facility.