Friday, August 04, 2006

Mexican Laws... in English!

I remember a few months ago, talking to an accountant in Texas who told me that his office keeps up on Mexican tax law. "How do you do that?", I asked. "Do you read Spanish that well?" "No...", he answered, "They are all available in English.

I was floored. Really! I guess if you think about it, the tax laws in the US are probably available in Spanish...or are they? I'd love to know. In the meantime, there are a lot more than tax laws available in English, and this website that I found recently can get you a lot closer to whatever you need to know regarding the law in Mexico.

The website is run by a company based in Tijuana and San Diego. Even if you don't become a member and sign up for their services (translations, document preparation, newsletter), a perusal of the website is bound to teach you something you didn't know.

For instance, the latest newsletter is all about Mexican immigration law. Apparently, the author has been getting lots of inquiries about Mexican immigration law, mostly from people trying to prove how Mexican law is worse than US law on the subject of immigration. The newsletter goes on to explain, in plain English, how Mexican immigration law works and what it is based on. Fascinating.

On the first page, the interested reader can also find a list of the various categories of Mexican law, designated by the governmental authority that oversees those laws. If you are an expatriate resident of Mexico and ever wondered what PROFECO does, or SEGOB or SRE, then you'll find some answers here. (Go ahead, go look it up!)

I don't know if this is a comprehensive list or not, but it's certainly a helpful beginning. And if it's not enough, go to the bottom of the page and click on Comments to send in your question or comment. A cute feature of the site: Right above the comment section in small print is this line: (Please don't ask: the drinking age is 18 in all of Mexico).

I wonder how many requests the author got before he decided to put that up there.

1 comment:

Ellen Fields said...

Thanks, Ricardo. I'll go check it out. And will look for your other tips as well.

I'm on a roadtrip this week...so it may take me awhile, but I'll get to it!!