Consulate General of Mexico: Information, Services, and Locating Relatives

1. CONSULATE GENERAL OF MEXICO General information, process of service, and locating relatives September 28, 2017 - Raleigh, North Carolina

2. Consulate General’s Role Background The Consulate General of Mexico in Raleigh opened in November of 2000. Its circumscription includes North and South Carolina. Objective: To provide services to Mexican Citizens living abroad, that go from the issuance of documents to providing them with legal advice and assistance. The Consulate also promotes better linkages between Mexico and the government and people of the consular district it covers, through the service of users and the promotion of business, educative, and cultural exchange. Main departments: • Documentation • Community Affairs • Consular Protection and Legal Affairs

3. Documentation for Mexican Nationals • Mexican Passport • Consular ID or matrícula consular • Registration to vote in Mexico (started 2/23/16) • Powers of attorney (according to Mexican law) • Registry of children as Mexican nationals (dual citizenship) • Issuance of certified copies of Mexican birth certificates • Military identification

4. Documentation for Non-Mexicans • Visas: • Tourist • Business • Student • Retirement • Temporary resident visa for Family-Spouse of Mexican national • Household permit • Certificate of analysis

5. Mexitel is a toll-free call center that is designed to help ease the process of making an appointment at any Consulate General in the U.S. for any documentation process. It is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. https://mexitel.sre.gob.mx/citas.webportal/pages/public/login/login.jsf

6. The Center of Information and Assistance to Mexicans is a call center that is open 24/7. Its main purpose is to provide professional and opportune responses to the necessities of Mexicans in the U.S. by integrating and orienting their petitions of consular services, immigration, prevention and consular protection, in accordance with the compromises of the Mexican Government to protect the interests of Mexicans abroad. 1-855-463-6395 Toll free.

7. MiConsulmex is a cross-platform mobile application for the Mexican community in the world. It facilitates access to information related to services, consular protection and assistance, and outreach activities provided by the Government of Mexico through it consular network. The application is user oriented and intuitive.

8. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has created a System of Registry for Mexicans Abroad (SIRME) with the purpose of facilitating communication between the Mexican Government and its nationals abroad. Through this system registered Mexican nationals can receive crucial information to prevent finding themselves in adverse conditions while traveling, and moving or residing in a foreign country. https://sirme.sre.gob.mx/

9. Community Affairs • Education • Scholarship programs provided by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, IME) • Plazas Comunitarias (on-site education centers) • Online Programs • Proyecta 100,000 • Financial Education • Financial Literacy Week • Affordable Housing in Mexico • Productive projects 3x1 for Migrants • Ventanilla de Salud (Health Window) • Pre-emptive health • low cost health clinics • Binational Health Week • Cultural Events – actions taken to promote understanding of Mexico as a modern, unique, and contemporary country.

10. Legal Protection for Mexican Nationals The Mexican consular network in the U.S. provides consular protection to over 150,000 Mexican nationals every year. The cases range from death penalty, child custody, labor discrimination, to economic assistance to an indigent individual. The preventive protection activates undertaken by this network of 50 consular offices reach more than 2 million people per year. • Consular Protection • Preventive Protection • Active Protection • Specialized Programs

11. Preventive Protection • Community forums • Protection station at mobile consulates • Legal fairs • Media campaigns • Informative material • Training workshops • Cooperation mechanisms with DOL and state labor authorities; also includes the annual Labor Rights Week • For the purpose of providing legal advice on fair working conditions • Know Your Rights workshops

12. Active Protection • Repatriation of Mexican Nationals • Vulnerable individuals (minors, indigent, patients, pregnant women, elderly, etc.) • Human remains • Custody of minors and child support • Financial assistance to indigent individuals • Mexicans in removal proceedings and adjustment of status • Potential DACA beneficiaries • Victims of domestic violence and crime • Worker’s compensation cases and labor rights violations • Missing persons and retrieval of detainee’s belongings • Human trafficking • Issuance of emergency passports for special cases

13. Specialized Programs • Mexican Capital Legal Assistance (MCLAP) • Program defending Mexicans involved in death penalty cases. • External Legal Assistance Program (PALE) • 10 firms and 1 NGO • Every week we offer free legal consultations with specialized attorneys open to the Mexican public • Visits and assistance to Mexican detainees in county jails, and state or federal prisons

14. A Consulate’s Involvement The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations The Vienna convention regulates the most important aspects of the consular function; which was signed in 1963 by leaders of various countries. It is a treaty that defines the framework for consular relations between independent States, of which Mexico and the United States are part of. • There are 43 articles, each defining the regulations and guidelines for different topics that consulates and States must oblige to. • Article 5 (Consular functions) pertains to the functions assigned to consular offices, such as protection, documentation, and promotion. • Article 36 (Communication and contact with nationals of the sending State) establishes a communication mechanism with the nationals of the Sending State to facilitate the exercise of consular functions. • (a) Consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the same State and to have access to them.

15. A Consulate’s Involvement The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations • Article 37 (Information in cases of death, guardianship or trusteeship, wrecks and air accidents) states that, without delay, a formal consular notification must be made from the authorities of the receiving State in order to inform the corresponding consular office of: • (a) Deaths • (b) Appointment of Guardianship or trustee appears to be in the interests of minors, or of other persons lacking full capacity who is a national of the sending State • (c) Wrecks and air accidents

16. The Consulate and the Department of Social Services Minors Memorandum of Agreement between this Consulate and the Government of the State of North Carolina regarding consular notification and access in cases involving minors • It was first signed on March 25th of 2015 and was then renewed on March 30th of 2017. • Both times in the Spanish and English languages; both texts being equally valid. • Purpose: To identify Mexican minors and their families in order to provide services, which assure all the protections afforded by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Bilateral Convention, as well as other applicable treaties and laws. • Through this instrument we could be able to protect the child and his/hers family through an early identification mechanisms through consular notification to provide them with services that guarantee all the protections.

17. The Consulate and the Department of Social Services Minors and the MoA • Notification: A written consular notification should be sent to this Consulate within 10 working days of the decision of the court to take protective custody of the Mexican minor. • This includes minors whom were born in the U.S to Mexican nationals. • Must in the form of a signed letterhead by the social worker assigned to the case. • Can be sent either via mail, fax, or email. • All directly to the institutional correspondence. • Information: For the initial notification, said letterhead must include: • Full name of the minors and parents or custodians • Date of birth of Mexican minors • Name and phone number of the assigned social worker • This Consulate may require further information regarding the Mexican minor’s case, in which the Consulate may contact DSS or the social worker for the sharing of said information • Confidentiality: This Consulate recognizes and agrees to respect the statutory imperatives of confidentiality under the Juvenile Code and will not disclose confidential information, except to carry out its mandated responsibilities.

18. What can Consulates do in cases involving children? • Foster communication between parent and child • Locating parents or relatives in Mexico who have an open case with CPS • Request home studies of family members in Mexico through the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) and forward to CPS • Issuing consular documents such as passports, certificates of Presumption of Nationality, birth certificates, etc. • Assistance with passports for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) • Aid in the process of child support payments through the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) • Travel assistance • Repatriation of children to family members whom have been given legal custody • School transfer document • This document grants official recognition to elementary and middle school students in order to facilitate children’s placement according to their age and grade enrolled in the receiving school in Mexico

19. International Process of Service According to Mexican law, in order to serve a person it is required that the defendant receive the copy of the complaint in hand, it does not contemplate the service through certified mail or courier service. Thus, there are two ways of serving a person in Mexico: • Process Forwarding International – USDOJ awards ABC Legal the contract for service of process under the Hague and Inter-American Service Conventions. There is a $95 USD fee to serve process under the Hague Service Convention within the USA and its territories. Said fee is payable to ABC Services, whom acts on behalf of the U.S. Central Authority and is the onlyrecognized method of process service under these treaties and conventions. • Letter Rogatory – This judicial process must be done through formal channels that involve Authorities from both countries. From the US, the UDOJ is the one that submits the request of assistance to the Central Authority (Foreign Affairs Ministry) in Mexico. There is no fee for service of process under the International American Convention on Letters Rogatory. ABC Legal is obligated to perform its service free of charge.

20. Forms for the Service of Process REQUEST FOR SERVICE ABROAD OF JUDICIAL OR EXTRAJUDICIAL DOCUMENTS PURSUANT TO THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON LETTERS ROGATORY: http://www.usmarshals.gov/process/usm272.pdf REQUEST FOR SERVICE ABROAD OF JUDICIAL OR EXTRAJUDICIAL DOCUMENTS. HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE SERVICE ABROAD OF JUDICIAL AND EXTRAJUDICIAL DOCUMENTS IN CIVIL OR COMMERCIAL MATTERS http://www.usmarshals.gov/forms/usm94.pdf

22. United States’ Central Authority

23. Mexico’s Central Authority

24. Contact information Consulate General of Mexico in Raleigh 431 Raleigh View Road Raleigh, NC 27610 Phone: 919-615-3653 Fax: 919-803-4927 conraleigh@sre.gob.mx • Adriana Villarreal-Buenfil– Consul of the Department of Protection and Legal Affairs 919-615-3657 / avillarreal@sre.gob.mx • Arely Obregon – Children and Family Affairs 919-615-3675 / protecconrlg03@sre.gob.mx