Moving to Ajijic

ELLENRAY wrote:

My husband and I are retiring soon and planning to move to the Lakeside area in late spring 2018. We plan to lease a place to live.
1 we have found  realators lack responses to interest by email, thoughts?
2 should we keep our Medicare for or twice annual visits back to Texas?
3 should we bring our car for the long term  with visitors Visa is it better to buy a car in Mexico?
Have more to ask but that's it for now! Thank you all. EllenRay

Most Mexicans, including real estate vendors, respond better to face to face meetings.

Part A is automatic and free. Part B and D, you pay for and are not good in Mexico.

If you're going to get a Perm visa, you can't own a foreign registered car. Buy Mexican. Visitor (180 days) or Temp Visa(1 year) permit you to own a car. Some people believe they are harassed a bit more and the yearly renewal of the TIP. 

You really need to visit Lakeside and mingle with the local gringos.

Yes I knew our Medicare wasn't good in Mexico. Do you recommend Mexican health insurance instead  of using Medicare in the US? Just wondering about better medical choice.
Thought we'd drive the first time with our "stuff" then go back and sell the car at the border after we buy a car in Mexico. Good to know with visitor visa we can buy one in Mexico. What's the best recommendation for cell phone service? Thanks .

IMSS is around 3,000+ pesos a year depending on age. Private doctors are much cheaper than in the US. My heart doctor charges 1,000 pesos per visit three times a year. Telcel is the largest, but AT&T is now in Mexico with good reviews. If you have an unlock phone all you need is a SIM chips. You can pay for time and data or get a monthly plan without buying a phone. You might want to look at the forum at this web siteInside Lakeside

Thanks

Hi Ellenray,
I am moving to Lakeside around the 1st of March. I visited Ajijic in July to become famailar with the area. Like you I had troube getting realtors to respond to my emails, but got a great response from Lake Chapala Real Estate. They were very helpful and took alot of time showing me the area once I was there.
They recommended that I contact Access Lake Chapala for rental property. I contacted them by email earlier this month when my home here sold. They responded immediately and have been very helpful. I plan to visit Lakeside in January to select and make a deposit on a place to live while I look for a place to purchase. They are going to prepare a list of properties that meet my requirements so that I get possible get by with a 3 to 5 day trip. They tell me that it does not make sense to start looking more than 45 day before you are ready to start the lease. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that most leases contain a 45 day renewal notice provision.
I don't plan to apply for residence for the first 6 months so that I can keep and drive my current vehicle.   I will Nationalize it once I am a resident (it meets the requirments).
Hope this helps!
Dave

Thank you.  Your reply explains the 45 day leasing well.  We hope to return in March and secure a rental. Still working on when to sell our house here. It should sell quickly with the market as it is.  Estate sale, etc, is another can of worms.  We we would like to take one of our cars initially, so the temporary or six month visa sounds like the way to go.   Still need to go to consulate here to get that visa, car info, etc.
Thank you.

Ellenray,
If you are a U.S. citizen you can stay in Mexico for six months without a visa, your passport is all you need.
Dave

Hi,

Having moved to Ajijic earlier this year, I just wanted to say that I agree with everything that you have said in your post.  We also used Access Lake Chapala to find our rental home and they are very helpful, wonderful to deal with and speak English which solves a lot of problems for newbies.

We arrived with a visitor visa and recently went to Texas to apply for resident visas.  I am in the process of getting a temporale so that I can keep my car (temporary for me because the car is registered in my name) and my husband has applied for permanente because it is not necessary for him to go through the expense of renewing a temporary visa after 1 year.  My temporale can be extended at the end of the one year (for another 3 years max) and then I will be able to trade it for a permanente.  When applying for permanente we will take the car to TX and sell it then buy another car here in Mexico because you cannot (without great expense and hassle) own a foreign plated car in Mexico as a permanent resident.

As for the comment about being targeted with a foreign plated vehicle, we have driving throughout Mexico for a couple of months (over 10,000 miles) and have been in the Ajijic area for almost 6 months without any issues.  It is simply a matter of sticking to the law, having a legal vehicle and papers and license and having respect for the local law.

Regarding Medicare, I have the part A (?) free part only, just so that I don't run into problems getting it if I happen to some day go back to USA (doubtful) and may need coverage.  The medical costs here are so affordable that we self insure and pay out of pocket as that is cheaper than paying for an expensive insurance policy.

Good luck and happy travels.

Ellenray,
Here something you my find interesting;
I plan to keep my Medicare Advantage coverage. The Lakeside Medical Group accepts most of these policies for Urgent and Emergency care. If you provide them with you policy information, they will contact your provider and confirm coverage. I was suprised to find this option. For routine health care, checkups, percriptions, etc. one must return to the US or puchase them locally.

The Rx refills are important to my husband. Wonder if he brings hard copies from his TX doctors and gets a doctor on Ajijic to renew them ?

Ellenray,
Most, if not all, of your percriptions are available over the counter in Mexico, You will need the drug name and dosage. When I visited in July I ran out of one of mine. Simply went to the local Farmicia and purchased it. Price was very reasonable.

Just a quick note...Don't give up your Medicare, its easy enough to get back to the states for any emergencies that might need the assistance of Medicare.
Buy a car in Mexico.
Jim

Actually, I will be going on Medicare next year.   If you were to choose a Senior Advantage plan (all-in-one) you will, in fact, be reimbursed for any major care out of the country.   So, as long as you have the funds to pay for your care upfront, you will get reimbursed for most of it.   Ie:   accident, hospitalization and more.   I live in WA State and will be going on Kaiser Permanente.   Not sure about other Senior Advantage plans, or ones that are in your area.   This one is an HMO and you must use their network doctors while in-state.   But I have been very happy so far, so I am going to stick with it...especially since I will be spending a fair amount of time in Mexico (4-5 mo/year).  Of course, if you are moving to Mexico permanently, it could be a different story for you and this would not apply to you.

Dave Cannon wrote:

Hi Ellenray,
I am moving to Lakeside around the 1st of March. I visited Ajijic in July to become famailar with the area. Like you I had troube getting realtors to respond to my emails, but got a great response from Lake Chapala Real Estate. They were very helpful and took alot of time showing me the area once I was there.
They recommended that I contact Access Lake Chapala for rental property. I contacted them by email earlier this month when my home here sold. They responded immediately and have been very helpful. I plan to visit Lakeside in January to select and make a deposit on a place to live while I look for a place to purchase. They are going to prepare a list of properties that meet my requirements so that I get possible get by with a 3 to 5 day trip. They tell me that it does not make sense to start looking more than 45 day before you are ready to start the lease. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that most leases contain a 45 day renewal notice provision.
I don't plan to apply for residence for the first 6 months so that I can keep and drive my current vehicle.   I will Nationalize it once I am a resident (it meets the requirments).
Hope this helps!
Dave

I agree with you on all your points - we also found our rental property through Access Lake Chapala and I highly recommend them, they are very helpful and professional. 

Initially we were here as tourist but now are in the final stage of getting our residence visa.  My husband is permanente but I am temporale because I want to keep my car for another 4 years.  After that then we will take it back to USA and sell it, I will get my temporale converted to permanente and we will buy a Mexican car.

We would like to take our car, so we will want temporale Visa it sounds like.
Did you bring your belonging or ship them?
Thanks

ELLENRAY wrote:

We would like to take our car, so we will want temporale Visa it sounds like.
Did you bring your belonging or ship them?
Thanks

We sold practically everything that we owned (a couple of downsizing experiences along the way) and only brought what we could fit in the back of the Prius, basically two small suitcases and a computer bag each.  It was a wonderfully freeing experience and we are very happy that we did it.  The only things that we could have thought more about bringing with us were kitchen things like a meat thermometer and an oven thermometer - most small appliances are easily available here at reasonable prices but when we went back to apply for our visas we bought silicon spatulas, a silicon baking sheet and a Ninja processor.

You can see our adventures on downsizing etc. if you look at the earlier posts on my blog:
pattynoverlandtravels.blogspot.com/
specifically blogger.com/blogger.g?http://pattynoverlandtravels.blogspot.mx/2016/06/pattyns-on-travelling-mexico-and.html and some of those near this one.  There are also several posts about driving here from Texas etc.

Rosalind

Thanks, that's our plan to down size...then I see golf clubs, computers, and shoes, etc....
I'll look at your blog.  Maybe I'll be inspired as to how to accomplish the letting go!