Don't miss it—especially if you're struggling to understand what kind of a rabbit hole you've tumbled into when trying to deal with Mexican bureaucracy!
Succeeding with Bureaucracy in Mexico: One step at a time
The documentary 'short' softens you up to understand D. Graham Hunt's Seven Simple Steps for 'beating' Spanish bureaucracy. U.K. Expat Graham Hunt has lived and worked in Spain for over twenty years. His Seven Simple Steps apply nearly as well to Mexican bureaucracy—now that I think about it, perhaps to any bureaucracy!
Hunt begins by posing the rhetorical question: "How do you eat an elephant—that is, the whole ELEPHANT?!? The correct answer is, of course, "You eat it one bite at a time for a very long time!"
"The way to complete any large task," observes Hunt, "requires basically the same answer, 'One step at a time'. Taken all together, a task can appear formidable. You can make it manageable by breaking it down into parts, steps or sub-tasks that are far more doable when approached one at a time."
Jenny's Take: This is an excellent reminder. In our experience, however, understanding what constitutes all of the steps required to accomplish los trámites burocráticos (bureaucratic paperwork) is a major challenge. Bureaucrats in Mexico do not think ahead. Instead, they focus on the immediate next step.
If you're familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality scale, bureaucrats are "S's"—sensing, highly concrete, like old-fashioned accountants with green eye-shades. Unable to imagine a procedure as an integrated whole, they focus on one step at a time required to fulfill the tramites (bureaucratic paperwork). They are most emphatically not "N's"—intuitive and hence able to assemble and describe the procedure's constituent parts as part of an integrated whole.
As a practical matter, this tends to result in multiple trips to the official entity, where each time you provide documentation, the bureaucrat's response is to inform you that now that you have produced X, your next task is to produce Y, and so on until the procedure is complete.
Think of it has bureaucratic hazing. The good news is that once you fulfill a procedure—say, visa renewal—in subsequent years, you will be able to present all the documentation at the first visit. You've become an 'old hand' at that procedure.
Interestingly, it isn't just because we're foreigners. Mexican friends tell us—usually with raised eyebrows and a telling roll of the eyes—that they also suffer when they have to engage the bureaucracy. The challenges even attracted the attention of Mexico's President Felipe Calderón, who, in 2009, organized a contest for citizens to nominate procedures "most suited for the dustbin"!
The New York Times coverage of the award ceremony—For Redress of Grievances, Mexicans Turn to Bureaucracy Contest—underscores issues and coping strategies described below in Jenny's Take on Hunt's Seven Simple Steps.
Seven Simple Steps
"Here then," concludes Hunt, "is how you can approach the elephantine task of beating ... bureaucracy, in Seven Easy Steps:
Jenny's Take: I'm not so sure that 'beating' Mexican bureaucracy is quite how I'd put it, but it is possible to be treated as a human being and to understand what has to be accomplished to fulfill the requirements.
Step 1. Take every piece of official paper you have ever owned. With these you will need to have copies available, too. If you don't do this or neglect it, you can expect to be asked for the missing copies.
Jenny's Take: See 'short' documentary that kicks off this post. A key element to the applicant's success—and a key comedic ingredient as well—is her meticulous preparation with every conceivable type of official document—plus copies! Approaching any Mexican bureaucracy without thorough preparation is inviting disaster. Do your homework. Be prepared.
You might even want to engage a gestor to manage the bureaucracy on your behalf. A gestor or gestora is a person—man or woman—who undertakes dealing with public bodies on behalf of private customers or companies. The role of gestor combines the roles of attorney and accountant. Now that we know what to look for, we regularly spot them in Migración dealing with visa issues.
In Mexico, it's important to realize that you are responsible for maintaining your own files. Seriously, make a file folder for each bureaucratic task, and store all documents relating to that task. Take the file with you each time you visit the office.
Step 2. Be courteous, patient and make every effort to see issues from the bureaucrat's point of view.
Jenny's Take: In Mexico, this step is critically important first and foremost, because of the cultural value placed on cortesía (courtesy), respeto (respect) and paciencia (patience).
Have your doubts? Perhaps this traditional Mexican saying will help: "He who gets angry...loses."
Step 3. Offer them a chewing gum. This will mean that they feel more compassion for you. It will likewise signify that you are a similar type of person to them.
Jenny's Take: My approach is different. I doubt that chewing gum is an effective opening gambit in Mexico, but the basic idea is the same. It is important to try to establish a personal connection with your bureaucrat, who will undoubtedly greet you from behind his/her bureaucratic 'mask'—a veiled, guarded look definitely not conducive to creative problem-solving. So the first challenge is finding a way to help the bureaucrat drop the mask and deal with you as a real person.
Over time I've honed my strategy: Orchestrate body language and use formal Spanish, including forms of courtesy, in a show of formal respect bordering on deference. Couple speech and actions with acute sensitivity to the bureaucrat's subtle responses. When I detect the glimmer of an opening, I find ways to exploit it—always with additional respect and courtesy.
You'll know when you've succeeded, because you'll see the mask literally fall away, to be replaced by a personable, friendly smile that seems to say, "You passed the test—now I will treat you as a person, rather than as a threat."
Develop your own strategy, but be sure it includes an authentic demonstration of respect.
Step 4. Take a small child with you. This will probably involve borrowing one from a friend or just off the street and pinching them to make them cry every now and again. It will get you bumped up the queue, too.
Jenny's Take: I might have doubted this step, but while we were in line to renew our FM-3 Non-Immigrant Visas, we watched a woman with a small child cut to the front of the line—not once, not twice, but three times! It's worth a try!
Step 5. Dress smartly. One of the important points to note here is that Spanish civil servants respect authority so if you look like an authoritative person you will get treated better. The reason this is very important is that you will stand out from other people in the queue.
Jenny's Take: I hadn't thought of this, but it might be useful. The gestores (see above) are always impeccably, professionally dressed; they stand out because of the stack of manila file folders in their hands.
Step 6. Take water with you. Very important in case you have a long wait, which you will almost assuredly have.
Jenny's Take: Too true. Take a book, or your iPad as well!
Step 7. Be patient. If you aren't patient, you will get bitter, twisted and frustrated. Great! Now you're almost there! Always bear in mind that the civil servant dealing with you probably won't need much of an excuse to ignore you or fob you off, so make sure you keep on track and follow the steps.
Jenny's Take: Graham Hunt makes a great point: Bureaucrats around the world are peerless at placing obstacles in your way. Your goal is to minimize or eliminate those very same obstacles.
The 'short' documentary at the top of this post does a terrific job of dramatizing the bureaucrat's strategies for 'fobbing you off'—getting rid of you by sending you somewhere else (see Step 2). The applicant's strategy is consistent: she responds by pulling out yet more official documents and their copies. Unless you find a way to defuse the situation, the duel between her and the bureaucrat can be yours—and absolutely real!
Summing Up
Bureaucrats around the world are caught up in their own procedural worlds. When these worlds are, in turn, caught up in larger cultural realities, the result can be difficult, challenging.
In Mexico, success with bureaucracy requires patience, tact, a sense of humor—oh, and did I mention persistence?
It's also useful to understand the legal system that supports your trámite. As I described in an earlier post (What Makes Mexico's Legal System So Different?), like the majority of countries in the world, the Mexican legal system is based on civil law, not common law as it is in the United States. A basic understanding of how the Mexican legal system works—its fundamental logic—is extremely helpful.
If you're in a hurry, here's the short course: The key to resolving a trámite—bureaucratic procedure—requires, first and foremost, documents that comply with the formalities of the law.
When it's all over, and you have achieved the desired bureaucratic result, you can look back, and see the procedural 'whole' that was so elusive when you were in the middle of resolving los trámites burocráticos.
If you're in a hurry, here's the short course: The key to resolving a trámite—bureaucratic procedure—requires, first and foremost, documents that comply with the formalities of the law.
When it's all over, and you have achieved the desired bureaucratic result, you can look back, and see the procedural 'whole' that was so elusive when you were in the middle of resolving los trámites burocráticos.
!Felicitaciones! And Good Luck!
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