A couple days ago I started the process of applying for Residency here. I have an appointment in March to drop off my papers for review, and within a few weeks I will have a local identify card. This is the step I should have taken when I first arrived in much the same way I should have moved outside the US years ago. Residency is the knife that cuts the USG system. Even the initial provisional residency will suffice to cut the gringo paperwork knot, the full rights and priviledges start as soon as the card is issued.
The first thing to know is that nearly everything online in the English language about the process of applying for Residency is out of date. The second thing to know is that Uruguay thirsts for young1 immigrants. The third is that if you've been paying a Veneualan cash under the table for Spanish lessons they will be very interested in assisting the residency process to protect their revenue stream.
To the end of advancing my deUSization I do now have one asset I did not have on arrival. I have a pequeña empresa2 which may be used to satisfy the income requirements for residency and contract with other firms. And there's also the data center eager to do business.
The other upside is that the disappointing educational experience of my disappointment with the consultora has allowed time to develope greater fluency in Spanish, a more clear impression of the locals,3 and connections to non-Anglophone expat communities.4 Footwork continues, but there is still quite a distance before real shoes and vacations to the saltwater beaches on the East Coast are earned.
- Under 60 years of age [↩]
- This is a local sort of unipersonal business popular among Uber drivers and acquired at a cost greater than these things should have. [↩]
- largely idle, excessively risk averse [↩]
- Access to the Venezualan expat community is opening, slowly. [↩]