US Consulate Taking Care of US Citizens in Mexico

By Beverly Arrowood On Nov 10th, 2019

Here in Puerto Peñasco, the United States Consulate is very involved due to the amount of Americans living here as well as the tourists that visit every day.  In every tourist area in Mexico where this a population of ex-pats living, they have what are called Citizen Liaison Volunteers and our job is to make sure that if should get in trouble or in the worse case a death either by natural causes or an accident, we come to make sure you are alright or see if you need some help.

In the case of accident and you may be hospitalized, we are asked to come to check on you and see that you are being taken care of properly.  If you are jailed, we may be asked to go and check on you as well.  The protocol is if there is an accident involving a fatality, the police notify the US Consulate in Nogales and they in turn will reach out to one of the two volunteers here, to check things out.  This may mean getting with the families involved  to help with the mortuary, police department, and finally to go to the department that issues death certificates. Thank goodness we don’t have a lot of that happening, but we are always here.

Due to the fact the Nogales is the closest counsel office, we have a Virtual Office which is set up in the office in the municipal building where the mayor’s office is located. We put these on using SKYPE so that you may actually talk to the people in the Nogales office.  These are held every month and we publish on social media the dates for 6 months at a time.  You can ask questions about passports, visas, property disputes etc.  Beside that service we also offer Town Hall meetings which again deal with several issues and filing out of passport forms.  These are held every 3 months at various locations in Puerto Peñasco5 and social media is utilized as the means of notifying residents of Rocky Point.  These services are free to everyone and are very informative.  You do not have to have a reservation to attend either of these events, however if you want to do the conference SKYPE call it would be advised to email to the office at nogalesacs@state.gov to set up an appointment so that they can be prepared to handle the call.  The next Virtual Office will be October 10th from noon to 1:00 pm.

Here is the schedule for the rest of 2019.

Thursday, October 10, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 31, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 21, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Who: All U.S. citizens and family members are welcome to attend
The Office Hours will be hosted by the American Citizen Services Chief and a member of the local staff. We hope you’ll join us with your questions and concerns, and look forward to seeing you.
If you have questions about the Virtual Consular Agency, please send us an email at nogalesacs@state.gov.
October is a very busy month with many events and people in town.  Be careful at intersections and obey the speed signs and remember once across the border the speed is in kilometers per hour not miles per hour.  The beach will be waiting for you so drive carefully.