I’ve been practicing law for over two decades, but I just moved to San Diego about a year and a half ago. I recently visited the Mexican Consulate here in San Diego and I wanted to share a bit about my experience.
The event was part of a fantastic roundtable that the San Diego chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) organized to get to meet the consular officials, learn about what they do, and how they can help us as immigration practitioners.
The officials at the consulate shared with us how to get emergency documents from the consulate, what they want to see when requesting those documents, how to best contact them, and in general what they’re best able to help with.
As a practitioner, this was incredibly helpful because now I know exactly what I have to do to help my clients get their documents from the San Diego Mexican Consulate, which is often vital for part of their immigration processes, e.g. having a passport or a birth certificate or marriage certificate.
Especially given that right now, about 1 in 4 asylum seekers at the US border are Mexican nationals.
Though of course the consulate can help get these documents for any Mexican national who needs them, not just asylum seekers.
(Oh and they shared some amazing pan dulce with us as well!)
In the end, this event helped me stay current about issues affecting some of my clients and to meet both local consular officials and other immigration lawyers.
If you’re in San Diego and you have immigration questions, please reach out to me.
