A Jalisco driver’s license is now four times as expensive for many foreigners as it is for Mexicans.

While ordinary state licenses are valid for four years before needing renewal, a mysterious new law pegs the license expiration date for foreigners to the expiration date of each individual’s immigration visa.

Many foreigners will only be able to get a driver’s license for one year.

After a week of repeated requests for clarification, the press department at Jalisco’s Secretaria de Vialidad y Transporte (SVT) explained that no comment could be immediately offered on complex legal details such as when and why the law entered into effect, whose idea it was, and what options the licensing department will offer foreigners whose licenses expire while they wait for an immigration visa renewal. 

The Reporter can confirm that the new regulations have been in effect since at least July 17. The SVT, however, has neither updated the fee schedule on its website (svt.jalisco.gob.mx), nor posted an explanation of the new rules. As far as can be ascertained, the regulation was not publicly released, at least not in any accessible format – many expatriates have learned of it through rumors, as unsuspecting drivers go to renew their licenses. Readers, however, can learn from Vialidad’s online manual that the organization’s principles include (#4) a government that informs; and (#7) social equality.

The lack of publicity could be the result of a law released before anyone really thought about logistics or implications. Sources with long memories say that the new law is actually a revival of an old, discarded system for issuing Jalisco’s drivers licenses for foreigners. In the present, however, workers don’t seem quite sure how it works.

When one foreigner called the department of licenses in Guadalajara and asked whether it was really true that a lost license valid until 2011 would suddenly be replaced with one that expires in October 2009, employees seemed stumped about the answer.

“Do me a favor,” said an apologetic attendant. “This is a nueva disposicion. Call back tomorrow after we have a chance to clear up some questions with the legal department.”

There are many similar stories. In July, Jeremy Kass, a Brazilian graduate of the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara completing unpaid social service with the IMSS health care system, tested for a Jalisco driver’s license. Kass says he paid the required 400 pesos ... and, without any warning, was issued a license that expired about three months later with his FM3 in late September.

“It’s highway robbery,” says Kass. “There is a subculture of people here who seem to have a complex about foreigners, who feel any foreigner must be making more money and therefore should put more into the system. I’ve never seen this kind of requirement in any other country.”

For the last month and a half, Kass’ FM3 renewal has been held up in the immigration backlog. His license is now expired, and, given his busy work schedule, he is not sure when he can go back to attempt to renew it.

Foreign and out-of-state licenses are legal and accepted on Jalisco’s roads. The only potential problem arises when drivers are pulled over. In 2006, a SVT spokeswoman confirmed that “officers will sometimes hold on to the licenses of out-of-state and foreign drivers until fines are paid in full.”

Many of Jalisco’s expatriates are not impressed. “Like hundreds of other foreigners, I have not lived here for free and have contributed considerably to the Mexican economy,” wrote Patricia Dunn, an outraged reader, in a September 16 letter to the Reporter. “Is the Mexican government trying to send a message to foreigners - like ‘gringo go home?’ I really hesistated over using the word ‘home.’ As I feel that after all these years Mexico is my home.”