Traveling Mexican consulate facilitates documentation

Representatives manning a mobile unit of the Mexican Consulate produced and renewed hundreds of passports and identification cards for more than 1,000 Mexicans currently living across Will and Grundy counties and surrounding regions May 25-28 at University of St. Francis in Joliet.
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Issued by consular representatives, the Mexican identification cards, known as matriculas, work to equip those undocumented Mexicans or other Mexicans with lapsed legal documents with legitimate photo identification, said Goobar-Szleifer. Individuals can presently utilize these documents in the United States to acquire state identification cards as well as library cards and to open bank accounts and apply for tax identification numbers. “Many Joliet banks are now accepting these cards,” she said. “The cards meet real concrete needs.”

In order to obtain the official documents, the individuals must verify their status as Mexican citizens by submitting birth certificates, military identification cards, school transcripts or other legal documents. After extensive examination by the consulate representatives, the decision is made to approve or decline the request. A matricula from the mobile unit costs $25 and passports are $32 for a one-year passport and $84 for a five-year passport, said Yuri Velez, a representative of the mobile consulate center. [snip] Catholic Explorer