Julie Vargas Saves the Day!

We didn't know about Julie when we first came to live in Mexico three years ago. We actually ended up going to three different people to get registered for IMSS, to get our FM3s registered and to get my work papers added to my FM3 later. We had no idea what we were
doing most of the time. Julie Vargas is one of the experts who presents to our groups and answers questions about Visas, as well as registering for IMSS, the public health system in Mexico. She sure makes things a whole lot easier.

Last year we were late renewing our IMSS because no one called us. However, one office said they could help us, so we smiled and let them do it. When we turned everything over to Julie this year, she called on a Thursday to say we were not in the IMSS system last year. This was very disheartening, because we were starting on our third year (we thought) of eligibility, which means even our medication would be free. And, unfortunately, we couldn't find our paperwork to say we had paid, so we were stuck.

Julie considered this an emergency and cancelled all her appointments the next day (Friday) in order to get us registered. We met her in her office in Guadalajara around 10:00 in the morning. We got to the IMSS office around 10:30. She sat us down in chairs while she went and stood in line. The picture of Julie standing in line (at the right) is a little fuzzy, because I wasn't sure I was allowed to take a picture in a government office! The other picture (above) is of the huge, very busy, IMSS building in Guadalajara.

After about a half hour, she came to let us know she had to go fill out additional paperwork, then walk five blocks to the bank to pay the fees for IMSS and then she would be back. From beginning to end, it took about two-and-a-half hours, but all Bill and I had to do was sit there and read the magazines I had brought with me. Julie did all the work and the running around, talking to people and getting the correct papers. Once everything was done, all we had to do was sign papers, and we were finally legal again. It was wonderful. I really do think of Julie as our guardian angel. She took our problem seriously and did everything in her power to get it done as soon as possible since we obviously hadn't had any health insurance for the past year. We were just lucky nothing serious had happened to either Bill or me during 2006. And, Julie says she will remind us next year early enough so this never happens again. We're breathing easy again!