Ok, technically they don’t need a paper visa. I was using “visa” loosely. They still need to apply for a visa waiver from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. They could certainly easily enter as tourists. It seems like the penalty for overstaying your permitted limit for a year or less is only to be barred from re-entry for 3 years, so maybe they wouldn’t even care. The main risk would be that if the van were stopped after their entry period had expired it would attract attention.
I think I read the same thing. I believe he did take lessons later. The fact that he’s not a native speaker is obvious if you speak much Spanish.
Regarding Gus, Fring is not a Hispanic name, and from what I could find it is most common in Pennsylvania and Germany. Perhaps it’s of German origin. It’s just been revealed he speaks German. Hmmmm…
Do you suspect Argentina? 
Eta: No! Brazil!
Gus may well have filed plans and obtained permits suitable for upgrading an industrial laundry—to rebuild the foundation and re-wire and re-plumb, etc. The plans would say nothing about building a hidden basement laboratory, of course. But anyone coming to the door could be shown the legitimate permits.
As for the warehouse the workers are staying in: my first thought about its size was, ‘this must be winter—if it were summer in New Mexico it would get over 120 degrees Fahrenheit each day, easily—and air-conditioning so huge a space would eat up the potential profits from the under-construction lab for a period of at least five years.’ Even if they turned the A/C off during the hours the workers were at the laundry, the cost of keeping it livable would be ruinous.
A smaller space would have been more plausible. (But less telegenic.)
They could cool just the living quarters.
He’s going to turn out to be the love child of Josef Mengele and Carmen Miranda!!!
You heard it here first.
That would kind of defeat the purpose of having a bar, big screen TV, and basketball court outside. Their leisure time is going to be during the day.
I always find it very interesting to see what other people think is implausible in these threads. The idea that ferrying a van between two remote locations is some kind of high-risk operation is mind-boggling to me. I mean, vans full of illegal immigrants roll around New Mexico all the time, it’s not like this is some weird thing just for TV that never happens IRL. People throw gigantic parties with basically no attempt at concealment at unused buildings all the time, and they only occasionally come to the attention of law enforcement. Security guards don’t generally call in the police because a van load of people went into another property half a mile away even at night. And while air conditioning a warehouse is expensive, it’s seriously not going to cost anywhere near two billion dollars to keep it at a comfortable temperature for 9 months. (Gus made $96 million in profits for the 3 months that the superlab was working properly, so 5 years of profits is 20 times that, 1.920 billion dollars).
There’s plenty of stuff that bears little resemblance to reality on this show, but I don’t think any of this remotely qualifies.
What I’m starting to wonder is this - why not just build the underground lab under that warehouse out in the middle of nowhere? There’s gotta be a reason for that, but I can’t come up with it.
They don’t do it every single night for 6 months, and one of the locations is not remote but in town.
There are other properties next door and across the street, not “half a mile away,” and the van is going in and out every night for six months. And there are also sounds of drilling and blasting coming from the property. A security guard is not going to call the cops if he sees this once. But if he sees a van going into a supposedly vacant property every night for months on end he’s going to get curious.
A single run is not high risk. The risk goes up considerably when you have to do it 360 times. It’s not one time that gives it away, its the pattern.
They supposedly use the laundry to conceal the fact that they’re venting chemicals all the time. It’s also kind of like “hiding in plain sight,” which is Gus’s thing.
We certainly have a new appreciation for why Mike hated Walt so much. A great deal of careful thought and preparation was undone by Walt’s ego-maniacal posturing.
It’ll break his, but probably not hers. She’s practical enough to see that she can never really build anything in her life with him always tearing it down around her. I think her reason for trying to get him into counseling was that she wants to be free, but can’t deal him one more blow right now.
But yeah, it’s going to rip the soul right out of him, and the conscience with it.
Meh, a few minutes ride in a panel van is just not that big of a deal. If they see another car or two, they might figure out what state they’re in. that’s about all.
And last, as the two of them walked away, I remember thinking how amazing it was, that Man Mountain actually made Huell look small. 
Okay, I may have over-estimated the rates charged by New Mexico utility companies. A smidge.
By the way, do we know what season it’s supposed to be in the show, now?
I heard Gould say that Kim and Jimmy seem to have the most fun when the two of them have been scamming together.
Well first off, they aren’t going to do it 360 times because there’s no way they are working 7 days a week for a year. And I think you seriously overestimate the curiousity and diligence of a night security guard for a property he’s not being paid to guard. And then, the cops have to give a crap that a van is visiting an old laundromat.
I believe it’s season four. 
I assumed Gus is renting the warehouse, so he probably isn’t even paying utility bills, and that’s why he isn’t building the lab there. Maybe he bought it though, and will flip it when the time comes. Maybe the warehouse owner isn’t using it right now and owes him a favor.
Wouldn’t it be easier for Gus or Madrigal just to set up a shell company in order to obtain work visas for the Germans? At least easier than fake passports with fake visas? They can always shut down the shell company when the Germans are done.
I’m counting coming and going each way for six months. (On top of that, there will be vehicles going in and out to bring in equipment, concrete, and supplies, and taking out the dirt.) And I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be taking many days off, since where are they going to go? On their days off they have to stay inside the warehouse. Not much of a holiday. Offshore oil rig workers and other workers in remote locations don’t take days off while they are on site. While it’s true that they don’t work 6 months straight, these guys aren’t going to be going out bar-hopping on weekends.
It’s not a few minutes, it’s some distance. It’s from a warehouse that is well out of town (there is nothing at all around it) to an industrial area inside Albuquerque. And given the precautions with the French engineer and Werner, they are almost certainly being transported back and forth in a windowless van so they can’t see out. Gus and Mike might trust Werner enough at this point to let him know where they are, but they sure as hell don’t trust Kai.
It’s not so much that the van might be stopped by cops at random, but that if they have an accident the passengers could be discovered. The chance of an accident, say with some drunk, goes up with every trip no matter how reliable the driver is.
I think you seriously underestimate the boredom of night watchmen. And then there is the drilling and blasting issue. Do you really want the success of your multi-million dollar project rely on no one getting curious?
I think we will see that Mike and Gus have some way to deal with these issues. We just haven’t been shown their precautions yet.
I doubt very much he’s renting it and risking that the owner might want to visit it sometime in the next six months. Also, in every place I ever rented electricity isn’t included. And if the owner gets a sky-high utility bill, don’t you think he’s going to wonder what’s going on, even if Gus pays it promptly? It’s probably owned by Gus, or if not by a confederate.
I agree with that, but what Mike might do is to take them somewhere for a week-long break after a few months of work, perhaps as a reward for achieving a milestone. Gus certainly has no interest in that but Mike might realize that the guys need a release, even if they are being paid obscenely for this work.