On line permits with visual instructions

If You. Have everything in order and have the correct currency for the various permits then it is just fine to wait until the last moment at Km 21 or wherever!
However if You get behind some dumb ash who does not have pesos or Dollars or a Valid credit card to obtain the necessary papers or who has inadvertently left the registration papers behind in Canada .. YOU can be held up for an eternity while said Dumb Ash ties up the line !

Do it on line and save yourself some potential and frustrating grief!

Our experience with crossing at Nogales is that getting your FMM (180 day visa) takes about 5 min. but then you have to pay for copies of it and waiting in line for your TIP can take up to an hour. Crossing at Lukeville/Sonoyta and getting your FMM right at the border seems to take a few min. longer and if the banjercito across the road is closed you have to pay cash, but getting your TIP at Pitiquito doesn't take nearly as long and they make copies right there. I would rather take a few min. sitting at my home computer getting mt TIP.

If you get your FMM from a travel club you don't have to pay any bank or government agency. The travel club has already paid for them. I think the current going rate is about $26 plus their handling fee. The FMM's they buy have serial numbers on them and the club has to account for every one of them

You have to pay for your FMM at a banercito, HOWEVER, you have until the expiration date of it to do that, and you can do it anywhere in Mexico.

Yes, you can but it may take as long as 3 weeks because Travel clubs buy them in blocks for resale. The snag is that the TC (Travel Club) cannot buy another block until they've sold ALL of the current block. The blocks come from Mexico City via mail

Then the completed and pre-paid form has to be mailed to you. You still need to get it stamped at the border by Migracion so you will still have to stop. But you don't have to stand in line at the Banjercito.

So, if you've purchased your TIP's and FMM's on-line there is only one line; Migracion.

Can you pay for the FMM online? I thought only at the banercito? Or I have heard at a bank? Years ago I got all my paperwork at the consulate in NYC. But now the consulate says they do vehicle permits but not FMM. The confusion of why they do what continues.

double posting

You can get your FMM on-line or through one of the many Mexico travel clubs. I get mine from Vagabundos del Mar. Some of the clubs will only supply FMM's to their members, so you may have to join.

I also get on-line quotes and buy my Mexican insurance from one of them. A couple of the clubs offers insurance from more than one company. The nice thing about that is that you only have to enter your info once and get multiple quotes so you can really compare apples to apples.

They are a good source for fishing licenses.

I have listed a few of these travel clubs and provided more info on my FAQ sticky.

Yes. One less thing to do and wait for!

Maybe not all consulates do it but we spoke on the phone with the folks at the Phoenix Mexican Consulate and they said we could do the vehicle stuff there - but not the migration - which I think would be the other way around - but what do I know - and maybe when we got to the actual consulate we would get another story - just saying what we were told by phone at that specific consulate.

I guess it would depend on where you cross and if you can do paperwork ahead of time at a walk across crossing as we have done at Palomas south of Deming,NM and then drove to Laredo and crossed there. But we are not always where we can do migration easily ahead of time so still have to stand on line to do that - depending on where we cross of course. If you cannot do your migration ahead of time is there a time savings to getting vehicle stuff ahead??