Can't fly out while you have a vehicle in Mexico?? True?

[tony_lee]

Recently reported elsewhere - that Mexico have linked their immigration and aduana systems and that they are enforcing their rules about no being able to leave the country when there is a 180 day TIP still in force.

Was surprised that it wasn't discussed here so I'm wondering whether it applies to the normal winter-time snowbirds or whether it only applied to those living more or less permanently in Mexico

see first section in https://yucalandia.com/driving-in-mexico-issues-fun/importing-driving-a-car-in-mexico/

June 20, 2016 Update
INM at airports appear to now have access-to & use Aduana-Banjercito vehicle permit database information when we fly out of Mexico. …
A recent San Miguel Expat forum post described a change at one INM airport office on for foreigners exiting Mexico (in Mexico on a Visitor’s Visa)… who also had an existing (un-cancelled) Temporary Import Permit for their foreign-plated car:

” Our car permit is in my husband’s name (we’re on tourist visas). He had to fly out yesterday to care for his mom for awhile. When the plane was just about to take off, they found him and he had to pay a 390 peso fine because he’s leaving the car behind.
Word to the wise! “

or is it old news.

Mind you a $20 fine is hardly significant but it would be if you were stopped from getting back in because of an abandoned vehicle

[tleeming]

OK, I'm the person that had this happen to me last Xmas. This Xmas I flew out of PV to the USA on AmericanAirlines. As soon as the ticket agent saw my tourist permit with a terrestrial tick in the entry box she sent me to the immigration booth. This year I took all my paperwork and receipts in case this happened again. All the immigration booth all the official wanted to see was the receipt that I had paid for tourist permit, she took a copy of all the paperwork, stamped the back of my tourist permit and the ticket agent was happy. So, if you fly out for a couple of week after having driven in. Make sure you take your TP payment receipt with you. I got a new 180 day one when I flew back in.
Tony

[tleeming]

Well, we seem to have a couple of threads going on here but to answer tallyho69, you apply on line, pay online, print off your Tourist permit and receipt. When you get to the border you present the TP and receipt, have it stamped and you're on your way. If you do your TIPs on line too as I've done for the last 5 years, the wait time at Nogales is greatly reduced.

[moisheh]

Tapachila: NO NO NEVER!!! This is one of the worst border cities in N.A.. The last time we were there stayed in a seedy Pemex. Wife wanted to go to Guatemala for the day. I asked a cab driver if it was like say Nogales with parking lots on the Mexican side. He gave men " are you serious" look. Told me he can guarantee the truck and camper would be stolen in a flash. But he did offer to store it for free at his house with his wife standing guard and he would drive us to the border. Alas his yard would not hold our CC dually. Tapachula is the only place in Mexico where we felt uncomfortable. Good luck and happy riding!

Moisheh

[scharfg]

Hi Moisheh thank you for the feedback we are super newbs at this sort of thing, having only ridden in MX for the first time in spring of 2015 as a 50th birthday gift for myself (down the Baja then over to the mainland and back to Canada). We spent about 22 days in MX.

We are looking for a way (if there is one) of leaving our bikes stored in MX, then flying home, then coming back, riding for a couple more weeks, flying home, and repeating.

The initial plan was to get to the GT border as fast as possible and then ride around GT and store the bikes at a buddies hostel. But it turns out that GT's TVIP lasts only 90 days (you can get a 90 day extension but you have to go in person to GT City to do it), so we decided to spend more time in MX, especially after I found out the number of amazing roads there are in MX via looking at Google Maps and comparing the roads to my small scale Roji map book.

As such we now want to spend the next ~4-5 trips riding all the great roads in MX, then check out BZ and then go into GT.

So our first leg was from Prince George to Puerto Vallarta. I found storage by posting a question on the ADV Rider web forum. A fellow who rents motorcycles and does ride trip in PV wrote back saying he had a friend from Seattle who retired in PV and he had a garage where he could store out 3 bikes for the ~6 months for $100US/month.

Finding storage for the next leg of the trip has been more difficult as I've not been able to find any fellow riders or expats living in Tapachula where we were thinking of storing the bikes.

Luckily a fellow on ADV Rider from GT saw my post and had a British riding buddy who stored his bike in Comitan. So we located the fellow and he's offered to store our bikes for the the next leg of the trip.

Our riding buddy has stored his bike at the Harley shop in Cabo San Lucas before as well.

[Talleyho69]

Find the nearest Mexican Consulate to you and go to their webpage. At least here in the US, they are very good about answering e-mails. In fact, when we did our permanent residency in October, we were able to send photos of all of our paperwork to the man who processed it in advance, so that when we arrived, we had EXACTLY what was required. It took an hour each in the US, and two 20 minute visits to the immigration office where we decided to do our paperwork in Mexico, and that was it. The visits were 3 days apart, and we were handed our residency cards. Paying the fee at the bank took longer than the process in Mexico.

Seriously, since the changes in 2013, you MUST start the process in your home country. All the information you provide there is sent electronically, so you don't have to do it all again.

Want to know more? Check this......
http://www.zihuatanejo.net/tablero/index.php?mode=entry&id=107127

http://www.zihuatanejo.net/tablero/index.php?mode=entry&id=108744

Part 4 isn't on line. We went back to the office after receiving an e-mail two days later, were handed our Permanent Residency cards, congratulated, and invited to the once a year reception for new residents in Ixtapa. That's it. We are Permanent Residents of Mexico. No renewing, nothing. We are done.

[moisheh]

If you get a RT it is only good for so many years and then has to become a RP. You do not want to go that route. Expensive and a pain. Where do you safely leave your bikes?
Moisheh

[scharfg]

Talleyho69 wrote:
Unless you plan on spending a lot of time in Mexico, why would you want either one?

Hi there, not sure if you saw my lengthy post above explaining our situation, but one of the folks on the board who read it suggested we look at getting a Temporary Residency card so we could leave our motorcycle in storage in MX and fly back and forth to Canada instead of being on the 180 day TVIP clock. Too bad MX does not consider motorcycles as RV's then we could get 10 year permits!

We want to stay riding in MX for a number of years at ~2 week intervals at a time but won't be coming back within the 180 day period of the TVIP permit each time (probably only 1x/year), so it was suggested that getting a TR permit might have been an option to do this.

I did a google search for info on how to get a MX TR permit as a Canadian but the info I read seems to suggest the application process required us to apply in MX. Can someone suggest a better info web link?

I have holdings in Canada worth more that $500K US but I'm not sure if getting a TR would be the solution to our interest in coming back to ride in MX past the 180 TVIP permit timing.

Thanks in advance.

[Talleyho69]

Temporary and Permanent residency options have to be done at the Mexican Consulate in your home country. It takes an hour appointment per person.

The numbers you gave were not the numbers from October, 2016. At that time, and it changes with the exchange rate, one person had to show about $2000 per month, a married couple, with proof of marriage, $2500. The other option was to show a worth of $183,000 each. Property could be used, and these numbers are in US dollars.

Unless you plan on spending a lot of time in Mexico, why would you want either one?

[Talleyho69]

Here's my guess. FMM's are available on line, but don't you have to stop at the border and have them stamped? Were they paid for? If you didn't, maybe that was the issue??? Who knows.

[scharfg]

So I checked into the temporary residence option for our situation and hit a road block in that we have to show (via bank statements) we have enough money to support ourselves (ie: $1500/month US or $25 000 in the bank).

Since we are not retired/well off yet we can't show either one of those.

Plus we have limited time in Mexico per trip (as we have to get back to work) so spending time at the MX consulate is not our first choice or an option.

Looks like we'll be rolling the dice when we return in March for another 2 weeks of riding. Hopefully we can cancel our TVIP, store the bikes again and be able to fly home.

[tleeming]

At the booth, there seemed to a fair amount of people doing the same as I was. I wasn't able to clarify the requirement as I was late for the flight. I paid and ran.
My wife's tourist visa was acceptable as she flew into Mexico. My tourist visa was obtained online within 30 days of entry...go figure.
I was in the airport 2 weeks before and posed the question to IMF about my vehicles TIPs being tied to tourist permit. They looked blank and advised I could leave the vehicles behind and fly to the USA for a week and return.
So, in these situations, I say to myself......Its MEXICO!

[Talleyho69]

But the poster said they wouldn't take his FMM before he got on the flight, but had to turn it in at a kiosk in the airport and buy another one.

My question is what that was all about.

Yes, you are dead on about turn it in, get a new one on reentry.

[iguana07]

Turn in FMM leaving on flight get new one on return entry. Simple as that. Our experience.

[moisheh]

Don't know?????? Does not make sense. If you are leaving Mexico there is no need for an FMM???

Moisheh