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Paper FMM tourist cards to be eliminated?
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Paper FMM tourist cards to be eliminated?
Tourists flying into Mexico at various airports in recent days have been part of some test runs being evaluated by Mexico’s INM where in lieu of the familiar FMM tourist cards, visitors will simply get their passports stamped with an entry stamp noting the date of entry and a handwritten 180 days indicating the maximum stay period for their current visit.
Flights into the airport at La Paz, BCS have been included in these test runs so if flying in, be prepared for a change – just in case.
The change should not affect land border crossings for now and the program should be fully implemented by year’s end, according to unofficial sources we spoke with.
https://talkbaja.com/eliminating-the-fmm-cards/
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32 Replies
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So is this going to just be imposed on tourists flying in or will it eventually be expanded to people driving in as well?
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If it does then expect to see a whole lot of people complaining about having to stop and get their passport stamped. Personally I think this is a good thing if Mexico can figure out a way to pull it off at San Ysidro.
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The best answer right now is…. maybe
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That would be a nightmare. Going into Mexico is going to be as long a wait as returning home.
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It all depends on whether they decide to extend the change to the land ports and whether they choose to leave it as it is now, where people are basically “self declaring” their status as a tourist or go to a system where they will begin stopping every single vehicle and questioning them. I agree with you, the current infrastructure is simply not capable to handle such a mess as that would create.
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If Mexico starts requiring me to have a passport to drive across the border I will probably stop coming.
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Wow, so you think that Mexico at some point was annexed by the USA and you have some God given right to the country?
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Tijuana is going to be a total mess if they enforce this at the border.
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I don’t even have a passport, never stopped to get a visa at the border all these years.
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Why am I not surprised?
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I am not very worried. Tijuana can’t even get their own traffic situation fixed, what are the chances they’d ever find enough money or figure out how to build such a large scale border crossing as that would require? They built it the size it is because that’s about the max effort they are willing to make in handling all that border crossing volume. I have figured that out about the Mexican culture, they recognize and accept their limits.
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Does the city of San Diego oversee the San Ysidro border? It’s under the jurisdiction of two of Mexico’s federal agencies – Immigration (INM) and the Tax Service (SAT).
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@OFFROADrage I am getting a feeling that you really don’t like Mexicans. Why do you come to Mexico when you can easily ride in the deserts in California, Arizona, and Nevada?
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He thinks that Mexico is just his backyard to play in.
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This would be a great improvement as we won’t have to worry about losing the FMM. Hopefully they extend this to the border crossings by car.
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Does that drive you nuts too? Looks like driving into Mexico will stay the same for the time being.
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I don’t think they can ever fully put a program like this in place at the Tijuana border. They may switch from FMM’s to passport stamps but I will bet that if they do, the honor system will remain in place, meaning the same number of tourists who never bothered to stop to get a FMM won’t bother in stopping to get their passport stamped.
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That sounds closer to reality,
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Probably wouldn’t be done at the Border entries. In the old days the station was south of Ensenada. On the mainland it was further down but it was also where you imported your car for mainland travel.
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Mexico was always a bit loose on controlling who came into the country and why for the last few centuries so many would make a run for the border when they didn’t want to be found. I have noticed however in recent years, Mexico is taking advantage of the digital age to quickly catch up (in terms of bureaucracy) and they may at some point start offering the 10 year visas to frequent border crossers, just like we do for them. We can only hope.
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I found this online:
INM switches FMM forms for passport stamps
The Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) is implementing a new and simplified method of registering the admission of foreign travelers entering Mexico from abroad.
According to several airplane passengers who recently flew into Guadalajara from the United States as tourists, immigration agents checking documents at the airport port of entry took away the FMM multiple immigration forms they presented, instead stamping their passports with a seal and hand written notation of the permitted length of their stays in the country.
A similar report came from tourists entering La Paz, Baja California Sur via an American Airlines flight.
So far, all visitors known to have encountered the policy switch indicated they were given the standard 180 days to remain in Mexico.
Azucena Bateman, an Ajijic attorney specialized in INM procedures, tells the Guadalajara Reporter that a client who arrived last week with authorization to complete the process of obtaining a resident visa was also given a passport stamp in lieu of the FMM. The annotation was marked with the word canje, meaning exchange of the entry permit issued by a Mexican consulate for the resident green card ID. The period of time written in was 30 dÃas, per specifications for the canje process.
There have been no reports to date concerning foreigners already holding permanent and temporary resident status who have returned home here from visits abroad.
The procedural change appears to conform to 2021 congressional legislation aimed at moving INM towards paperless FMMs and automation of procedures to better track the movement of foreign citizens.
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Good info and supports what @BajaGringo found out.
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Thanks for sharing that – I had seen this but when a post was taken down I couldn’t find it.
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This would be a very welcome change, no longer have to worry about losing that damn FMM ticket.
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The ‘good ol’ days’ when having a passport became a collection of actual ‘stamps’ and turned into a memento…
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I have one passport in particular that has every single page but one filled with colorful stamps of exotic and historic places visited and I treasure it like an old photo album as it brings back so many wonderful memories. I suspect that in our lifetime we will see paper passports slowly be eliminated as everything goes digital with biometrics likely to become the preferred verification method.
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I once picked up a couple backpacking their way to South America. We spent the night at the Nicaraguan Border together where I pulled out my well used passport to show them. He pulled his out and it was bursting with extra pages added in! He had been all over Europe and North Africa… took me down a notch as I put my passport back in the glove box of my VW van.
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Another cool thing was having a VW bus with the windshield full of the ‘importation’ stickers from different countries over several years
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How about back when people would cover their baggage with stickers of where they’d been?
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This guy usually has pretty good info and here is his take:
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This seems to agree with what @BajaGringo posted
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Here in Mexico my government make a change to the policy but don’t tell nobody it means business as usual. They also tells you they are going to change a policy but everything stay the same. I have lived my whole life long like this. Welcome to Mexico!
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