By David Eidel (05/08)
This document is referred to as a "Tourist Visa / Tourist Card / FMT.
Positive proof of citizenship with photo I.D. continues to be required. A passport satisfies both requirements or one may elect to provide a state issued birth certificate plus an UNEXPIRED state driver license with photograph. The maximum of 180 days should be requested because extensions take two weeks or more, and cost as much as the original tourist card. Applicants may or may not be required to pay a twenty dollar plus fee on-the-spot. If you don't pay on-the-spot then you MUST pay before exiting Mexico. If you are on your way to either Guatemala or Belize, an immigration checkpoint will be the last stop. An unpaid-for tourist card can entitle an immigration officer to invoke a fine amounting to the equivalent of one hundred US dollars, plus a requirement of obtaining and paying for a regular tourist card. Do not lose your tourist card as a replacement will cost around sixty US dollars.
Note: In the past, immigration officers on the border of Belize or Guatemala, were issuing "Transmigrante" FMT tourist cards. These cards were valid for a period of fifteen days upon which time the permit holder had to exit Mexico. Automobile bonding matched the tourist card for the 15 day period. Transmigrante cards can not be extended, renewed, changed to another class or voided. If someone chooses to ignore the time limit on the tourist card, the computer regulated car permit will come into play and there is no way to circumvent that. The happy news is that many people returning from Guatemala and Belize in the winter of 2008 have reported that they were issued 180 day car and tourist card permits without even asking.
Note: If you decide to retain the car and tourist card permits issued to you when entering Mexico from the USA, just keep in mind the expiration date. Mexican customs at Chetumal bordering Belize changes 100 pesos to make the Tourist Card elgible for return. I's just tell them that I was crossing the border in order to shop and return the same day---and then cross over without paying what I feel is a tax upon another tax (they don't do it when crossing into Guatemala).
CAR PERMITS
Some of the information below is unique to this site.
Car permits are necessary because extraneous motor vehicles are to be discouraged from entering Mexico in order to be sold, or given away. Mexican states bordering the USA have easy-to-get "FRONT" license plates (Frontier) that need to be bonded in order to take the vehicle into Mexico. Everyone else follows the rules proscribed for vehicles with FRONTERA plates.
Car bonding offices have no way to verify that documents provided to them by car owners are not forgeries. So in order to make it tougher to falsify issues of vehicle title and owner identity, the car bond must be paid for with a credit card or ATM card bearing the holder's name and a VISA logo. This system isn't perfect but tying the bonder's name in with a financial institution really cut down on the number of cars imported to be illegally sold. Bonders must have a valid state driver license that will not expire while they are in Mexico.
NOTE: No matter what you've read or have been told, your credit card CANNOT BE BILLED FOR ONE CENT MORE EVER, by the Mexican government. In the case of default by the bond holder (not removing the vehicle before 180 days) the government can seize the vehicle in Mexico, fine you, or put you on a black list with an infallible computer memory. This info has been verified by VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card. Financed vehicles need a letter of permission by the title holder to take the vehicle into Mexico. This permission must be type written on a letter with letterhead of the title holder. No loaned or borrowed cars, period.
If you do not possess a certificate of title, your registration MUST BE CURRENT. So-called "pink slips" are almost worthless in Mexico as far as to establish ownership (But they are required when bonding your vehicle if your license plates have already expired) so don't fret about taking yours with you. Your car bonding information plus hologram decal is your permission to possess and operate your vehicle in Mexico. You can obtain a 180 day car permit even if your registration expires in a month or two---but a car permit will be limited to 180 days or the amount of time before your driver license expires, Example: A driver license good for two months and three days will be issued a car permit for two months and three days.
BAJA: Your vehicle must have unexpired license plates, UNLESS your car was bonded for use on the mainland. IF you get stopped by a cop in Baja for expired plates and you have a valid 180 day permit, wave the bond document under his nose and point to the hologram---if he is foolish enough to cite you, his boss or the juez (Judge) at the police station will tear up the ticket.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must turn the car permit in at the car permit office BEFORE YOU EXIT MEXICO. Their employee must scrape off the hologram decal and verify data on the permit with the VIN number for the exiting vehicle. IF you fail to do this, you will never be allowed to bond another motor vehicle, and the one with the expired bond can be seized at point of entry.
TAKING THE FERRY TO BAJA? The car permit office in Baja MUST cancel your car bond and scrape off the windshield hologram. BORDER CUSTOMS in Baja and USA will not cancel a car permit. Get this done in the ferry yard.
ISSUES WITH ADUANA OR BANJERCITO Can NOT be resolved anywhere else except at the border crossings.
If you must get a new windshield in Mexico TAKE A PHOTO of the damaged windshield and retain images for scrutiny at the border. Then have an employee of the glass shop CUT out a section with the hologram still attached (DO NOT SCRAPE OFF THE HOLOGRAM). The hologram should be kept so that you can show it to a nosy cop or to border car bonding officials.
TEN YEAR RV PERMITS
In the last two years border officials have been issuing 10-year RV permits. Apparently, the permits are for sole use by a motor home or fully converted van. Pickup trucks with a slide-in camper are "supposedly" not-eligible for a ten-year permit. Vehicles with 10-year permits can tow another motor vehicle and be eligible for a 180-day permit on the second vehicle. A single driver, with a single driver license, and credit card or VISA logo ATM can now bond BOTH vehicles at the same time. The permits are literal: The 10-year RV bond means the vehicle can stay or cross-back and forth for ten years with the same permit. The 180 day permit on the towed motor vehicle means that it has to exit Mexico before the 180 day permit expires. No matter which vehicle exits Mexico TAKE ALL OF THE PERMITS WITH YOU. This will simplify your return.
MOTORCYCLES: To 500cc can be INCLUDED on a 180 day or 10-year car permit. They will be expected to exit when the vehicle exits Mexico.
ATV vehicles are treated just like a motor vehicle, and they must be bonded.
The current cost of a 10-year RV permit is around a hundred dollars.
FIXING A PROBLEM WITH AN EXPIRED CAR PERMIT
If you are late getting back to the border, be prepared for a rather stiff fine depending on just how long out of date your appearance is. Your fine is better than being black listed for life. Wheedling, pleading and near-tears seems to work if done in a polite fashion. But expect to pay something.
If you suddenly have discovered that your RV is back in your driveway in the US or Canada, and the hologram has expired, you will need to return the vehicle to the border (but don't cross just yet) then proceed without your rig to the car bonding station to negotiate a settlement. It seems to help if you have in your possession actual photographs of your RV in your driveway showing CLEAR evidence of current license plate tags OR a closeup of a newspaper showing its date AND the vehicle license number. You need positive proof (another point would be a simple letter stating that the RV had returned from Mexico at such-and-such a date and then have the letter notarized.
Mexico Aduana (Customs) has no way in the world of being certain that you are telling the truth. Yes you may have the RV with you and exited Mexico but who is to say that you actually didn't come from deep within Mexico and pull a U-Turn at the border? The more documentation the better. After you have established a firm line of communication with Aduana, then you can go back and safely bring the vehicle to Mexican Customs. As always an official must be the one to scrape off the hologram decal. Be prepared to wheedle and plead your fine.
VEHICLES INCAPABLE OF RETURNING TO THE US BORDER
The Federal Mexican Highway Patrol can issue documents to you in case you wish to desert a vehicle that isn't worth repairing. The deserted vehicle will be hauled off to a federal automotive impound yard. You will have the hologram, or receipt in your possession when you get to Mexican Customs at the border. They will cancel your car permit. If your vehicle has suffered a mechanical breakdown and you will not make it back to the border in time, get a-hold of a GREEN ANGEL service truck. They have the proper federal forms to fill out, Be prepared to hand in the documents just after the official discovers that your exit date has come and gone.