BajaNomad

"Border Zone" extends to San Quintin in Baja?

Hook - 12-29-2009 at 06:09 AM

It does, according to this website. I wasnt aware of that.

http://www.mexonline.com/visamex.htm

David K - 12-29-2009 at 07:35 AM

Maybe contact that web site's host and ask for the Federal document or web site he got that from... ? It would be a nice change and could help the businesses as far as San Quintin.

Mika - 12-29-2009 at 09:29 AM

It also says this,

"valid for six months (180 days) with multiple entries."

but I thought the FMT is invalid once you exited Mexico.

sancho - 12-29-2009 at 11:34 AM

Thats what is quaint or frustrating about
Baja regs, I have never seen anything
Official as to different Mex Federal IMM
regs for the different Mex states,
I don't believe there are different IMM
laws just for Baja, the mainland has I believe
20 kilometer checkpoints where you have
to have some sort of fmt to proceed,
Baja doesn't have those, possibily GNegro
some 600 mi so. of the border, I don't
think that changes the need for an fmt,
have heard on more than one occasion
you don't need IMM papers for the entire
Peninsula, I stick with the old Meandero
Ensenada line, I agree, I've never seen
anything relating to the fmt being vaild
for mulitiple entries, logic tells one that
you can keep it and use it as such

David K - 12-29-2009 at 11:53 AM

Yes, the multiple entries part is a 'secret'... as they would like to get the $20+ dollars from each person every trip south!

The other 'secret' is the FREE 7 day FM-T that you have to be firm with requesting... see other posts on Nomad about getting that!

Because the FM-T is supposed to be handed in to INM when you leave Mexico on your last trip before it expires... but there is NO facility along the route to the U.S. border to do so (only on the entry to Mexico lane)... There is a mailing address to send them in BEFORE they expire...

Perhaps we should be doing this now, with the computers and border sophistication taking place?

(This came from Discover Baja Travel Club):

Return Tourist permits before they expire to any Mexican Immigration office OR send by mail to:

Instituto Nacional de Migracion
Puente Puerta S/N
Colonia Federal
Tijuana, B.C. Mexico C.P. 22310

(postage is 79 cents from U.S.)

If you fail to have you tourist permit validated when you enter Mexico (using a pre-paid FM-T) or fail to return them before they expire you could be fined up to $220 dollars for each permit.

[Edited on 12-29-2009 by David K]

Bajahowodd - 12-29-2009 at 12:31 PM

MEXonline is a really reliable site, so I'm betting they are right about the San Quintin thing. David does point out something important, however. They are rapidly entering the current century as far as computerizing records goes. Wasn't that long ago the guy at the desk in TJ had no PC on his desk. This also appears to comport with a recent thread about the possible imminent switch to a smart card that will be scanned upon exiting Mexico and grant 180 days in total, debiting the time one spends on each entry.

David K - 12-29-2009 at 04:42 PM

I don't care if they do get more technical with our time spent in Mexico, as long as they have a method of it being scanned on your drive out of the country in the line at the border... So that there is No driving around a city to get to the INM office at the border entering Mexico, parking, walking (while your loaded vehicle is unattended) to and from the office... then getting back into a border line to come home.

Bajahowodd - 12-29-2009 at 04:53 PM

First of all, the apparent new system will allow both frequent and infrequent visitors to actually be able to spend 180 in Mexico before having to renew, as opposed to 180 days from the date you got your FM-T even if you only spent 10 days in the country during that period. As for convenience, I have little doubt that they will make it painless. With the backup in the border lines, it would be simple to install scanners between lanes. I seriously doubt they would make you drive around just to scan your card. I view the idea behind this system as actually encourging tourism.

sancho - 12-29-2009 at 05:38 PM

I like the use of the phrase 'apparent new system',
as we all know things in mex can move slowly,
might be 5 months or 5 yrs., Bajahowoodd
interpretation of the imagined/proposed
changes are not what I've been led to believe,
I am under the impression one is going to be allowed
180 days in a yrs time to be in Mex, period.
If one wants more, in that yr., one has to go the fm3 route,
I've been led to believe you can't just automatically
pick up another 180 days , as in yrs past,
license plate scaners, card readers, I could be
wrong but I'd bet it is a ways off

Bajahowodd - 12-29-2009 at 06:00 PM

Hope you are wrong. I realize that the government wants to ferret out those who are residing in MX full time on FM-Ts, but it just seems to me that they need to be encouraging tourism. Perhaps, as a member of this board, I suffer from a certain amount of myopia. But given the number of folks listed here who make repeated trips to Baja,....

woody with a view - 12-29-2009 at 06:04 PM

seems like you have to leave the country AFTER 180 days. that's the way it was in Oaxaca 25 years ago.... guys would take a bus to guatemala, spend the night and return the next morning with a new, TADA! 180 day fmt.

MitchMan - 12-29-2009 at 09:09 PM

David K said that there is a $220 fine for not turning in the FMT before it expires. What if you stay in Baja for 10 days, leave the country with plans to reenter baja again before the expiration date, BUT things come up and you can't return to baja due to impossibility of unforeseen circumstances, and then the Fmt expires while you are out of the country? Now you have a Mexican federal debt against you on record?

Seems wrong to me. Why isn't the FMT simply deemed expired based on the passage of the 180 period? All the info is on the FMT just like on a drivers license that is expired, computer programs can easily have expiration dates programmed in (about 10 minutes time to write the code)? The goal should be to properly allow foreigners into the country for up to 180 days after paying for and properly obtaining a bona fide FMT and properly having it stamped upon exit of the country, but the added requirement to turn it in on or before expiration seems to me to be superfluous.

If David K is right, well, it all sounds very Mexican to me.

[Edited on 12-30-2009 by MitchMan]

Hook - 12-29-2009 at 10:36 PM

DavidK is probably stating what COULD be charged for not returning your FMT. Of course, this assumes you RETURN to Mexico for them to charge you.

In reality, there are probably MILLIONS OF FMTs out there that have never been returned. Have we ever read of a fine for not returning them on any website? Not that I can recall.

Bob H - 12-29-2009 at 10:46 PM

Seems like a whole lot of unenforcable rules if you ask me! I have never, ever turned in an FMT.

If Mexico wants more tourism why don't they just ease up on all of these rules?? Including rules for propery ownership. I just don't understand it.

One can go and live in Costa Rica and not have to worry about stupid rules.

Enough said.
Bob H

David K - 12-30-2009 at 07:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by MitchMan
David K said that there is a $220 fine for not turning in the FMT before it expires. What if you stay in Baja for 10 days, leave the country with plans to reenter baja again before the expiration date, BUT things come up and you can't return to baja due to impossibility of unforeseen circumstances, and then the Fmt expires while you are out of the country? Now you have a Mexican federal debt against you on record?

Seems wrong to me. Why isn't the FMT simply deemed expired based on the passage of the 180 period? All the info is on the FMT just like on a drivers license that is expired, computer programs can easily have expiration dates programmed in (about 10 minutes time to write the code)? The goal should be to properly allow foreigners into the country for up to 180 days after paying for and properly obtaining a bona fide FMT and properly having it stamped upon exit of the country, but the added requirement to turn it in on or before expiration seems to me to be superfluous.

If David K is right, well, it all sounds very Mexican to me.

[Edited on 12-30-2009 by MitchMan]


Please note that I clearly said that fine info (and the return address) all came from Discover Baja Travel Club:
Quote:

(This came from Discover Baja Travel Club):

Return Tourist permits before they expire to any Mexican Immigration office OR send by mail to:

Instituto Nacional de Migracion
Puente Puerta S/N
Colonia Federal
Tijuana, B.C. Mexico C.P. 22310

(postage is 79 cents from U.S.)

If you fail to have you tourist permit validated when you enter Mexico (using a pre-paid FM-T) or fail to return them before they expire you could be fined up to $220 dollars for each permit.

wessongroup - 12-30-2009 at 07:15 AM

about the only rule I follow down here now, I ALWAYS stop at the military check points... years ago we used to honk and just fly on by... the check point just outside of Ensenada south bound.. had my surf fishing poles in my ski rack on the back of my 57 VW ... that was a fun car to drive back then on those old roads.. all worked just fine :):)

[Edited on 12-30-2009 by wessongroup]

sancho - 12-30-2009 at 11:47 AM

2 times this yr., Mex IMM at he Old mexicalli crossing,
has stamped my passport with the free 7 day card,
I returned both and got the exit stamp,
this is where they have some control,
I don't want an entry stamp hanging in my
passport with no exit stamp, recently
read of a traveller entering Mex in TX,
that was questioned about a y. oldr entry passport
stamp, they wanted $5 dollars per day of fine,
in this guys case some $500, he settled
on somewhat less

Bajahowodd - 12-30-2009 at 12:08 PM

They still need to have technological uniformity before they can implement whatever it is they want to implement. In contrast to sancho, I recently entered at San Ysidro, and while the officer there did enter certain data into his PC, my passport was never stamped. However, in the last two years, I have arrived in both Cabo and Cancun by air, where my passport was scanned by a reader and stamped. But, upon exiting the country in each case, the airline confiscated my FM-T, which I have always viewed as a business requirement to ensure there is accountability to show those who are brought in are also returned out of the country. I'm thinking that any exit stamp is optional. I've traveled to a number of countries where I've had my passport stamped upon entry, but no effort made to stamp upon departure.

I just read elsewhere...

Mexray - 12-30-2009 at 12:34 PM

...that the 'border zone' on the mainland has been extended to San Carlos - but not Guaymas, where an FMT would be required...

The people that posted this info just returned to the USA this week - they had obtained their FMT's for travel to Alamo. Upon returning, they asked the Mexican border agents if they wanted the FMT's returned, and were told to keep them...

They mentioned that San Carlos wasn't much of a hot bed of visiting foreign tourists...The area has been dressed up well after the big storm in Sept., with only a couple of bad road spots yet to be addressed...