BajaNomad

Perm Res w/US plated car

Reeljob - 10-4-2014 at 08:45 AM

Does anyone really know what the rules are for a Permanant resident to drive a US plated car in Baja?

gnukid - 10-4-2014 at 09:01 AM

its fine

DENNIS - 10-4-2014 at 09:29 AM

Don't ask. It can only open a can of worms.

Pescador - 10-4-2014 at 10:00 AM

I would suggest going to http://www.bajainsider.com and reading the legal opinion they printed on this very issue.

gnukid - 10-4-2014 at 10:21 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Pescador
I would suggest going to http://www.bajainsider.com and reading the legal opinion they printed on this very issue.


Pescador, This is a promotion for services and not an full disclosure report of facts. Hard to believe that you would read even one line of the ad and think inhere is a threat for legal visitors.

People with incomplete registrations, stolen vehicles or driving vehicles that are not theirs that they have no proof of permission to drive or lacking a drivers license and without a visa or fmm and passport will find themselves in difficult situations. It is totally legal to drive a us plated vehicle for legal permanent temp residents or tourists in baja.

It is also far better today since the hundreds of military and national forces arrived to increase proper policing so shakedowns by corrupt cops are not as common foliowing the retraining exercise of police after the security disaster in cabo.

Keep yourself legal and make a manila folder with copies of all docs and put it in plastic in your car, keep another copy somewhere else, and a copy stored safely electronically.

DENNIS - 10-4-2014 at 10:30 AM

I'm with Paul on this.
For the most part, very few people, immigration...police...even lawyers actually know or understand the issue, so authority, being what it is, will give the most controlling reply to the question.
Just don't ask.

gnukid - 10-4-2014 at 11:02 AM

I'm an expert just ask me haha

Issues to be aware of

1) Don't give your car to someone who is not a legal driver, for example your us car should not be driven regularly by a mexican licensed driver or another us driver unless you have explicitly made arrangements using legal declarations and temp circulation permits if required.

2) Each foreign person in baja should have only one car in circulation in a foreign territory, hard to drive two cars at once, so hard to be caught for doing this, of course husband and wife and children may each have their own car etc...


They love to bluff and see if you get scared, its a tradition, especially near holidays or saturday. The more passive, nonchalant, calm, affable, unemotional and unresponsive to crazy ideas you are the more likely they will move on to other targets of their affections. Let them know proudly you are in good and proper standing and a partner of fuerte baja and are required to report all interactions and pursue any improper actions to the full extent of the law to prosecute misconduct immediately today and if guilty of a crime the criminal will not return home to dinner tonight. Then laugh a big hearty gringo belly laugh and shout Fuerte Baja! Fuerte Baja Fuerte baja! Andale! Arriba! Adios!

Lee - 10-4-2014 at 11:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by gnukid
They love to bluff and see if you get scared, its a tradition, especially near holidays or saturday. The more passive, nonchalant, calm, affable, unemotional and unresponsive to crazy ideas you are the more likely they will move on to other targets of their affections. Let them know proudly you are in good and proper standing and a partner of fuerte baja and are required to report all interactions and pursue any improper actions to the full extent of the law to prosecute misconduct immediately today and if guilty of a crime the criminal will not return home to dinner tonight. Then laugh a big hearty gringo belly laugh and shout Fuerte Baja! Fuerte Baja Fuerte baja! Andale! Arriba! Adios!


Oh my. Paul's on a roll. I'll 2nd this. Dennis? I like the ''big hearty gringo belly laugh.'' Works for me. Tom too as he has the belly.

Pescador - 10-4-2014 at 04:38 PM

Well, here is what I was told by the commander of the Federal Police in Santa Rosalia. He says that things are starting to move in that direction, he told me not to worry about it at this point, but watch to see what is happening. When they get the directive from DF, then they will have no choice but to enforce the rule. So, at some point it is probably going to come as it is on the mainland, but hopefully not much will really change.

But I have a problem that crops it's head up here and when someone asks about how to get stuff across the border 12 posters will tell about the time they bribed the agent or put it under something. I think that is irresponsible when someone is asking. So I recommend reading the article, talking to a few people in the know, and then making a decision about what way you want to go.

And you are right, a couple of the stories were exactly as you describe where someone loaned a car to a national and they got caught driving it on a Mexican license. If you have a Mexican license, do not be stupid enough to pull it out when you get pulled over in an American Plated Car.

If they pulled over and confiscated all of the South Dakota plated cars on the peninsula, I suspect they could pay off the national debt once or twice.

Udo - 10-4-2014 at 05:26 PM

One of my Mexican friends in BA had car problems, and was going to take a while to get the parts needed. He asked if he could use my VW.
I said OK.

As long as he was driving it in BA and Vizcaino, he was OK. But one day he took it to Guerrero Negro, and the local gendarmes confiscated the car. It took a visit from the BA chief of police to get the car released.

DENNIS - 10-4-2014 at 05:45 PM

I watched the same thing happen around twenty years ago. My friends had a full time handyman and they told him to take their nice, late model Lincoln to the tire shop a few miles away. The police saw him driving the car, a big mis-match, and the car was impounded.
Friends had to get an attorney, recently moved to the area from DF, who was not afraid to fight the local system.
Anyway, it cost my friends thousands of dollars to get their car back. In fact, the car was parked at the harbor with hundreds of other impounded vehicles waiting to be loaded on a freighter and shipped south. The attorney interceded just in time.



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[Edited on 10-5-2014 by DENNIS]