BajaNomad

Has any consensus formed regarding FMMs?

Alan - 5-31-2023 at 10:30 AM

I've searched our forums and it appears there are changes in the works regarding FMMs given the varied experiences of everyone reporting.

Last year in June I stopped at the Mexicali crossing to pick up a FMM for a 4 day fishing trip just to Bola. I had to wait about 30 minutes for the INM office to open. He told me I didn't need it and just sent me on my way? No passport stamp... nada!

Later in October I crossed at CBX for a flight to La Paz and was issued and charged for an FMM just as they have for years.

I'm once again getting ready for my annual 4 day pilgrimage to BoLA and I'm curious what the current procedure is. Once again I'll be crossing at Mexicali.

Don Pisto - 5-31-2023 at 10:50 AM

they're absolutely crucial to the health of the baja message board business.....have a great trip and tight lines!

David K - 5-31-2023 at 02:44 PM

Alan, flying and driving FMMs are done differently. You can get a driving FMM with a passport card, for instance but not if flying.
The form looks different, too. At least it did in 2014 when I flew into Baja in the Trail of Missions helicopter.

Any trip into Mexico for 1 day or 180 days requires documentation that you are legally in the country with your passport or passport card. Otherwise you are an undocumented alien. Sure, a ton of people don't care to stop or know what is required. Also, the border backup and amount of work for the INM folks (migra) would be huge if everyone stopped as they are supposed to.

Since you stopped and walked in (good for you) you should have insisted on getting one, even if the officer didn't want to be bothered. Maybe in time, the old border zone exempt rule will return. Who knows?

[Edited on 5-31-2023 by David K]

BajaParrothead - 5-31-2023 at 06:23 PM

I crossed Mexicali west last Thursday around 4:00 PM and when I went into aduanas for my declaration, the INM desk was vacant and not a sole around looking like INM. Just aduanas and military.

DawnPatrol - 6-1-2023 at 07:05 PM

Two weeks ago we went into INM at Mexicali West at around 6AM on a Saturday. We already had our pre-printed 7 day FMM's from the computer.
The Immigration guy said " the system is down" and to just go.
We tried to ask him to just stamp the FFM's and he said to just go
Either they are being lazy, or I have no idea why they are doing this.

sancho - 6-2-2023 at 09:56 AM

Mexicali West is the only crossing I use. They have always
been inconsistent/inept. The east crossing has a reputation as
being accurate/friendly. But it's 15 mi. out of my way.
They don't make it easy to follow the regs


El Jefe - 6-3-2023 at 10:15 AM

My son is going to cross at TJ Monday for a 10 day trip down to our house near San Jose del Cabo. Will be interesting to see if they are issuing paper FMM, just stamping the passport like they do when you fly in or what. He plans to cross at 6 AM so we shall see.

David K - 6-3-2023 at 01:02 PM

Will he park by the big flag pole (something to declare lane) under the covered parking at blue building, and walk in?

DawnPatrol - 6-3-2023 at 05:38 PM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Will he park by the big flag pole (something to declare lane) under the covered parking at blue building, and walk in?


Thats where we always parked when we went through TJ. But we didn't go through the declare lane, just went through regular lane (they sometimes inspected, but usually not). Then we parked at the far left of where the buses were sometimes parked, then walked back to Immigration

[Edited on 6-4-2023 by DawnPatrol]

David K - 6-4-2023 at 09:48 AM

The only way to get to the parking by the big flag pole is to be in the far right lane, which is signed: 'something to declare'. This parking is also for INM desk, inside the building, and not just for customs to declare anything.
After getting the tourist permits, you drive back out and merge into the flow of cars just before the electric gates.

[smaller photos from BajaBound.com and larger photos from me in March 2022]



This photo is after you leave the flow of traffic and head to the big flag pole then go left to the covered parking:


Here is the covered parking by the big blue building you go into. There are clean restrooms in here, as well:


Coming back out of the building with our FMMs, we get back into the Tacoma:


We drive over to the moving line of cars going directly into Mexico (note: You are already in Mexico before the gates):

It was early morning and traffic was light with just two open lanes.

Now in the line of cars waiting for the gate to open (green or red light). Red means you are to pull over into a parking spot for an inspection, just ahead:


We got a green light, but there are officers standing along the lane and they can select you for an inspection even if you got a green light. They selected us. The truck inspection was quick and we were soon on our way.

Normally, you will take the right exit after leaving the border area, signed as the 'Scenic Road' to Playas, Rosarito, and Ensenada. This is Mexico #1-D, a toll highway. However, with the big highway washout before you reach Playas de Tijuana, and just after coming down the steep hill after following close to the border fence, there may be detours!



The washout of the highway is just to the right of this photo:


You can take the Free Road Mex. #1 south from the border, but there will be several intersections as it goes through the city of Tijuana.


More details from Baja Bound Insurance on border crossing:
https://www.bajabound.com/before/permits/chaparralimmigratio...

https://www.bajabound.com/before/permits/crossingtheborder

elgatoloco - 6-4-2023 at 01:43 PM

Quote: Originally posted by El Jefe  
My son is going to cross at TJ Monday for a 10 day trip down to our house near San Jose del Cabo. Will be interesting to see if they are issuing paper FMM, just stamping the passport like they do when you fly in or what. He plans to cross at 6 AM so we shall see.


8 weeks ago it was paper for us.

SFandH - 6-4-2023 at 02:17 PM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  


Normally, you will take the right exit after leaving the border area, signed as the 'Scenic Road' to Playas, Rosarito, and Ensenada. This is Mexico #1-D, a toll highway. However, with the big highway washout before you reach Playas de Tijuana, and just after coming down the steep hill after following close to the border fence, there may be detours



No detours just a slowdown because of a bottleneck at the construction site. I drove through it Friday in less than 10 minutes. Avoid rush hours. Weekends are worse than weekdays because of city folk going to and coming from the beach.

FMM

Lobsterman - 6-4-2023 at 05:50 PM

Here's my FMM experience at the East Mexicali border crossing.

I printed out all the online FMMs for the 4 of us. a few days before our fishing trip to BOLA started.

Tues May 30th at 0730 at the East Mexicali Border. Waved by guards at the border to go to a forward stop sign ahead and wait. The two trucks we were in followed those orders. At that stop sign they had us move ahead about 30 ft forward at a coned barrier with lined parking stalls. There an official moved the cones to let us in. We were told to wait in adjacent stalls. There two personnel started to check the trucks. We were obviously just fishermen heading south. Annoyed they asked us why we came to this inspection area? We said we were just following orders from other official looking people that we pointed out. In so many words they told us to move on.

Off we went without anyone asking us for identification or FMM.

June 3 at the East Mexicali Border 1300 hrs.
Going down on May 30 I noticed a really long line heading for the USA Border. I hoped then that would not be us in 5 days. Sure, enough it was. We creeped along really slowly for 40 minutes until we got to a left hand turn stop sign that said Ready and Sentry. We picked the ready lane only because we knew it was not the sentry lane. We took a left lane choice of ready lanes. Along we went with no one in front of us. Both sides, the sentry lane and a lane to the right of us were bumper-to-bumper. We thought we were in trouble now. Perhaps a few hours in secondary as punishment for attempting to enter the USA in an illegal lane. After a few minutes of passing many cars stuck in traffic on both sides of us, we got to the USA border in 3rd place. Within minutes we got waved through. Total wait us 45 minutes. God only knows what it would have been if we were in either of those other two lanes.

Ever more confusing

ChuckB - 6-4-2023 at 07:34 PM

Just to add to the noise, on a gob.mx web page I saw this:
Quote:

All citizens of the United States must present a valid passport when entering Mexican territory by any means of transportation. There are no exceptions for minors. Stays less than 72 hours within the border area, do not require an Official Entry Immigration Form (FMM).
Tourists


on this page: Know Before You Go

Note the final sentence says you do not need an FMM in the border area for short stays.

AFAICS, this is an official Mexican govt page. However, my attempts to drill deeper have all been frustrated. i.e. what are the boundaries of the border area? There are hints that it might be a few miles from the line, but also that all of Baja and BCS counts.

Also note the date of the page might be 2016 (read the URL), so if the policy has since changed, the IT folks need to get back to work.

Quien Sabe?

David K - 6-5-2023 at 08:35 AM

Quote: Originally posted by ChuckB  
Just to add to the noise, on a gob.mx web page I saw this:


Quote:

All citizens of the United States must present a valid passport when entering Mexican territory by any means of transportation. There are no exceptions for minors. Stays less than 72 hours within the border area, do not require an Official Entry Immigration Form (FMM).
Tourists


on this page: Know Before You Go

Note the final sentence says you do not need an FMM in the border area for short stays.

AFAICS, this is an official Mexican govt page. However, my attempts to drill deeper have all been frustrated. i.e. what are the boundaries of the border area? There are hints that it might be a few miles from the line, but also that all of Baja and BCS counts.

Also note the date of the page might be 2016 (read the URL), so if the policy has since changed, the IT folks need to get back to work.

Quien Sabe?


Thank you, ChuckB.
While that one page does not have a date, the home page does show 2022 with links to events done in 2022.
Maybe this explains the hesitance to issue FMMs for travel in the northern state, as it was a few years ago? It does limit stays to 3-days (without an FMM), however.

Purdyd - 6-6-2023 at 06:07 AM

I flew into SJD in December and March. And both times they stamped my passport. The March trip they gave me 180 days by defaults.

We passed into Calexico east in May on Friday at 11am and two of our party got FMN cards. We had to ring the bell as there was no one waiting, we took the opportunity to stretch our legs.

On exiting I noticed there was quite a long line waiting to make the left turn into the ready and sentri lanes.

I returned through Calexico east on a Tuesday afternoon which the border wait time site says has the least wait time for the ready lane for May.

https://bwt.cbp.gov/historical

There was no wait to make the left turn and no wait in the sentri lane.

El Jefe - 6-7-2023 at 05:44 AM

The boys drove across at TJ two days ago at 6:30 AM. The office was open (just) and they got their paper tourist visas within 15 minutes. Paid on the spot with a credit card.

All safe here at the house on the near east cape. Happy grandpa.

Alan - 6-14-2023 at 01:10 PM

Just to share what I have learned. I finally just called my Travel Club who has provided my insurance for many years. She advised she has received numerous complaints regarding getting FMMs at Mexicali West. These have ranged from not being open during posted hours as well as an unwillingness to provide an FMM for trips less than 7 days. She said she has even voiced complaints to INM but of course hasn't received a reply.

She did stress that regardless of what the INM officer may have told me, FMMs are required. She says she hasn't heard any complaints at all about the crossing at Mexicali East, so that will be my plan for Monday.

Alan - 7-3-2023 at 07:18 AM

Just an update. We crossed at Mexicali East at 0730. The INM Office was open and they issued us our FMM's for 5 days for free, stamped them and our passports and we were on our way in about 5 minutes.

Fished 3 days and slammed the nice grade of YT which were running about 25 to almost 40#s, lot's of Cabrilla but only kept a few that were really decent size. My buddy got a 20lb Huachinango on the first and again on the second day of fishing and my son got a small Broomtail of about 25lbs. The wind came up a little on the second day so we fished in the lee of the islands but still pulled off a productive day. Overall It was a great trip

sancho - 7-3-2023 at 01:09 PM

Not sure there will ever be a consensus on fmm's. But saw
a post on a tourist crossing into Mexicali East recently, passenger
needed an fmm, driver had a previous fmm with time
remaining. Driver was asked why he was
not also getting an fmm, showed him existing fmm and satisfied
the officer. I know one can find contrary info/ stories