Passport Visa issues in Mexico

 Notes on passport issues, written 08July22, after our trip to QRO airport:

July 2022, from our personal experience:

Warning/advice for tourists entering Mexico: 

When answering the question, “How long will you stay in Mexico?” add lots of extra days – answer “120 days” or even “180 days”. (The maximum number possible is 180 days, but the passport officer now has broad discretion.) 

The passport officer will grant you that specific number of days to be in country. That's all, no extensions.

Up until recently, a tourist visa for US citizens was automatically 180 days. But now it is defined by the admitting passport official; they note a specific amount on your Forma Migratoria Múltiple paper that you must return later to the official when you exit the country. 

There is apparently no way to change that form, the FMM. 

However, you can “lose” your FMM and buy a new one at the airport office of Migración, for about USD30 each.

Our story:

When we entered the country, we answered the typical tourism-department-question honestly: we originally planned to be in Mexico for 18 days – I rounded it up to 20. We did not notice that the silent unsmiling passport officer wrote 20(in un-erasable crayon!) on our Forma Migratoria Múltiple. After arriving, we liked San Miguel, found a house-sit for an extra 2 weeks, and made arrangements to stay longer, changing our plane ticket accordingly. I checked our passports later, and saw the 20 written on the form; I wondered about the visa, so I did some google-research, and read that the law had recently changed so as to limit each tourist's visa to the passport officer's discretion. This was partly to encourage repeat long-term visitors to apply instead for a longterm visa – which process was made much simpler by the new law (We had heard from friendly permanent-residents about the newer easier process, but not about the concomitant restrictions on the simple tourist visa). 

I asked for help from a local businessman-friend: he called the central Migración office; they told him the FMM can only be changed at the point of origin, i.e. the airport where we arrived. So we hired a taxi (for USD90) for the 90-minute drive to the airport and back. A traffic jam meant it was a 2-hour drive. At the Querétaro airport, all the guards and officials were quite helpful, apparently familiar with the issue, directing us to the Migración office. At the window, blessedly with no queue, we present our issue. The lady says “Cannot be changed”. We look crestfallen, as it seems she is telling us we have to leave the country soon. However, she then tells us that we can buy a new form for 120-day visa, if we can pay cash now. Yes! Barb questions this solution – I respond that it seems to be a plausible bureaucratic workaround to the official rule, as there has always been a provision for replacing a lost form. Thus, even under the new regulations, if the old form is “lost”, then a new one can be produced, still within the parameters of the maximum tourist period. (I suppose that is what would happen if we ignored the issue and showed up at the outgoing airport passport queue with an insufficient FMM – probably would then involve lots of delay.)

In this case, the official brings out 2 new forms, tells us to fill them out with the same information as before, passport number and arriving flight number – she takes the old forms away, stamps the new forms with today's date, writes (in crayon) “100” on the forms and gives them to us. She says “pay in cash, no change”. I give her 1200pesos. Thank you. We depart quickly, problem resolved! As we were anticipating much more difficulty, having been warned about long queues and surly oppositional bureaucrats, we were happy to have the problem resolved so quickly. 

On second thought, I realize that she never gave us a receipt for the money. Hmm. In even small shop transactions, receipts are required and given. And I remember learning years ago, when I worked on Readers Digest's global accounting system, about Mexico's stringent governmental efforts to track all payments and receipts. And I believe I saw a small sign on the office window indicating that replacement FMM forms would cost MXN638, credit card only (though it was in Spanish)! 

After I return to the US, I may report this incident to the Mexico tourism office and the Migración office: 1- the original restriction greatly limits my freedom to visit Mexico, and gives me a bad taste about Mexico. I am now deciding where to retire – this incident is a big minus score for Mexico: both the original surprise restriction, and what was apparently a “personal payment” to resolve the issue. 2- The tourist & migration offices must make the new restriction rules more clear upon entry, or make the date-extension process easier. It would certainly be acceptable to charge a clearly-marked fee for changing the FMM, such that it would be tracked by government inspectors/computers. In my case, it feels like the actual termination date is not even registered in the government computers, but only on the actual FMM itself! Such a handwritten value is thus easily abused, ripe for corruption. 

If one reason for the new restriction is to disabuse long-term visitors from simply re-entering after 180 days, then the computers at airport-entry can track such abuse easily instead.