Forums > General > Traveling Mexico

Rick

Aug 23, 2006, 4:38 PM

Post #1 of 10 (1077 views)

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Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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I understand that, if you enter Mexico by vehicle on a Tourist Visa (FMT), you must drive out the vehicle you came in with. I also understand that I can cross the border and back in the vehicle during the time frame of my FMT. But what if I want to make a quick round-trip back to the USA by air while my car stays in Mexico? Is it a problem? Also, when I check in at the Mexico airport, do I have to surrender my 180-day FMT that I got when I crossed the border?

Rick

Papirex

Aug 23, 2006, 5:34 PM

Post #2 of 10 (1068 views)

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Re: [Rick] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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It you fly out of Mexico on a FMT tourist visa, you will be required to turn it in at the airport before departure normally.

The temporary import permit for your car is valid as long as your visa status is valid. If you leave the country and you have surrendered your FMT to fly out, you have no visa status, and the car is illegal.

Some people have left their cars here and traveled back to The US when they had only FMT status and gotten away with it. I did it myself a few years ago. I had good advice from the best smuggler in our family. I had documentation to prove that my car was disabled, and that I had to travel back to The United States to get parts for it that were not available in Mexico. (Untrue.)

I had a very secure place to store the car at a family members home. When we returned a year later, I checked to see what I would need to do to have the temporary import permit extended. I was told not to worry about it, it was still legal. In other words, nobody gave a damn. A couple of years later I nationalized it. It is old, but it is the best car we’ve got.

Remember, if you leave your car here and leave the country without a FMT, you are taking a chance. The worst case is that you could lose your car.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

sfmacaws

Aug 24, 2006, 12:01 AM

Post #3 of 10 (1041 views)

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Re: [Rick] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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Yes it is a problem in that it is not the normal scenario and takes some manuevering. Can it be done? Yes.

The airlines will require that you surrender a visa to get on the plane. You can take your chances and turn in your visa and get another one on your return flight. No one really knows how closely they are watching the visa computers but usually they aren't watching it at all. So, it could work. The person picking up the visas could notice that there is a car attached or they could not. The new FMT will not have a notation for your car and someone could notice that.

When we needed to do it we went to the Aduana office at the airport, Cancun in our case, and asked for help. The Aduanero issued us a new FMT to hand in to the airline and told us to put our current one away, get a new one when we flew back and then throw it away and use our current visa. Not quite regular but easy and it worked.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Poncho32

Aug 24, 2006, 3:08 AM

Post #4 of 10 (1037 views)

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Re: [Rick] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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This is and interesting but also a confusing problem. I drive to and from the U.S. into Mexico at least twice a year and at times when I have to fly home while there I do so,but the confusion I have is the form that accompanies my FM3 that they require in air travel that you turn in one half of on departure and the other half when you return to Mexico is handled true to form on air travel, where as when you cross by car at least at Nogales where I normally cross they could care less about that form.If the Mexican government picked up every out of country car that was on the street that was not at that time in the present hands of its legal owner man what a site that would be.
Bud

bournemouth

Aug 24, 2006, 6:17 AM

Post #5 of 10 (1027 views)

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Re: [Bud Crest] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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Bub - when you drive the immigration people do not use that form - simply stamp the appropriate page in your FM3. I've only seen the form when flying.

sioux4noff

Aug 24, 2006, 12:46 PM

Post #6 of 10 (1007 views)

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Re: [bournemouth] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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We flew to the US in June and drove back to Mexico. At the border entering Mexico, we were asked for the form we got at the airport when leaving Mexico. We have FM3s.

Poncho32

Aug 24, 2006, 4:18 PM

Post #7 of 10 (986 views)

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Re: [sioux4noff] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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This as I stated earlier is confusing as all get out , I started driving back and forth 8 years ago and who ever you check with in immigration they tell you the same thing, you are suppose to have that form filled out to turn in regardless of how you travel over the border.
Now to another area if you fail to turn in your car permit as I did one year and you drive a different car down you had better have proof such as a sales slip to an owner in the states that will stand up, they keep their records in their computers up to date of just what crosses their border South bound,Bud.

mazgordon

Aug 25, 2006, 1:15 PM

Post #8 of 10 (955 views)

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Re: [Bud Crest] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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I believe the reason they're more interested in the FMT form on air travel is that they use them to collect the $20 tourist tax from the airlines. Each form is worth money and that's why they have you write the flight number on the form. That way they can collect from each individual airline.

¡Echar todo la carne al asador!

Poncho32

Aug 25, 2006, 4:07 PM

Post #9 of 10 (939 views)

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Re: [mazgordon] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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So often unfortunately it boils down to money.
Bud

RickS

Nov 13, 2006, 4:21 PM

Post #10 of 10 (850 views)

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Re: [Rick] Temporary auto import: can I fly back and forth, or am I stuck?

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I guess I can file this under the heading of "Nothing in Mexico is 'Normal'".....

The above thread was of importance to me recently because I had driven into Mexico, was going to fly home for a week and fly back, and then drive back out later.

To be safe I made a copy of my FM-T that had my temporary car import attached. I went to the airport fully ready to fork over that original FM-T and get another one (marked "via air") when I came back in, and 'hope no one notices either at the airport or when I ultimately leave the country'.

Well no one noticed all right... in fact no one, airline or otherwise, made any effort at the Guad. airport to relieve me of my original FM-T. I kept anticipating someone to ask for it, but nada. So now I have two of them (three actually if you count the copy I made!).

But in Mexico I guess, this IS normal.

RickS (not the original poster)

(This post was edited by RickS on Nov 13, 2006, 4:28 PM)