Renting an apartment as a tourist

Oldladyman wrote:

Hmmm...good to know...when my 180 days is up. But to enter Mexico through a border crossing, I would have to enter through Texas or Cali by car or bus, correct?

Please!   Coming from California calling it Cali is annoying to us and proves you have never visited there to find out how lame it is yet.

alleycat1 wrote:

Oldladyman wrote:

Hmmm...good to know...when my 180 days is up. But to enter Mexico through a border crossing, I would have to enter through Texas or Cali by car or bus, correct?

Please!   Coming from California calling it Cali is annoying to us a proves you have never visited there to find out how lame it is yet.

That TV series about the biker gang in CA had them saying "Cali."  That's what communication is like in the US.

Gudgrief would be the expert on the Texas border and a bus crossing. I never used Texas as an entry/ exit. It depends on where you are going to and coming from. In Mexico, everything depends.

If You are heading to Arizona I can give you ideas about driving over those borders. If you were crossing at Sonora you could use the less official  border  and walk over. I know there are buses there. You could walk over the Tijuana border also.  Depends on which state you want to end up in.

The only border crossing I've used in the last 4 years has been Reynosa, Tamps. to Hidalgo, TX. about 5 mi. from McAllen, TX airport.  There is no direct bus from where I have lived (Zacatecas, Zac. and Coatepec, Ver.)

Buses get to Reynosa between 6 and 9 AM during peak crossing time.
Buses from Reynosa to McAllen won't stop at immigration on the way out even though there is a place where they can park for 5 min. or however long it takes for usually one person, me, to go through Immigration.

I have to take a cab to immigration at the bridge, get my FMM, then take a taxi back to the bus station and make a usually 9 AM or 10 AM bus to McAllen.

The line of cars at the bridge before getting off the bus to go through US customs can be as long as 15 min.  Going through customs and Immigration can take another 15 min. even though all bus passengers can go through the SENTRI line.  Actually, the earliest I've gotten to McAllen is about 11 AM taking a 9 AM bus.

A return bus from McAllen to Reynosa bus station only takes an hour even going through Mexican customs and immigration.  The bus waits.

Going north, I could just walk across the bridge and take a jitney to McAllen from the Hidalgo side.  There's no place to put baggage because it's usually standing room only.  The jitney could let me off a block from my hotel but that takes longer than if I take the bus from Reynosa and have the hotel's airport shuttle pick me up at the bus station.

Wow I never had such hassles. I did not count line time but I do not recall ever having to wait a very long time - and certainly I never had to demonstrate I had nothing to declare! That was on leaving? I do not understand. Maybe I look so poor they do not bother, and besides I am a female....Waiting for luggage at the carousel is just part of travel, usually it is fast and has nothing to do with crossing borders....

Well, it's been quite a while for you it seems.
When I first came to Cancun over 4 years ago there were not many people getting off of my flight and things went fairly smoothly.
This last trip ( this last October) , there were hundreds of people and first a line to check in with the visa, after that there was the long luggage line compounded by 3 break downs of the system, then finally getting in line to go through the line and have your luggage go through the machine while you presented your little paper with your "no" Declaration. The flight arrived about 4 pm and I wasn't in my rented car until 7 P.M.
I don't know how you would arrive, and not have to say anything about what you have brought to Mexico. Both countries want to know if you are bringing anything in, not just the U.S. The time before they physically opened my luggage.  Now they just scan it. I do count time in a line, especially when I am spending hours, have a car and hotel reservation, and am exhausted.

If your come back you might want to plan for a lot  more time.

The drill at the airport is very different.

It also varies quite a bit depending where, when and how one crosses the border by land.

Lines would depend on the date - some holiday time etc. I did fly into Cancun more than 4 years ago. But waiting in lines is part of travel. Not always fun but it is just part of what is required! C'est la vie! Lines can happen anywhere. Some people wait hours in their cars too. How about Mexico City? Does the airport have the same protocol now?

Where in Mexico do you live? You can cross the Calif. border in San Ysidro (probably the same as any other border cross) in a car or on foot. Walking takes under 10 minutes and there are busses & taxis 5 minutes away on the Mexican side. I live a mile below the border in Tijuana by the beach and have had NO problems with any one or anything in over 2 years now. Just ask the border officers if you're not sure of something.
As long as your last name isn't Trump, you will more than likely have NO problems at borders. LOL.

I have entered Mexico City airport twice since November. The first time a woman asked me lots of questions, including how long I wanted her to give me. It was a little unclear how much time she would issue me, but I asked for 6 months and she granted it. The second time I got a guy who looked bored and just waved me through to the luggage area with a 180 day thingy. He looked like he didn't care what I did:)

Depends who's on duty.  Coming in at Zacatecas and Guadalajara, they let me skip baggage check and didn't seem to know they needed to pick up my FMM and stamp my passport.

A bit annoyed I had to get extra pages for my passport after a little over two years because they stamp you in and out.

I am sure it depends on the person on duty to a good extent.  Where you are going, of course,  matters a lot, but I have seen flights for Guadalajara at the same price as for the City. If feasible, sounds like it might be a good alternative option.

Bus from Mexico City to Guadalajara takes longer than one might think.  5-6hours.  Then there's getting from wherever you live to Mexico Norte bus terminal.

This is not the topic, but do you have to go to an American embassy (not consulate etc) to get new pages? How much does it cost?

jeanfinney wrote:

This is not the topic, but do you have to go to an American embassy (not consulate etc) to get new pages? How much does it cost?

Although I am not 100% sure of this, but the State Dept. has stopped issuing pages, preferring to reissue an entire passport. You can, however, request a passport with more pages-

My friend in the US just got a 50 page US passport and they cost the same as the 10 page and they do not add pages to still valid passports anymore he said. Cost was $140 US including a US passport card and took a month to recieve by mail. They came separately. His old passport, the passport card and the new passport.

gudgrief wrote:

alleycat1 wrote:

Oldladyman wrote:

Hmmm...good to know...when my 180 days is up. But to enter Mexico through a border crossing, I would have to enter through Texas or Cali by car or bus, correct?

Please!   Coming from California calling it Cali is annoying to us a proves you have never visited there to find out how lame it is yet.

That TV series about the biker gang in CA had them saying "Cali."  That's what communication is like in the US.

I´ve also have been watching Gangland Undecover and the Vagos MC Gang and haven´t caught that yet. Good series. The writers must be from the east coast. LOL

It has been escalating in popularity on the east coast over the years but still is very lame to Californians. It won´t catch on there as far as I can tell from all the comments when some yokal comes to town and uses the term in front of us.

jeanfinney wrote:

This is not the topic, but do you have to go to an American embassy (not consulate etc) to get new pages? How much does it cost?

You can do it at any Consulate General; embassies have them too.  I don't know about consular agencies.  I went to Guadalajara.

The cost was $80, highway robbery if you ask me.  A new 50+ page passport is $110 if I remember correctly.

I now see that info is out of date.  Sorry.

It irks me somewhat that passports cost as much as they do seeing as we have a right to leave the US and enter any country that will allow us.

The extra pages was a 1 day exercise rather than waiting for your new passport to come in.

gudgrief wrote:

jeanfinney wrote:

This is not the topic, but do you have to go to an American embassy (not consulate etc) to get new pages? How much does it cost?

You can do it at any Consulate General; embassies have them too.  I don't know about consular agencies.  I went to Guadalajara.

The cost was $80, highway robbery if you ask me.  A new 50+ page passport is $110 if I remember correctly.

I now see that info is out of date.  Sorry.

It irks me somewhat that passports cost as much as they do seeing as we have a right to leave the US and enter any country that will allow us.

The extra pages was a 1 day exercise rather than waiting for your new passport to come in.

He did pay $110.00 for the renewal for a 50 page and $30 for the passport card. They punched holes in his expired passport. It was in Nov..

When I had a FMT or FMM travelling to the interior of Mexico I used my passport card, which INM officers cannot stamp. I have a Residente Permanente now after a 2 year Residente Temporal and walk across the border into San Diego without stopping at INM and getting a FMM for statistical purposes but  I know now INM and Mexican Customs have a new building entering Mexico by foot at the San Ysidro crosssing and will stop and get a FMM from now on because coming back in they might request the second half of an exit FMM.

"Requesting a Larger Passport Book When Renewing

If you travel frequently, you may request a larger passport book with 52 pages, at no additional cost. To request a larger (52 page) passport book, check the '52 page' box at the top of your passport application."


https://travel.state.gov/content/passpo … renew.html

Thank you for the replies, as depressing as they are. I still have five years on my passport so why should I buy a new one? Highway robbery for sure! If you drive in - hahaha - sort of not so good joke.  But I dont drive so I fly or take a bus. Everywhere. Well boat or train if possible. Some places in the world it is. Oh dear....Just cant travel much for five years!

I have failed to stop at INM several times.
When the outbound bus refused to stop.
Coming back in by bus, an official got on a couple of times and made me go to INM.
He couldn't see whether I actually did or not so I walked till I was out of sight, waited a minute and returned.  They never asked to see my passport when I return.

Walking across, they could care less.  You pass your bags through the X-ray machine and that's it.  Only very rarely do they open a bag or use the "traffic" lights.

gudgrief wrote:

I have failed to stop at INM several times.
When the outbound bus refused to stop.
Coming back in by bus, an official got on a couple of times and made me go to INM.
He couldn't see whether I actually did or not so I walked till I was out of sight, waited a minute and returned.  They never asked to see my passport when I return.

Walking across, they could care less.  You pass your bags through the X-ray machine and that's it.  Only very rarely do they open a bag or use the "traffic" lights.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/new … an-ysidro/

Get ready for this. No way to walk across into Mexico at San Ysidro, San Diego anymore without being scrutinized by INM and Mexican customs. Otay Mesa, San Diego crossing is still the same, A Customs guy or gal or 2, Red light/Green light button on the sidewalk and a table when walking across and the INM office a few meters away if you need to go in and see them.

Just a quick Question:
How many times can you get a new FMM (6 month Pass) card? Does the Mexican Government monitor this or can I continue to re-new it over and over again?

I cannot really answer this but there does not seem to be a  general rule. Seems to depend on luck, chance, karma, etc....

You don't renew an FMM, you get a new one issued.
People who have posted on expat.com here and in other threads have been doing it for several years.
Mexico likes you spending money here for 6 months at a time.

There have been a lot of conversations. Mostly seems to work fine for folks who are not problematic.

TJ Mike7 wrote:

Just a quick Question:
How many times can you get a new FMM (6 month Pass) card? Does the Mexican Government monitor this or can I continue to re-new it over and over again?

INM law and rules no where states  FMM tourist cards cannot be given over and over again. It has no mention of foreigners only getting one 180 FMM tourist card in a 12 month period as the US Immigration law does.  It states they can be given for up to 180 days each at the discretion of the INM officer issuing it to any foreigner.

That translates to any INM officer issuing a 180 day FMM tourist card to a foreigner, who easily can check his/her data base to see when and where that foreigner has been issued FMM tourist cards in the past, can legally without breaking any law or rules issue the foreigner another 180 day FMM tourist card even if he/she reads in their data base the foreigner was issued a FMM tourist card 180 days ago at such and such a point of entry. The INM officer can also check your passport for entry and exit stamps if you do not get a FMM card using a US passport card. If an INM officer asks you when you were last issued a FMM tourist card obviously tell him/her the truth.

Ok, I have a bit of confusion in my head. I have entered Mexico many times by air and by land (from the south) and never been issued a card, only a slip of paper. By card do you mean paper? I have a passport, I have no idea what a passport card is. I doubt if I could travel with such a thing anyway. They have to stamp pages after all. ??? So is that entry card only issued to people arriving by land on the northern border? I think someone said that....

I was just given My third straight 180 day visa at the mx guat border.The last two times i have not left mx.They gave it to me at The inm office in talisman Mex.The agent asked me If i was living in Mx to which I told her that I was living permanently in Mx.No problem at all

To stay in the interior of Mexico more than 72 hours you need an FMM "Tourist Card."
I put that in quotes because it has other uses than as a Tourist Card.
An image of the current card or something to the current can be found at
http://arellanoabogados.com.mx/system/i … 1418000730
Only the bottom portion is given to the tourist .

Almost any website other than an official Mexican government website is going to have errors but this will give you a general idea.  It's printed on stock that's a good bit lighter than a business card and somewhat stiffer than bond paper.
http://www.mexperience.com/lifestyle/me … uirements/

A US Passport Card was designed to make travel to Canada and Mexico a bit easier.  I don't know if it does in fact anymore.  Here's a link that will tell you something about it.
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/american … 13555.html

Thanks for all that effort. I know that guy, maybe the paper is better now. I was imagining something harder, laminated etc. As for the passport card, I copied out the text so others dont have to look it up. Without a car and already possessing a passport, it is of very limited use and costs almost the same as a real passport. Hard to see the point. Here is the text: "The US passport card was introduced with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative of 2009. The initiative requires that all US travelers provide proof of identity and citizenship when crossing onto US soil. This limited-use travel document costs slightly less than the standard-issue passport and can be used only when traveling by land or sea. You can use a passport card to enter Mexico only when you are entering from US soil." Have a good day.