Need advice.

[Fishbonker]

Last October my wife and I vacationed in Mexico. We drove down from San Diego, trough Tijuana to a “resort” between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada. We stopped at the border and filled out the Migratory Form For Foreign Tourist, Transmigrant, Business Visitor Or Councilor Visitor. It was good for 180 days. I’m not sure what “FM” this is. We were there long enough that we needed to fill out this form.

Long story short, after paying a total of $140.00 in exit fees (80 for speeding and 60 for improper lane change to two different motorcycle officers) we just wanted out. We did not turn the exit part of the form in at the border.

We are planning a day trip to Nogales soon. Is there a chance we will have problems at the border since we did not turn in the exit part of the Migratory Form For Foreign Tourist, Transmigrant, Business Visitor Or Councilor Visitor form? What about in the future if we want to go back for another longer vacation and need to fill out Migratory Form For Foreign Tourist, Transmigrant, Business Visitor Or Councilor Visitor forms again?

Any advice appreciated, last thing I wanna do is run afoul of the Mexican Authorities. It was expensive enough the first two times.

The ‘Bonker

[BajaGringo]

If you are stopped again just insist to the officer that you want a ticket and will pay the fine. The fines are not that expensive and you can pay them by mail with a check to an address in San Diego...

[sparks]

You're only going to get opinions about the tourist visa ... my opinion is they don't record tourist visa exit/entry on computer.

FM3 and auto registration ... they do record and/or keep records.

[Fishbonker]

About the tickets, the officers insisted that I would have to go see the judge and the fine would be heavier there. I also think they saw that our insurance ran out at noon and it was 10:00 am so he said it would take about 90 minutes to get to the judge and I was afraid of getting nailed for having expired insurance. The second guy was about the same. We missed our turn and that started the trouble.

About the form, I wasn't sure if we had FM3 or the lesser one. Sounds like the lesser one. We'll try it and see what happens.

BTW, my wife had a passport that was stamped, should she have gotten it stamped on the way out?

Thanks again.

The 'Bonker

[moisheh]

Bonker You must have an "M" on your forehead or you are just plain naive. There is no law that says you must have insurance. You would be stupid to travel without but it is not required by law. The traffic fines would have been maybe 300 pesos.

Moisheh

[BajaGringo]

Not everyone knows how the system works. If you aren't sure when driving in Mexico find the office od tourism website for the state(s) you will be traveling through and you can usually find some good information dealing with such issues as well as resources for help when needed.

[keith]

do you still have it? did you pay the entrance fee? If so, take it with you. Don't volunteer it, but if they call you on it, it will help to show that you did pay.

Last time I went through, Sparks, they had my crossing history on the computer, and it looked pretty complete to me, even though I do whatever I can to avoid getting noticed on their records.

Those transitos really saw you coming.