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.
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.
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.
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.
It also varies quite a bit depending where, when and how one crosses the border by land.
As long as your last name isn't Trump, you will more than likely have NO problems at borders. LOL.
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.
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-
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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
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