Driven to border in foreign plated car & requested to show immigration visa?

[elehne1]

A friend of mine is wondering if anyone has made a trip to the border recently driving a foreign plated vehicle and if pulled over requested to show their immigration document? Thanks in advance.

[sioux4noff]

Why would you be concerned by this unless you did not have current documents? You can never really know when you might be asked for them, and realistically what argument would you give to NOT show them?

I've been asked for my documents before by transito. Easier to show docs than worry/argue as to whether that cop has the "right" to ask.

[igualla]

Elehne 1

To answer your question, I have made quite a few trips to the border and never been asked, although the only times I was ever stopped was for fruit and general miliary checks, and they aren´t the paper police. And realistically, it is only a one day drive that you could be asked if pulled over, because once you are in Sonora, foreign plates are treated differently there, so highly unlikely they would think to ask.

Your friend is likely trying to avoid the hassle of getting the permission to drive out papers as they are a hassle, have a deadline on them and cost money. The odds are in their favour (in my opinion), except in case of an accident.

[bmh]

They usually do not ask for your papers but they could so wether pople ae asked for them or not is no indication of what will happen in the future.

[elehne1]

I want to thank you for your answers. I, too, was asked for documents recently in Guadalajara by traffic cop claiming he wanted to check if my vehicle was authorized...he looked at our TIP issued 2010 and Residente temporal visa to confirm current. Our friend is moving back to U.S. Permanently. The answers provided have been sent to him. Thanks!

[snowyco]

In 28 years of driving around Mexico, we have been stopped at state borders (within the last 5 years), and asked to show INM IDs or INM permits.

Accidents caused by others could easily lead to a few nights in jail, without proper ID or an insurance policy that does not include special fiscal bond coverage to keep us out of jail.

The Retorno Seguro permit is both free and easy to get from SAT/Hacienda, functionally gives you 7 days (5 business days) to travel from when they issue the free permit. The advice above on this is incorrect.

Easy rules, make sense, worth following.

The advice to intentionally break laws leads to possible problems: vehicle permanently confiscated, a few nights in jail without food or water, possible lawsuits against any property you have here due to running illegally and having an accident. Some state injury compensation penalties along your route, for accidentally killing someone, have been raised to roughly $5 million pesos per person.

[snowyco]

The possible results described in the previous post mean that if we have an accident where a family of four are killed, while we are driving illegally or driving an illegal vehicle, or driving with no proper INM permission to be in Mexico, Then our insurance companies can use a single fine-print clause to deny accident coverage because we are breaking the law. The resulting $$ losses could cross into over $20 million pesos in awards to family members for a family of four killed in an accident (fault determined by the local police) => loss of most gringo homes.

http://yucalandia.com/2013/02/04/updated-insurance-auto-coverage-limits-for-mexico/

[elehne1]

thanks Snowyco...I will pass this on as well.

[elehne1]

The Retorno Seguro permit is both free and easy to get from SAT/Hacienda, functionally gives you 7 days (5 business days) to travel from when they issue the free permit.

Snowyco, thank you for the information. What do you need to take to get the Retorno Seguro and where do you go, as well as how long to get it?

In the future, once we go permanente, we will need one.