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Nuevo Laredo Immigration location


Traveler9485

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On May 8th I will be at the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo crossing on my way to Lakeside, and I would appreciate current directions on locating the Immigration and vehicle control building after crossing the bridge into Nuevo Laredo. I have done numerous searches and have received many conflicting directions. Several of the 'hits' are years old. And, and one says 'follow the large blue signs'. Appreciate any assistance you can offer on current conditions and directions. I'd hate to start the day off lost!

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Look at the current thread in the section Ajijic/Chapala/Guadalajara and the post titled Crossing at Bridge #2. It is for someone leaving Mexico but a great start.

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On May 8th I will be at the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo crossing on my way to Lakeside, and I would appreciate current directions on locating the Immigration and vehicle control building after crossing the bridge into Nuevo Laredo. I have done numerous searches and have received many conflicting directions. Several of the 'hits' are years old. And, and one says 'follow the large blue signs'. Appreciate any assistance you can offer on current conditions and directions. I'd hate to start the day off lost!

You need to cross at Bridge Two, the newer downtown bridge. You simply go straight for a few blocks after IH 35 ends which is a few hundred yards south of the Washington/Scott St. exit. As you cross the bridge you will see the CIITEV (vehicle permit/immigration) station along the riverbank between your location and Bridge I which is about 300 yards upstream. Once you visualize the location following these instructions will be easier.

As you enter Mexico and come to Aduana, all traffic with nothing to declare is diverted to the left into new inspection stations. All vehicles with items to declare go straight ahead. Whichever way you go the directions after clearing Aduana are the same. There are blue triangular signs with arrows identifying the route to CIITEV Modulo. Here is a step by step guide:

(1) Take a left at the very first street after you leave Aduana, proceed about 6 blocks until the street merges into Coloso, the loop road.

(2) There is no traffic coming from your left so Coloso is easy to enter. However get into the far left lane immediately.

(3) At the first traffic light about a 1 km from where you enter Coloso you will make a long U past the lanes of Coloso heading back towards the bridge and get onto the access road.

(4) Once on the access road you go about 1 km and you will see the Immigration station on the left.

Getting to the highway to Monterrey is easy.

(1) When you exit the parking lot of the CIITEV station, you go take a right and retrace the route you took to get there. The access road--where you made the wide U-turn on your way to the CIITEV station--ends at the traffic signal and you simply merge onto the Coloso.

(2) Coloso is divided highway and you will take it for about six-seven miles until it intersects with the Monterrey Highway.

(3) Coloso runs parallel to the river for about five miles until it curves to the right near the Nuevo Laredo Civic Center (large rust colored modernesqe building on the the left).

(4) After you round the curve you will see the Monterrey Highway (Hwy 85) overpass in the distance. As you approach the overpass get into the far left lane as you approach the intersection controlled by traffic signals.

(5) You will cross under the overpass at the intersection and make a left onto the Hwy 85 access road, then entering Hwy 85.

(6) After about 8 miles you will come to the junction with Highway 2 (right---Columbia detour; left--the Riberena to Reynosa). You continue straight and about 1-2 miles past the junction you will come to the interior Aduana checkpoint.

(7) After clearing the Aduana checkpoint you simply continue on Hwy 85 and it will turn into the autopista about 15 miles further on down the road. DO NOT TAKE THE LIBRE.

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After reading all of the questions and answers on this thread and the other (Crossing at Bridge #2), I am convinced that the simple, not complicated crossing at Colombia is the easiest.

Friends crossed there this AM, without incident or getting lost... or paying mordida, or paying to have their clean windows cleaned again, or having to hire somone, once they were hopelessly lost... etc. BUT - to each - their own...

Happy motoring....

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After reading all of the questions and answers on this thread and the other (Crossing at Bridge #2), I am convinced that the simple, not complicated crossing at Colombia is the easiest.

Friends crossed there this AM, without incident or getting lost... or paying mordida, or paying to have their clean windows cleaned again, or having to hire somone, once they were hopelessly lost... etc. BUT - to each - their own...

Happy motoring....

I wouldn't recommend crossing anywhere downriver from Nuevo Laredo. Things are a little less unsettled here in NL only because the Gulf cartel has little presence. The Zetas are pretty much the only show in town so the only encounters are between them and the military.

To each his own about Columbia. The only people I see who recommend it are ex-pats from the interior. No one locally ventures out onto the Piedras highway ( Hwy 2) unless they absolutely have to.

I have included the comment from a previous thread. Obviously to each his own. Obviously people are getting thru without a problem.

Would I follow Arroyo Grande's recommendations for a border crossing? Absolutely. I would trust local opinion.

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I have included the comment from a previous thread. Obviously to each his own. Obviously people are getting thru without a problem.

Would I follow Arroyo Grande's recommendations for a border crossing? Absolutely. I would trust local opinion.

I don't know that details and specifics will influence anyone but there are reasons why local residents avoid the highway to Piedras (Hwy 2) which is the route that runs from Columbia Bridge to the intersection with the Nuevo Laredo-Monterrey highway (Hwy 85). Many of the ranchs west of Nuevo Laredo along Hwy 2 to Piedras and Hwy 1 which connects NL and Monterrey via Anahuac have been expropriated by the Zetas who use them as distribution points for handling of product in transit. Groups of them (comandos) move back and forth between these hideouts and the west side of Nuevo Laredo regularly. There have been several encounters (enfrentamientos) between these comandos and roving military patrols over the past year.

Although they are infrequent, the Zetas have set up narco reténes (road blocks) on Highway 2 for a variety of purposes. There have been spontaneous carjackings of the type that was described by a Canadian ex-pat in an article from a Canadian paper that was posted on another thread. My brother-in-law from Monclova was a victim and lost a 2008 Dodge Ram 6 months ago when he was traveling to Piedras from NL on Hwy 2 about 5 miles north of the turnoff to Columbia bridge. I have heard second hand of several other carjacking/robberies on that road. There are other incidents involving commercial vehicles that occur frequently. The municipal police, known derisively as the Polizetas extort money regularly from passing motorists between the Columbia cut-off and NL.

A poster on another forum made an interesting analogy when commenting on the issue of risk taking when traveling in the Tamaulipas/Nuevo Leon frontera. He said if I am playing poker and someone tells me I have a 90% chance of winning a particular hand, I am all in. If someone tells me I have a 90% chance of making it through a particular stretch of highway safely without having an encounter with the Zetas, I take a different route.

I understand the perceived convenience factor in using the Columbia Bridge as a crossing point. But that area has other issues that to me are more important than convenience.

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