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Residency types affecting what you bring


Zeb

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As I understand it, if you are approved for Permanente, you have a one time exemption on your household goods,

Anyone have any experience as to what you can bring in as a Temporary Resident versus just being a Tourist? I know that, as a tourist, you have a limited dollar amount you bring in (particularly if you fly). I think it's $300 or so dollars worth of items.

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The only clients I know with an issue are those using professional movers and shippers. The average person with a vehicle and even a trailer of personal items usually have no problems, at least those they can not resolve when they drive in to Mexico. What I am seeing are people who ship from Middle East or say Canada with professionals and they do so 6 months after TR or PR visa issue. Then there is no exemption and taxes applied.

saludos

Sonia

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My personal experience with bringing personal household items in by SUV pulling a trailer is that the type of immigration document or visa doesn't seem to mean anything to Aduana. They are just after dinero. The easiest way is to either sneak through the "Nothing to Declare" lanes and get a green light or go through the "Items to Declare" lanes with your pre-valuated list and just declare some value and pay the 16%. Aduana will not deal with a "Menage de Casa" or any personal exemption claim unless it is processed by a broker on your behalf.

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Both Residente Temporal and Residente Permanentes are formally allowed one load of household goods (Menaje de Casa rules).

The Menaje de Casa process is available for the first 6 months after you get your residency visa approved. We do NOT have to use a broker when using the Menaje de Casa program tp bring in a trailer-load of used household goods.

Reality for the past 10 years has been that Aduana generally does not question us towing in personal trailerloads of personal household items, as long as the load does not include: commercial quantities of enough materials to start a business, or lots of tools, or commercial equipment, or lots of electronics/stereo/computer gear, or new stuff, or prescription medications.

If they do stop you and ask to inspect your load, it's really good to have your own do-it-yourself Menaje de Casa style printed list to give them, that documents every numbered box in the load and the contents of each box, in Spanish, with serial numbers of electronics etc. It's helpful to have 3 copies of your spreadsheet of the contents of your load, since Aduana may want to keep one copy for their files, and police & some state border crossing points also like to see our lists of contents.

Most people fly through with no problems using this approach. Aduana and/or soldiers may do cursory checks of your load. We've had them inspect our loads, opening a box or two near the trailer-door to confirm that your list's box # contents matches what's in the box. If you have a lot of tools, a welder, an air compressor, etc, you may be asked to pay a few hundred dollars.

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My personal experience with bringing personal household items in by SUV pulling a trailer is that the type of immigration document or visa doesn't seem to mean anything to Aduana. They are just after dinero. The easiest way is to either sneak through the "Nothing to Declare" lanes and get a green light or go through the "Items to Declare" lanes with your pre-valuated list and just declare some value and pay the 16%. Aduana will not deal with a "Menage de Casa" or any personal exemption claim unless it is processed by a broker on your behalf.

Both Residente Temporal and Residente Permanentes are formally allowed one load of household goods (Menaje de Casa rules).

The Menaje de Casa process is available for the first 6 months after you get your residency visa approved. We do NOT have to use a broker when using the Menaje de Casa program tp bring in a trailer-load of used household goods.

Reality for the past 10 years has been that Aduana generally does not question us towing in personal trailerloads of personal household items, as long as the load does not include: commercial quantities of enough materials to start a business, or lots of tools, or commercial equipment, or lots of electronics/stereo/computer gear, or new stuff, or prescription medications.

If they do stop you and ask to inspect your load, it's really good to have your own do-it-yourself Menaje de Casa style printed list to give them, that documents every numbered box in the load and the contents of each box, in Spanish, with serial numbers of electronics etc. It's helpful to have 3 copies of your spreadsheet of the contents of your load, since Aduana may want to keep one copy for their files, and police & some state border crossing points also like to see our lists of contents.

Most people fly through with no problems using this approach. Aduana and/or soldiers may do cursory checks of your load. We've had them inspect our loads, opening a box or two near the trailer-door to confirm that your list's box # contents matches what's in the box. If you have a lot of tools, a welder, an air compressor, etc, you may be asked to pay a few hundred dollars.

I thought I had read that trailers were not allowed. Am I mistaken about that? (I hope so).

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What you read is incorrect. Small trailers are allowed as long as they are being pulled by a private car or pickup. No "commercial" vehicles are allowed so you will have difficulty if the trailer is a U-Haul and the pickup is above a certain weight class. I was able to get an F350 dually pulling a 24' cargo trailer through a couple of times but the package was right on the edge of what is allowed on a TIP. If it had not been registered in my own name (and under a business name) I probably would have been refused entry.

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Personal trailers have been allowed for at least a decade. The trailer is logged in on the Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for the truck hauling them. We've hauled in a 16' enclosed trailer with no issues other than occasional cursory load-checks by the military and Aduana. You take the trailer out with the towing vehicle and cancel/surrender both TIPs at the same time to recover the deposit.

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A rented trailer, such as a UHaul, may not enter Mexico. We used one on our move, unloaded into Laredo storage, dropped the trailer off in Laredo and continued with the loaded SUV. Later, we returned with the SUV empty and picked up the stuff in the storage facility.

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  • 1 month later...

We are two single females, one elderly, who plan to join you. We are planning to coordinate our move through a local Mexican moving company. Are you saying that we will have a more difficult time bringing our belongings into Mexico using a professional than we would otherwise? I have just read of one of your residents being robbed on a trip from Ajijic to Laredo, so is it safe for two females to drive down with their possessions? This robbery occurred earlier this month at a point where one must leave the toll road for a short distance and travel a highway. Again, would two females be safe making a driving trip down with their belongings?

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We moved from Asia to Mexico and we were on Tourist Visas. We used a combination of professional movers, one from Asia that was contracted by our employer who in turn shared the contract with Strom White.

We had a goodly amount, basically all our earthly possessions and we had absolutely NO trouble getting our items through and we did NOT have to pay any extra duty.

Our lists were detailed and impeccable ( the Japanese way :)) and things sailed through. they were inspected and then fumigated, since they came from Asia and were transiting through the USA.

I would not hesitate to use a professional mover again.

All the best on your move.

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  • 1 month later...

Now I'm confused. Can we bring household goods into MX on a temporary tourist visa? Can we lease long term on a temporary tourist visa?

If my daughter does not move down for a couple of years, is she eligible for a shipment of household goods?

Should I secure a tourist permanante before trying to long-term lease or move household goods?

When is the menaje de casa available?

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Ok. Mornings clarify some things. Tourist Visa allows you to bring small amount of personal things, say $300. I would say maybe bare bones pots, linens and

clothing. Maybe a book or two to read. No electronics. Resedente Temporal and Resedente Permanente allow for one shipment of duty free household goods within

6 months of obtaining the visa. This requires a menaje de casa, which costs a few hundred dollars (duty free?)

So, can I long-term lease an unfurnished house while still holding a tourist visa? Would I want to? Can I obtain a menaje de casa at the same time I obtain the

proper visa, or will it require another trip to INM?

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Suzie, It appears you plan to stay for more than 180 days and may not want to leave Mexico every 180 days, as is required with a tourist permit (visitante).

I suggest that you apply for a residence visa at the Mexican consulate nearest to your home in Texas. Go there and get an appointment. You will need your ID, Passport, Bank statements, birth certificate, etc. If approved, you will have almost 6 months to enter Mexico, then another 30 days to report to INM with proof of residence in Mexico to complete the process of getting your residence card, either temporal or permanente. The latter has higher financial requirements. A menaje de casa will probably be required if you plan to ship a lot of stuff. Consult with one of the moving companies at Lake Chapala to get the details. Timing can be important.

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Seems the OP is asking about someone with a TR and experienced bringing in household items. I, too, would like to hear that info from people and PLEASE put a date on it, so that we can kjnow when it happened, as anything older than a couple of years (as I suspect snowco and rv posts are) are useless, as things are changing. Please, folks, try to put a date on your experiences, as what happened 3-4 years ago is probably changed and more up to date info is necessary to make a sound decision.

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OK, here is info with dates.

I had a Temporal Visa and so did my husband.

We shipped household goods from Japan and Florida through Strom White and had a detailed, itemized list of our belongings. Very detailed down to the # of prongs on electronics, etc.

This was in August 2012.

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I am the OP. Since I started this topic, we are in the process of obtaining Permanente. In reading the above posts, this brings to mind another question in the same vein. Once we are PR and we prepare to bring our belongs, and if we decide to drive some of them, as I understand things, we can no longer enter with a US plated vehicle.

That being the case, then I suppose we must use a Mexican plated truck or trailer which would then mean we no longer have to stop to get any paper work for the car when crossing the border. Yes?

So then do we just go to Aduana to get our passport stamped in Pharr which is the closest crossing for us?

Also, I appreciate you mentioning the date so we can feel more secure if it is recent.

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No Aduana paperwork at all. Just drive on to the US and show your passport. On return, just drive in unless you have to declare purchases and, of course, you should do the INM stop for an FMM.

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When you leave Mexico, you fill out an FMM, indicating your visa status. You keep half of the form to turn in to INM at the border when you re-enter Mexico.

It i wise to know what you have to do; not depending upon the border agent to know what you are supposed to do. Often they have no idea. We have had instances where an agent had never seen an expat‘s residence documents and asked where we got them. On another occasion, one agent wanted to send us to a larger border crossing because he did not know what to do. That was several years ago, so I hope that has improved; but perhaps not at some of the small crossings. Admittedly, we have exited and re-entered Mexico many times without doing anything, but that was also years ago. Now they have computers and keep track of people and vehicles.

On leaving the USA, you do not need to do anything at the US crossing. However, you must stop there when you re-enter the USA for a passport check and possible inspection. They are not interested in your car, beyond asking if it is your own vehicle. We had a Jalisco plated car and drove it to the USA to visit in several states. No problem.

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I want to make sure I understand. So, when we return we must stop at Immigration each time for them to do what exactly?

Maybe it would be to your benefit to ask this question of Spencer, as I believe he has a different feeling about what you should do when driving out and in. There are some who never stop for an FMM either way, as you are not checked for a visa until you have passed the red/green light returning, and often never. By then, your RP is all they want to see. As RV points out, often this can get confusing to the Mexicans, so some don't bother confusing them. Suerte.

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