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need to show 180-day visa document other than when crossing border?


bdmowers

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Does anyone know of any situation where a tourist in Mexico is required to show the 180-day visa document other than when crossing the border?

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Does anyone know of any situation where a tourist in Mexico is required to show the 180-day visa document other than when crossing the border?

When travelling inside Mexico. Any international Mexican airport that does not have a separate international arrivals área. Example: The TJ airport and Mexicali airport there are INM officers asking for your document to be in Mexico legally entering the baggage claim área, the only way to get out of the secured arrival and departure área. On a bus or vehicle at Immigration checkpoints heading north. When in an accident or when involved in a crime. When getting auto insurance. When in an accident and taken to a hospital, especially a socalized medicine hospital. Possibly when travelling and stopped at a Federal Pólice checkpoint. Other than that probably not.

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If you're asking if you need to carry it around with you ... I never have, for fear of losing it or having it stolen. Same with my residence card now. I never carry it around and have never had the need to show it to anyone except when doing specific tasks like opening an account, buying a house, getting a Mexican driver's license. But for day to day life, I've never carried my tourist visa or residence card around with me.

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Make a notarized copy of your immigration papers in black and white and carry that. Also if US you should get a passport card as an ID to carry while traveling in mexico. If you lose wallet or whatever passport and Immigration card are safe. Why carry US passport or passport card while traveling in Mexico?? So you can ID yourself at a US embassy or consulate if emergency.

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You dont need it for getting married, but would for notarial acts, like proeprty transfers and power of attorney, etc. as well as certain transactions with the government.

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You dont need it for getting married...

"You don't need to be resident in Mexico in order to get married there, you'll just need a passport and your tourist permit, plus some other paperwork"

Source: http://www.mexicolaw.com/Marriage%20in%20Mexico.htm

I had to show mine when I first applied for permission to marry a Mexican and again at Registro Civil.

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"You don't need to be resident in Mexico in order to get married there, you'll just need a passport and your tourist permit, plus some other paperwork"

Source: http://www.mexicolaw.com/Marriage%20in%20Mexico.htm

I had to show mine when I first applied for permission to marry a Mexican and again at Registro Civil.

Permission to marry a Mexican National at the INM office is a mute point now for about 2 years... no longer a requirement. I needed this permission and have a 6 year relationship with our local INM office.

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There was a recent story in Mexico News Daily about a woman who was taken off a bus and put in jail because she could not prove that she was in the country legally. I guess it's time to start carrying notarized copies of everything, everywhere.

Can you put a link to this story? Did they just arbitrarily board the bus and start demanding proof of legality? I'd be interested to know more.

I now have a Mexican driver's license which I couldn't get without a residence card, CURP and proof of domicilio, so I'm going to assume that would do in a case like this. (Although I don't carry it everywhere, either.) But I never carried around either passport or tourist visa while visiting in the past. Are they suddenly cracking down or something?

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Mexican law allows a black and white notarized copy of your immigration papers. Yes it won't work for border crossings but works quite well for ID and is legal as per federal law. I got my info from Spencer the lawyer. Use it all the time for bank ID as an example.

Actually INM law and rules state it is not the accepted document they want to inspect and Mexican law, whatever that means here, doesn´t state "Immigration documents" can be copied and used as ID so whatever a notorized copy is good for it is definitely not accepted by INM officers or Federal Police for proof of being in Mexico legally unless they want to accept it. No federal law says they have to and actually INM rules state they don´t have to. Federal law does state color copies of any offical document is illegal in Mexico only. Just follow the INM law and rules and carry it and if in the 1 in a 100,000 change you get mugged get another one.

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I prefer to not carry the original when I am out and about my daily life. In the 1 in 100,000 chance I get stopped by INM or Federal police I will "little old lady" my way out of it.

Have lived here 7 years and have never even SEEN an INM official outside the INM office and have only seen Federal police passing in traffic. OTOH, I have lost my debit card and once misplaced my passport. Also twice have left my purse in a restaurant. Both times, a waiter chased me down to return it. Mugging is not the only way to lose things.

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Can you put a link to this story? Did they just arbitrarily board the bus and start demanding proof of legality? I'd be interested to know more.

Link is: http://mexiconewsdaily.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c0cb4c1e02c930f31f6f8924&id=1c86d3cfb9&e=4d529b49b3

The really interesting part is this:

"Checking the documentation of bus passengers is a common practice by immigration officials looking for illegal migrants from Central America.

“Foreigners who cannot prove that they are in the country legally are taken into custody by immigration officials, regardless of what country they are from,” the institute said."

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I prefer to not carry the original when I am out and about my daily life. In the 1 in 100,000 chance I get stopped by INM or Federal police I will "little old lady" my way out of it.

Have lived here 7 years and have never even SEEN an INM official outside the INM office and have only seen Federal police passing in traffic. OTOH, I have lost my debit card and once misplaced my passport. Also twice have left my purse in a restaurant. Both times, a waiter chased me down to return it. Mugging is not the only way to lose things.

I understand your response and it makes perfect sense to me.

One thing nobody mentioned here is the huge undertaking of the federal government this last year to find, detain and deport over 200,000 illegal immigrants in the last 18 or so months. The checking of documents to show proof of being in the country legally has never been so intense and you might feel safe from scrutiny and a copy is better than nothing but I personally follow the rule and don´t worry about what might happen sometime in the future. It also might get me out of paying mordida some day.

Travel with the original document at least is a wise thing to do, even if only to Guadalajara.

http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-migrants-20150905-story.html

"Mexico has apprehended 173,000 Central American migrants in 2015, according to Mexico's National Migration Institute, the report says, compared with 110,000 in the United States, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

The report also says Mexico deported about six times as many unaccompanied children as the United States last year, and that number is expected to double to 12 times more in 2015.

Mexican authorities had for years largely turned a blind eye to the tens of thousands of migrants passing through on their way north, despite widespread reports that criminal gangs and corrupt law officials were kidnapping and "disappearing" thousands of them each year and extorting money from many."

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Black and white copy when it is a notarized certified copy, all copies are not equal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been here 30 years and have never been asked to show a visa. I do show my passport at banks and such. I expect y'all know not everyone has the authority to ask you for your visa, not city or state police, nor soldiers.

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Passport Card??

First I have heard of this. How do I get one?

Passport cards have a different number than your US book passport. They cost $30.00 US when renewing your book passport which costs $110 US and can be done when in Mexico at the DF Embassy or Guadalajara US Consulate etc.. They have a RFID chip as does a book passport but is a diffenent one that is used when crossing into the US and you can use the "Ready Lanes" in both the vehicle lanes and pedestrian lines but not a US passport book. You can use the card to get an FMM tourist card upon entering Mexico and us it as your foreign photo ID instead of carrying your passport book while in Mexico.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/card.html

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