Entering Mexico as a resident of the state has one important feature. You must clearly state that you are a resident and present your resident card. If you present only your passport at passport control, you may be treated as a tourist, and as a result you will automatically lose your residence in Mexico. Let's consider several situations. Let's start with the check-out process.
Leaving Mexico
Previously, before leaving, a Mexican resident was required to obtain a paper FMM migration form. Now paper FMM at airports has been abolished, and electronic FMMD has no relation to residents. The Migration Service has not yet published a new procedure for processing the departure of residents. We hear different stories about how residents have processed their departure from the country recently. Typically, they come down to the following:
- they didn’t formalize it in any way; when checking in for the flight, they showed the airline a resident card;
- They processed it at the migration service office at the airport, they entered the departure data into the computer, and they put a stamp in the passport about departure / did not put it.
We don't know what's right yet. All records of departures are entered into the migration database based on passenger data provided by the airline, and the migration service probably has the option to identify the departure of residents. But what information about the passenger will the airline transfer to the migration service if the ticket was purchased on a different passport than the one with which the residence was obtained? In this regard, we suggest that you still arrange your departure by visiting the migration service office.
We would like to tell you about one caution. Among the documents you will submit for naturalization will be a letter «sworn» about all your exits and entries into Mexico over the past 2 years. If the data you provide does not match the data from the migration database, the papers will be returned to you without consideration. For this reason, it is recommended to obtain a constancia de historial migratorio from the migration service, where all your entries and exits will be indicated. But how to count days of absence if your exit is not in the database, but only entry?
We strongly advise residents of Mexico to prepare their departure from the country. Before departure, go to the migration service office at the airport, show your boarding pass and put an exit stamp in your passport. Your departure data will be entered into the migration database. So, the migration database should always contain materials about departure, so that there are no problems upon subsequent entry.
If you are traveling across the Mexican land border by car, exit processing becomes more complicated. There are no border controls at land border crossings with the United States from Mexico. You need to find the migration service office at the entrance to the border. It is usually located in the nearest town or municipality. There, fill out the paper FMM migration form, which is still issued at the land border. The lower part will be taken away from you, and you will use the upper part upon subsequent entry. An exit stamp will be placed in your passport.
If you know that you will also be driving a car back to Mexico from the United States, you can avoid exiting, because no one will issue entry for you. But if you return to Mexico by plane or bus, be sure to exit.
Entering Mexico through the airport
When going through passport control at the airport, show your resident card. The migration officer may (or may not) ask to see a previous exit stamp. If you have the top half of a previously completed paper FMM migration form, please show that too.
If you have lost the top part of your paper migration form, there is no need to look for a migration officer to restore it now. Just go to passport control.
Previously, when the paper FMM migration form was still issued at the airport, the officer at passport control could refuse to enter as a resident if you did not have the upper part of the FMM obtained on a previous exit. The resident was sent to the migration service counter for processing, only then could he go through passport control as a resident. Now all issues can be resolved during passport control.
If you didn’t register for departure or changed your passport, it doesn’t matter. Explain to the officer the absence of an exit stamp. He does not have the opportunity to prevent you from entering the country. One way or another, after seeing your resident card, he will process your entry as a resident and put an entry stamp in your passport, on which he will handwrite RT or RP (temporary or permanent resident). If the date is handwritten on the stamp, this should alert you, because the date is written only to tourists. A foreigner cannot have two migration statuses at the same time; for this reason, if you enter as a traveler, you will lose your resident status.
At the end of 2022 — at the beginning of 2023, «filters» for independent passport control. There are no queues for them. We do not recommend that residents use them, since there have been reports on social networks about incorrect entry registration when using such «filters» specifically by residents. Go through passport control as usual, through an interview with a migration officer.
Entering Mexico through the land border
When entering Mexico by land, proceed as described in the section on arriving by plane: show your resident card.
When entering Mexico by bus or boat, you will be automatically prompted to fill out a paper FMM immigration form. As a resident, you are not required to do this. Show your previous departure stamp or the top of your paper FMM form.
At automobile checkpoints with the United States, they do not offer to issue a paper FMM; entry preparation is entirely the responsibility of the foreigner. Moreover, they may not put an entry stamp on your passport, and they will not enter the database until you ask. It also depends on citizenship: an American passport will simply be looked at and returned; with other passports, entry can be prepared without a reminder. This is due to the fact that thousands of Americans cross the border every day, entering Mexico for work or business for short periods, and entries of less than 7 days are not recorded in the database. If you have processed your exit, ask that your entry as a resident be processed as well.
We talked about entering Mexico with an expired resident card in this article.publications.
Let us add that for holders of temporary and permanent resident cards, the rules for entering Mexico are the same.