We get asked this question quite often. There are cases when it is difficult to determine the permitted period of stay based on the entry stamp in the passport, or a guest of the country doubts that he was actually given such a short period.
Let us remind you that each tourist, when entering Mexico, receives a permitted period of stay in the country. This can be any period (number of days) up to 180, at the discretion of the migration officer. Now the permitted period of stay is most often given according to the date of the return ticket plus a few days. The permitted period of stay cannot be extended. A tourist he should leave the country before his graduation or risk becoming an illegal immigrant.
Entered Mexico without entry registration
This happens when entering Mexico by car from the US or illegally across the land border from Guatemala. Then you have no entry stamp in your passport at all, no entry record in the migration database, no confirmed reason for being in Mexico. And there is no permitted period of stay either.
Registration of entry through automatic gates at the airport
Then you do not have an entry stamp in your passport, but you have a ticket with a QR code that confirms your entry to Mexico. The permitted period of stay is fixed — 180 days, it is indicated on the ticket. You should keep this ticket until the end of your trip to Mexico.
The permitted period of stay cannot be determined from the entry stamp
Typically, the permitted period of stay is indicated on the entry stamp in your passport or, if you entered through a land border, on the paper FMM migration form.
Sometimes the migration officer puts a stamp with the date of entry into the passport, but forgets to write on it by hand the number of days and the end date of the permitted period of stay.
Sometimes the permitted period of stay is indicated illegibly or the number of days does not correspond to the end date of the permitted period of stay.
Example: What is the permitted period of stay indicated on this stamp?
You may have lost your passport and do not remember what allowed period of stay was indicated on it.
You may have lost your paper FMM migration form and do not remember what the permitted period of stay was indicated on it.
You may have lost the paper ticket you received when entering Mexico through the automated gates at the airport.
In all these cases, the only opportunity is to find out your permitted period of stay in Mexico — download the electronic migration form FMMD.
An FMMD is automatically created for any foreigner (traveler or resident) upon entry into Mexico. Among other things, it indicates the expiration date of the permitted period and the number of days that the traveler is allowed to stay in the country. The FMMD is stored in the migration database and is available for downloading within 60 days after registration, although sometimes it is possible to download later. «For 60 days» — this is just a download limit and not an allowed tenure in FMMD.
How to download the electronic migration form FMMD, we described in this publications.
There are cases when the stamp in the passport indicates one permitted period of stay, but the FMMD migration form indicates a completely different, longer one. Then consider that the correct permitted period of stay is tfrom, which is indicated in the FMMD.
If you exceed the permitted period of stay, that is, the overage allowance, nothing bad will happen. In rare cases, if you are subject to immigration checks on domestic flights or relocations in Mexico, you may be detained, but will be released after you sign an undertaking to leave Mexico within 10 — 30 days. When flying from Mexico, at the airport you will be asked to pay a fine (983 pesos in 2026), after which you can safely leave the country. Exceeding the permitted period of stay does not have any consequences for future entries into Mexico.