Recently, there have been increasing cases of travelers with Russian passports being denied entry to Mexico. When passing through immigration (passport) control at the Mexico airport, a guest of a country is selectively taken to a special room. There, a Mexican immigration officer conducts an interview with them, the purpose of which — find out the details of the visit to the country. The main questions concern the purpose of the trip, route, place of residence in Mexico, availability of a return ticket and funds. Another part of the questions may concern the identity of the guest of the country and his occupation. At the same time, they may be asked to show the contents of a laptop or mobile phone and give access to files and email.
The interview is conducted in Spanish or English. The use of a mobile phone is not permitted. There is no wi-fi in the arrivals area, and after you are taken to the interview room, most often you will not be able to ask for anyone's help. No translators or lawyers are allowed at the interview, so it is better to prepare for such a situation in advance.
Based on the results of the interview, the tourist receives either permission to enter Mexico, or refusal of entry with subsequent deportation in the opposite direction on the next available flight at the expense of the airline. The visiting power does not put any marks on the passport, refusal of entry is not considered deportation, and the tourist has the right to «try his luck» the next time you enter the country.
Russian guests of the state can visit Mexico on the basis of one of the following documents: electronic permission, visas Mexico or visas / residence permits in the USA, Canada, Schengen countries, etc. The most common cases of non-admission to Mexico are those who arrived with an electronic permit. The difference in electronic permission itself does not guarantee that you will be allowed into Mexico.
It does not matter what type of passport you have: old (non-biometric) or new (biometric). Likewise, the likelihood of purchasing fromkaz has nothing to do with which airline you flew to Mexico.
In July 2019, 24 Russian travelers who flew to Mexico on two Nordwind and Azur Air flights were turned away and sent back “for violating immigration laws.” Russian media wrote about this widely. Some of them spent 10 days at the Cancúna airport and then in a special facility in the capital of the state of Quintana Roo, Chetumal. At the same time, they had paid tours and all the required supporting papers.
Pfromom publications in the media have stopped, but the denial of Russian tourists to Mexico has not stopped. From almost every flight arriving in Cancún from Moscow, several people are not allowed to enter Mexico. Similar situations also occur at the metropolitan airport Mexico City.
Let us omit the situation when the data in the electronic permit from differs from the data in the passport — This is the most common reason for not being allowed to enter Mexico. Let's talk about other possible reasons.
At-risk groups
Even though the decision to ban entry to Mexico is made by the immigration officer individually and on the basis of certain vaguely defined criteria, it is possible to identify several risk groups that are most likely to have problems with entry into the country.
Probably the most common reason for refusal of entry to Mexico — suspicions of the immigration intentions of the guest state. We do not know whether Mexico and the United States have a common migration base, but Mexican immigration officers are capable of suspecting citizens of many countries of wanting to enter the United States through Mexico. In the same way, we cannot connect the increase in the number of visas entering Mexico for Russian citizens with the deterioration in relations between Russia and the United States.
- Place of birth — states of Transcaucasia and Central Asia
Previously, when filling out a form for purchasing an electronic permit, it was possible to choose as the place of birth only one of three countries, the citizens of which have the right to obtain an electronic permit: Russia, Ukraine or Turkey. Since 2017, the application form allows you to indicate any country as your place of birth. It is believed that the place of birth does not matter when obtaining an electronic permit, the main thing is — citizenship. This is confirmed by the announcement on the website of the Mexico Consulate in Moscow: “ALL citizens of Russia, regardless of their country of birth.” However, given the policy of broad «distribution» Russian passports for citizens of a number of countries whose place of birth in one of the countries of Transcaucasia or Central Asia can be a signal for Mexican border guards to more thoroughly check the arriving guest of the state. This leads to the risk group indicated in the next paragraph.
In particular, such a warning appears on the website of the Russian tour operator Anex Tour:
Even if your passport indicates your place of birth in Russian / USSR, the Mexican migration authority will be able to identify the place of birth as from personal from the RSFSR.
- Obtained Russian citizenship not by birth
Citizens of Transcaucasian and Central Asian countries are considered potential immigrants by Mexican immigration authorities. They have trouble even getting a Mexico visa. The same attitude applies to those who have become citizens of the Russian Federation in recent years, since they have the opportunity to have a second citizenship of one of these countries.
There are quite a few sites on the Internet that charge a lot of money, promising immigration to the USA through Mexico. We are not able to assess the scale of this phenomenon, but it is precisely to prevent further migration to the United States that Mexico is restricting the entry into the country of citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and others.
For this reason, the guest state company Pegas Touristik in addition limited sale of tours to Mexico to citizens of the countries of Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Other guest government operators may sell tours to Mexico to citizens of these countries without even warning them of the risk of being denied entry to Mexico.
When going through immigration control in Mexico, you have the right to pay attention to when and where you received your Russian passport. If it is received at Russian consulates abroad, you may be subject to more thorough verification.
Indication in the passport of the authority that issued the document in the form of the code or in Russian will not become an obstacle to understanding that the passport was issued outside of Russia.
A special category is represented by Russian foreign passports received by citizens of the so-called. LND and DPR, as well as Crimea. It is not possible to obtain a US or Schengen visa using such a passport. With a high degree of probability, entry to Mexico with such a passport is also impossible. In this case, use your Ukrainian passport.
- Entry bans
Citizens who are restricted from entering the United States are highly likely to be unable to enter Mexico. Entry to Mexico is completely impossible for those who have been deported from Mexico or have a ban on entry into this country (are on the so-called “black list”). Even if somehow it is possible to obtain an electronic permit, the traveler will be «turned» at the Mexican airport.
By the way, quite often when applying for an electronic permit, it is possible to purchase a permit only because your name and last name coincide with the name and last name of someone who is prohibited from entering Mexico.
- Heading north Mexico
If you are traveling to one of the Mexican states or cities located near the US border, you also run the risk of being denied entry to Mexico. Even if you land in Cancún, but have a ticket to Ciudad Juáreza or Tijuana, the immigration officer may suspect you of intending to enter the United States illegally. Exceptions — you have a US visa or the purpose of your visit to the northern border regions of Mexico is transparent and obvious.
- Purpose of visit — date in Mexico
If an unmarried young man or woman goes to Mexico to meet someone for the purpose of a date, and voices this while going through immigration control, this may arouse suspicion from the Mexico migration service that he wants to stay in the country. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the date itself, but some cases at Mexico airports indicate that the immigration officer has the opportunity to think differently.
Likewise, if a girl who does not have a US visa goes to Mexico to meet an American here, the consequences may be similar.
If you are flying to Mexico on a date, the stated purposes of your visit must be only tourism, sightseeing, recreation, visiting relatives, but not a date.
- Behavior during immigration control
Excessively provocative behavior during immigration control, noise, loud talking or laughter, drunkenness, using a mobile phone in the arrivals area — frequent reasons for the increased attention of border guards to your personality.
In addition, the reason for the additional check may be the too-from-blooded outfit of a young, lonely traveler. And from pregnancy itself almost never raises additional questions from a Mexican immigration officer.
- Using a mobile phone in the arrivals area is a gross violation of border rules. Talking on a mobile phone or taking photographs is strictly prohibited.
- Wait in line at the security counter, which is reserved for foreigners, not Mexicans.
- Do not go beyond the yellow line in front of the counter until an officer invites you to approach.
- Approach the officer one at a time. Exception — family or organized group.
- Behave naturally, answer questions clearly, without joking, and do not show irritation.
- Follow the officer's requests: take off your glasses and hat, remove your hair from your face.
- Drunk state — one of the reasons why the officer has the right to pay increased attention to you.
Xfromya pregnant women and are not at risk for inadmissibility to Mexico, read this publication.
How to prepare and how to react
The decision whether or not to let you into Mexico is made by the immigration officer, and this is only his decision, which is difficult or even impossible to influence. As practice shows, sometimes this decision cannot be predicted. But in the vast majority of cases, you will not have problems entering Mexico.
First of all, before traveling to Mexico you should carefully prepare yourself. You must have all the required documents described by us in the article Entry rules to Mexico, and confidently answer the officer’s questions. The most important thing — convince the officer that you have no immigration intentions and not give him any reason to doubt that your intentions are different from those stated (say, you are entering Mexico as a tourist, but intend to stay here live). Persuasive behavior — 90% success rate when passing an interview with an immigration officer.
You will need to have printouts of all confirmations: guest government voucher, hotel reservation, return ticket. It is not necessary to have cash; it is enough to show bank cards and indicate the amounts that are placed on them.
More often than not, Mexican border guards never check the authenticity of the reservation of a return ticket from Mexico or may check with those who are being sent for an additional interview. If the reservation is not possible to check through the reservation systems, most often they will assume that you simply do not have this reservation.
If you are traveling through Cancún or Mexico City to one of the northern border states of Mexico and you do not have 100% convincing evidence of the purpose of your trip there, do not inform the Mexican immigration officer of your final destination in Mexico. Exception — you fly there on a single ticket, and the officer is able to see your final destination on his computer.
Talking in a raised voice is strictly not recommended! Behave calmly and confidently.
Not a single VIP service at the Mexico airport has the right to guarantee trouble-free passage of customs and passport control, much less the absence of the need to go through such control upon arrival. If you are given such guarantees, this fraud.
As we said, you do not have the right to involve a lawyer or translator in resolving the issue. Therefore, you should have knowledge of the basics of Spanish or English. In addition, the Russian Consular Service does not always have the right to intervene in the situation. In the same way, no acquaintances, «necessary people» etc. — their promises to help are worthless. If the decision to ban entry to Mexico is made, you are unable to do anything. All you have to do is wait for the next flight from which you will be sent back. In this case, you will be given a passport on the plane.
Phone numbers of consulates for emergency calls:
- Ukraine: ,
- Russia: , .
In addition, you can call the consulates on any telephone numbers and contact through any channels that you will find on this page.
If you have reason to doubt whether you will be allowed into Mexico with an electronic permit, apply for a consular visa. If they don’t give you one, you’ll lose $53 in consular fees, but you’ll know for sure that you shouldn’t buy air tickets or book from abroad.
To avoid financial losses, it makes sense to take out insurance in case of trip change (early termination of trip) due to refusal to enter the country of temporary stay. Some Russian and foreign insurance companies offer this type of insurance; a one-time insurance policy is about $50. In this case, the presence of a stamp in the international passport about fromrefusal at entry is not required, but stamps on departure and return to Russia are required. All traveler expenses related to the canceled trip are subject to reimbursement.
Cases of non-admission to Mexico by guests of states using Russian foreign passports are isolated and exceptional, but they still occur. Careful preparation for the trip can avoid many problems with entering this country.
Want to know more about immigration checks at airports in Mexico? Read this publication
Why can you be deported from Mexico? We talked about it here