If you have violated your permitted period of stay in Mexico and are detained during an immigration check and given a travel order, you have very few options to resolve the situation. The problem will not go away on its own. If you leave Mexico, you are unlikely to be allowed back. If you do not leave within the prescribed period, if you are detained again, you will be allowed out of the immigration station only after you buy yourself a ticket from Mexico.
Typically, immigration checks are carried out in crowded places, such as public areas, bus stations or airports, entrances to large settlements or intercity bus routes. If during such a check it turns out that the foreigner does not have papers or has violated the permitted period of stay, he is taken to a special room, if there is one at the airport, or taken to a temporary detention center called a migration station. There they check his identity and migration data again. If a foreigner did not have documentation, but his friends brought them, he will be allowed in. If a non-resident has exceeded the permitted period of stay, he is interviewed, during which they find out why he was unable to leave Mexico on time. He is then asked to sign an administrative agreement (acuerdo administrativo), and sometimes given a direct order to leave Mexico, after which he is released.
The administrative agreement represents the foreigner's obligation to regulate the migration situation or leave Mexico. The period given for settlement is — maximum 30 days, but more often 10 or 20 days. The order may not contain a direct instruction to leave Mexico, but this changes little. The order usually contains an indication that it does not legalize the foreigner’s stay in Mexico and does not constitute a permit to move throughout the territory of the state.
Regulating the migration situation means preparing legal migration status in Mexico. It is currently not possible to extend the permitted period of stay (travel visa). Therefore, a non-resident must either apply for refugee and obtain visitor status for humanitarian reasons, or find a basis and obtain Residence in Mexico.
If you were unable to resolve your migration situation and decided to leave the country in order to get a new permitted period of stay, you will most likely be unlikely to get back to Mexico. In the migration system, a special frommark will appear in front of your name, the so-called May alert («alarm»). Alert — This is not an entry ban. When you have an entry ban, you are not able to obtain an electronic permit. When you have an alert, you are able to obtain an electronic permit, but are not able to enter Mexico according to the decision of the migration officer at passport control at the airport. He will see you as a malicious violator of the migration regime and will deny you entry.
You have the right not to leave Mexico and apply to the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission (Comar) for refugee status. If more than 30 days have passed since the date of your entry into Mexico, the Commission must tell you that there are many cases where the application was accepted. Once your application is accepted, you will receive temporary humanitarian visitor status and will be able to stay legally in Mexico for a year while awaiting a decision on your refugee status. Visitor status — this is a dead end option. You are unlikely to be given refugee status, in other words, permission for permanent residence, and after a year the question of legal stay in Mexico will have to be decided again. Visitor status is very difficult to convert to resident status, and the time you spend as a temporary visitor does not count toward your acquisition of Mexican citizenship.
If you have a reason to obtain a residence permit in Mexico, use this authorization. The fact that you were obliged to resolve the migration situation does not mean that, to sum it up, you were provided with a basis for settlement. Such grounds could be marriage to a citizen or resident of Mexico, the birth of a child (you cannot immediately give birth to a child), or a settlement program (if you had entries into the country in previous years). If you apply for Residence under the settlement program, try to do so before the deadline specified in the order expires. After — The migration service has the right to refuse to issue you a resident card.
If you have no basis for resolving the migration situation — There is always the possibility of coming up with some solution. In general, the issue of legal stay in Mexico can be resolved even after the prescribed period has expired. The main thing is not to get caught again.
You have the opportunity to do nothing, ignore the order and continue living in Mexico as you always have. In this case, you will have to be careful not to run into a repeat immigration check. We always compare it to a fine for a traffic violation. They stopped you, gave you a fine and let you go. You haven't paid the fine. If the violation occurs again, the car from is taken to the impound area. But you never know when you'll be stopped next. Capable, and never.
If you are detained again, you will not be allowed to leave the immigration station until you buy your own ticket from Mexico. Mexico does not have the money to comply with the deportation process, that is, to purchase a ticket to the country of your citizenship at the expense of the Mexican state. In addition, deportation is not always technically possible, especially to states with which Mexico does not have direct air connections, like with Russia. After purchasing your ticket, you will either be let in or taken to the airport and boarded for your flight. According to migration legislation, they have the right to stay at a migration station for up to 15 days, with the possibility of extending this period to 60 days.
So, if you have received a travel order and decided to leave Mexico, know that you will not be able to just get back into the country. Lifting entry restrictions will cost time and money. If you decide to stay, try to find a basis and get residency status in Mexico. Moreover, it is better to start searching for a basis for a residence permit even before you are detained during a migration check. Therefore, once the issues of legalization are resolved, it can be much more difficult.
If you need help resolving migration issues that have arisen in connection with a travel order, write to us.