Very often our readers ask, is it possible to extend a guest’s country visa? We expected to receive the maximum permitted period of stay of 180 days. But upon entering Mexico, the passport was stamped with 20 or 30 days that were allowed to stay in the country. Where should I go to extend this period?
Permitted length of stay, which you were given upon entry,cannot be extended. No way and nowhere! And for no reason. By law, you are required to leave Mexico at the end of this period. Didn't leave on time — became illegal.
- Extend a tourist visa — it is forbidden.
- Extend the permitted period of stay — it is forbidden.
- Extend migration form FMM — it is forbidden.
But it's not all bad! Decide for yourself for what purpose you want to stay in Mexico after the end of the permitted period of stay, and then act according to the circumstances.
1. You need more time to relax in Mexico, and then you will leave.
Then he has the opportunity to do nothing and not settle. Beware of random immigration checks. At the pyramids or on the beaches, migration status is never checked. Before leaving Mexico, pay a fine of 983 MXN (2026) at the airport. However, no other sanctions will be applied to you, and this will not affect your option to enter Mexico in the future.
2. Are you planning to give birth to a child in Mexico or register a marriage with a resident or citizen of the state.
Before giving birth in a clinic or registering a marriage, no one will check your migration status in Mexico. After the special event has taken place, you have the basis for obtaining a residence permit in Mexico. Before issuing you a resident card, the migration service will ask you to pay a fine of 2300 MXN. This will be the only penalty for exceeding the permitted period of stay.
3. Wait until the end of the permitted period of stay to apply for a residence permit under the settlement program.
Yes, these are the criteria for the settlement program: you must become an illegal immigrant in order to be able to apply for a residence permit. This means that upon expiration of your sovereign visa, try not to travel around the country, but immediately go to the migration service office and apply for a residence permit. If you go to submit documents in another state and you are detained during a migration check somewhere at the airport or on an intercity bus, nothing bad will happen either. True, there is a risk of spending the night at the migration station. But you will be given an order that will oblige you to regulate the migration situation. This is exactly what you were going to another state for: to resolve the migration situation by obtaining a residence permit.
We do not consider the option of applying for asylum or granting refugee status for legalization in Mexico here. If you do not submit your application within 30 days of entry, it is unlikely that your application will be accepted later.
4. Want to apply for a visa or are waiting for an interview at one of the foreign consulates in Mexico.
Then you need to leave Mexico, re-enter, in other words, acquire a new authorized period of stay and legal status in Mexico. Or you need to think about applying for a residence permit in Mexico, and after purchasing a resident card, that is, after legalization in the country, apply for a foreign visa.
5. Are you planning to contact a notary, register real estate or engage in litigation.
Then you also need legal status in Mexico, and you will have to do as we wrote in the previous paragraph.
6. Waiting for an appointment with CBP One to legally travel from Mexico to the United States.
Try not to leave the state you are currently in. Wait for your appointment with CBP One, and once your appointment is made, go to the Immigration Services offices in Villahermosa (Tabasco) and Tapachula (Chiapas) and request transportation to your selected US border crossing. If you want to get to the border on your own, try not to get caught at the immigration check, because this will significantly complicate your movement towards the border.
Now about the risks of staying in Mexico on an expired tourist visa.
7. You will not be able to go to the courts, notaries or foreign consulates in Mexico (except the embassy of your state). We wrote above what to do in these situations.
8. You have the opportunity to be detained and taken to a migration station.
They are detained during random migration checks, which are carried out in crowded places, at airports, at bus stations, on regular buses, etc. After the migration service personnel find out that your travel visa has expired, they may simply scold you and let you go, or they have the right to detain you and take you to a migration station.
Previously, we believed that citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are usually not detained because there is a war in Ukraine, there is nowhere to deport them, Mexico pities them, so it turns a blind eye to their illegal stay, etc. Today we know that they are not detained not out of pity, but because there is no money for deportation in the Mexican budget, deportation to these powers is technically impossible, which means there is no point in keeping them at migration stations.
However, this does not mean that cases of detention do not happen. Lately there have been more and more of them, apparently because the number of Ukrainian and Russian illegal immigrants in Mexico has increased sharply over the past year. Today, migration checks occur throughout the country, and not just on routes towards the northern border. Based on the results of the check, illegal immigrants are sent to migration stations. Ukrainians and Russians are indeed not kept at migration stations, but are placed there for a short time while their identity and migration status are checked. Afterwards, they are given an order about the need to regulate the migration situation or to leave. The bad thing about the order is that after the end of the settlement period specified in it, there is almost no opportunity to legally stay in Mexico, and after leaving, it is almost impossible to return to the country.
All options for informally extending the permitted period of stay, such as drawing a new FMM migration form or putting a stamp in the passport with a new period, have disappeared into oblivion or are valid only in some selective cases. Because it is not the stamp in the passport that is important. The corresponding entry in the migration database is important.
If you have exceeded the permitted period of stay, do not worry too much. Continue to live in Mexico as you have always lived. Do not actively move around the country to avoid being subject to immigration checks. When you leave, pay a small fine, that’s all.