Upon arrival in Mexico, each traveler receives an authorized period of stay — the number of days he is allowed to stay in the country. This can be any period from 7 to 180 days, but more often — on a return ticket. There is no way to extend this period. At the end of the permitted period of stay, a guest of the country must leave Mexico, otherwise he becomes an illegal immigrant.
The traveler has the opportunity to leave Mexico for a neighboring country and come back on the same day. This is called «visaran» — renewal of residence permit by exit and re-entry. Once upon a time, foreigners lived in Mexico for years without a residence permit, making visas every six months. But in recent years the situation has changed a lot, and visaran most often no longer makes sense.
The right not to be allowed back
Once you leave Mexico, you risk not returning back. This is a real threat that some guests of the state have experienced themselves. Even if you are allowed to enter Mexico the first time, this does not mean that you will be allowed a second or third time. The migration officer may consider that the person is abusing the foreign regime:
- too frequent entries,
- long periods of stay,
- from the absence of signs of real tourism.
If a border guard sees that a person is actually living in Mexico without a residence permit, he has the opportunity to ask unpleasant questions:
- «Where do you live?»
- «What are you doing?»
- «Where does the money come from?»
- «Why do you spend more time here than in your country of residence?»
If the answers seem unconvincing, the officer has the right to make a decision on refusal of entry.
A refusal of entry may result in an alert in the migration system, in which case you will not be able to enter Mexico at all in the near future.
A return ticket, accommodation reservation, invitation letter and proof of financial solvency do not guarantee entry. The migration officer always sees the history of previous entries. But in fairness, let’s say that most travelers do not have problems when entering Mexico.
Have the opportunity to give a short permitted period of stay
180 days upon entry to Mexico has long been not the rule, but the exception. Now the permitted period of stay is most often given on a return ticket plus a couple of days. But this does not mean that if you show a return ticket after 180 days, you will be allowed to stay in Mexico for 180 days — They may well allow even less. Moreover, you will have to explain why you will be staying in Mexico for such a long time, and if your explanation does not convince the migration officer, he may refuse entry altogether. Receiving short stay periods with each new entry, you will have to make visa appointments not 2 times a year, as before, but much more often.
Overstay increases risks
It is often advised (and so do we) not to pay attention to the end of the permitted period, but continue living in Mexico without leaving, and pay a small fine upon departure. But we will no longer argue that previous violations of the migration regime in the form of overstays do not in any way affect the prospects for subsequent entries. All information about entries and exits is stored in the migration database, and at each entry the officer sees it on his screen. Delays affect at least the fact that you will no longer receive a long permitted period of stay, although we still do not connect previous delays with refusal of entry.
When returning by land, you cannot use the electronic permit
The electronic permit is only valid for entry to Mexico by plane. This means that even if you travel from Mexico to Guatemala or the United States by land, you will still have to return by plane to enter with an electronic permit. Visaran has the right to become a not so cheap solution.
Need a return ticket
Upon arrival to Mexico, you must have a return ticket. In his absence, he has the right not to be allowed into the country. Of course, you can buy a return return ticket, but most often you will buy a regular ticket. This is an additional financial burden, unless you plan to leave Mexico on this ticket again.
If summed up live, visaran in Mexico — This is not a universal “reset button”, but a process with increasing risks. Every exit turns into a trap: they have the opportunity to let you in, they can let you in for a short period of time, or they can refuse you. At the border today, they look at the frequency of travel, length of stay, real connections with Mexico and the logic of your stay. And the more often a person tries to live “on tourism,” the higher the likelihood that one day the cycle will be interrupted, leaving him with a changed entry, tickets to nowhere and the need to urgently look for a legal format of residence. Visaran — This is a strategy in which a worker works exactly until the moment he stops working.