We spent yesterday afternoon (June 22, 2010) discussing issues about Mexican visa and temporary import permits with 2 different INM border agents, 3 different Aduana officials (including 30 minutes with a supervisor) and with 2 Banjercito personnel and a Banjercito supervisor at the Chetumal / Belize border.
Here’s a quick summary of some key points:
~ The Banjercito officials were very emphatic about encouraging people with Temporary Import Permits for vehicles, that they start updating their INM permits process as early as possible (30 days before the expiration date), and they said to notify Aduana in person, in writing, of the extension of the car permit expiration date by AT LEAST a week before the expiration date, and 2 weeks if possible. (This means notifying Aduana of the new expiration date at least 22 days before the official date reported on Aduana websites.) . . .
* * * *
Full article at: Updates to Aduana, INM & Banjercito Procedures for Visas and Importing Cars – -The Article
* * * *
Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff!
From my understanding and what I was told by the Aduana office near the port in Cancun the sticker is valid as long as your FM3 or FM2 rentista or turist is valid, that there is no need to change the sticker
Gunther,
Agreed, as long as you do not lose the paper Temporary Import Permit, you can just file a letter with Aduana every year when you renew your FM3 or FM2 Rentista – (you still have to register the new INM permit expiration date every year).
steve
This is good information, but I am still confused about whether (we have an FM-3 visa and we want to leave our car there) we need to pay the $400.00,deposit fee plus the usual temporary import permit fee of $46.00 (+-) as indicated on the website. When would we get the $400.00 deposit money back, if we don’t intend to take the car out of Mexico…we’d use it there and keep our FM-3 visas renewed annually. Any clarification will be most appreciated.
Mary,
You are thinking clearly. Yes, when you bring the vehicle into Mexico, you will pay the deposit fee (based on the age of the vehicle), plus the permit fee.
As long as you keep your FM3 renewed on-time, and notify Aduana of your expiration date for your renewed FM3 ~ notifying Aduana 2 weeks before that year’s FM3′s expiration date ~ then your $400 deposit is secure. You only get the deposit back when you take the car out of Mexico and turn in the TIP sticker.
steve
Steve,
Thank you for your clarification. When asked on the web site how long we want the TIP, the drop down screen has up to 180 days. How/where do we indicate we want the TIP for longer, presumably for years?
Hi Mary,
Are you logging in as an FMM (which has a 180 day maximum)? If you already have an FM3, then your new TIP’s expiration date is the same as your current FM3 expiration date. Maybe this “180 day” limitation is an artifact/bogey of applying on-line. Does the web application have a spot to enter your FM3′s NUE number or the FM3′s expiration date?
If you (instead) get your TIP when you enter at the border, their systems quickly handle entering an FM3 and the correct expiration date.
steve
If the car´s owner now has a FM2 Lucrativa, can someone else, with a valid FM3/2 Rentista, drive with her back to the border and be safe?
Get to the border and give in sticker and return car to the US?
This is to avoid a “Retorno Seguro” permit.
Kundi,
Arrrgh….
In the strictest legal sense, the vehicle’s permit is expired, because they no longer have an INM permit that allows a vehicle with a Temporary Import permit. In theory, if you got in an accident or other police stop, they could confiscate the car. The safest route is to get the Retorno Seguro permit. Many expats and many Mexicans drive “chocolates” (vehicles with no valid import permit or invalid registration), but this is both illegal and risky. A few insurance companies use the invalid permit excuse as way invalidate coverage and to not pay damages in case of an accident.
All the best,
steve
I have heard that Aduana’s computer is linked to INM’s computer. If so, why can’t INM’s paperwork for FM renewal simply ask us for info on our auto(s) and automatically re-register us?
Hi Mike,
A simple computer to computer transfer would make sense. The reality is that the two systems are separate very large databases. Accurately and regularly/frequently exchanging large volumes of information between huge databases, where there are sporadic updates on only a few fields, is not easy. This is not a Mexico-based problem, just a result of the nature of the hardware. e.g. The US IRS has had 3 separate databases that they could not get to exchange information for roughly 25 years – even though sharing of information between their “computers” would greatly enhance their abilities to monitor & increase tax collections. The part that does not make sense to me is that the expiration date updates cannot be done through the mail. Why clog Aduuana offices with visitors and time consuming personnel / personal interactions? ???
steve
Here is the way it’s NOT WORKING on this side of the country. I live in Sayulita, a 45 minute drive north of Puerto Vallarta. I have a valid FM3 (or whatever they are calling it now). Last Sept, I drove back to Mexico with a car I had purchased in Canada. At the Banjercito module south of Nogales I paid my $300 “deposit”, got my sticker and paperwork and returned to Sayulita. In March 2012 I wrote to Banjercito to ask what the exact rules were for notifying them of the renewal of my FM3 which was going to happen in mid-April, as I had read much conflicting information (some sites say you have to notify them of renewal within 15 days of receiving your prorroga, some say 15 days before, and you can’t very well send a copy of your new FM3 before you receive it). I received a very prompt reply from Banjercito saying they were in dialogue with Aduana as the procedure was still not clear (this almost a year after the new temporary importation rules went into effect), and suggesting that I contact a specific person at Aduana in D.F. as she was “the only person” who could answer my questions as to the proper procedure. She never responded to my email.
I then called the Aduana office in D.F, spoke with an agent there who told me I had to go to my local Aduana office and fill out the forms. I told him that the only Aduana office in my area was the one at the P.V. airport and I had already been there and was told they did not deal with car permits. He asked me when I had been there, which was a month previous, and he said that they had just been trained to do this 3 weeks previous, that they had the proper forms and I should go back and that if they still said they couldn’t do it, for them to call D.F., because they were now required to provide this service. The airport Aduana office did indeed have the form and checked over the copies I had brought (I had all the right ones- have been living here long enough now to cover all the bases). I was told that they could send the form and my copies to the main office, but that since they deal with the Guadalajara office, and the papers would be sent there first and them forwarded to D.F., and it would be much faster if I sent them to D.F myself. Which I did immediately by courier, and they were received by their office the following day.
When I had received no confirmation from Aduana after a month and a half, I phoned the D.F. office again and was told that my paperwork was “in process”, that they were checking my status with INM. It has now been almost 5 months and I have received no confirmation that my deposit has been held in accordance with my notification of FM3 renewal. Nor have any of the deposits of my friends with FM3s who turned in their stickers on returning north this summer been reimbursed to their credit cards months later, in spite of being told at the border that they should expect to see a credit within 2 weeks. Although I do believe that this is all just a matter of incompetent bureaucracy, the result is that it appears that Banjercito has no intention of returning or holding the deposits, but instead is simply keeping the $.
Paperwork for INM has been computerized and is now simple to deal with. You can check the status of your application online. It is ridiculous that that Aduana cannot com up with a similar system.
The Americans follows the Mexicans!
Whoever is not familiar with my case: I imported a car to legalize it in Mexico. I followed the rules to the dot, but while the car was in the middle of the gulf they added a pollution test requirement and it has to be “in the US”. Testing in government facility in Merida wasn’t good enough. I decided to return the car to USA. We lost some original paper so Angi from Banajersito sent us to the aduana at the port. They said it wasn’t their responsibility. After a day she happened to remember the procedure to the last details. We sent the car. When the car arrived in Panama City I went to the DMV. They informed me that because the dealer didn’t finish the registration they can’t do it either. The dealer just doesn’t want to do it, and DMV claim that they can’t. – I have contacted my congressman -
Effective January 3,2013:
We went through the new proces with obtaining a Residente Temporal visa in the Mexican Consulate in Chicago late November. They told us that it would be sufficient to bring a vehicle into Mexico, on a temporary basis, with this new visa. All that was necessary was to go to an IMN office within 30 days of entering Mexido the first time with the visa. We showed up at the IMN office the first day it was open in January and started the process to get the permanent Residente Temporal visa. After filling out a short form, and answering several questions we were told to check a web site they supplied the address for in about two weeks. It would then show us when to come back for another appointment to complete the process, or if they needed additional information to complete the process.
We specifically asked if the paperwork we than had would be sufficient to bring our vehicle into the country. (we had shipped it from Florida into Progreso on the word of the Mexican Consulate person we originaly received the visa from that we could bring the vehicle in country with it). We received word that our vehicle arrived in Progreso and was ready to pick up. With the help of a Customs Broker we attempted to retrieve the vehicle. At this point the process came to a total halt! Aduana will not recognize the Resident Temporal “temporary” paperwork till it is completed, no exceptions! We will have to wait till we receive confirmation our paperwork is approved, and paid the fees, and receive the final Residente Temporal visa itself. While we were given a two week time window for the paperwork to be aproved, no one had yet actually had the process completed so it is unknown if that will be the actual time period for approval. In the mean time our vehicle sits waiting….
Our words of caution, if you are planing on shipping a vehicle into Mexico for longer than 180 days on an FMM ~ don’t do it till you have all the paperwork for your “Residencia” visa approved first. Your vehicle will just sit on the pier till you have it finalized.
Paul & Sue
Progreso, Yuc.
Hi Paul & Sue,
Good Update.
People have reported that they can drive their TIP vehicles into Mexico with no problems, so this appears to be an issue specific to shipping a vehicle by sea into the port of Progreso. Let’s hope that INM processes your application quickly, and that Aduana Progreso gets past this rather odd resistance and does not make a regular policy of this.
steve