Mexico - Entering Mexico without a passport stamp.

Entering Mexico without a passport stamp.

I'm Canadian. I crossed the border to Tijuana by foot from San Diego, and took a domestic flight to Guadalajara at the TJ airport.

Nobody checked my passport, and I didn't pass through customs.

I'm in Guadalajara now, slowly working my way around Mexico. My next stop is Puerto Vallarta, and I plan to be in the country for a couple months at least. I'll leave Mexico via Cancun and head to Cuba.

At the Cancun international airport, will I be checked for an entry stamp by Mexican customs? If so, what should I tell him - that they forgot to give me a stamp?

The last thing I want is for them to rip me off and charge a ridicilious fee or something. I want things to go smoothly.

What do i Do?

Well, I would say your bigger problem is not so much that you don't have a passport stamp, but that you don't have an FMT (essentially, a card you purchase if entering by land, or which is usually included in your air ticket). They can be difficult to find at the exact border, as you have a FMT-free zone for 30 kms. or so, which is why you didn't get one if you flew from TIJ and didn't go out of your way to request one.

You should try to get an FMT before leaving Mexico, because that's where the fines can come in. Stop by the Immigration Office in Guadalajara and explain the situation, and you should be fine.

On the way out, they sometimes don't collect them, but you can't be sure. Otherwise, if you don't get one and they ask for it, tell them you lost it and that you don't speak Spanish and they'll probably let you go with a warning (especially if you can show via independent means that you've been in the country for less than 90 days - i.e. show a US passport stamp or something else if you can). Suerte!

When you enter via TJ there are occasionally Inmigracion officials that try to pick out gringos (going to cuba, no doubt) and require them to buy a tourist card (FMT). But this is pretty rare, at least in my experience. I wouldn't sweat leaving the country - leaving through TJ or another border airport is one of the ways you can skirt the system. I've never been asked for an FMT when leaving the country when flying commercial.

I have been asked for my FMT while going through security at the Nuevo Laredo Airport. I look anglo but I was a Mexican Citizen at the time. I am glad I had my passport(Mexican). When I started speaking spanish to them, they let up.

So it is hit and miss. If you fly back to the border, it is not a big deal, but if you are flying international, sometimes the ticket agents will ask you for your FMT when you check in. If you do not have it, they might not give you a boarding pass.

If you are already in the interior, you can either go by and get one from immigration saying you lost yours or tell them the truth. Either way, it should not be a problem. They do not keep records of who they issued it to etc....