mkt

Well, I emailed my boss with the issues, and requesting to change my ticket to fly into MXL or TIJ. My company has a policy giving preference to US flagged carriers, of which none fly into MXL. So I need to get his authorization to fly DL/AM via ATL and MEX to get either there or TIJ and back (anyone have suggestions as to how long I should give myself to clear customs/immigration at MEX?)

I also gave another option of changing my ticket to land in IPL, and a car service through the border, where I can get a Mexican plated rental car. After thinking about it more, being a white guy driving a US plated car in a Mexican border town does make me a little uneasy, even if Spanish is my first language.

The driving in Mexico doesn't really frighten me - I've driven in Latin America many times, and I think the drivers at home in PR are really worse than in Mexico.

JDiver

Yo tambien parezco gabacho, señor Boricua... (I also look like a white guy, Mr. Puerto Rican). I think IPL, car service to the border and across, with a Mexican rental car is the ticket. And even if you did have a US-plated car, you will find yourself in a lot of company - many hit Mexicali for dental and medical services, drugstore and shopping, many more with RVs etc. drive through to other destinations (Pto. Peñasco, San Felipe and parts south).

Mexican auto rental companies are like many others - inspect the car thoroughly, document all dings, etc. (your cell phone camera can be useful in this task), make sure all tools and spare tire are in the car, both side mirrors, how much fuel is in the tank at the start, etc.

mkt

LOL. About the only Spanish speaking countries I don't get a second look at are Spain, Guatemala, Panama, Argentina, and Uruguay. Everywhere else, they know I'm not from there, and the guessing game begins on my accent. "¿eres dominicano/cubano/de miami/venezolano/español?"... apparently they've never heard a Puerto Rican accent.

nikkiblast

Ditto.

LupineChemist

To revive an old thread here. What is the definition of US resident for these sorts of things? e.g. I don't live in the US but I am a citizen and hold a US driver's license.

JDiver

Currently, Budget says:

Not much of a change since five year ago. For the purposes of Mexican law, I suspect the address on your driver's license might do for "proof of residence". They are certainly not going to ask for receipts from utilities companies.

Your challenge is to find which Budget agencies will rent you the car and sell you the required insurance. I suspect you will initially have to call Budget. You may also want to visit the Budget Forum.

AFAIK, many car rental agencies will just not allow you to take a rental car into Mexico.

elvatoloko

This post is geared to inform travelers seeking to enter Mexico at Agua Prieta who intend to travel beyond the 30 kilometer border area with a rental car. I will describe my experience in so others may avoid the hardships we were confronted with. Let me first paint a picture of the circumstances.

This two-week trip to Mexico was planned at this time as my wife is five months pregnant and travelling at a later date to see her family would not have been advisable. My wife’s family lives in the state of Chihuahua in a town far away from any airports with direct flights from the East Coast were we reside and in Agua Prieta, Sonora. We flew in to Tucson, Arizona with plans to rent a car and drive down to Agua Prieta and spend the night at my bother in law’s house in before continuing on to Chihuahua the next day.

I rented a car as part of a package with the flight. I called the car rental company (The one with a yellow logo and an “H” in the name) and asked them whether we could take the car into Mexico for a few days, to which they answered that yes, we could. It is best for you to check with the car rental company to inquire about their policy regarding taking cars into Mexico as several companies do not allow you to take the car into Mexico or limit you to the border area or to a certain distance from the border area. Most companies will not allow you to take the car beyond a 250 mile area, or will name somes states you shouldn't drive south of.

If you desire to travel beyond the border area, upon arrival in Mexico, you need to obtain a tourist permit and a temporary importation permit for your vehicle at the Banjercito module within the Mexican customs and immigration office prior to leaving the border area. I obtained the tourist permit, obtained a photocopy of the required documents at the little stand within the facility and went to the Banjercito window where I was told that I could not get the temporary importation permit because the rental agreement I had did not have the VIN number of the rented vehicle on it. The Banjercito employee who first told us that kept looking over his shoulder until a rather portly lady behind the glass partition came to the window and explained that she could not issue the permit, even though we had purchased the proper Mexican auto insurance for the number of days we were going to spend in Mexico and obtained a letter from the car rental company allowing us to take the car into Mexico bearing the vehicle’s VIN number. We also had the registration for the vehicle showing the correct VIN number and had been assured by the car rental clerk that those documents were all we needed. The employee, who stated she was the manager of the Banjercito module, said that the law stated the rental agreement had to show the VIN number in addition to the license plate number.

Let me clarify at this point that I speak Spanish at a native speaker level and that this was not my first rodeo with Mexican authorities as I lived in Mexico for a period of time in the past, so nothing was lost in translation. I also will mention that my wife’s cousin used to work at the little photocopy stand owned by a very nice older gentleman inside the Agua Prieta Aduanas facility and that she used to work there when spending time with her cousin, so she was familiar with the process and some of the people who work there. My wife had never heard of anyone running into this VIN number on the rental agreement issue and asked the Banjercito manager when this had come into effect to which she replied “ I believe in 2011 or something”.

I pulled out my phone as this facility is literally steps from the border and I could access my US carrier network and looked up the temporary vehicle importation requirements from the Mexican Aduanas website and the Mexican consulate website where no mention of this "VIN number on contract" requirement could be found.

See the official Mexican Customs website here: http://www.aduanas.sat.gob.mx/aduana...141_11217.html

I pointed out to the Banjercito manager that no such requirement was mentinoned, to which she replied that her "operations manual" stated that the person in possession of the vehicle had to present a rental agreement with a VIN number. She would not, of course, show us that document. I called the rental company who chose to tell me at this time “oh, yeah, we’ve had issues with this person at Banjercito in Agua Prieta before”.

I asked the rental car company to print a new copy of the rental agreement showing the vehicle’s VIN number and to fax or to email it to me at the little photocopy stand, to which they stated they couldn’t put the VIN number on the contract as there is no field in their system to include that information since cars are often assigned after the agreement is printed out and signed by the driver depending on availability at the time of the rental. Their solution to this dilema was to for us go to a different Banjercito module at a different border post and try our luck there. The problem with that was that Nogales was too far (2 hours away) to go without certainty that we could get our permit there and that this was on a Monday and that the Naco Banjercito module is only open Thursday through Sunday.

The Banjercito manager also pointed to a statement stenciled on the glass partition stating that they do not accept faxes, copies or “internet printouts” of any documentation. After an hour of discussions going nowhere, the Banjercito manager pulled out a manila folder containing a rental agreement from a rental car company with a green logo and an “E” in the name, with a VIN number highlighted in one of the boxes. I asked the Banjercito manager to explain to me how she was able to ask for documentation beyond what Aduanas required and furthermore, sending people to a particular car rental company. The manager had no good explanation, simply repeating that her operations manual stated she had to have a contract with a VIN number to issue the permit.

After another hour of back and forth we decided to return the car to the rental company in Tucson two hours away and get a different rental car as there are no car rental companies with representation in Douglas, AZ. I can only imagine the effect this “policy” applied at the Agua Prieta Banjercito module has on declining U.S. tourism to Mexico at a time when the Mexican government is trying to stem the decline of U.S. tourism to Mexico. In our case, we were held hostage to by this policy as we couldn’t avoid this trip to go visit family in Mexico and had no other option. Under different circumstances, I would have turned tail and decided to spend my vacations somewhere else. We drove the two hours back to Tucson turned the car in to the rental company and informed them of our ordeal, which prompted them to cancel any rental charges and to apologize.

We went to the rental company with the green logo and the “E” and learned that no other rental company puts the VIN numbers on contracts and that they only started to do that because of problems faced by customers trying to enter Mexico at Agua Prieta. They just happen to have a field large enough to accommodate a VIN number on their contract, even though that space is not designed to reflect a VIN number. The company stated they normally don’t include VIN numbers, but only license plate numbers on their rental agreements.

So, much later that day, after two trips to and from the border, we arrived at the same Banjercito module where a different lady helped us. The manager was also in the office sitting at a computer. She looked back and recognized us and turned back to her computer screen without looking at us again or saying anything.

I pointed out to the second lady that this contract had a VIN number on it; she barely glanced at it before putting it aside saying “you don’t say!” We finally obtained the temporary permit after basically wasting a whole day driving back and forth to Tucson for a "phantom" requirement.

It would be interesting to hear from others whether this "requirement" is being enforced at other Banjercito modules.

JDiver

You aren't the only one to get caught up in such a dance. She likely has her job through less than meritocratic reasons (ahem!) and nobody's going to fire her.

She doesn't care about inconveniencing visitors to the point they might not spend anything in Mexico, because she can't see past her "soy la jefa" attitude. (Imagine what it's like to work under her .)

Unfortunately, probably no place to write that would act as a laxative to dislodge this "iron mamacita". Thanks for sharing.

elvatoloko

Oh yeah, I thoroughly agree with you, she didn't get her job on merit. I felt sorry for the workers there, they seemed to be looking over their shoulders when speaking to customers, as if they were waiting for the wrath of God upon them if they strayed from the established course.

I couldn't find anywhere to write either. There was telephone number for complaints inside the module, but it didn't specify whether it was for customs, immigration or Banjercito. It probably wouldn't go anywhere anyways, she's someone's cousin or sweetheart and that's why she's there.