Originally Posted by
Barkley333
Beginning in November 2021, they stopped handing out an automatic 180 days. The immigration officer can give up to 180 days, or 60 days, 30 days, 7 days, or even zero days. Whatever they feel like. Even worse, their handwriting is often illegible, so you might look at the FMM and not know how long you have. If her FMM is illegible, then she should go to the immigration office at the airport and have them check the computer system to see what the officer input when she came through in January.
If she has an expired FMM, she needs to leave Mexico asap and then come back. Fly to Miami or Houston for the weekend and then get a new FMM upon return. If she gets caught in Mexico with an expired FMM, she will be detained for several days (or weeks) in miserable conditions. This is no joke. They are doing random immigration checks in the street, and pulling tourists off buses traveling between Tulum and Playa del Carmen.
People that overstay their visas can pay the fine at the airport. They aren't jailing people unless they make no effort to resolve the issue. Anybody arriving in Mexico and have no clue how many days they are allowed to stay need to find out BEFORE they leave the immigration stations in the airport they arrive to. They need to go back their to confirm their departure day and find out the fine involved if they've already overstayed their visa. I'm not sure how somebody can visit Mexico and NOT KNOW what their authorized number of days are. That's mind boggling.