Hatunen wrote:
On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:57:54 -0700, "Technobarbarian"
wrote:

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:44:14 -0700, "Technobarbarian"
wrote:

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...

Cool. But do check on the Tourist Card (not mentioned on that web
site): http://www.mexonline.com/visamex.htm

The 72-hour requirement is stated a bit ambiguously, but the card
is required, even in the border zone. On the other hand, you are
quite unlikely to be detected without one if don't encounter any
internal check points.
I don't know where you're getting your information, but there is NO
requirement for a tourist card in the border zone, which includes
Ensenada.

http://studenttravel.about.com/od/me...exico_visa.htm
So, ok, I did a bit more digging. Online I can find support for your
version and support for my version. As a technical matter you might be
right. As a practical matter no one gets an FMT for the border zone. Here's
the thing: The tourist card has to be stamped at an entry point.

Huh? Nobody stamped our FMTs when we entered Mexico on our recent
trip down to Guaymas. They couldn't have, because we didn't have
them yet. We go our FMTs at the south end of the border zone. You
cna drive across the border, park, and get your FMTs there at the
border, tough.

When you
drive in this has to be done before you can get the FMT validated at a bank.
The OP isn't going to see an entry point. The entry points are on the south
side of the border zone and at airports.

Oh. Ambiguity alert. The "entry point" is at the actual border.
The things at the south edge of the frontier zone are
checkpoints.

Take here locally in Southern AZ
for example. If I wanted to get a tourist card to stay in Nogales Sonora I
would have to drive down to the 21km checkpoint on the south side of the
border zone to get it stamped and then return to Nogales.

No you wouldn't. I'm almost certain you can get FMTs at the
downtown Nogales crossing.

There's no record
that you entered Mexido until you go through an entry point. Up until that
point the Mexican government has no way of knowing how long you've been in
the country.

That part's true, which is why I advised originally that it was
unlikely anyone would notice you'd been there more than 72 hours.

While I was digging I also found sites that claim it's important to
return your tourist card. I've had quite a few of them. The only time I've
ever returned one was when I left Mexico through an airport.

You could be in deep doo-doo if for some reason the Mexicans
discover you hadn't turned in the card, though. How they would
find out baffles me, though, unless you said something stupid.

Thirty some years ago there was a flap here because a UofA
professor had failed to turn in his car permit at Nogales when
returning to the USA. He called the Mexican consul here in Tucson
and asked what to do about it. The consul suggested he simply go
down and turn it in. The damn fool drove across the line into
Sonora, did a U-turn and drove back to the crossing. He handed in
the permit and apologized and explained that no one had asked for
it before. So the Mexicans impounded his car!

I myaelf had recently returned from Rocky Point and at Gringo
Pass had waited for a Mexican official to come out and take my
permit (we needed them back then). No one came so I drove home.
On seeing that story in the newspaper I was kind of worried until
I realized that at that time the Mexicans had no way of tracking
this sort of thing.

Hi

the Usenet timelag means I replied to you before this thread showed up.
It sounds like the Mex immigration procedures are not much different
from the US immigration, as far as arrivals from outside N America are
concerned, meaning you get a tourist card on arrval, and if you're
having a bad hair day or whatever, you might just miss returning it when
you exit. (used to be the airlines did all this leaving the US, and
sometimes screwed up.)
To return to subject, if you drive into Mex from San Diego, and if you
intend staying longer than 3 days, and intend to drive more than 100Km,
do you have to go and look for immigration at the border or does it just
happen?
T.