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gordogringo
Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Tijuana
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 Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Oh and regarding id's at least in Tijuana you are required to have id at all times. A drivers license is acceptable. However that law only applies to foreigners.Like most laws in Tijuana. The penalty for no id in TJ is a ride in the police car for 10 minutes then back to where you came from 40-60 poorer and Tijuana cop 40-60 dollars richer. That is the penalty for most everything here. You are also required to have plates on your car. Most of my mexican friends have none. I had one on the back and thought that made me an overachiever in tijuana. Got stopped at a checkpoint and TJPD wrote me a ticket for $750 pesos for no front plate. Did'nt have any cash on me for a mordita. |
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MikeySaid
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 509
Location: Torreon, Mexico
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| gordogringo wrote: |
| I vote for the I lost my fmt card plan. Go to office and get new one wherever you are with apologies to them. |
Or you could lie and say you got robbed but they didnt take anything but your fmt card.
Gordo, you live in Mexi and work in the US or work in both or what?
I've thought many a time about going down to the border region to live. I kind of find myself in between cultures and think I might get more of both by making a move closer to the border. (20 minutes from Salinas, right now.) |
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gordogringo
Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Tijuana
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| Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 11:58 am Post subject: |
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| I work and live in Tijuana. Am getting very involved in immigrant rights activism and that along with putting on two 9mm pistols and a San Diego police uniform a couple of nights a week keeps me busy crossing the border. On top of running my school and teaching my advanced conversational classes. And my hopes to set up a charity language center for Tijuanas most poor citizens to help them get a better chance at higher paying careers.Have the building now am trying to get doors open by June 2007. And if that were not enough a few other cops , a competing school owner and I are buying a strip club in Tijuana. So move on down if you want. You will be in good company. There are 25,000 gringos here now.What is one more? |
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Sgt Killjoy
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 438
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| Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Ok, first off, entering Mexico without getting an FMT is a jailable offense. Long story for a another time and place, but I spent 6 days in a jail in Tapachula for a related matter. A few years in jail is what you could be looking at. Scared? You should be, but now that you have quantified the worst possible outcome, now is try to improve on the situation.
Because you don't need a passport to enter Mexico from TJ, you need to claim you lost the FMT, tell them you paid the $21 and you are perturbed about it all. But go ahead and pay the $21 to get on the plane. Never, ever, ever admit to not getting it. There is no way they prove you didn't lose it.
Just last year I was boarding a flight on United from DF to LAX with my son. I gave our FMT's to the girl with our tickets but she misplaced them and was asking me to pay $20 X 2 since we couldn't produce our FMT's. She found them, but the point is that the $20 is more important than the actual paper. There would have been no problem.
So take a deep breath, realize in your mind that you "lost" your FMT and play the dumb tourist and you won't even break a sweat. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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Sarge, I can't agree with what you write here...
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| A few years in jail is what you could be looking at. |
Impossible. No one has the time or would make the effort to jail someone on this.
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| Because you don't need a passport to enter Mexico from TJ, you need to claim you lost the FMT, tell them you paid the $21 and you are perturbed about it all. But go ahead and pay the $21 to get on the plane. Never, ever, ever admit to not getting it. There is no way they prove you didn't lose it. |
And if a few years in jail were possible for committing a simple and common mistake, what do you think the penalty would be for lying to immigration officials?
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| Just last year I was boarding a flight on United from DF to LAX with my son. I gave our FMT's to the girl with our tickets but she misplaced them and was asking me to pay $20 X 2 since we couldn't produce our FMT's. She found them, but the point is that the $20 is more important than the actual paper. There would have been no problem. |
This isn't even related to immigration officials at all. Airline staff cannot ask you to pay for a visa, so if she did, your visa was never in any danger of actually being lost. She tried to shake a little out of you. That doesn't speak well at all of United. You should have reported the incident. |
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gordogringo
Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Tijuana
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| Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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Oh boy sarge. If you fold over a fmt you had best steer clear of Tijuana.The local cops would get everything you own and life savings to boot for jaywalking! Is not that big a deal,really. As far as the United airlines thing does not suprise me.Getting proper change back in Tijuana or the posted exchange rate in a restaurant requires careful attention. Everytime I buy anything I always count the change twice as pocketing the change or fake taxes is a big income generator for store clerks here.
Gringos will be taken advantage of at every corner if you are not street smart or a spanish speaker. Just the way it is. |
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Sgt Killjoy
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 438
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| Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:39 am Post subject: |
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| Guy Courchesne wrote: |
Sarge, I can't agree with what you write here...
Impossible. No one has the time or would make the effort to jail someone on this.
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Tell this to all of the El Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans staying at the jail in Tapachula. There only crime is not having a visa when they entered Mexico.
Sometime I wil post my story on here, but for now, you will have to trust me that you can be jailed for illegal entry to Mexico.
Or you can trust Mexican law:
"Art�culo 123. Se impondr� pena hasta de dos a�os de prisi�n y multa de trescientos a cinco mil pesos, al extranjero que se interne ilegalmente al pa�s."
That is in the Ley General de Poblaci�n. Do an internet search for it and you can read the law yourself.
Now, will they do this to a Canadian citizen or even US citizen? Nope. They got better things to do, but while you disagree with me, Guy, the law says otherwise and that is why you might want to retract impossible and change it to extremely unlikely. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:46 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Or you can trust Mexican law: |
I'll stick with impossible after that item...  |
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