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?

I think this is the type of question it's always best to ask of someone official. The website of Mexico's immigration office is:

www.inami.gob.mx

Surf around the site, and you'll find the address and phone of offices around the country, including Guadalajara. It looks like it's listed by state, in your case "Jalisco." I'd contact them.

Yeah. If you cross by foot, you're "supposed to" stop at the immigration office and get a tourist permit if you'll be going onwards to the interior. Once you get past that point though, nobody will likely ask you for one for domestic flights. You do occasionally get stopped at checkpoints on highways, and if you don't have it, you could run into problems, but the chance of it getting checked in Cancun or any other airport are remote.

And by the way, it's not the stamp they'll be worried about --- it's the tourist permit, which you're supposed to pay $22 to get.

Good luck!
Mark
www.tiogringo.com

When crossing into TJ by foot there is the asumption it is a brief tourist visit and no tourist card is required for the border zone. But as you went into the interior, as above, it is required. You were supposed to go to immigration, get the document, then go pay the fee. If you are planning on departing the same way, if you are lucky, you can just stroll back to the U.S. on foot and no one will be the wiser. The problem is, at some point, you may be asked to produce a tourist card at a check point or in another situation while in Mexico. So, IMHO, it would be best to find the nearest immigration office, take your lumps, pay the fine. Get the document and not worry about getting in trouble. I don't know if the fine would be the same, but my daughter lost her tourist card in Oaxaca last summer.Immigration charged 450 mp for a replacement.

<b>At the Cancun international airport (flying to Cuba), will I be checked for an entry stamp by Mexican customs?</b>

In the past when flying out we've been asked for the stamped tourist entry form that we were given when we flew in and went thru customs. I'm pretty sure you will be asked for something like this on an international flight out.

<b>If so, what should I tell him - that they forgot to give me a stamp?</b>

People lose these or throw them away all the time, not knowing they need them to exit. You could tell the truth and say you entered on foot at TJ and didn't know you had to get one or you could lie and say you had one and lost it. The missing stamp on your passport might cause them to doubt you though.

Either way I think you'll have to pay a small fine and pay for a new entry permit.

I would not wait until I was in line at the airport to take care of this since you might be delayed long enough to miss the flight. But don't worry too much about not having the paper, on almost every flight I've ever taken out of Mexico there were American tourists who said they didn't have this document and just paid the fine and were allowed to board.

Of course most of these had round-trip tickets so your situation is just different enough to take care of it early, just in case ...

Bill

If you don't have your tourist card (FMT) when exiting the country it'll cost you 400 pesos, mas o menos.

As others have clarified, it's not about the passport stamp (mine has no stamps and I fly in and out of Puerto Vallarta at least once every year).

It is about having a tourist card.

SO lost an FM-T once and was charged $25. US at BJX (Leon/Guanajuato o Bajio), but she had many PP entry/exit stamps.
M (SMdA, Gto.)