One more question for Suze and Stew Bear
 

Hi, This is a dumb question for someone who has gone to Mexico for the past three years but I have a short memory. My wife and I will be going to Lake Chapala in April for a seminar on moving to Mexico. Our U.S. passports expire in September of this year which is five months after the trip. My recollection is that a passport is not required for U.S. citizens to enter Mexico only to get back to the U.S. and that the only thing we would need is a tourist visa which we obtain on the plane. My area of concern is that U.S. passports need to be valid for at least six months to enter many countries, Am I correct in that we will not need a passport to enter Mexico or at the very least that five month of validity after the trip is sufficient ? Thanks for all of the great help !

I can not put my finger on it but I read over the weekend (maybe in the Chron) That Mexico is no longer excepting anything but a current passport. So its not just the US government's rule an longer. I am not sure if that includes the 6 month "rule" enforced by many countries now. But why risk it? I just figure my Passport is good for 9 1/2 year now rather than the 10.

Sorry don't know for sure. But if I were thinking of moving to Mexico, I'd get a new U.S. passport, with 10 more years on it.

No, you'll need a valid passport that doesn't expire in less than 6 months after your trip.

The passport SHOULDN'T expire in less than 6 monts, but when we went last November we forgot this rule, and my husband's passport expired the day after we returned. We had no problems, but we were probably very lucky.