Mexico Travel Guide
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Guide
Ask ten travelers what Mexico's entry paper is called and you will get a few different answers: FMM, tourist card, visitor permit, migratory form. They all mean the Forma Migratoria Múltiple, and how you get one depends heavily on whether you fly in or walk across. Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) says the FMM lets a foreigner stay as a visitor, without permission to work, for up to 180 calendar days, that an online version must be printed and carried to the crossing where it gets stamped, and that the clock starts at the stamp. It also says that paying the fee is not a guarantee of entry.
Getting through the gate is not always the end of it. Federal inspection checkpoints called garitas sit inland along the northern and southern frontiers, and documents can be checked at them, so an FMM that was never stamped becomes a problem miles from the border, not at it. The named checkpoints are listed further down.
Border crossings
- San Ysidro and El Chaparral, Tijuana
San Ysidro, on the San Diego side, is described as the fourth busiest land crossing in the world, with about 14.9 million vehicles and 53.3 million individuals processed in 2019. A rebuild that began in December 2009 finished on 23 December 2019 at roughly 625 million dollars. Southbound cars use El Chaparral, which has 22 inspection lanes, while the PedWest pedestrian crossing opened northbound in July 2016 and southbound on 31 July 2017 and handles about 63,000 people a day.
- Cross Border Xpress, the crossing that is really a corridor
A pedestrian bridge from the Otay Mesa side straight into Tijuana's airport terminal. It is a ticketed route, not a general purpose crossing. Its operator notes that reusing one FMM for several entries is honored only at land crossings, not at this bridge or on flights.
- Guatemala, ten formal crossings
Mexico and Guatemala count ten formal crossings. Ciudad Hidalgo to Ciudad Tecún Umán, Ciudad Cuauhtémoc to La Mesilla, and Talismán to El Carmen are among the road crossings between Chiapas and Guatemala's San Marcos and Huehuetenango departments. Two of the ten, El Ceibo and El Martillo, are river crossings on the Tabasco side into El Petén, which behaves nothing like a highway gate.
- Belize, by way of Chetumal
The main crossing is Subteniente López on the Mexican side to Santa Elena, near Corozal, in Belize, and a second, smaller one links La Unión with Blue Creek. Travel guides put the Mexican side's hours at 6 am to 10 pm and Belize's at 6 am to 8 pm. They also report that Mexico charges no exit fee, while Belize charges BZ$40 (about US$20) to visitors who stayed more than 24 hours.
Transit routes
- Driving south from the United States, and the garitas you meet
Named checkpoints include Samalayuca, 72 km south of Ciudad Juárez, Kilómetro 30, about 32 km southwest of Reynosa, and Las Yescas, 59 km southwest of Matamoros. On the southern side there is Viva México, 8 km northwest of Tapachula, and Quija, 22 km northwest of Comitán. And on the Yucatán side, Nuevo Xcan sits about 90 km southwest of Cancún. Garitas are typically within about 50 km of a frontier, so plan to have your stamped FMM and passport within reach.
- Quintana Roo has its own tax, and Chetumal is inside it
The state's official Visitax site says the payment is mandatory for all foreign tourists visiting Quintana Roo, regardless of how they leave. That covers Cancún, Tulum, Cozumel, and also Chetumal, the state capital at the Belize border. Pay it only through the official visitax.gob.mx portal.
Entry point notes
- The online form and the border stamp are two separate steps
You can fill in the FMM online, but the INM's page says you must print it and bring it to the international crossing where you want to enter. The fee is paid separately through the INM services portal. The INM's own wording calls the online form valid for one entry, so when you cross repeatedly on the same trip, ask the officer how your stamp will be handled.
- The fee, and the land border exception people quote
The FMM fee is 983 pesos for 2026, and airlines typically collect it inside the ticket price. Several land border guides say a visit of about a week or less by land carries no fee, quoting either six or seven days, and the INM office at your specific crossing is the only place that gives you a definitive answer.
- A passport card is not enough to go inland
The INM's Tarjeta Pasaporte can only be used at land crossings and for visiting the border zone, which guides describe as a strip about 20 to 26 km deep. It cannot be used to travel to the interior of Mexico or for international flights.
- Who does not need a Mexican visa in the first place
Citizens of roughly 60 countries can visit for up to 180 days without one, and holders of a valid multiple entry visa or permanent residence from Canada, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Schengen countries, Chile, or Colombia can also enter without a Mexican visa. Cruise passengers of any nationality do not need a visa to visit Mexican ports.