The Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) is implementing a new and simplified method of registering the admission of foreign travelers entering Mexico from abroad.
According to several airplane passengers who recently flew into Guadalajara from the United States as tourists, immigration agents checking documents at the airport port of entry took away the FMM multiple immigration forms they presented, instead stamping their passports with a seal and hand written notation of the permitted length of their stays in the country.
A similar report came from tourists entering La Paz, Baja California Sur via an American Airlines flight.
So far, all visitors known to have encountered the policy switch indicated they were given the standard 180 days to remain in Mexico.
Azucena Bateman, an Ajijic attorney specialized in INM procedures, tells the Guadalajara Reporter that a client who arrived last week with authorization to complete the process of obtaining a resident visa was also given a passport stamp in lieu of the FMM. The annotation was marked with the word canje, meaning exchange of the entry permit issued by a Mexican consulate for the resident green card ID. The period of time written in was 30 días, per specifications for the canje process.
There have been no reports to date concerning foreigners already holding permanent and temporary resident status who have returned home here from visits abroad.
The procedural change appears to conform to 2021 congressional legislation aimed at moving INM towards paperless FMMs and automation of procedures to better track the movement of foreign citizens.