Many people wonder how to drive your car to Mexico? Is it easy? What is the process like?
In today's podcast, I'm going to talk about driving your car to Mexico over the border and all you need to know.
About Marina 'Travel Experta'
- I am an Experience Collector, World Traveler, Expat Mama and Wife
- I have been an expat for over 20 years, raising 2 trilingual sons
- My family and I have traveled to over 40 countries and counting …
- I’m here to inspire you to travel, move internationally, have fun with your family and so much more!
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Hey, it's Marina, travel experta. Today we're going to be talking about bringing your car in to Mexico. Border crossing with your car into Mexico for your trip. Are you guys ready for an adventure? Let's begin.
So this is pretty common, right, for people who visit Mexico, especially from the United States. We personally were coming in from Guatemala to go and visit Mexico in your own car. And a lot of times we were told so many different stories, mainly incorrect ones. So I want to make sure that you guys are fully understanding what is needed so that it's not a problem. Because at the end it was really quite simple because we came over prepared.
Always better to be over prepared than under prepared. First and foremost, it is really highly recommended to at least have several hundred pesos on you because we saw that when we enter the country, you have to do a fumigation of your car. And it's the same thing when you're going to leave the country, you have to do a fumigation. For some reason, they only want local currency. I don't know why that is, but that's the real reason.
That's the reason. So it's like 90pesos, which is like $5. But the point is it's better to just have a little bit of foreign currency on you. And actually when you enter the car of the country, it's just good to have the actual pesos with you. Because one thing we did notice is that nobody really wanted our dollars.
Actually, nobody did want our dollars, but there were many places for credit cards, especially tolls. Mexico has 1000 toll roads. And I actually have an entire episode about driving in Mexico. So please go and listen to that particular episode to really understand what driving is like in Mexico. But just have pesos on hand.
Just change over like a $100 or whatever your currency is into pesos. This way you don't have to worry about it. Okay? So then you have to get into the passport and car area for doing all of the work now for your car. So here's the thing.
First and foremost, you have to do your whole passport situation. I have an entire podcast about the border crossing and all that you need if you are foot passenger, which is the exact same thing for that part about the whole passport thing and whatnot you have to first pay for that. You cannot do anything with your car until you have resolved that part of your entrance because then you move on to the car part of it all. Now what is really important is what you're going to tell the passport, how long you're going to stay there. That's what they're going to give you with the car.
For instance, if we told them that we are going to be entering for 30 days, they gave us a 60 day visa. So that is the amount of time you will be permitted to have your car in as well. I know that sounds obvious, but a lot of times it's not as obvious as you think. So just make sure that you have all that cleared up. For you to bring in your car, you will have to pay $50.
So per person, you're paying a certain amount of money per person. So it's the same thing as to enter with your car. They will be taking $50. That is for you to pay for the car. Now here's the thing.
You are going to be getting a temporary, temporary permit to enter the country. What it means is that you will not be selling your car there. What they do is they take $400. You could either pay $400 in cash, either in pesos, or you could put it on your credit card. Highly recommended on a credit card versus a debit card.
Because if there's any issue, you could kind of dispute it and get your money back with a credit card. And they give you that. They'll show you that you received it when you leave. But if there's any problem, you have the document. And with a credit card, it's usually easier to get the money back.
If it's a debit card, it could be a lot longer, especially because the money is already taken out. And the same goes for if you're paying in cash. If you have a credit card, it's usually the best way to go and just to have it like that. Okay, so basically that's what it is. You will need to have quite a lot of copies.
I would recommend making a copy of everything before you arrive. That includes your car insurance, all of your paperwork. Make sure that the paperwork is completely up to date and it is in the name of the driver so that you have absolutely no problem whatsoever. Then what you will be needing to do is have a copy of all your passport stuff as well. We have to go out to get our paperwork copied.
There's usually a bunch of coffee shops right around the migration area. So that did take a little bit extra time to go and get it done. But it's really simple. It's just extra time. Then they go and take photos of your car to make sure that when you leave the country, it's the exact same car.
Everything is computerized and really simple to just find the files for it. So basically that's the process. So they give you this temporary permit, importation permit. And when we were leaving the country, we had to show this temporary permit card. They went out, took more photos, compared it to the photos in the computer of the file, gave us back the $400 as a credit for the credit card.
They gave you paperwork for it and boom. Pretty simple. Really simple. But it is so important to have your insurance under your name, car insurance. You could also buy car insurance there.
But why? You have to have the name of the car papers in the name of the person who is driving. There are several people who were there who did not have the car and it was also a motorcycle in their names. Even with a letter from the owner, they had massive problems. They could not get into the country.
Not worth the hassle guys. Have it all in your name and leaving the country. Just show everything once again as well and you are all good to go. It's not hard, but if you don't have that work, those paperwork and all that done, then it becomes hard. So just remember all of that and other than that, it was pretty easy overall.
So if you guys have had other experience bringing your car in or taking it out, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a review, share it with your friends and remember to make every day an adventure. Bye.