mexico visa extension

When you visit a foreign country, you need to avail a Mexico visa that states the time period that you can stay in the country. You should always try to keep the validity of your stay in mind while staying in a foreign country. Overstaying may be a costly affair, and sometimes, it may even lead to serious penalties.

Mexico is a beautiful country. And sometimes, a certain number of days are not enough to explore the entire country. When something like this happens, you need to opt for the Mexico visa extension. The process of which is not so complicated. Here, in this article you will get the complete guide for the same.

DO I NEED A VISA TO MEXICO?

Foreign nationals wanting to enter the country need to avail a visa or a Mexico Tourist card or a Mexican visa online or offline. However, there are some exceptions for several countries. Those countries are:

 If you are a citizen of any of the above mentioned countries, you can directly apply for the Forma Migratoria Multiple or informally the tourist visa. Upon reaching the border, you will have to provide the Mexico entry requirements. They are:

•         A valid passport that should have two blank pages for stamping purposes. It should be kept in proper condition and should not expire within six months of your visit to the country.
•         The duly filled in application form. If you try to provide any wrong or fake details, your application will get rejected.
•         Two passport size photographs that should be clicked against a white background and should follow the rules of a passport size photograph.
•         Return flight tickets as a proof that you will return back to your home country once your visa expires.
•         Your bank account statement should prove that you have sufficient funds in your bank account to support you financially while you stay in the country.

The visa fee for the FMM is free for the people who are visiting the country by air, as it is already added as taxes into their flight tickets. The people traveling by road, however, need to pay the designated fee at the border to the immigration officers.

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HOW TO EXTEND A MEXICO TOURIST VISA?

The Mexico Immigration website would grant you a visa for 30, 60, or 180 days. If you want to stay for a bit longer and seek an extension, you will have to contact the authorities regarding your concern and see what they have to say on this.

If you did not get the full 180 days visa, you don’t need to worry. You can easily try for extension of your 30 and 60 days validity to 180 days by applying to the immigration centre. Before looking forward to the process of extension, let us talk about the tourist card first.

WHAT IS MEXICO TOURIST CARD?

If you want to enter the country, you will have to possess a tourist card which is also known as the FMM. It is issued by the Mexican immigration authorities. For the people traveling by air, the fee of the FMM is already included in the ticket fare. And for those traveling by land, you will have to pay the fee upon reaching the border. Earlier, this form was also called FMT, but now it is referred to as FMM which basically stands for Forma Migratoria Multiple. Multiple is added to the name because the same document can be used for various kinds of visitors to the country, but visitors cannot work during their stay upon this visa.

Upon your entrance to the border, the decision lies solely on the hands of the immigration authorities to grant you stay for a number of days as they please. The maximum number of days that you can stay in the country is 180. Unfortunately, after 180 days, you cannot try for extension or even renew your tourist card upon any circumstances.

However, if you were granted less than 180 days in your tourist card, you can seek an extension of your Mexico visa for a maximum period of 180 days on that.

THE PROCESS:

If you are wondering how to renew Mexican tourist visa or apply for an extension for the same, then read the steps below:

•         Visit the nearest Mexican immigration office.
•         You will be asked to present several documents. They include your passport, a valid tourist card, and proof of funds into your bank account. This proof can be provided either by cash, card, or bank statement.
•         You will be asked to fill in the Mexico visa extension application form and take it to the bank to validate the payment for the extended visa. After the payment is completed, you are requested to bring the form back to the immigration office.

The process for extension of Mexico visa or Tourist visa is tiring, and hence, you should be there in the office early in the morning to complete the procedure on time.

Sometimes, the authorities may try to tell you that you cannot extend your visa, and instead you will have to leave the country and return back after applying for a new visa. But, this is not true. However, your knowledge about the same won’t help you to argue with them. A better option to tackle a situation like this is to wait and visit the immigration centre the next day and wait for some other answer about your visa extension.

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GENERAL FAQs

Q. What is the cheapest way to leave and return back to Mexico?

The last thing you would want is overstaying a visa in Mexico. Hence, to avoid that, you have to leave the country and re enter if you have completed the 180 days time period. To tackle this situation you can merge your visit to some other country in between. Flying to some other country must be the easiest option, but rather not the cheapest one.

For the people staying in northern Mexico, you best bet would be to visit the US. Otherwise, you can head on to Belize.

Q. How long do I have to stay away in another country before I can return back to Mexico?

This is a difficult question to answer as this depends upon the officers at the border who evaluate your passport and decides this discrete information. Is travel to Mexico restricted if I enter within a short span? No. Technically, there are no restrictions upon that. However, the authorities hold the power to deny entry if they think that you are being dishonest. But, you cannot instantly enter the country upon leaving. It is better to avoid that, and instead spend some time away in some other country.

Q. What if I lose my Mexico immigration form?

If you lose your immigration form, you can get it back by spending some cash. The immigration form needs to be submitted the day you leave the country, and if you are unable to do so, you have to pay some fine. Hence, it is better to visit the immigration office and pay the fee and get it back. By doing this you will be avoiding any delays in the airport.

Q. What happens if I stay in Mexico more than 6 months?

If you overstay for a short period of time, you may be fined a significant amount of money. However, longer overstays are a serious matter and should be positively avoided. It may lead to heavy penalties and fines. Sometimes, people also get banned or deported for the same. You may also face problems if you try to visit the country in future sometime.

 Hence, to sum it all up, the Mexico visa extension is possible only if you have got a stay period of 30 to 90 days. You can extend your stay for 180 days in that case. If you already have a stay period of 180 days, you cannot opt for a visa extension beyond that.

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