Ok, official word is that the old red form is out of use now. You will be filling out a new FMM form when you re-enter Mexico. CancunMole - I don't see the new FMM in that PDF.
just had guests arrive today from USA. 2 hours in Immigration. Thank goodness they didn't roll this out at Christmas!
CancunMole - That's not the FMM. That's an online form that you can print out. Not sure if it can replace the FMM or not. But the FMM itself looks different.
As promised here is a scan of the new FMM - Forma Migratoria Multiple. It is 1100 pixels wide, so for many of you it will likely break your page layout (sorry). The problem is that it has some text which is so small that it's hard to read with the naked eye, I scanned it hi-res in order to enable people to read it. You won't want to read the actual paper-version of the form , it's too small. Passengers will keep the right side of the form (when looking at the front) and will return it when they leave the country. INM will keep the left portion of the form. FM2/3 holders will use this form to re-enter Mexico, not sure if we have to keep that right side until we leave again or not, will report back when that is clear to me. FM2/3 holders need to put their FM2/3 number in the tiny space marked #10 (good luck). So far the main criticisms of the form are these: - The English translation is poor. Lots of people do not know what a Surname (#2) is (seriously, they don't), it should just say First Name, Last Name(s). Items #8, #9, #11 are so poorly written that they confuse people and then they fill out the form incorrectly (which slows processing down). - The spaces in which you are meant to write, especially on the right portion of the form, are too small. - The text is too small to read in many places. The only place on the form where it tells the passenger directly to keep the right portion of the form is on the back in 4 point type, seriously, it's tiny. Passengers routinely threw away the old forms, and they will routinely throw out these too. It should say KEEP THIS PART UNTIL YOU LEAVE MEXICO right on the front. - The new form design is much slower to process than the old design. With the previous FMT the INM agent had to glance at the back of the form to be sure it was signed, then write the number of days on the front and stamp the front in two places. The new form requires that the agent read the front, write on the front, then turn it over and write on the back also, and then stamp the back in two places. By making the agent write something on both sides you just doubled the processing time of the form. Big, big, big mistake. On April 30th, in addition to changing the forms INM also changed the software they use to capture passenger data (without training agents on it), they changed the stamps agents use (and the new stamps don't work well), and they changed the regulations (not all agents got trained on the new regs). Instead they should have rolled out one proposed change at a time, trained the agents on it, then tested and perfected it before moving on to the next change. Yesterday some of the angry passengers waiting in line were yelling things like "f*cking third world country." And they were not wrong. Rolling out so many major changes at once, without any testing was really, really unprofessional, it was a third world stupidity if I ever saw one. Not only that but the first full day with the new changes was a Saturday, which is always the busiest day of the week at the Cancun Airport. Great job Mexico!
Haven't read the micro print yet so maybe it explains a little better but.... #7... I'd like to know how "does not apply" could be an option... teleportation maybe? #12 Day's stay in Mexico or abroad: What now?? Is this asking how long they plan to stay in Mexico? How long they've been "abroad" from someplace or how long they plan on being "abroad" from someplace??? (number 7 on the other side "usual residence" lists Mexico or Abroad..so by that logic #12 is asking how many day's you've been NOT in Mexico... so let's see 365 days per year times X years plus leap years minus that trip to Frances in 89.. and LOL) #13 Address in Mexico.... I assume tourist won't be expected to know the street address of where they are staying.... so it should be left blank? Maybe its asking for a hotel name, but plenty of people don't have hotel reservations when they arrive or are staying elsewhere.... like with friends/releatives/private rentals.... So this form is all English... (and I mean ALL even the official use part for the Mexican Agent lol) and the one my friend had was ONLY in Spanish, so I guess there are different language forms instead of multilingual ones...? and it looks like the INM agent's task just tripled to get the same info as before..
Yes, I have the FMM in Spanish here too. It makes more sense than the English one (that is it's still stupid in Spanish, but it's more logical without the translation problems, at least), and so I didn't scan it. I don't know that the FMM exists in any other languages besides EN and ES. I also have the Forma Estadistico para Mexicanos, this is the one just for Mexicans to fill out. It's only in Spanish. And it asks about how many days you were away, why you left, how you traveled, etc. Um, yeah. Is that Days, as in plural? Seems like they are trying to ask both how long the visitor plans to be in Mexico AND how long we FM2/3 holders were away from Mexico. But I'm not sure. I think the old FMT had almost the same question. The hotel name will end up there, I'll bet. And yes, plenty of people won't know an address...but then an address doesn't fit in that tiny box anyway. People should just put their hotel name or write something like "friend in Cancun." Uh-huh! Teleportation. Or for those of us who are witches perhaps we come by broom? What about walking? What about those of us who swim the river to get INTO Mexico? Does by "air" include skydiving into Mexico? The old FMT asked for occupation and it asked for place of birth. Both were useful for agents to know in evaluating whether people are who they appear to be. And both were interesting for agents to know (tedium and boredom are serious moral issues for agents). But those questions are gone.
It just amazes me that they would print off God knows how many of these forms without first having a native speaker make sure they can be understood, never mind the spacing issues and micro-print..... Viva Mexico!:bandit:
