Was this an American who didn't want the stamp? I was under the impression that it was standard practice to let Americans travel to and from Cuba without stamps since it can cause problems for us....
Why should the Mexican government sanction not stamping passports when people enter Mexico? It effectively destroys their ability to control their own border? That makes no sense. For a long time it's been common for some agents to take bribes and not stamp Americans (and Cuban-Americans) who travel back from Cuba via Cancun. It's ALWAYS been completely illegal, it's always been something that both the agent and the traveler could go to jail for. And now people ARE going to jail. Like everything in Mexico, it's about enforcement. The laws have always been in place but for years people broke them and no one did a thing. But now they are cracking down and finally enforcing the law. If Americans want to go to Cuba they need to protest their own government, not ask Mexican Immigration agents to risk going to prison for them.
FM3, Registering your address We just did this in March and April. We obtained our FM3's in Chicago in December and arrived here in Cancun in late January. We first went to register our address in the third week in March. We had to wait that long in order to have some kind of mail with our address on it for proof of where we live. We had to leave our FM3's at the Cancun immigration office. It took 7 visits to complete the process. We had to provide them with many documents. We also had to provide photographs, and we were finger printed. We also had to prove our address via bank statements as we have not yet received a electric bill in our name. We also needed to get a letter from our bank (Banamex) to assure them that my wife was also owner of the bank account and that she lived at the same address. All of this to just have our address typed into a page in our FM3. It took about 4 weeks. Our observations 1. The facility is overwhelmed 2. The employees work very hard 3. The archaic system is not the the employee’s fault, but they must work with it as best they can. 4. Everyone tried their best to help us. 5. We were always polite and expressed our thanks for each step along the way. 6. Be patient, we always try to remember we are guests in this country. Don't be an "Ugly American"
New FM3 Thank you Chicago Tom for your input. I hope our process goes a little faster than yours did as we will only be in Cancun from May 13-29. I read on an old post somewhere about having the water bill and the electric bill in different names and that way it would prove that both husband and wife live at that address. Of course I read that after I had already changed names on the water and electricity. I handle all the paperwork so I just put both in my name. I sure hope that won't be a problem. As for a bank account , we could not open a bank account until we had an FM3 so how can we show that as proof? How did you open a bank account without an FM3? I will let you know what happens. Counting down the days to Cancun. THANK YOU EVERYONE
You can put the phone bill in your husband's name maybe, that way you have proof that he lives there. I live here with no bills at all in my name and it hasn't mattered one bit. And with everything in hubby's name it means he gets to "deal" whenever there's a problem...
