Leaving the country..?

I wondered if anyone can clarify this for me.
I have dual nationality and hubby is Mexican. My son is registered as British as he was born here.
Can he leave Mexico with us on his British passport? My and hubby have to leave on our Mexican ones. He doesn't have a Mexican passport yet, we could get him one but would rather not yet.
Does anyone know?

 

Jen - The rule is that if you are Mexican, either by birth or by naturalization, that you have to enter and leave Mexico as a Mexican. This means you have to show proof of Mexican citizenship when you leave.

If you don't show proof of Mexican citizenship when you leave then you have to show proof that you were in the country legally, meaning you have to show a valid FMT, FM2 or FM3.

In your case the baby is Mexican, so he must leave as a Mexican. As far as INM is concerned a birth certificate PROVES his Mexican citizenship.

BUT the airlines face HUGE fines if they don't collect the proper proof of status from departing passengers. and the airlines don't understand all of INM's rules, so they enforce INM's rules in non-sensical ways.

Some airlines are HORRIBLE in cases like this. Some airlines will not let your baby leave as a Mexican with just a birth certificate, some airlines will insist that if the baby doesn't have a Mexican passport then it MUST have and FMT, FM2 or FM3, in other words it must have legal status with INM to leave.

In short, you should go get a Mexican passport, don't even hesitate. You are asking for trouble trying to leave Mexico if your Mexican baby doesn't have a passport.

If you don't have time to get a Mexican passport before your trip then go to the airport an extra hour early (on top of the 2 hours they already ask for). Talk to the airline about what they are going to insist on. Then if they are being uptight you will have time to go to the INM Alfa office (the Salida office at the airport) and ask them for help. INM will charge you a fee, that must be paid in the bank (I don't know how much) and depending on what the airline is insisting on they will issue you one of several documents.

Now, talking to you-know-who in Immigration I know that this situation is not uncommon. And most of the time the baby is allowed to leave the country. But sometimes the baby is not allowed to leave! So you have to know that you are running a risk not having a passport and if they do let him leave you have to jump through a bunch of hoops and pay a fee.

If there's time, then save yourself the headache, get the kid a passport. It's worth it!

 

Steve - The way the airlines handle this might vary due to their fuzzy understanding of the law.

But if the baby is Mexican (regardless of also being any other nationality) then it HAS to leave the country as a Mexican and enter the country as a Mexican! Has to, no choice, not optional! This is one of the things you agree to when you are Naturalized in Mexico and it's one of the laws Mexicans must follow.

Sometimes INM will let a Mexican leave as their other nationality, even though it is against the law. But in that case then the kid HAS to have a valid status with INM! No choice!

The kid is either Mexican and leaves the country as Mexican. Or the kid is a foreigner and needs to have a legal status with INM when it leaves Mexico. There's no gray area, it's one or the other.

You can't say the kid is a Brit living in Mexico without a status with INM, that logic will not fly.

INM will take one look at the Mexican dad and the birth certificate and will "get it." INM doesn't have a problem letting a Mexican baby leave with a valid Mexican birth certificate.

But the airline could be and often is obnoxious. And there have been plenty of cases where kids in this situation were prevented from leaving because some i was not dotted or the airline didn't "get it."

Getting a passport for the kid is the only "right" way to do this. Anything else is a workaround that might not work in all cases.

Having an expired passport for Dani is proof of citizenship, you should renew it, but she couldn't have gotten it without being a Mexican citizen, so it is proof (although plenty of visitors TO Mexico are rejected due to expired passports, it happens everyday). But you should expect they will give you some grief about it being expired eventually, they are being nice to you, but that won't last forever.

 

To answer this more directly...Mexico can and does refuse to let foreigners leave if they can't prove they are in Mexico legally. This happens daily.

The common scenario is the tourist who throws away their FMT (because it doesn't actually say on it that you should keep it). In this case INM's Alfa office issues a replacement FMT and the person is allowed to leave. But first the agent checks that the person entered Mexico within the last 180 days (if they are from a country that gets a 180 day FMT).

But if someone shows up in Alfa with an expired FM2 or FM3, or if there's evidence that the person last entered Mexico longer than 180 days ago, then INM CANNOT let them them leave legally. That person has to go downtown to the INM office and fix their status before they can leave.

This law is NUTS. If someone is here illegally everyone in INM should be happy to see them go. But legally you have to fix your status before you can leave.

In practice lots of INM agents think this law is stupid. So people who are in this situation can often talk their way into a replacement FMT, but legally the INM agent isn't supposed to let them go unless they are in Mexico legally.

 

Jen.

If you make an appointment - usually 7 days in advance. Get your papers together, a MX passport takes only about an hour to get. Issued while you're there. Nothing like dealing with Immigration. I was surprised at the professionalism there. It's very inexpensive too!

 

Thanks folks,
That makes perfect sense about the passport (not logical like you say but I get it).
I have to leave the country on my Mexican passport no ifs or buts so yes it makes sense that bubby would have to as well.

Here he is by the way, I won't miss a chance to show him off!

 

Steve - Think of this way. You need a passport to travel internationally. So if you are a Mexican you need a Mexican passport to leave the country (regardless of whatever other nationality you hold).

As for Mexico preventing foreigners without current INM status from leaving, they do it all the time right here in Cancun. And I don't mean sometimes, I mean this issue comes up almost daily in Cancun, and the result is that the passenger is denied their boarding pass until they clear things up with INM.

The airline CANNOT let any passenger on a plane out of Mexico without INM signing a document approving the passenger list and letting those people leave. INM CAN and occasionally DOES stop airplanes from taking off!

This makes people super-pissed, they miss planes, it sucks, it's a denial of their rights...we all agree with you...but INM does it all the time!

As for human rights, well, INM runs amok of Mexico's Human Rights commission all the time too. So what? Does anything change? Do they even have effective enough management to make proper changes? NO!

If more people complained formally about the way INM treats people it would help a lot. But a passenger who has just been denied a boarding pass doesn't stop to file a formal complaint against INM...instead they truck downtown the INM office and pay their fines and get the ducks in a row and try to get on the next plane outta here. Formal complaints are rare, but formal written complaints are the only thing that will change this.

I know you don't want to believe me. But next time you run into our favorite INM agent go ahead and ask him. He personally has seen dozens of cases of foreigners being denied the right to leave via plane because their status with INM was not up to date.

Oh and he told me to tell you that you need to get Dani's passport renewed because you could end up in hot water at anytime trying to fly her in and out of Mexico with an expired passport. He said "Steve's been really lucky and it won't last."