Long lines for Immigration in Cancun

We arrived back in Cancun this am (thursday) and queue for immigration was the shortest we have ever experenced. We waited 10 mins.
Tracey
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I think some of these early comments in this thread are like talking about rush hour. It is simply not what I have experienced 90% of the time and I do this at least once a month. I don't know how understaffed Immigration is but the 20 or so lines have never been fully staffed except maybe at Christmas. Not even at Spring Break. I cannot remember noticiing one way or the other if there are too many or too few agents on duty. It always seems about the same to me.

For example, last Thursday, July 24, my flight arrived at 3 pm. I was through Immigration in under 10 minutes. Had to wait another 10 or so for my luggage, and maybe 10 minutes to clear Customs and this counted a search of a suitcase, backpack and a carry on as the damn red light came on when I hit the button. For whatever reason they were not running the scanners on that day.

Usually I am on a flight that arrives at 11:30 am and the last time I remember Immigrtion taking me more than 15 minutes with the exception of a nightmare the day after last Christmas.

We currently have one runway here although #2 is under construction. So there is a system in place so that arrivals do not all hit at the same time. Backups in Immigration usually occur when one or more flights are late and the people sort of stack up. Otherwise my experience is that it is normally a pretty smooth operation. Even if I wait at baggage claim and 3 or 4 carosels with waiting passengers, there is usually not any problem getting through Customs, even though they usually only have 1 or 2 lanes open.

I have an FM3 and use the Mexicans Only line if possible but the agents try to tell you that it is for people with Mexican passports. I am not sure if that is true but it is a non issue for me if there is a small or no line in the non-Mexican que. It that line is shorter I just try to get in it.

Waiting for your checked baggage is the longest part of the process based on my experience.

Typically, if I have only carry on, once I get off the plane, I am through Immigration, Customs, weave my way through the transportation/time share maze, and out the door to my ride in 15 minutes.

Knock on wood but I think this is much ado about nothing.

 

Thursday is a light day for immigration. And mornings are light too. Yesterday (Thursday) IMN let a bunch of agents go home early because there were few flights left.

But on Tuesday afternoon people were waiting over 2 hours to get through (the mandate is that they should wait no more than 30 mins). And when people have to wait a long time then some of them end up passing out in line.

Currently INM at the airport is understaffed by nearly 40 to 50%. Agents are so overworked that many are quitting just from being exhausted. So the problem is continuing to get worse day by day.

Worst days are Friday, weekends and Tuesdays (when all the flights come late from Europe).

If you don't experience delays, then lucky you. If you do experience delays then PLEASE complain. INM is not listening to the agents complaints, but is mandated to take complaints from the public seriously.

 

RG,

I am puzzled a bit by your statistical references. I see that CUN has had a steady 1.1 million to 1.15 million passengers per month this year, with one month being slightly under 1.1 and March being about 1.4 million. We all could predict that March is very busy.

You would think that someone woulde be smart enough to figure out staffing matters when nearly every month of 2008 passenger counts have been relatively the same.

Why do you think there is such a problem with staffing and why do I seem to be exempt from it. Actually, last week I arrived on Thursday but usually I arrive on Firday.

The only thing i can figure out is that i have long legs, sit in front of the plane, walk faster than most people and know where i am going. Could it be so simple as me being the first one from my plane to get to Immigration.

Are you aware of any public information available on daily and hourly passenger counts? I know you have inside info.

Arriving in Ft.. Lauderdale is a whole other issue. If my flight is on time the lines are minimal. 15 minutes late and 2 flights have deplane ahead of us, which means over 400 passengers on full flights. My luck seems to be only here.

 

TJ - There is data on INM's web site through June, I think. But it's pretty general. And their data is only visible if you use Internet Explorer (because IMN's web designers are not using best practices), so I rarely look at it.

I think that if you get off the plane ahead of others you can't know how long they waited. And if you are using the Mexican line (which some agents let FM2 and FM3 holders do) you won't experience the long line either.

INM's mandate is to get people through in 30 mins or less. Are you sure everyone on your planes gets through in under 30 mins?

Right now it is, SOMETIMES, so bad that people are fainting from standing too long, kids are falling asleep in line and people are being forced to wait over 2 hours.

And SOMETIMES, but not as often as should happen, it's nice and slow and there are no lines at all.

INM has a pretty good sense of how many staff they need, but they simply do not have the people right now. People are quitting, many are on vacation now, there are management problems, blah, blah, blah. I think you are just going to have to believe me when I say they are sorely understaffed.

The point of the thread is that if people experience a delay they need to complain. You don't need to complain if you don't experience a delay...

 

Terminal 3 and INM

I don't know what it depends on, but I arrived 3 days before you, TJ, on Monday on the same plane, and the lines were awful. They came from outside, by 2 entrances, nobody moving, the 2 escalators blocked, a mess downstairs, I hope the tourists complained, because they were not happy at all to see me going ahead of everyone.

 

At 10 am this morning the lines in T2 (which is less busy) were more than 30 minutes long.

On a busy day INM agents will easily check between 500 and 1000 passengers a day, each. You-know-who's record is over 1200 people in one day. In a 12 hour shift (with no breaks) that's 100 people an hour!! That's exhausting just to think about. And if there's a problem with a passenger then it slows everything down. If a passenger has an Interpol alert or migratory alert then it makes everything else take longer.

 

Even though I no longer have an FM3, what do you think of my chances of sneaking through the Mexican national line with hubby?

 

Not even FM3 holders can be sure of using that line. It's really supposed to be for Mexican citizens, even though with all the money we pay to INM you'd think they'd just include us too. Some INM agents let immigrants use it, many do not.