In the beginning of 2011 I wrote an article on another blog about what to do with an FM3 if you are not interested in renewing it. Here is the text of that article:

I recently received a question about canceling an FM3, or at least not renewing it. My instant response in my head was: well you have to turn it in to the immigration authority and they will tell you what to do. But that leaves a lot of uncertainty and I couldn´t remember exactly where that bit of knowledge came from so I looked it up in the migratory manual and the corresponding laws and regulations. I couldn´t find anything about relinquishing your FM3 to immigration. Now I remember specifically being in the immigration office at the front desk and watching someone having this conversation with the officer about turning in their document and what would happen but I still really can´t use “Because the immigration agent said so” as a valid proof. I was about to send the man who asked the question a nice note saying, “I can´t find anything specific that says this, but here is what I would do…”, when I had a thought about where it might say what to do with an FM3 when you are done with it: on the FM3.

On the second page of an old FM3 booklet it specifically says:

“At the termination of the circumstances for which residency in the country of the owner was authorized, he/she should abandon the country within 30 days, relinquishing this document at the migration office where he/she exits (the country).”

So, that would mean that if someone no longer wants to maintain an FM3 in Mexico they would need to exit the country within 30 days of its expiration date and turn it in to the immigration office in the airport or the border crossing when they leave.

Last week, I actually had to deal with this situation with a friend. Here is what happened:

A friend showed up in the country last week whose FM3 was more than 60 days expired. He had been dealing with the Mexican bureaucracy for the last six or seven years and was tired of all the hassle and he no longer needed a vehicle, so he wasn’t really interested anymore in renewing his FM3.

At the Cancun airport he was detained by immigration officials and questioned, finally being asked to take his FM3 to the immigration office in Playa del Carmen to get the problem sorted out. A few days after he arrived he made the trip to immigration and they explained what he needed to do, after a little bit of hassle by the guard at the front desk.

Apparently, the Immigration Institute doesn’t have any procedure for receiving expired FM3’s, so they asked him to apply for a “regularization” of his migratory status, which basically would have renewed his FM3. Once we submitted the paperwork for the regularization, he was then told that he needed to cancel the renewal procedure and present a copy of his departing flight itinerary.

At no point during this fiasco was a fine mentioned, though I, knowing the regulations, was sure that some sort of fine would be owed. We submitted the paperwork for the cancelation of the renewal and then were told that we could pick up the letter asking him to leave the country on Friday afternoon.

At 5:00pm on Friday, we had the letter in our hands asking the friend to present himself at the immigration office of the Cancun Airport that Saturday to finalize the paperwork for the $1795.00 peso fine for non-renewal based on articles X,Y and Z of the “Ley General de Población”. I was sort of taken aback by this letter, as well as confused because I was rather sure that payments of fines, or any other government payment made at the bank, could only be performed during business hours, Monday through Friday.

With the half-expectation that he was going to be turned back at the airport, my friend departed Playa del Carmen the next day for the airport.

A few minutes before his flight was scheduled to board, the friend called me, I was sure as I answered the phone that I was going to have to go pick him up from immigration jail or at least find him a ride back from the airport.

Quite to the contrary, he was calling to tell me of his good luck: The immigration officers at the airport we somewhat confused by the letter as well, as they knew that fines could not be paid at any banks in Mexico on Saturdays; therefore, they were given the choice between letting this nice old man miss his flight and wait until Monday to go to a bank and pay the fine or let him get away with disobeying immigration law.

They chose the latter.

The manner in which they did so surprised me: My friend was made to sign a statement claiming that he was leaving the country in a state of destitution. He signed the letter and was allowed to go without paying anything.

I am not sure if this will happen to everyone that comes into Mexico with an expired FM3, so I still recommend to everyone doesn’t want their FM3 anymore to turn it in to the airport when they leave the country or deliver it to the nearest Mexican Consulate or Embassy in their place of residence.