You may have noticed that several months ago I moved my primary platform off of Facebook and over to a dedicated website. I made the move more because I’ve been around a while, and remember places like CompuServe, Q-Link, AOL, and MySpace. Perhaps you remember them too. My point is that one of the constants of the internet seems to be that it’s like the rest of life; Change is inevitable. I still cross post on Facebook, it’s just not the main place my memories live. And if you are thinking of stepping back from Facebook and still want to read my occasional ramblings, there is a place on the right side of your screen where you can enter an email address and have posts sent to you. Realize too that these are the first drafts – if I later realize I’ve made an embarrassing spelling or grammar mistake, you’ll be able to see it even after I’ve made it go away!
A little more from INM has come out recently. Last time around I talked about how they had revised the requirements for converting temporary residency to permanent before the four year term had completed. This time there’s an update to long haul bus travel in México. You can read more from México News Daily here: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/tourists-must-show-immigration-doc-to-buy-bus-ticket/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=jeeng.
In a nutshell it appears INM has asked sellers of bus tickets to verify that their passengers have legal residency before selling them a ticket on a bus. I’m sure that this could be as simple as showing an unexpired FMM and passport, or a temporary or permanent residency card. I’m also pretty sure a big reason for this is to slow down migration of undocumented people through México to the USA’s southern border.
I’ve said before that I travel by bus frequently. If you have an INAPAM/INSEN card, you frequently get 50% off your ticket price, so it’s an incredibly cost effective way to travel. In the past, on EVERY overnight trip, the bus I’ve been on has been stopped. Every passenger gets off and shows their documents to immigration officers. Carry-on luggage/backpacks are sometimes given a once over. It is important that if you are not a Méxican citizen and are traveling by bus that you carry your ORIGINAL documents. A residency card OR an FMM with a passport. More and more I’m hearing of people being deported because they were traveling without documentation, or their FMM had expired and they didn’t think it would be a problem. I don’t consider a visit to a detention center and being processed through the system as equal value to the free flight back to the country of my origin – I’m sure those who have done it don’t either. PLEASE. Carry your original identification on you. You’re able to manage carrying your wallet/purse with credit cards and driver’s license without getting it lost … I’m confident you can take the same amount of care with the documents showing you’re in México legally.
And yes, you can buy your bus ticket online and they don’t ask for id then (I just bought a ticket – no questions about my citizenship or residency online). Tickets are looked at before you board the bus, and I always check in at the ticket counter too because they’ll write down the bus number for me so I don’t have to worry about not realizing the bus saying ‘México City’ is the one I want to Guadalajara. They do ask to see my INAPAM card so I would imagine they’re now asking to see ID as well.
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