# Returning to the US (Part 2)



## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

So my plan du jour is still to move back to the US but the logistics are all over the place. I know where in Florida I would like to return to. I even know the rental complex. Trouble is at this moment they have no vacancies - but the office manager is very encouraging - even suggesting that we have just entered April perhaps things will open up. The monthly rent for a two bedroom/one bath is very reasonable. And we are not (likely) talking forever - just a home base for starters. I had to complete an 11 page rental application, provide my passport image, my ss card, 3 months of bank statements, employment history, allow a credit / criminal check etc. I think there were less requirements for Mexican citizenship.

Google maps tells me it is roughly a 37 hour drive (2300 miles). I may only want to make that drive at most once. Maybe never - if I sell the car in Mexico and just fly.

I don't even know (yet) if the US will allow me to bring my 2016 Japanese car (made for the Mexican market) in. As a US citizen I think I am allowed to drive my car into the US for up to a year (without importing it). I do not know if I decide to import the car, can I do that in Miami or am i required to return to the Mexican border ? Years ago I imported my US car into Mexico in Mexico City - I never returned to Laredo. 

How much time do you figure a US citizen (I assume properly covid tested) driving a Mexican plated car should plan on spending in Laredo before being allowed entry ?

My Mexican auto insurance allows me 28 days in the US as a tourist (with limitations). When we lived in the US we insured our house and two cars with AAA - tomorrow I'll give them a call and see what they say. What happens if for some crazy reason I want to make the drive more than once ? Can I get an annual US policy on a Mexican plated car ? 

I've received one quote (of two) regarding sending the 3 cats back by air. Ballpark that is about $1500 US. There are some details involved there as well. If I am in Miami waiting for them, I need someone to bring the cats to the airport in Mexico City. That should be doable. Each cat needs at least two vaccines and they can't fly until after a month has passed since they receive those shots. My three cat carriers should be ok. 

I have 177K frequent flyer miles available. That is something like 5 or 6 round trips between Mexico City and Miami. But rental cars cost money. 

The house in Mexico is currently listed by two realtors (no activity yet). I met one of my new neighbors walking his dogs one morning. He is an 'influencer'. For those of you not familiar with the term, he makes a living having people pay him and he sells their 'concept'. He has an impressive website and you all know many of his clients. So he offered to 'promote' my house. I'm honestly not clear if he was offering for free or not. In any event - ideally I would like to have the house totally empty, toss the keys to the realtors, and wait in Florida for the house to maybe some day sell. Then the cats and I are not bothered with visitors and such. Worst case - I rent in Florida UNTIL the house in Mexico sells.

So - for those of you following the storyline - I'm leaning away from moving a bunch of stuff from Mexico via a truck or van. There really isn't all that much stuff I truly need to move (and I will make a lot of people happy giving things away).

As always - comments appreciated.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Time for the crossing is half an hour to an hour if you aren't searched, and another half an hour or hour if you are. Anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours total.

Driving I think you want to stop for the night in Monterrey or Saltillo and make your run for the border from there the next day. You don't want to be on the road at night in that region. There are lots of hotels in Laredo that are inexpensive if you book online. Enough that you don't need to book until after you get across the border.

That makes it a short day. The best crossing to use in Laredo is the Columbia crossing, 30 minutes west of Laredo along MX Route 2. That stretch is by far the most dangerous part of the journey. Keep your speed below the sometimes ridiculous limits as the stretch is known for being farmed by N.L. police. Lines at that crossing are not too long. I crossed with an empty van in the middle of the afternoon and there was about a half hour wait. But then I got the full search and dog-sniff treatment. You might be asked to unpack your vehicle if it's loaded up with stuff. Especially cats.

Recently there has been a "war" going on in Laredo, you want to make sure that's over. The alternative is Piedras Negras / Eagle Pass TX, but that adds an hour (in TX) once you cross the border. It's about the same amount of driving in Mexico, at most 30 minutes more. I've done each way once. The road from Saltillo to Piedras Negras is also very lightly traveled compared to the Monterrey-Laredo highway. If headed to Florida and crossing at Eagle Pass you can just head straight to Houston from there, so it might not be further. But hotels in Eagle Pass are very expensive. US$150 for motel 6, and over $200 for most. You can also stop at the Holiday Inn in Piedras Negras it has pretty secure parking and is much cheaper (around 1500 pesos), but you'll have a longer line to cross in the morning.

You want to check the news for illegal immigrant "convoys" heading to Piedras Negras, it was recently mentioned as the destination of one of the big ones planned for after Biden lifts Title 42. Probably best not to get mixed up in one of those.

So you might end up wanting to adjust your timing by a week right at the last minute based on the news you read.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Update : I think I am too old to drive myself back to Florida. Yesterday I drove 5 hours to get to the beach for my first vacation in maybe 3 years and I was beat when I got there. I was so depressed since it was the first vacation I have taken by myself in some 40 years that I woke up this morning and drove back home. I think of myself as being in decent physical shape but two hours into today's drive (and every hour thereafter) I had to pull over and stretch my lower back.

There's something for all those posters who ask about driving to Mexico to think about...


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I am 76 not in particulary great shape as I have a couple of discal hernias that are pinching nerves and I drove for a week , every single day minimum 5 or 6 hours a day to go to Chiapas taking my time and enjoying Tlaxcala, and Huamantla San Miguel de las Ollas, Jalapa. Boca del rio Tlacotalpan and on and many other towns. I asked a friend to go with me . He does not drive but he was good company and I am planing to fly to Chiapas in July , pick up the car, go to Oaxaca, stay there a couple of weeks then to CDMX to drop friends and pick up a new friend and drive back to CHiapas for a graduation and then back to Jalisco.. If you are in decent shape at 70 driving 5 hours should be a piece of cake. It sounds like you ae depressed and still grieving, give yourself time, go for walks, do some exercises to relax.. A five hour drive if you are in shape should not be that bad. Give yourself time, you are not ready to go back and drive so far.. If you drive why don t you take the cats with you? The first time we drove from San Francisco to GUadalajara we had 3 mastiffs and 3 cats and everyone arrived fine..


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## kphoger (Apr 22, 2020)

MangoTango said:


> How much time do you figure a US citizen (I assume properly covid tested) driving a Mexican plated car should plan on spending in Laredo before being allowed entry ?





eastwind said:


> Time for the crossing is half an hour to an hour if you aren't searched, and another half an hour or hour if you are. Anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours total.


Covid testing has no bearing on entry by land: it's only a requirement for air travel.

This past Monday afternoon, I crossed the border from Nuevo Laredo into Laredo by taxi. I had the taxi driver stop at the INM office between the two bridges so we could turn in our FMMs, and there was nobody in line at all: we walked in and handed them to the agent, he smiled and said have a good day, and we got back in the taxi. Traffic on the Bridge #2 took maybe 20 minutes or so. We got sent to secondary inspection (first time I've ever had that happen). The CBP agent did a thorough luggage search (two backpacks) and vehicle search. For the latter, he opened up the hood to match VINs, checked under seats and in the trunk, tapped for hidden compartments, shone a flashlight down the window gaps. He took our passports and the taxi driver's papers into the office shack. Total time spent at secondary was probably 20 to 30 minutes.

When I've driven my own vehicle across (I've used Colombia and Cd Acuña), I've always figured on 25 to 40 minutes to cancel paperwork and anywhere from five minutes to 1½ hours for traffic on the bridge. Keep in mind that heavy travel times/dates will increase your wait time, whereas a random Sunday morning might see nobody in line at all at one of the less-used crossings.


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## kphoger (Apr 22, 2020)

As for the "Mexican plated car" part, however, I don't know. I've never been involved in that sort of thing except by taxi, and I'm therefore familiar with neither the process nor the wait time.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

kphoger said:


> As for the "Mexican plated car" part, however, I don't know. I've never been involved in that sort of thing except by taxi, and I'm therefore familiar with neither the process nor the wait time.


I've been on the phone a good part of this afternoon. I spoke to a lot of people who really had no idea and then I found a really helpful guy at the CBP in Laredo. It turns out it isn't so much the Mexican plates as it is that I purchased the (Japanese made) car new in Mexico City. It sounds like there are not a lot of people who try to import such a car. He took my number and will have an 'expert' call me back. This guy already has called back once already to tell me the cats just need to appear 'healthy' and be up to date on their vaccines. Sounds like it is a much easier process than 10 years ago when we brought four cats into Mexico. Waiting for the car import specialist to call...


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

My two trips have been in my own mexican-plated van. There wasn't any issue with that at the border, and I don't think I even needed to present the registration to the US authorities - I did for sure have to show it on return to Mexico to the Mexican authorities. I wasn't trying for permanent import, but I don't think they asked one way or the other on that. 

I'm not sure how your case would be any different, you are just going to be driving further in the US than I was. You might get stopped by cops beyond the border region for bogus reasons because they want a look at you, but if you have US insurance and all your lights work I don't think they can do much. You do want to make sure every single one of those external orange side-lights is operative and use your turn signals for all turns and changing lanes to avoid any "driving while Mexican" issues.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

(What does the little green dot indicate next to your moniker ?)

I realize I have jumped around a lot with my plans - but that is just the way my brain works unfortunately.

My Japanese made car was made for the Mexican market and was purchased new in Mexico City.

If I want to put Florida plates on it - I am going to need to import it at the Texas border. I did in fact ask on the phone today if I could drive across the border, drive around merrily for 12 months in Florida and then attempt to import the car in say Miami (or Ft Lauderdale) and I was told that was not recommended.

There are sooo many possibilities in my life the dizziness actually makes me nauseous at times. My Mexican mechanic is supposed to pick up the car for service on Monday. He loves my car. I'm going to ask him what he thinks of my selling the car (a 2016 with less than 12,000 kms). In December I owned two cars and opted to sell my 20 year old imported American SUV. In hindsight that might have been a mistake.

In the end I don't _think_ they will say I can't import my car BUT I'm sure they are going to hit me up for 2.5% tax (not the end of the world), probably make me use a broker and possibly tell me I need to make modifications (if they are even possible).

I never did get the promised call from the CBP car import expert today....


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

The green dot, if you hover over it, puts up a little pop-up that says "online now".

They could require some expensive modifications to let you import your car. It could also turn out that the car, being Japanese, has been engineered so that the changes aren't _that _expensive because they designed in the ability to easily customize for various markets. I assume that any US-required safety or emissions equipment that isn't also required by Mexico is missing, so they can reduce the cost of the model in Mexico.

How long can you drive a Mexican plated car in the US before you have to do something about the mexican plates? If you can just drive it as-is until the registration/plates need renewing, then that's what I'd do, because you aren't 100% committed yet to moving back to the US. If you drive back and then after a few months decide you are sure you are done with Mexico, then you can permanently import the car, or drive it back to Mexico and sell it in Nuevo Laredo, whichever is more cost effective. 

The 20-year old US SUV would have been ideal. Lots of space for taking back stuff and probably would have imported easier. A pity.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Well I didn't get a call back from the CBP vehicle expert - I got TWO ! (Voice mails actually).
The list of tasks I need to complete is eight items long but may be doable (and he left me his personal email should I need any help).
Ya know - sometimes when you get lucky you can come across the nicest people in Texas !


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Well good. But don't leave us hanging, enquiring minds would like to know what's involved for future reference.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Well I may have jinxed it...

In order to import my Mexican car into the US I need :

the bill of sale (got it)
my Mexican registration (got it)
the title for my car (got it)
the manufacturer's label from under the hood stating that the car is US emission's compliant (got it)
a form 3520-1 related to EPA emissions and I think the label under the hood has that handled.

BUT then there is a DOT form HS7 which basically attests that the car meets all US safety standards. I personally have no idea. The folks in the US are not going to know. The folks in Mexico are not going to know.

I've written the nice man at CBP in Laredo and asked his advice. I sent off a email to a woman at the Mexican headquarters who helped us with an unrelated problem a couple years back and asked her advice. I've tried calling the US headquarters but they are gone for the weekend.

I suppose I could try to contact someone in Japan.
Maybe this is why people have to use customs brokers....

Edit : btw - the 'n' key on my keyboard is broken and I have to type ALT+110 for that character so I am ot spellig imparied - I just forget to eter the special keystrokes at times....


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Lol about your 'n'. 

Depending on how it's broken you can work around that in two other ways besides alt+110. One is a program called MapKeyBoard. (google it) or similar. It lets you define another key on the keyboard as 'n'. You could maybe give up the ` key or something you seldom use. Still annoying as you have to suppress your touch typing muscle memory.

Another is a point-and-click keyboard. Windows has them under 'accessibility' stuff. They take up a lot of screen space, so they're annoying too.

You can also order a USB keyboard from Amazon US and plug it into a USB port.

If the 'n' key is stuck-on, then it's harder than if it's just dead, but MapKeyBoard will help there too.


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