# FMM Form for Mexican Residents



## Exciter (Apr 27, 2016)

Thanks to the wonderful information found here, my wife and I were able to make the move to Mexico and complete our residency! Hopefully someone can answer this somewhat specific question, I really don't want to screw up the residency we just completed.

I know that when flying out of Mexico, residents need to fill out the FMM, Section 2 and then once they return to Mexico they complete Section 1 and return it.

My question is this: What if I exit Mexico by land and return by air? From what I have read, when exiting by land there is often no available to fill out the FMM. If that is the case, and I fly back in with no Section 1 to hand in, will this cause a problem?


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Just fill out a new one on the plane. Write your residency status clearly at the top. Never check "tourist". I think that you must check "Other".


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## Exciter (Apr 27, 2016)

RVGRINGO said:


> Just fill out a new one on the plane. Write your residency status clearly at the top. Never check "tourist". I think that you must check "Other".


Thanks RV, I was assuming immigration "did something", stamp, etc. to the form when you exited the country that would be missing on a new form. Guess not.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Yes they do something sort of special - at Cancun airport, they write RP or RT in 2-inch high letters in the upper right hand corner with a purple crayon, and again somewhere on the bottom half (if I recall correctly). They tear it in half and hand both halves back to you, putting the 'leaving' half in your passport (because you give that to the attendant at the gate) and giving you the other half for you to keep for your return.

The 'turismo' and 'otra' boxes RVGRINGO is referring to are in the gray box in the lower left hand corner of each half that you aren't supposed to fill out - they fill it out. They're in a section called 'tipo de visa'. I've never checked the 'otra' box myself (nor noticed what INM does).

I am perpetually confused about which half is which, so I may have this backwards. But I think the top half is the 'entering mexico' half and the bottom half is the 'leaving mexico half'. My question would be whether, on the plane on the way back, you should also fill out the leaving Mexico half, checking 'by land' and back date it to when you left. That seems reasonable, but I've never left by land and returned by air, so I don't know if that's required or optional or not wanted. I'd do it that way myself on my first try, worst that can happen is they make you do another FMM and throw that one away.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

Exciter said:


> Thanks RV, I was assuming immigration "did something", stamp, etc. to the form when you exited the country that would be missing on a new form. Guess not.


No, it doesn't even matter if you fly out and lose the other half of the form when you are out of the country, you just fill out another when you fly back in. Theoretically, the bar codes on the top and bottom halves should match, but immigration doesn't care.

And no, you don't check "other" under immigration status. There is a box to check for Resident. You check "other" under Purpose of Visit.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

eastwind said:


> My question would be whether, on the plane on the way back, you should also fill out the leaving Mexico half, checking 'by land' and back date it to when you left. That seems reasonable, but I've never left by land and returned by air, so I don't know if that's required or optional or not wanted.


The smaller bottom half is what you get stamped and hand in to the flight desk when you exit Mexico. No, you do fill out the bottom half when returning, no matter by which method you exited the country. They'll just throw that away or hand it back to you. It has no purpose. That they write RP at the top of the long half when you leave is totally immaterial. You can write that on your new form yourself when you come in. It's not anything official, it's just so the immigration agent when you re-enter the country doesn't accidentally check you in as a tourist because he failed to look at the box on the form you mark "resident".


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Here's a scan of the FMM I picked up on the plane last week. (I already had half of one filled out, I got kept the blank one to use for my next trip).

Maybe it has changed, I sort of recall there being a box for 'purpose of visit' but I can't see it any more. So I don't know where you think I should check 'other' or 'resident' anymore.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

If you click on the image of the FMM provided by eastwind, you can see it big enough to read. Note that in the top portion, part #8 asks for your immigration form or card number. This is where you fill in the number on your resident card. It identifies you as a resident, because a tourist wouldn’t have a resident card, so they wouldn’t have a resident card number.
When you hand your ID to the immigration official in the airport as you arrive, you give them your passport, resident card and the FMM form all together. Again, the presence of your resident card identifies you as a not-tourist.
There have been credible stories of people losing their residency because they were mistakenly marked as tourists when they returned to Mexico. It would be interesting to know the details of how that happened – did they neglect to fill out #8, and not show their resident card? Or did the official ignore those?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

maesonna said:


> If you click on the image of the FMM provided by eastwind, you can see it big enough to read. Note that in the top portion, part #8 asks for your immigration form or card number. This is where you fill in the number on your resident card. It identifies you as a resident, because a tourist wouldn’t have a resident card, so they wouldn’t have a resident card number.
> When you hand your ID to the immigration official in the airport as you arrive, you give them your passport, resident card and the FMM form all together. Again, the presence of your resident card identifies you as a not-tourist.
> There have been credible stories of people losing their residency because they were mistakenly marked as tourists when they entered Mexico. It would be interesting to know the details of how that happened – did they neglect to fill out #8, and not show their resident card? Or did the official ignore those?


Note: The Residente Temporal or Residente Permanente card number is the number on the back of the card not the NUE number on the front of the card when filling out the FMM form.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

AlanMexicali said:


> Note: The Residente Temporal or Residente Permanente card number is the number on the back of the card not the NUE number on the front of the card when filling out the FMM form.


lol I can _never_ remember which it is, and I have to ask the official _every single time._


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

FWIW your NUE, on the front, is marked as a NUE, and I forget what NUE stands for but it's your unique person number, I guess it's a bit like a SSN. It doesn't change as you go through the process of getting a renewal RT then converting to RP, and is the same on all the cards. The card number on the back is unique to the card, and changes each time you get a new card. (I kept copies of my old cards to compare, that's how I know this).

So maybe it will help to remember which they want by realizing that they are asking for card number no NUE, and the card actually says on it which is which.

I myself can never remember which half is for entering and which for leaving, but the presence of box 8 in the top half is the indicator the top half is for entering. 

I do have a vague memory of filling out a 'purpose for visit' box in the past - maybe it was on the customs declaration form, not the FMM?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

eastwind said:


> FWIW your NUE, on the front, is marked as a NUE, and I forget what NUE stands for but it's your unique person number, I guess it's a bit like a SSN. It doesn't change as you go through the process of getting a renewal RT then converting to RP, and is the same on all the cards. The card number on the back is unique to the card, and changes each time you get a new card. (I kept copies of my old cards to compare, that's how I know this).
> 
> So maybe it will help to remember which they want by realizing that they are asking for card number no NUE, and the card actually says on it which is which.
> 
> ...


I think NUE is "Numero Unico de Extrañero".


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

eastwind said:


> FWIW your NUE, on the front, is marked as a NUE, and I forget what NUE stands for but it's your unique person number, I guess it's a bit like a SSN. It doesn't change as you go through the process of getting a renewal RT then converting to RP, and is the same on all the cards. The card number on the back is unique to the card, and changes each time you get a new card. (I kept copies of my old cards to compare, that's how I know this).
> 
> So maybe it will help to remember which they want by realizing that they are asking for card number no NUE, and the card actually says on it which is which.
> 
> ...


The old FMM form had reason for travel to Mexico option of " tourist " or " other ".


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

maesonna said:


> It would be interesting to know the details of how that happened – did they neglect to fill out #8, and not show their resident card? Or did the official ignore those?


In the few cases I read about, it was the resident that screwed it up, not immigration. Some were in a tizzy, because they had lost their residency card while out of the country, so mistakenly thought they should check "tourist" since they had no card to present, and falsely assumed they could then just go to the INM office in Mexico and get issued another card. Some people don't have a lot of common sense or are so fearful of what might happen if they just said they lost their card and asked the agent what to do, that they panic and do something they shouldn't have done.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

eastwind said:


> Maybe it has changed, I sort of recall there being a box for 'purpose of visit' but I can't see it any more. So I don't know where you think I should check 'other' or 'resident' anymore.


I can't remember if it was there when I flew back from Canada in August. Yes, it was "purpose of visit" or "reason for travel" to which residents checked "other". Maybe that's been eliminated.

And I've always found the INM agents at the airport to be helpful- if you aren't sure how to fill out something, just leave it blank and ask them when you get to the kiosk.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

AlanMexicali said:


> I think NUE is "Numero Unico de Extrañero".


That should be spelled like this: "Número Único de Extranjero".


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