# Do you have to report move to Mexico to the US?



## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Now that the residency visa is almost ready, I'm wondering whether or not there is any requirement for a US citizen to inform the State Department or other federal agency about moving to Mexico. Does anyone know?

Also, do any of you have US bank accounts using your Mexican address? I would like to keep my existing checking account for a while.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

They have not missed me, nor thousands of others.  Your address on your tax return tells all. Otherwise; up to you who you notify. Sure cuts the junk mail to zero.
You can, and should, keep your US banking and simply do it all online. You may chose to use a re-mailing service or family member in the USA for a US address, or your address or Mexican Post Office box wherever you live. Your destination will determine which is most convenient for you.
If you live in a city, on a normal street, you will probably have mail delivery by the Mexican postal service. If you are in the country or in a fraccionamiento/gated area, you will probably have to rent a mail box at the post office, or use a local service, if one is available in your area.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Thanks, RV. The teller at my bank just told me a few minutes ago I don't even have to use a US address on the account. I'll make sure that's actually true from a bank officer before I go. If so, I can use the Mexico address, wherever that winds up being...


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## Vallartense (Apr 1, 2013)

To Elpasso2012.

You may wish to look at the americansabroad.org website for references to banking by us citizens living abroad. An excerpt from that website follows and is consistent with what our accountant told us 6 years ago when we moved to Mexico. "Do not tell your US-based bank that you now reside outside of the USA, or they will be forced under the Patriot Act to close your account." This was advice provided based on his first hand experience with clients who moved abroad and when they requested an address change for the US-based bank accounts, they were told, "sorry, you can no longer have an account with our bank, where do you want us to send your funds." We have continued to maintain a mailing address in the USA, though we no longer own property or reside there.

The excerpt...

Banking Access

ACA opposes legislation such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) which is leading foreign banks and financial institutions to deny Americans overseas the necessary banking tools to live and work as well as, opposes _elements of the Patriot Act which is causing Americans overseas to lose their state-side banking services_. ACA advocates for excluding bona-fide residents living and working overseas from filing foreign bank account reports such as Form 8938 and TD F90-22.1 and easing Patriot Act guidance to facilitate state-side banking access for Americans overseas.

Executive summary:
_Patriot Act legislation currently contains guidance that is forcing US banks to close state-side services for Americans who no longer can provide a US mailing address._ At the same time, FATCA and FBAR legislation, which require reporting of Americans clients by Foreign banks to the IRS and necessitates additional filing requirements through the TD F90-22.1FBAR form and Form 8938 (FATCA), are shutting Americans overseas out of foreign financial tools such as mortgages, bank accounts, insurance policies, pension funds, essential financial tools for their survival overseas.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Vallartense said:


> To Elpasso2012.
> 
> You may wish to look at the americansabroad.org website for references to banking by us citizens living abroad. An excerpt from that website follows and is consistent with what our accountant told us 6 years ago when we moved to Mexico. "Do not tell your US-based bank that you now reside outside of the USA, or they will be forced under the Patriot Act to close your account." This was advice provided based on his first hand experience with clients who moved abroad and when they requested an address change for the US-based bank accounts, they were told, "sorry, you can no longer have an account with our bank, where do you want us to send your funds." We have continued to maintain a mailing address in the USA, though we no longer own property or reside there.
> 
> ...


Well, I did go to that website and found this update on the situation, which states that you can get a letter from the State Department informing your bank that living abroad is not a valid reason for account closure under the Patriot Act. 

I guess the situation has developed a bit since you posted, but it definitely seems up in the air. I'll do more research before actually moving to get the latest at that time.

But thanks much for the link. I've bookmarked that site as it has lots of information about some other issues I have been curious about as well.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Vallartense;1271798]To Elpasso2012.

You may wish to look at the americansabroad.org website for references to banking by us citizens living abroad. An excerpt from that website follows and is consistent with what our accountant told us 6 years ago when we moved to Mexico. "Do not tell your US-based bank that you now reside outside of the USA, or they will be forced under the Patriot Act to close your account." This was advice provided based on his first hand experience with clients who moved abroad and when they requested an address change for the US-based bank accounts, they were told, "sorry, you can no longer have an account with our bank, where do you want us to send your funds." We have continued to maintain a mailing address in the USA, though we no longer own property or reside there.

The excerpt...

Banking Access

ACA opposes legislation such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) which is leading foreign banks and financial institutions to deny Americans overseas the necessary banking tools to live and work as well as, opposes elements of the Patriot Act which is causing Americans overseas to lose their state-side banking services. ACA advocates for excluding bona-fide residents living and working overseas from filing foreign bank account reports such as Form 8938 and TD F90-22.1 and easing Patriot Act guidance to facilitate state-side banking access for Americans overseas.

Executive summary:
Patriot Act legislation currently contains guidance that is forcing US banks to close state-side services for Americans who no longer can provide a US mailing address. At the same time, FATCA and FBAR legislation, which require reporting of Americans clients by Foreign banks to the IRS and necessitates additional filing requirements through the TD F90-22.1FBAR form and Form 8938 (FATCA), are shutting Americans overseas out of foreign financial tools such as mortgages, bank accounts, insurance policies, pension funds, essential financial tools for their survival overseas.[/QUOTE]_

Just as an attempt to try to help people moving to Mexico full time in the future, you can get by without a personal U.S. banking account and still have a U.S. banking account in your name(s) without any U.S. address at all including any contrived "pretend" address of a relative, friend or mailing service. 

Before you move down here, open an account at a large, internationally oriented U.S. investment house as did we. After you move, inform the financial institution that you have moved to Mexico full time and they will, if they are sufficiently sophisticated, re-designate you an international customer. For instance, with my U.S. investment house, a well-known international stock brokerage firm, I have IRA accounts and my wife and I have a joint checking account which we use to deposit IRA drawdowns, have social security benefits deposited directly electronically and write personal checks. Those checks and deposits are drawn on or made payable to a major U.S. bank in the Northeast. Absolutely no problems whatsoever in utilizing those IRA and that joint checking account as if they were our personal accounts and we lived full time just down the street from the bank.

Here is the key to this:
* Our checking account is actually a sub-account as are countless other checking accounts, of the brokerage firm´s own corporate account with the bank. Thus, when we make a deposit to or write a check against that account, we are actually negotiating those banking transactions as a sub-account of the brokerage firm whose account the bank recognizes and, as far as the bank is concerned we don´t even exist except as an adjunct to the brokerage firm.
* This large brokerage firm also has a nationally chartered bank in which clients are welcome to open a checking account if they live in the U.S. but, despite the fact that we have been good customers of this particular brokerage house for some 13 years, their U.S. chartered bank fully owned by them, will not open any accounts for us as we live full time in Mexico. To do so would be an illegal transaction under the Patriot Act.

Bin Laden, although long dead now, succeeded after all in turning the U.S. into an irrational nest of paranoid politicians, lawmakers. and mindless functionaries who punish responsible U.S. citizens because of the terrorist acts of zealots. Meanwhile, they failed to screen 32,000 of the new 50,000 plus TSA employees they hired since 9/11 many of whom turned out to be slothful or sleazy criminals in charge of enforcing our national airline security apparatus at the personal level riffling through your checked luggage and stealing your personal property while their fellow TSA goons shake you down at the passenger gate.


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## Vallartense (Apr 1, 2013)

ElPaso2012 said:


> Well, I did go to that website and found this update on the situation, which states that you can get a letter from the State Department informing your bank that living abroad is not a valid reason for account closure under the Patriot Act.
> 
> I guess the situation has developed a bit since you posted, but it definitely seems up in the air. I'll do more research before actually moving to get the latest at that time.
> 
> But thanks much for the link. I've bookmarked that site as it has lots of information about some other issues I have been curious about as well.


To ElPaso2012:

Thanks for the relevant update. I was not aware of this change.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Vallartense said:


> To ElPaso2012:
> 
> Thanks for the relevant update. I was not aware of this change.


Well, yes, it seems good the State Department would issue such a letter, but who wants a hassle with your US bank from somewhere in Mexico? If I remember the corporate mentality correctly, many if not most banks would steer away from any gray area if there is any controversy at all no matter what the letter says. Like I mentioned above, this will require more research before the move actually commences. Good of you to point out that this is going on...


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Hound Dog said:


> [_QUOTE=Vallartense;1271798]To Elpasso2012.
> 
> Bin Laden, although long dead now, succeeded after all in turning the U.S. into an irrational nest of paranoid politicians, lawmakers. and mindless functionaries who punish responsible U.S. citizens because of the terrorist acts of zealots. Meanwhile, they failed to screen 32,000 of the new 50,000 plus TSA employees they hired since 9/11 many of whom turned out to be slothful or sleazy criminals in charge of enforcing our national airline security apparatus at the personal level riffling through your checked luggage and stealing your personal property while their fellow TSA goons shake you down at the passenger gate._


_

Yes, and sadly this is just the beginning._


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Was this a joke? Using your debit card weekly all year is proof of where you are. My bank knows I live here and it's the same with most gringos I know.

The things you hear on the Internet


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

sparks said:


> Was this a joke? Using your debit card weekly all year is proof of where you are. My bank knows I live here and it's the same with most gringos I know.
> 
> The things you hear on the Internet


I never use a US credit card or debit card in Mexico. If my bank is using that as a test they probably think I have houses in Spain, Croatia and Germany.


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## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

I've lived outside the US for 30+ years and never reported my departure, but they obviously knew where I was from IRS forms submitted by employers and myself, and now from Social Security, which I applied for through the Guadalajara office and set up for deposit to my Bancomer account here in La Paz. My US bank knows I'm in Mexico, but they require a US address, so I use my brother's. All my transactions are online anyhow. I've had the account since 1969 or so. I use my US debit card here only for emergencies and online purchases.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I do not think the US bank care where you are if you already have an account as long as the government does not have some type of a rule that the banks need to close the accounts of non residents but I would not fall asleep on that one. If one day Homeland Security or any other dept wants to put on the screws, the banks will care where you live so you can plan ahead in case or just forget it and see what happens or if it happens.
Our ID was stolen when Am ex sent us a new credit card so we cancelled it and went through a total nightmare for 6 months. Now we cannot get a credit report to see the damage as you need a US address to get one although by law you are entitled to get one free a year...We do not care as we do not need credit and will not go back to the States but that is a situation you can find yourself in if you do not have a US address.


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## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

Yes, I agree, the banking situation could change, and I'll deal with it when/if it comes. You can get a credit score online for free. I use Credit Karma (creditkarma.com). It only has the report from TransUnion and the "Vantage Score" instead of all the ones you can get by mail in the US, but like you, I don't care enough to worry about it. I cancelled a couple of credit cards because I wasn't using them and wanted to see what happened. Sure enough, my score went down!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Thank you makaloco, we could not get the credit report with our Mexican address but we tricked it and used our ex address (before we sold) and got it.
We have not used credit card for 12 years but I have been running into problems lately with hotel reservations, and payment via internet if I use my debit cards. There are quite a few companies who only accept credit cards and I am thinking of getting a Mexican one which I would pay off every month but would allow me to make reservations and pay airlines.


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## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

While working I travelled a lot and was pretty liberal with the credit cards. When I retired I went "debt free" and swore to stay that way. It worked fine until this year when a bunch of major surgical/hospital bills hit me all at once, and I was really glad I'd kept my American Express cards. My insurance is in Europe and the first two claims I sent for reimbursement got lost. At one point I owed AmEx $14K USD with more expenses coming in. No way did I have the cash flow to pay everything off, so if I'd had just a Mexican credit card, I'd have been screwed. Of course, a Mexican bank would never give me as high a credit limit as I have with AmEx, but if they did, the interest would have been astronomical. As it was, I was able to dig myself out when the reimbursements came through. I'd say if you're going to keep one card, Am Ex is it.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Yes I agree Am Ex is great but we cancelled it because of fraud.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

sparks said:


> Was this a joke? Using your debit card weekly all year is proof of where you are. My bank knows I live here and it's the same with most gringos I know.
> 
> The things you hear on the Internet


Which part?


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## q_vivar (Sep 6, 2012)

sparks said:


> Was this a joke? Using your debit card weekly all year is proof of where you are. My bank knows I live here and it's the same with most gringos I know.
> 
> The things you hear on the Internet


Banks don't want to report this stuff, but have to if someone gives them a reason, like saying they don't have a mailing address in the US. Banks don't really want to do it, it's expensive and they get audited fairly regularly to make sure they are complying - it's just that they are required to do a lot of watch-dogging because they are so tied into the gov't for the deposit insurance, cash funding, etc.

My last job was at the bank where my funds are now - they certainly know where I am. But I use a family member's address in the US.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Yes if you can do that it is the way to go but my husband has not family back there we can use and a non resident alien so having an address would muddy the water.


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## dwwhiteside (Apr 17, 2013)

I've been living here in Mexico for almost a year now. I find that there are many conveniences to having a US address, even if it is just a PO box at a UPS store. I can have any "official" correspondence or mail sent there and then have them forward it to me here once a month or so. BTW, that is the mailing address I use for my US bank accounts.


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