Under Article 68, immigration agents can take you to the nearest INM office to verify your immigration status. This process, known as a presentación administrativa (administrative presentation), allows INM to hold you for up to 36 hours while confirming your records. It is not considered an arrest or formal detention.
| What Counts as Proof |
| By law, your valid immigration document is the only official proof of legal stay. |
- Residents must carry their residency card.
- Tourists must carry their passport with either their FMM tourist card (which is still issued at the border) or a printout from an airport scanner indicating when you entered Mexico and by when you must leave, and have the stamp in your passport.
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| The law doesn’t explicitly mention digital copies, which leads to inconsistencies. Some INM agents accept digital scans of residency cards, while others require the original documentation. |
| There is nothing in the law that requires temporary or permanent residents to show a passport along with their residency card. However, a reader was asked a at roadside checkpoint to show both a residency card and a passport. Despite explaining to agents that both weren’t required, he was pulled into secondary inspection and fined. |
| As with many things here in Mexico, there’s what the law says and what actually happens on the ground. |
If you want to err on the side of caution, always travel with your physical documents. And know the law, which you can read here.
— from Expat Insider Mexico
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What happens if you’re stopped at a roadside immigration checkpoint – not at the border – and you don’t have your documents with you.
Under Mexico’s Ley de Migración, foreigners must present proof of their legal status and identity when requested by Instituto Nacional de Migración officers (Article 16). Only INM agents may request or retain your documents. Police or the Guardia Nacional can’t demand them unless they’re formally assisting INM (Articles 17 and 96).
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