Good News from Mexico

"The Aduana official at Puerto Chiapas in southern Mexico who said 10-Year TIPs have to be surrendered when a boat leaves Mexico has been corrected," reported Tere Grossman, president of the Mexican Marina Owners Association, in an email to Latitude 38.

"The official was wrong, as the TIP is for multiple entries [and departures] as long as it is valid (Regla 4.2.5)."

We wrote about this last Wednesday after an unnamed cruiser was fined $900 because he hadn’t canceled his TIP before leaving Mexico. There is apparently a possibility that the American boatowner will get his money back. But we wouldn’t hold our breath.

What makes the issue confusing is that Grossman also wrote, "A TIP does ultimately have to be canceled, so if someone has a boat with a TIP, and the boat is not coming back to Mexico while it is valid, they should cancel it."

Why would somebody want to cancel a TIP if they weren’t coming back to Mexico? Because if they sell the boat, the TIP is no longer valid because the TIP is not in the new owner’s name, and the new owner couldn’t get a new TIP until the old one was canceled. But who knows if they are going to sell their boat or not return to Mexico 10 years down the road? Furthermore, the real victim would be the person who bought a boat wanting to go to Mexico not knowing it had a valid TIP.

Grossman has written a letter to government officials in Mexico City asking for the easiest way to cancel a TIP, and even better, a way in which the TIP wouldn’t have to be canceled before a new one was issued.

The bottom line of all this is to ignore Latitude’s recent advice not to check into or out of Mexico at Puerto Chiapas as opposed to Huatulco. We’ve gotten a number of letters from cruisers who have recently been through Puerto Chiapas, and, other than the marina/boatyard being in the middle of nowhere, all have been universal in their praise for the marina, staff and boatyard. Almost all have praised local officials, too. This is a huge improvement from back when it was known as Puerto Madero and the home to many problems for cruisers.

There was additional good news out of Mexico from Ms. Grossman — although the fact that Mexican officials aren’t more knowledgeable about Mexican maritime law, and that the Mexican bureaucracy is so slow and reluctant to correct obvious errors, exacts a terrible cost on that country’s reputation. Many of you will remember the case of John Hands, long ago of Berkeley, who had to flee Mexico aboard his Beneteau Idylle 1150 Pelican because of an official’s blunder and the government’s refusal to correct the obvious error.

If we remember correctly, it was at Puerto Chipias where a bungling bureaucrat mistakenly made the expiration date for his boat’s new 10-year TIP 180 days rather than 10 years, because the bureaucrat got confused and wrote down the expiration date of Hands’ tourist visa. That a 10-year TIP ought to be good for 10 years and not 180 days should be obvious to everyone, but the Mexican IRS went after Hands, assessing a large fine and saying they now owned his boat. Despite being in his 70s, Hands successfully fled the 1,000 miles from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, having never paid the fine.

Thanks to the unstinting efforts of Tere Grossman and Lic. Elena Carrillo, the lawyer for the marina association, Hands’ boat has now been ‘released’ (even though it left the country about nine months ago).

"It’s incredible but true," Grossman wrote to Hands. "We have received the documents by which your boat has been released. The files in Banjercito show that your TIP expires in 2019, so you can enter Mexico with the same permit. Just for back-up, please carry the papers we are mailing to you."

"Incredible to say the least!" responded Hands. "Thanks again for all of your hard work, especially for doing battle with the bureaucracy when I had just about given up. I can’t say that I feel ‘lucky’, but hope that you and your team can feel some success."

Time for context. Please don’t let these two items give you a false impression of the paperwork situation in Mexico. The first was a very unusual mistake by one official at one location. The second was one of the worst results of the Mexico IRS fiasco of 2013-2014. We have heard of virtually no major paperwork problems this year, and Mexico has recently greatly improved their forms and instructions on how to fill out the forms. If, for example, you’re going to do the Baja Ha-Ha this fall, you can get your TIP, your tourist visas, and your fishing licenses online before you even cross the border. The paperwork situation isn’t yet perfect in Mexico, but it’s much better than it’s been in the past few years.