brezarenee
08-24-2008, 08:48 PM
This is long…sorry. But I decided to post, because I would have loved to have read a post like this before I made our move. So hopefully someone else can find some use out of it ;-) Plus…ahem…I’m avoiding the inlaws at the moment, so I have the time to write a novel…
***Our trip from Minneapolis to Mexico City***
Well we’ve made it here all in one piece and wanted to let everyone know as well as share any details that people might find helpful/interesting.
Alright then, so as you already know, we were getting ready for a move to Mexico for a year where we would live in the house that my hubby (and I) have built slowly over the past 5 years. The house has plenty of room (4 bedrooms) but the minor problem of three of those bedrooms being occupied by my hubby’s family. That little nuisance aside, we set out to bring all of our household necessities with so that we would have a complete household not only for this year but for in the future when we come to visit (and for MIL and G-ma who will always live here).
So since we wanted to bring loads of stuff with us, we decided to drive rather than fly and pull a trailer full of stuffs behind us. Seemed simple enough when we started, but, um…well…not so much. Originally since I have an FM-3, which allows me to import household goods and a vehicle for free, we had planned to have me import everything. But then we found out that I would have to export all of those things when my FM-3 expires – so that was a no-go. You are allowed to bring $300 worth of stuff per person when you drive across the border, and anything above that is taxed at a 15% rate of the value as determined by the customs officials. The chances of actually having everything inspected and having to pay that extra tax is rather slim….however, we didn’t want to take the risk. So…we decided to have my hubby do a ménage de casa – which is for Mexican nationals returning to Mexico you are allowed to bring in a reasonable amount of used household goods to setup your home again as long as you can prove you were in the US for at least 2 years and provide an complete inventoried list of everything you bring. Check out this website for more info. http://www.paisano.gob.mx/
We went to our local consulate in Detroit to process the Menage which is supposed to be certified by them, but were told no need for certification, just complete it, make four copies, and bring it to the border. Sketchy, yes, but that’s what we went ahead and did. Meaning each box meticulously inventoried with an estimated value for each and every item we would be importing.
Now, we couldn’t bring our entire household with us because it would be too much and well there are many things that I want to have here in the US where our primary residence will be. So we had to put most of our stuff in storage. We ended up moving out of our house in Michigan and moving all of our stuff to be stored at my mom’s house in Minneapolis. Had we been better planners we would have had the entire ménage done and packed before moving to MN, but we’re not, so all of that sorting and inventorying was left to do at my mama’s house. Luckily she’s patient with us because we literally made a disaster of her house for 3 weeks while we sorted through everything and decided what would stay and what would go. Any new things we brought with we made sure to wash and take tags off of so they wouldn’t look new since the rule is it must be at least 6 months old.
You are not allowed to bring cars in as part of your ménage de casa, so my husband decided he wanted to nationalize a car in Mexico because he worried about the risk that we might face driving a car with US plates in Mexico City. As many of you know the current rule is you can only import cars that are exactly 10 years old. Finding our ’98 SUV is a whole another story for another day, but let’s just say we found one in good shape and were ready to rock and roll with it. Since we needed to nationalize the car and didn’t want to be held up in Laredo, we decided to use an agent to get everything set for us. Hermanos Cuevas 956-753-3190 is a company that many people recommend, so it’s who we decided to use. They seem to be the biggest agency in Laredo that nationalizes vehicles and were very helpful. We just had to send copies of bills from Mexico, copies of my hubby’s ID, and the title 2 weeks ahead of time and they could get it all set for us. The cost for our luxury SUV (ha that’s a joke, but there’s a sunroof and leather seats, so whatever) was $820 including their fee, which I’m still not sure exactly how much it was.
The trailer on the other hand was a bit of an Achilles heal for us. We had all of the rest of it all set but where to find a trailer? We wanted an enclosed trailer because of the rainy season, but our car was only a V6, so we couldn’t be too ambitious. I wasn’t finding any good deals on used trailers so we ended up getting a bottom of the line 5x8 enclosed trailer from Fleet Farm which we are hoping to sell here for what we paid for it (fingers crossed). Since the trailer was brand new, legalizing it cost us $400, which we were told was the highest you would have to pay for a trailer and only because ours was new, not used.
Those details all set…we set off on our journey with our trailer packed as tight as possible and our car packed to the brim, except for where the three of us sat. My mom had taken charge of activities for our 2-year-old during the trip – including many wrapped gifts, new dvds to watch on the dvd player, lots of toys, snacks, and stickers – OMG stickers all over our car when we arrived I’m telling you!
We really thought it was going to be a pretty hellish ride with a two year old, but it really wasn’t that bad. We planned for only 8 hour days to try to reduce his antsyness. I35 goes all the way from Minneapolis straight to Laredo – lucky for us! From Minneapolis first stop was Preoria KS, which is an hour past Kansas City (the Fairfield Inn is nice – we paid $70). The next stop was Temple Texas right south of Waco (The Best Western was okay, kinda sketch area, we paid $75). Finally we ended in Laredo and stayed at the Springhill Suites which were very nice however the price was a bit higher at $100, but after looking around at a few other hotels in the area this was where we felt the safest leaving our car and trailer in the parking lot over night. And it’s located just a block away from Hermanos Cuevas so it made our business easy.
Of course, that would only be easy if Mr. Breza was not a bit forgetful and forgot to take the money out of the bank before we arrived on Sunday when banks are closed!! I was literally banging my head against the wall because we ended up losing a whole day because of this. Oh well, que sera, right? The next day the car was legalized muy rapido, but the trailer took many many many many hours. So late did we get it’s paperwork that we ended up adding an extra night to our stay in Laredo. Turned out to be a good thing though because sleeping in a nice hotel took away the grumpiness that I felt and we were able to wash clothes one last time before crossing over.
So Laredo basically freaked me out because there are border patrol cars all over the place. We were constantly running into them and it made us so nervous. By the time we were driving to the border that next morning we were just feeling relieved to finally cross and not have the worry of my hubby being illegal anymore. Although as we approached the bridge our new fear appeared of whether we would have to unload the trailer or not. Unloading the trailer would be a travesty because it was packed in there like a perfect Tetris board, and without a doubt we would surely muck it up trying to do it again.
I’m pretty sure we were supposed to go through the ‘voluntary declaration’ line, since we had the ménage all prepared, but hubby wanted to risk the ‘nothing to declare’ line – so we did. The first light at the bridge was green – yay! We’re awesome!! But even though we’d entered Mexico, that wasn’t the end of customs. 26 Kilometers down the road was the real customs checkpoint. As we approached it we crossed our fingers for a green, but didn’t even make it to our light and were stopped instead. What could they want? Oh, nothing big, just to see my passport. I’m still rocking it because I’ve got a shiny new FM-3 in my passport and I’m ready to go. At least that’s what I thought, until the agent asked when I’d entered and where my stamp was. Crappolo!! We’d entered at Bridge 2, which is mostly used by returning Mexican nationals so no one had even asked me for my passport and I’d received no darn stamp. I was illegal!!! What a funny juxtaposition that was. Of course they can just give me a stamp at this checkpoint, right? Nope. Not a point of entry, we had to turn around and go back. Finding the bridge again was no easy task. All we could find was the entrance to the US and I was freaking out about us accidentally getting in that line and then Mr. Breza ending up with another EWI or something – yikes! We made a turn down a road that surely looked like a 2-way, but because our luck was not with us that day, it was a one-way with a Poli standing on the corner. Oh you should have seen the smile on his face to see a car with US plates actually make an illegal turn. He was ecstatic to get his mordida. It was only $20 because that was all we told him we had, he was asking for more though for sure. Sadly, when we were stopped we were only a couple blocks from the bridge where I needed to be stamped.
So we got the stamp – yay! – and got back on our way. Retracing our steps to checkpoint 26. Arriving again I showed mine and my sons fresh stamps and we were waved through to the scary light. As we started to pass we saw about 10 cars loaded full or pulling loaded trailers being inspected to our right so we got even more nervous…but…as we pulled through….GREEN! Lucky us! And I’m telling you, the only reason we got two green lights is because I spent days meticulously inventorying our stuff for the Menage de Casa – Murphy’s law if I hadn’t done that we would have been stopped and paid a hefty fine.
On our way again to the North Side of Mexico City where we would soon call home. All in all, the roads were fine. We took the toll roads the whole way and didn’t have any problems except for the insane cost of them (we paid about $120 USD getting from Laredo to Mexico State) and the lack of gas stations. We almost ran out of gas because we hopped on a tollroad with ¾ tank. Well lesson learned, fill up your tank in Mexico no matter how full it is. From then on we stopped at nearly every gas station we saw because at times they were so sparse - mainly from Laredo to San Luis Potosi….after that they were fairly often.
We had planned on stopping at a hotel that first night since it’s said to be a 14 hour drive. However I hadn’t been able to find any hotels online that were near the highway. (Now that I’ve arrived I’ve heard that there are some places in Matehuala, but I didn’t see them!). So we ended up just buckling down for a 14 hour drive, which because of our morning hassles would get us there at 2AM. Not too bad with 2 of us driving. Well, lucky us, when nightfall came so did the rain, so from about 9 until 2 am it was pouring dogs and burros. Needless to say, that slowed our trip quite a bit, stretching a 14 hour drive into 16 hours, so we arrived at 4AM on my hubby’s family’s doorstep.
They had NO clue we were arriving then since we’d told them we’d arrive Thursday evening and it was early Wednesday morning. MIL was a wreck and delighted to see us, and everyone else just seemed kinda PO’d at being awoken so early – ha! We went to sleep for a few hours and then unloaded the trailer with the help of many cousins and other fam.
So here we are, safe and sound! We made it! I’ve already got lots of good living in Mexico stories, but I’ll save those for another post as this is already long enough as it is.
***Our trip from Minneapolis to Mexico City***
Well we’ve made it here all in one piece and wanted to let everyone know as well as share any details that people might find helpful/interesting.
Alright then, so as you already know, we were getting ready for a move to Mexico for a year where we would live in the house that my hubby (and I) have built slowly over the past 5 years. The house has plenty of room (4 bedrooms) but the minor problem of three of those bedrooms being occupied by my hubby’s family. That little nuisance aside, we set out to bring all of our household necessities with so that we would have a complete household not only for this year but for in the future when we come to visit (and for MIL and G-ma who will always live here).
So since we wanted to bring loads of stuff with us, we decided to drive rather than fly and pull a trailer full of stuffs behind us. Seemed simple enough when we started, but, um…well…not so much. Originally since I have an FM-3, which allows me to import household goods and a vehicle for free, we had planned to have me import everything. But then we found out that I would have to export all of those things when my FM-3 expires – so that was a no-go. You are allowed to bring $300 worth of stuff per person when you drive across the border, and anything above that is taxed at a 15% rate of the value as determined by the customs officials. The chances of actually having everything inspected and having to pay that extra tax is rather slim….however, we didn’t want to take the risk. So…we decided to have my hubby do a ménage de casa – which is for Mexican nationals returning to Mexico you are allowed to bring in a reasonable amount of used household goods to setup your home again as long as you can prove you were in the US for at least 2 years and provide an complete inventoried list of everything you bring. Check out this website for more info. http://www.paisano.gob.mx/
We went to our local consulate in Detroit to process the Menage which is supposed to be certified by them, but were told no need for certification, just complete it, make four copies, and bring it to the border. Sketchy, yes, but that’s what we went ahead and did. Meaning each box meticulously inventoried with an estimated value for each and every item we would be importing.
Now, we couldn’t bring our entire household with us because it would be too much and well there are many things that I want to have here in the US where our primary residence will be. So we had to put most of our stuff in storage. We ended up moving out of our house in Michigan and moving all of our stuff to be stored at my mom’s house in Minneapolis. Had we been better planners we would have had the entire ménage done and packed before moving to MN, but we’re not, so all of that sorting and inventorying was left to do at my mama’s house. Luckily she’s patient with us because we literally made a disaster of her house for 3 weeks while we sorted through everything and decided what would stay and what would go. Any new things we brought with we made sure to wash and take tags off of so they wouldn’t look new since the rule is it must be at least 6 months old.
You are not allowed to bring cars in as part of your ménage de casa, so my husband decided he wanted to nationalize a car in Mexico because he worried about the risk that we might face driving a car with US plates in Mexico City. As many of you know the current rule is you can only import cars that are exactly 10 years old. Finding our ’98 SUV is a whole another story for another day, but let’s just say we found one in good shape and were ready to rock and roll with it. Since we needed to nationalize the car and didn’t want to be held up in Laredo, we decided to use an agent to get everything set for us. Hermanos Cuevas 956-753-3190 is a company that many people recommend, so it’s who we decided to use. They seem to be the biggest agency in Laredo that nationalizes vehicles and were very helpful. We just had to send copies of bills from Mexico, copies of my hubby’s ID, and the title 2 weeks ahead of time and they could get it all set for us. The cost for our luxury SUV (ha that’s a joke, but there’s a sunroof and leather seats, so whatever) was $820 including their fee, which I’m still not sure exactly how much it was.
The trailer on the other hand was a bit of an Achilles heal for us. We had all of the rest of it all set but where to find a trailer? We wanted an enclosed trailer because of the rainy season, but our car was only a V6, so we couldn’t be too ambitious. I wasn’t finding any good deals on used trailers so we ended up getting a bottom of the line 5x8 enclosed trailer from Fleet Farm which we are hoping to sell here for what we paid for it (fingers crossed). Since the trailer was brand new, legalizing it cost us $400, which we were told was the highest you would have to pay for a trailer and only because ours was new, not used.
Those details all set…we set off on our journey with our trailer packed as tight as possible and our car packed to the brim, except for where the three of us sat. My mom had taken charge of activities for our 2-year-old during the trip – including many wrapped gifts, new dvds to watch on the dvd player, lots of toys, snacks, and stickers – OMG stickers all over our car when we arrived I’m telling you!
We really thought it was going to be a pretty hellish ride with a two year old, but it really wasn’t that bad. We planned for only 8 hour days to try to reduce his antsyness. I35 goes all the way from Minneapolis straight to Laredo – lucky for us! From Minneapolis first stop was Preoria KS, which is an hour past Kansas City (the Fairfield Inn is nice – we paid $70). The next stop was Temple Texas right south of Waco (The Best Western was okay, kinda sketch area, we paid $75). Finally we ended in Laredo and stayed at the Springhill Suites which were very nice however the price was a bit higher at $100, but after looking around at a few other hotels in the area this was where we felt the safest leaving our car and trailer in the parking lot over night. And it’s located just a block away from Hermanos Cuevas so it made our business easy.
Of course, that would only be easy if Mr. Breza was not a bit forgetful and forgot to take the money out of the bank before we arrived on Sunday when banks are closed!! I was literally banging my head against the wall because we ended up losing a whole day because of this. Oh well, que sera, right? The next day the car was legalized muy rapido, but the trailer took many many many many hours. So late did we get it’s paperwork that we ended up adding an extra night to our stay in Laredo. Turned out to be a good thing though because sleeping in a nice hotel took away the grumpiness that I felt and we were able to wash clothes one last time before crossing over.
So Laredo basically freaked me out because there are border patrol cars all over the place. We were constantly running into them and it made us so nervous. By the time we were driving to the border that next morning we were just feeling relieved to finally cross and not have the worry of my hubby being illegal anymore. Although as we approached the bridge our new fear appeared of whether we would have to unload the trailer or not. Unloading the trailer would be a travesty because it was packed in there like a perfect Tetris board, and without a doubt we would surely muck it up trying to do it again.
I’m pretty sure we were supposed to go through the ‘voluntary declaration’ line, since we had the ménage all prepared, but hubby wanted to risk the ‘nothing to declare’ line – so we did. The first light at the bridge was green – yay! We’re awesome!! But even though we’d entered Mexico, that wasn’t the end of customs. 26 Kilometers down the road was the real customs checkpoint. As we approached it we crossed our fingers for a green, but didn’t even make it to our light and were stopped instead. What could they want? Oh, nothing big, just to see my passport. I’m still rocking it because I’ve got a shiny new FM-3 in my passport and I’m ready to go. At least that’s what I thought, until the agent asked when I’d entered and where my stamp was. Crappolo!! We’d entered at Bridge 2, which is mostly used by returning Mexican nationals so no one had even asked me for my passport and I’d received no darn stamp. I was illegal!!! What a funny juxtaposition that was. Of course they can just give me a stamp at this checkpoint, right? Nope. Not a point of entry, we had to turn around and go back. Finding the bridge again was no easy task. All we could find was the entrance to the US and I was freaking out about us accidentally getting in that line and then Mr. Breza ending up with another EWI or something – yikes! We made a turn down a road that surely looked like a 2-way, but because our luck was not with us that day, it was a one-way with a Poli standing on the corner. Oh you should have seen the smile on his face to see a car with US plates actually make an illegal turn. He was ecstatic to get his mordida. It was only $20 because that was all we told him we had, he was asking for more though for sure. Sadly, when we were stopped we were only a couple blocks from the bridge where I needed to be stamped.
So we got the stamp – yay! – and got back on our way. Retracing our steps to checkpoint 26. Arriving again I showed mine and my sons fresh stamps and we were waved through to the scary light. As we started to pass we saw about 10 cars loaded full or pulling loaded trailers being inspected to our right so we got even more nervous…but…as we pulled through….GREEN! Lucky us! And I’m telling you, the only reason we got two green lights is because I spent days meticulously inventorying our stuff for the Menage de Casa – Murphy’s law if I hadn’t done that we would have been stopped and paid a hefty fine.
On our way again to the North Side of Mexico City where we would soon call home. All in all, the roads were fine. We took the toll roads the whole way and didn’t have any problems except for the insane cost of them (we paid about $120 USD getting from Laredo to Mexico State) and the lack of gas stations. We almost ran out of gas because we hopped on a tollroad with ¾ tank. Well lesson learned, fill up your tank in Mexico no matter how full it is. From then on we stopped at nearly every gas station we saw because at times they were so sparse - mainly from Laredo to San Luis Potosi….after that they were fairly often.
We had planned on stopping at a hotel that first night since it’s said to be a 14 hour drive. However I hadn’t been able to find any hotels online that were near the highway. (Now that I’ve arrived I’ve heard that there are some places in Matehuala, but I didn’t see them!). So we ended up just buckling down for a 14 hour drive, which because of our morning hassles would get us there at 2AM. Not too bad with 2 of us driving. Well, lucky us, when nightfall came so did the rain, so from about 9 until 2 am it was pouring dogs and burros. Needless to say, that slowed our trip quite a bit, stretching a 14 hour drive into 16 hours, so we arrived at 4AM on my hubby’s family’s doorstep.
They had NO clue we were arriving then since we’d told them we’d arrive Thursday evening and it was early Wednesday morning. MIL was a wreck and delighted to see us, and everyone else just seemed kinda PO’d at being awoken so early – ha! We went to sleep for a few hours and then unloaded the trailer with the help of many cousins and other fam.
So here we are, safe and sound! We made it! I’ve already got lots of good living in Mexico stories, but I’ll save those for another post as this is already long enough as it is.