Driving Our Car in Mexico, Part 2

Because it took us a few weeks to start our Visa processing, the first thing we did after our first trip to Immigration in Guadalajara was to go to the tax office to get our TIP expiration date extended. Unfortunately, no one at the Immigration office seemed to know what we were talking about, so we showed them the paper they gave us at the border. They directed us to a SAT (Servicio de Administracion Tributaria, or Tax) office in Guadalajara.

SAT #1: Guadalajara

We Ubered there an eventually found someone who spoke enough English, who told us we were at the wrong SAT office and that we needed to go to another one even farther away, in the far northeast neighborhood of Zapopan.

SAT #2: Zapopan

We went there, once again found someone who spoke English, who told us we were at the wrong office and that instead of SAT, we needed to go the Customs Office at the Guadalajara airport, south of the city. It was getting late so we decided that I would do that another day.

SAT #3: Guadalajara Airport

Two days later I made the trip to the Guadalajara Airport, not knowing exactly where I needed to go. As I Ubered into the airport I saw a big gate with a SAT sign, but continued on to a Customs Office address I had found online. No one there seemed to know what I was trying to do. I proceeded to walk to the SAT sign, and was shown to an office where they seemed to only be mildly confused as to what I was trying to do. There was no English spoken. Eventually, I filled out some forms I didn’t understand, gave them copies of my TIP and passport, and received a date-stamped form. I was expecting another official looking TIP, but I didn’t get that, so now we have the expired TIP and a stamped form with no expiration date.

I was told online that I needed to go back to the same office once we finally got our Residente Temporal cards, so I returned with the green card, expecting to get a more official document. The people at the office looked at me like I was crazy. They initially told me that I didn’t need anything new, but eventually had me fill out the same forms and gave me a new stamped form. Again, no expiration.

Crossed Fingers!

We can only hope that we’ll get our $400 deposit back when we cross back over the border into the United States with the truck this summer.