Puerto Peñasco visitors will soon face tourist permit enforcement

Starting in May, all foreign visitors to Puerto Peñasco will need to get a tourist permit known as an “FMM” form, which is free for trips that last less than a week but requires a valid passport, or passport card, to obtain. The cost is about $40 for an FMM, or Forma Migratoria Múltiple, that’s valid for a stay of up to 180 days.

False information circulating on social media posts prompted Puerto Peñasco officials to meet with Sonora-based staff from Mexico’s National Migration Institute, known as INM, said Lizette Ybarra, spokeswoman for Puerto Peñasco’s tourism department.

During the peak season of March and April, INM officials “are going to support us by not asking for this form,” she said in Spanish on Thursday. “However, we want to extend the invitation to all foreign people in the U.S., mainly our neighbors in Arizona, that after crossing the border here ... do consider obtaining this form.”

INM now has a dedicated assistance team in its Sonoyta office to ensure a “seamless” process, Puerto Peñasco municipal secretary Alejandro Verdugo said in a Thursday statement.

Federal immigration officials in Mexico insist nothing has changed, and the requirement to get an FMM — which is not a visa — has always been in place, allowing Mexico to keep track of how many foreign visitors are in the country.

“There is no change nor has there been any change to the immigration law,” said Adriana Ángeles, deputy director of information for INM, writing in Spanish in a text message to the Arizona Daily Star. “Every foreign person who enters Mexico must go to the immigration office to register their entry.”

But regular travelers in Sonora and Baja California say enforcement of the FMM requirement has been heightened in recent months.

“We’ve been traveling down there for 35 years and it’s never been a problem, but it is now being enforced,” said Tempe resident Kendra Carver. She said in late February, she and her husband were allowed to “self-deport” from Baja California Sur after they stopped in an immigration office north of La Paz and admitted they did not have FMM forms.

The agent gave them 10 days to return to the U.S., but said their “self deportation” would be on their record and a second offense would have stiffer consequences, Carver told the Star.

“Frankly, they are doing the right thing enforcing immigration laws consistently, regardless of (foreigners’) country of origin,” she said. “But U.S. and especially Arizona residents need to be aware.”

This year’s spring-break tourism season has been somewhat dampened in Puerto Peñasco, amid tension between the U.S. and Mexican governments, as well as uncertainty over the requirements to visit “Arizona’s Beach,” also known as Rocky Point, business owners say.

Many Americans are accustomed to visiting Rocky Point without a passport, instead carrying a birth certificate or other ID to re-enter the U.S.

Some have been miffed by rumors of new enforcement of the FMM requirement, said Rocky Point travel agent Denise Ackerly.

“I’ve had so many cancellations from people who don’t have passports, or don’t want to deal with this hassle,” she said Tuesday. “Spring break is probably half of what it should be. My phone should be ringing off the hook and it’s not.”

Rocky Point officials say obtaining an FMM is a simple process: Visitors can get their FMM after entering Sonoyta, Sonora, from Lukeville, Arizona, at the INM office just west of the road. Travelers could instead fill out the form online and print it at home, but they must still stop at the INM office for their FMM to be stamped and to pay any required fees. The FMM is only valid for one entry into Mexico.

Tourists should also prepare for a new 114% tax on all imported alcohol, a change first reported by the Rocky Point Times.

Officials also emphasize Mexican car insurance and valid vehicle registration are required to drive in Mexico. But a temporary vehicle import permit, known as a TIP, is still not required to travel to Rocky Point, or anywhere within Sonora’s “free zone,” which stretches south to Empalme. Vehicular travel outside the free zone requires the purchase of a TIP.

Heightened enforcement

Mexico’s stepped-up immigration enforcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured Mexico, as well as Canada, to further reduce drug and human trafficking through the U.S.-Mexico border, or face steep tariffs on goods exported to the U.S.

Mexican Consul in Tucson Rafael Barceló said Mexico’s enforcement of its immigration laws is independent of U.S. politics.

“There is nothing that is new,” he said, and travelers’ confusion has stemmed from the sporadic enforcement of the FMM in the past. “There might be more enforcement at times. ... People should do now what they should have done in the past.”

In early February, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to send an additional 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border, in an effort to forestall Trump’s threatened tariffs. Nevertheless, after a one-month delay, on March 4 Trump implemented the 25% tariffs for three days, before delaying the tariffs again for another month, amid a U.S. stock market downturn.

Rocky Point-based tour guide Ruben Cordova said he was surprised by Mexico’s heightened enforcement in February, when he took a group of seven Americans and Canadians on a whale-watching trip in Guerrero Negro, in Baja California Sur. In the past, FMM forms haven’t been needed there, he said, but this time he was stopped at an immigration checkpoint where an agent asked for everyone’s FMM.

Five of the tourists with Cordova did not have the form, said Cordova, who grew up in Nogales, Arizona and has dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship.

The agent said he could technically deport the five undocumented tourists without their luggage, confiscate Cordova’s vehicle and arrest him for “transporting illegals,” Cordova recounted.

“’You’re considered a coyote.’ That’s what he told me,” Cordova said. But the agent said he would let it go, since Cordova was unaware of the heightened enforcement.

“I asked them, ‘Why are you guys enforcing this now?’” Cordova said. The agent suggested it had to do with U.S. pressure on Mexico and said, “We have orders from the top to start enforcing our laws more intensely now,” Cordova said.

In northern Mexico, the “border-zone” region has traditionally handled the FMM requirement with more flexibility and as of now, short-term visitors to Nogales, Sonora, and those who stay within 21 miles of the Arizona border, aren’t being asked for an FMM, said Josh Rubin, chairman of the Greater Nogales-Santa Cruz County Port Authority.

Likewise, Arizona allows non-immigrant Mexican tourists and shoppers with border-crossing cards to travel 75 miles into the state, as a means to facilitate tourism and commerce, without having to acquire an I-94 form recording their entry into the U.S., Rubin said.

But in the “border zone” of Baja California, heightened enforcement appears to be affecting day-tourists attending medical or dental appointments in Mexico: Last week, Mexican news outlets reported that on March 6, immigration officials in Los Algodones, Baja California, began requiring foreigners entering the town to first get an FMM card. But with too few staff to issue the passes, that led to lengthy lines, three-hour waits times and canceled medical appointments.

The delays even prompted a call from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official to determine what was going on, reported La Voz de la Frontera. A CBP spokesman declined to comment on the situation to the Star.

A dental clinic in Los Algodones told the Star Friday that all foreign visitors to the border town are now being asked how long they’re staying, and those staying longer than a week must get an FMM. The process has been running more smoothly lately, said Cesar Rivas, patient coordinator for Smile Crafters Algodones Dental Group.

The group’s U.S.-based customers “used to come in very often without this paperwork, so it’s like, ‘What’s going on here?’” he said.

Mexico City-based Ángeles of INM said she could not comment on the situation in Los Algodones and repeated that even in Nogales, Sonora, an FMM is technically required.

Wait times improved

Some Rocky Point tourists have been put off this year by longer waits to re-enter Arizona, following the February addition of a National Guard checkpoint where guardsmen have been searching every vehicle before it reaches the Lukeville port of entry.

Tourists report that wait times have improved since last month, following Sonora tourism officials’ request that the National Guard speed up those searches.

Puerto Peñasco Mayor Óscar Castro also said Lukeville port director Peter Bachelier agreed to extend the port’s closing time from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays from March to October, and to keep the port open after 8 p.m. on other days when vehicles are still in line.

Tourism in Puerto Peñasco had been slowly recovering amid lingering worry since the January 2024 Lukeville port closure, said tour guide Cordova. But that recovery seems to have stalled in recent months, he said. The U.S. temporarily closed the port in 2024 as CBP said its officers assigned to port duties were needed in the field to assist in the processing of migrant arrivals.

“People still have in their brain that they’re gonna close (the port) again,” making them less likely to plan a visit here, he said. “It’s the uncertainty of what’s going to happen.”

At Encántame Towers, business this season is only down about 5%, but restaurants and bars have reported a 15% to 20% drop compared to spring break in 2024, said Keith Allen, director of sales for Encántame Towers. That could also be due to heightened competition, as more bars and restaurants have opened in the last year, he said.

Tourism has also been hampered by safety concerns, following a number of incidents in which U.S. citizens or residents have been attacked while traveling through volatile regions of Sonora, sometimes heading toward Puerto Peñasco, he said.

But those travelers were not using the recommended route to reach Rocky Point from Arizona, which is along Highway 8 from the Lukeville port of entry, Allen said.

The U.S. State Department says its employees may not travel through the triangular region west of the Mariposa U.S. Port of Entry; east of Sonoyta, Sonora; and north of Altar, Sonora, on Highway 2.

Highway 2 has been the site of multiple violent incidents involving U.S. citizens or residents in recent years, on more than one occasion following the drivers’ failure to stop at an unauthorized “checkpoint,” manned by armed criminal groups.

The State Department recommends stopping at all checkpoints, whether or not one is sure the stop is manned by legitimate law enforcement.

Allen said extended wait times when returning to Arizona can be avoided by leaving early in the day on busy Sundays, or holidays, or waiting until late afternoon. About 1 p.m. seems to be the busiest time at the Sonoyta port, he said.

Ackerly said she hopes Mexican officials will be clear and consistent with their expectations, so tourists can focus on the joy of visiting Rocky Point. With the recent uncertainty, she worries some might opt for a trip to San Diego instead.

“We’re competing with other places in the States where people can spend their vacation money,” she said. “I want them to have fun, I want them to come back again and again, and not choose somewhere that they think is easier.”