In an earlier post, I wrote about crossing the border at Tecate, then the process of getting the FMT, paying for it, the long lineups, etc.

Imagine our surprise when we went to the airport a few days ago. Laura was heading back to Canada for a bit and as expected, produced the FMT at the ticket counter along with her passport. "Where’s the receipt?" The agent asked. "What receipt?" We said.

We then found out that when we got the FMT’s we were also supposed to get receipt at the border, but that didn’t happen. Once we got the document we’d been given stamped, we took it back to customs and the agent took it from us, stamped the FMT, then we left. He didn’t give us the receipt and we didn’t know we needed one.

Off we went to customs. There, the agent asked for the receipt. When we said we didn’t have it, he told us he could check the different border crossings by computer and had a list of phone numbers. Coincidentally, though, he didn’t have the phone number or access to the computer records for Tecate on the day that we crossed.

That was awfully convenient.

The end result is we had to pay the fee of $262.00 pesos again because we didn’t have the receipt. And when I go to cross the border it will likely happen to me too, unless we drive all the way back up to Tecate and cross there. Surely they couldn’t misplace their records there, could they?

Then, to top it all off, another couple came in behind us. Same problem. Same fee. Big surprise. They were pissed, and rightly so.

I’m undecided about this one. It has the markings of a scam, but perhaps the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

A new development is the FMM, which is due to replace the FMT on May 1st. We’ll see what happens then. Until then, if you cross the border by foot or by vehicle, make sure you get the receipt.