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I am a US citizen with an FM3 that spends 5-6 months per year in Mexico. I bought a car with mexican plates and would like to drive it to San Antonio, TX to visit relatives for a couple of weeks, is this posible and what do I need at the border?
I occasionally see cars with Mexican plates in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and even Louisiana so it is definately possible to drive your car into the US. I would think the main issue here would be to just carry a copy of the registration and the title along with proof of US (not Mexican) auto insurance.
What the general consensus concluded is if you have a US state issued license and try to do it they might tell you the vehicle is not allowed into the country. If you have a Mexican issued license and show that plus your FM3 to give a semblance of legal presence in Mexico then they probably will let you in. If you want to play it safe, have a Mexican national drive the car just across the border and then you should have no problems. Being a US citizen with a US license can cause technical issues.
There is no problem with the operation of the vehicle in the US, it can remain up to one year. The issue is just in the act of crossing the border. Remember border patrol agents while guided by regulations are really allowed to say no at any time if they don't like the "situation". You can't argue points of law with them, the border patrol station is not a fair and impartial court of law. They make decisions based on gut feel dozens of times each day.
hello I am a Mexican and my husband is dutch, we just bought a brand new Accura and we are moving to Los Angeles for job related issues. We will be in US as L1 and L2 to have our green cards finally after a year or two. Have read that there is no problem to take the car with us, cross the border but we have to export the car after a year of being in the States, is that true? can we cross the border and cross it back for another year? thank you but all these is new for us.
hello I am a Mexican and my husband is dutch, we just bought a brand new Accura and we are moving to Los Angeles for job related issues. We will be in US as L1 and L2 to have our green cards finally after a year or two. Have read that there is no problem to take the car with us, cross the border but we have to export the car after a year of being in the States, is that true? can we cross the border and cross it back for another year? thank you but all these is new for us.
It won't pass a smog check in California so yes within a short period of time you will for legal purposes need to have the car out of the state. Its not about just crossing the border, it cannot be registered if it is a Mexican model of an Acura or any other car. Even though the Mexican model may be as low on the pollution scale as a California model, it still can't pass because the test is based on what the internal computer "says" to the smog test computer and foreign cars have no way to pass this test in California or any county in the US which requires a smog check. It is just intentional red tape.
Its unfortunate you bought a new one because you will take a loss on it, but always always always sell your Mexican cars in Mexico. They are worth far more there and then you will have plenty of money to spend on a car in the US where used cars especially are far cheaper.
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