Hi all,
Here is my dilemma. I plan to buy a car here in Pennsylvania and drive down to Mexico with my boyfriend (who is Mexican). I see myself as having two options:
- Take the car in on a tourist visa. The problem with this is that, I will have to drive to the border to renew the car permit every six months or a year. In Pennsylvania, your car must be inspected on a yearly basis to keep the registration (and thus, the insurance, valid). It is unrealistic for me to drive back to PA once a year, so I would have to let the registration expire. This would present a problem, I imagine, in re-newing the vehicle permit at the border (and I do not particularly want to drive to the border once a year either). I also run the risk of getting pulled over by the cops crossing back into the US after a year when it expired. Since I will eventually need to take the car out of the country, I could not do anything with it once I get over the border line since the registration will be expired - I can't drive it anywhere without risking getting pulled over by the cops...
- Nationalize the car at the border in my boyfriend's name. I have done research on this despite hearing commentary on here saying that they are no longer nationalizing cars. I contacted someone from this website Superimportaciones.com | Legalización y Nacionalización de Vehículos y Pick ups - Laredo, TX / legalizacion de vehiculos and they told me about the process, and costs. I understand it needs to be nationalized in a Mexican's name. Once I get my FM-3 visa, he could "sell" it back to me in my name. My question is, can I drive it in Mexico while it is still in his name?
Would it be better to import it as a tourist, keeping US plates, until I have an FM-3, then driving it back to the border, and nationalizing it directly into my name?
Any advice?
I imagine it would be hard to register my car in, say, a border state, since I do not have domicile there or nor do I know anyone who's address I could use. I could maybe get a post office box but I don't know if that would work.
Any advice would help from gringos who have kept their US plates but have had the registration expire because of a requirement like a state inspection etc and how they dealt with this issue, and also if anyone knows if I can drive a car that is in a Mexican's name, like my boyfriends car....
Thanks!
Here is my dilemma. I plan to buy a car here in Pennsylvania and drive down to Mexico with my boyfriend (who is Mexican). I see myself as having two options:
- Take the car in on a tourist visa. The problem with this is that, I will have to drive to the border to renew the car permit every six months or a year. In Pennsylvania, your car must be inspected on a yearly basis to keep the registration (and thus, the insurance, valid). It is unrealistic for me to drive back to PA once a year, so I would have to let the registration expire. This would present a problem, I imagine, in re-newing the vehicle permit at the border (and I do not particularly want to drive to the border once a year either). I also run the risk of getting pulled over by the cops crossing back into the US after a year when it expired. Since I will eventually need to take the car out of the country, I could not do anything with it once I get over the border line since the registration will be expired - I can't drive it anywhere without risking getting pulled over by the cops...
- Nationalize the car at the border in my boyfriend's name. I have done research on this despite hearing commentary on here saying that they are no longer nationalizing cars. I contacted someone from this website Superimportaciones.com | Legalización y Nacionalización de Vehículos y Pick ups - Laredo, TX / legalizacion de vehiculos and they told me about the process, and costs. I understand it needs to be nationalized in a Mexican's name. Once I get my FM-3 visa, he could "sell" it back to me in my name. My question is, can I drive it in Mexico while it is still in his name?
Would it be better to import it as a tourist, keeping US plates, until I have an FM-3, then driving it back to the border, and nationalizing it directly into my name?
Any advice?
I imagine it would be hard to register my car in, say, a border state, since I do not have domicile there or nor do I know anyone who's address I could use. I could maybe get a post office box but I don't know if that would work.
Any advice would help from gringos who have kept their US plates but have had the registration expire because of a requirement like a state inspection etc and how they dealt with this issue, and also if anyone knows if I can drive a car that is in a Mexican's name, like my boyfriends car....
Thanks!