I think they always give you 180.
Not for the FMT. For FM3 yes.
Not from immigration, your airline is likely going to want to see a return ticket.

Correct

what do you mean 'not for the FMT'?
Is it possible to extend the FMT to 180 days? Or is it better to apply for an FM2/3? what's the dilly?

i also spoke to a real estate agent that said flying 'one-way' was permitted..

thanks

Anyone getting any wires back to the U.S. from a Mexican bank account yet?

The FMT is the little sheet of paper you get from immigration when you arrive in the country. You can leave and come back and get another FMT. I would recommend getting a FM3 since some banks require it to open a bank account and you will need it to open a Neteller account.

As for flying on a one way ticket to another country some airlines won't let you do it no matter what the law is in the country you are flying to. You can always buy a fully refundable ticket at the airport so it is not a huge deal.

Banks in Mexico do not require a FM3 to open a bank account. I have opened a bank account at Bancomer and Scotiabank Mexico with just an FMM (the FMT no longer exists afaik, they give you an FMM when you enter the country as a tourist, don't lose that thing), my passport, and my landlord's utility bill. HSBC Mexico required an FM3, so I just went to Bancomer and Scotiabank instead. Moneybookers doesn't require an FM3 to open an account so just use them instead of neteller.

did you say you were a mexican resident when signing up for moneybookers and they just never confirmed?

or did you still sign up as a US resident? new to moneybookers

arrived down in mexico last night. think im about to pull the trigger and grab a place to stay/sign a lease

also does anyone have any suggestions for which company/which plan/which air card to use as a back up?

i saw suggestions earlier but was wondering if anyone had any personal experience yet.

thanks

What part of Mexico you thinking about staying in Lipo Fund?

I also heard that if you call moneybookers right away instead of emailing them the customer service is amazing. Just tell them you are an american that moved to play online poker and they will up your limits immediately.

Some countries are REALLY concerned about you having a return ticket. I can't imagine Mexico cares.

Omg I went into Scotiabank and specifically told them I have an FMM and they denied me saying I needed an FM3. Does anyone know if Scotiabank is good for gambling transactions?

Wow nice. Thanks for that.

just opened a USD account at SANTANDER in about 20 minutes. the guy was very nice, but his english wasnt great. he had just been on vacation to orlando (where im from), so it was a great conversation starter. he asked me about FM(m/2/3) status and I told him I had the FMM. He called a supervisor over after that (not sure what if it was about my visa status or something unrelated) but they still were able to open an account.


i got everything i needed to do done in about 4 hours, including hunting down, looking at, and choosing between several apartments. scanning my documents now and gonna send them over to stars. been here <24 hours and i feel like ill be good to go

couldnt be possible without all the help from people in this thread. thank you guys very much.

I already had a MB account with a US address from back in the day, but after sending in my lease/utility/bank statement they changed it to Mexico. I'm still not on Stars yet because the address on my lease didn't fully match the address on my bank and I didn't notice (the person on the lease just put the street address but forgot the city, territory and zip). Make sure it's EXACTLY the same as your bank account or Stars probably won't accept this. This is assuming you don't have a utility bill in your name yet.

So far Scotiabank is fine with it. I deposited on Party using InstantBanking or whatever twice (lol $700 limit over some unknown time period), and so far everything has been fine. I wired money from Scotia to Betfair yesterday and when they asked me what it was for, because the name was Sporting Clients LTD, I told them just a personal payment. It hasn't hit my Betfair account yet but it should in the next couple days.

Depositing on MB was much easier because MB has a Scotiabank Mexico account so it's just a bank transfer instead of an international wire, which requires more time waiting at the teller. MB took about 3 minutes, the Betfair wire confused the **** out of the teller and took about 20 minutes total.

I haven't used Bancomer yet but I'm not expecting any issues based on others results.

Good to hear Lipo.
Whereabouts are you again?

Hm.. good to know thanks.

how long have you been down here z32? anyone get approved/verified recently and what was the time frame?

i am in cabo fwiw

gonna go enjoy myself for a bit. was quite the scurry getting everything done today. hopefully theres not too much of an off-time while waiting on stars

I'm in Playa del Carmen, got down here on 7/2, rented a place 7/5 and have been wading through red tape (getting $ from US to Mexico, getting deposit limits raised, etc etc) since then.

whats the best way to go about getting a place in playa? I'm probably heading down there in a month or so

ah no sht... i'll be down there in 12days..
first impressions?
where you living?

Wtf is this. How come people have been able to open accounts at ****ing Scotiabank when I was told I needed an FM3, and then I was told at Santander that I need a utility bill with my name for a USD account and then later someone goes into [probably the same] branch with no issue. This is such complete bull****.



EDIT: Forgot to add something about how this is tilting me so hard

not sure about playa, but first i went to a bunch of agencies. that was a waste of 90 minutes. they all took down my number and said they'd call back etc. i wanted to look at places then, and not later. i then just started walking into condo buildings and inquiring downstairs at desk. that was by far the best move. every building i walked into had available units, they showed them to me right then and there, and i was able to view/compare several units in almost no time at all to make a somewhat more informed decision.

I had never been to Playa before so I didn't know the areas at all. I emailed a few realtors I found on google about a week before I was planning on coming. After I found one that spoke english pretty well, I told him what I needed and what I was interested in, all furnished condos with private modems (many places have shared wireless). I told him when I'd be arriving, and we went through 4 or 5 places the first day I got down here, and 4 or 5 the next day, at which point I made a decision. One thing that's different from the US is Sunday is not the same in terms of realty. In the US it's probably the busiest day for going through places, but down basically here nobody shows anything on Sunday. Another good part was that he basically drove me around to the places and gave advice on where the best areas were, which I definitely wouldn't have been able to figure out within a few days. The place I ended up renting I never would've found because it's a little out of the way, but still about a block from the beach.

If I spoke spanish better, I'd definitely take the same route as Lipo. Most of the condo places didn't have someone who spoke english well enough that I could've rented a place on my own without massive confusion. My spanish isn't that good, I took it for 3yrs in HS and 2yrs in college, but haven't looked at it at all in 4yrs now. I'm not sure about Cabo, but in Playa most condo buildings have 20-25 units, so I'm not sure every place here will have a ton of empty units to choose from, but there are tons of different condo buildings down here to choose from. Also one issue is that because high season down here is November-March, a few places that are vacant now have already been rented for a few weeks or a month during that high season, so I had to find one that was open the whole time. It wasn't a huge problem, but it did eliminate my #2 choice, so something to consider.

If I move after my lease is up I'll definitely just start going into condo buildings like Lipo did, because I'll have way more time and a better idea where the best places to stay are. Having the realtor at first was huge for me though because he also recommended a bunch of restaurants and other important places around the condo I eventually ended up renting, and also could communicate perfectly with the condo administrators.

As far as realtors work, it's not like the US where you have a buyer agent who goes around as you look at any place for rent in the city. He told me there basically isn't a buyer agent system, so I only had the places listed through his office to choose from. That said, people will list their vacation homes through multiple offices, so there is a ton of selection. Just in his office he had about 10-15 2br furnished vacation condos available in good areas, and his company wasn't that big. It was sort of annoying to know that I could be missing out on a really good place because they aren't listed with the realtor, but having a local to negotiate with the owners and convey things to adminstrators (installing faster internet, other random stuff that doesn't work when you're renting a place that hasn't been lived in for a few months). It's possible in Cabo there is a higher % of english speakers so most of that wouldn't be necessary, but I've never been there either.

Cabs and food are really cheap here. There is absolutely no reason to ever feel unsafe walking around late at night because about 10-15% of cars on the road seem to be cabs, and going completely across town usually costs $3 including tip. I don't really feel unsafe walking around at night, but $3 is an insane deal imo.

There are a bunch of security guards everywhere, almost every condo building has a 24/7 security guard standing outside. Also you'll see a vacant dirt lot with a guy sitting in a folding chair, even at night, which in the US is sort of worrisome. Down here those are security guards making sure other people don't start squatting on the lot because evicting squatters is difficult here apparently so they just act preemptively.

The food here is really good, and really inexpensive. I'd say it's 60% mexican food, 30% Italian, 10% other. If you go out for dinner, something that I'm used to paying $40-50/each for (margaritas, appetizers, then dinner) is only about $20/each. There are a few US chain places here like Subway, but I ate there yesterday and it felt way overpriced and the food was terrible, compared to what I've been eating around here.

I like it so far, hopefully my spanish gets better soon so I can communicate with everyone better instead of sounding like an idiot or looking for the person who speaks english the best.

FWIW, same type of thing is happening up in Canada. Some people get turned down from opening an account because they're American, or b/c they want to do it for poker, then someone else walks into another branch of the same bank and opens an account no problem. Just a lot of variance in the process.

Glad you guys are posting lots of related info about Cabo/Playa, if people do start getting/using aircards as a backup, please post your experiences about that as well. It gets cold in the wintertime in Canada apparently

Not sure if you already mentioned this but if you dont mind what did it cost you to get into a place? Like was a depo required? How many rooms etc.?