Your thoughts on moving

We used Mayflower recently and although we never got the Menaje certified. They were able to clear Customs this past Monday. Mexico has a new rule which states you have to first register with immigration within 30 days of your arrival and get your card. Don't forget to get you VISA stamped when you go thru immigration at the airport or the border crossing if you are driving.

Now you can go back to the counsel in San Diego and have your Menaje de Casa legalized and ship your property. OR! as we were informed by the Mexican consulate in the states, if you can cross into Mexico at Otay they will let you in with out the Menaje being certified....you will need two copies of your Menaje,and Visa.

The idea of first entering Mexico, registering with immigration to get your card then going back to the states to get you Menaje legalized was explained to me as a complete foul up by the Mexican immigration system in mid 2020. This was explained to me at the stateside Mexican consulte we used. They also suggested that anyone coming in from the southwest USA use Otay crossing.

Let the folks at Mayflower pack your stuff (they did it for us, it was part of their fee))and they know what to write on each package for ease of getting thru customs. Mexico is not fond of you bringing in major tools and equipment as they interpret you bringing them in as an attempt to work, Now if you have a permanent residency visa and register with immigration as a permanent resident you are golden and no need to worry. Remember if you don't do this this on your FIRST entry with your visa and the stamp on it is over 180 days old you are dead meat and your going to pay duty on everything.

How was the experience dealing with HomeLand Security? I was told by the Allied rep that the packing has to be overseen by DHS and they have to approve the shipment. Frankly I would rather just walk away from everything than have a bunch of DHS goons basically doing a warrantless search of my stuff.

I got estimates from a couple of the majors, Allied & Mayflower. They were both insanely expensive, around $40k. Then the price would go up about $10k every time I had to tell them "you are shipping to the wrong coast". I could replace almost everything I own for that kind of money. Hell, for that kind of money I could hire a private jet and haul everything down here.

It seemed like this was the first time either of them had ever encountered someone moving to Mexico.

Neither of them seem to know much about geography; they both wanted to ship by sea from Long Beach, one to Veracruz, one to Puerto Vallarta. Seems kind of dumb to use the ports when I literally live in the border city, but apparently there are some rules that household goods can't cross the border by land.

They couldn't seem to find Zihua on a map let alone la Playa Buenavista. I even gave them the GPS coordinates of my house, circled on a map, and they still couldn't find the west coast. By the time I was done with Allied the route would be San Diego, Long Beach, Galveston, Veracruz, Morelia, Buenavista, and the price was north of $50k.

So they both seemed to me at best incompetent, and actually downright scammy. I've completely given up on them as I can see my stuff ending up in Buena Vista, Colorado in DHS custody.

Perhaps you could share the name of your Mayflower rep? Sounds like they can at least find the west coast of Mexico on a map, which puts them way ahead of the last Mayflower person I dealt with. I don't know anymore who is is bullshitting me and who is telling the truth.