Departing Ixtapa airport permanent resident

You are to go to immigration FIRST, then to the counter to get your flight.

Interesting. I tried to do that once and migración told me to go to the airline first, so I have done it that way ever since and no one has ever told me otherwise.

In DF one must check in with the airline before going to migración. At MEX, the migración kiosk is inside the secure area. To get into the secure area one must have their boarding pass and have already left any checked baggage with the airline.

Clearly at MEX it would not even be possible to go migración before going to the airline’s counter.