Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Changing Entry Procedure for Private Acft

This is a “heads up” and is preliminary but some persons have begun to communicate it. We had hoped to have more answers to the tough questions than we presently have but wanted to get this out there. We do know that the following is being communicated to those airports in Mexico with an AFAC office.

Mexico's AFAC is planning to change the entry process for foreign aircraft.

Historically Mexico’s Civil Aviation law said that PERMITS were NOT required of foreign aircraft but rather an AUTHORIZATION. Nonetheless, for many years the authorization was called a Single Entry and Multiple Entry Permit. This year (2023) they changed the Civil Aviation Law and its Regulation, and the concept of a Multiple Entry Authorization was eliminated.

It appears that Mexico’s AFAC is eliminating the reference to a Single Entry Permit and a Multiple Entry Permit and replacing it with a "Single Entry Authorization" (Autorización de Internación Única) which will be valid for 180 days. There are ambiguous references which could be interpreted that the authorization could be used like the previous Multiple Entry Permit for a period of 180 days but that is not yet clearly specified. For now, assume this new authorization is like the old Single Entry Permit which is valid for 180 days or when the aircraft leaves the country, whichever comes first. There are also plans to replace the old procedures for the arrival processing of foreign registered aircraft into Mexico. In the meantime, they plan to continue to use the old procedure until the new procedure comes out in the first half of 2024.

The biggest issue we see is that the NEW Single Entry Authorization must be requested 2 DAYS BEFORE the aircraft arrives in Mexico. There is no explanation of what will happen when an aircraft arrives in Mexico that did not request their authorization 2 days in advance nor is there any mention of how this prior approval process is going to work to request an authorization in advance. Obviously the 2 day prior permission required is going to pose challenges to aviation tourism.

Given the time of year, we are hoping that the AFAC will postpone this implementation or offer a grace period until the procedure is better defined, explained and communicated. However, if you are planning a flight to Mexico after December 31, 2023, you should investigate what the final requirements are. We hope to have more in the coming days.