There has been a lot of information, misinformation, opinions and theories regarding the Mexico APIS regulations. The purpose of this post is to bring you up to date with the facts as we know them.
Executive Summary (in case you don’t want to read all the details)
The Mexican APIS legally went into effect on December 31, 2013 for ALL AIRCRAFT including private flights. ARINC is the ONLY portal, all third parties have to go through the ARINC portal. The procedures for filing an APIS and the ARINC portal are cumbersome, inefficient and unrealistic for General Aviation and create a burden to anyone filling a Mexican APIS (third party providers included). The Mexican APIS process is currently in an evaluation mode and at some point will go into enforcement mode. Local immigration officials at airports do not have the infrastructure and training to determine compliance at this time, what is going on in Mexico City, we do not know. We have met with the Director General of Compliance and Enforcement of Mexican Immigration to express concerns, issues and recommendations and have a follow up meeting with him next week. Officially, we are expected to be complying with the law, the reality is that enforcement may be difficult for the Immigration authorities at this time, when that will change, we do not know. For those who don't want to take any chances, we have a
solution.
Information already published:• In October 2012, Caribbean Sky Tours contacted the Director General of Mexico’s DGAC as well as the President of the Mexican Pilots Association and expressed our concerns about the provisions in the newly implemented Mexican Immigration law requiring the implementation of an electronic system for advanced notification on vessels (aircraft and boats), crew and passengers entering or leaving Mexico (Mexico APIS). At the same time, we posted an alert about the Mexico APIS on the Caribbean Sky Tours on-line forum, the Mexican Pilots on-line forum and on the AOPA on-line forum to alert pilots in Mexico and the USA about this upcoming regulation.
• In 2013 the regulations for the Mexico APIS were passed and we continued to question how it would apply to General Aviation. The Mexican DGAC indicated that they had no knowledge of the system and how it would affect civil aviation.
• In November, 2013 a notice was posted in the Mexican Federal Register that the Mexico APIS would go into effect on December 31, 2013. The notice was unclear as to whether private aircraft were included. The notice also declared that ARINC (a USA company) was chosen by the Mexican government to operate the Mexican APIS portal.
• The Mexican regulations (as they are currently published) require:
o Data elements similar to the USA eAPIS system with addition of country of birth for passengers (the USA eAPIS only requires this for crew).
o That the data be submitted in different format than the one used by the USA eAPIS system (thus making it more difficult for current third party vendors of eAPIS systems to adapt, assuming they were allowed).
o That airport codes for airports of departure and arrival be provided in IATA code format and not ICAO format
o For flights TO Mexico that are of less than 1 hour duration, the manifest be submitted once the doors of the aircraft are closed.
o For flights TO Mexico of greater than one hour travel, the manifest be submitted 30 minutes prior to departure and then submitted again once the doors of the aircraft are closed but prior to takeoff.
o For flights FROM Mexico, the manifest be submitted 30 minutes prior to departure.
• ARINC is providing access to the Mexican APIS portal for a fee. The cost is US$ 250 to subscribe and you must sign a one-year contract with a monthly fee of US$ 400 yielding a total yearly cost of US$ 5,050. MEXICO BECOMES THE ONLY COUNTRY WE KNOW THAT DOES NOT PROVIDE A FREE, PUBLIC, ON-LINE PORTAL FOR COMPLYING WITH THIS REGULATION. Anyone wishing to comply with Mexican regulations must either sign up with ARINC or use the services of a third party who has contracted with ARINC.
• The ARINC portal is essentially a website where you can manually upload an Excel spreadsheet, it has very limited automation. Those accustomed to the US Government eAPIS portal or third party portals will find the ARINC portal significantly limited.
• Anyone who is offering the Mexico APIS service must charge a fee to recover the cost of the ARINC contract plus the manual labor to keep track of the submission timelines outlined above.
New information Part 1 – Meeting with Director General of Enforcement for Mexico’s ImmigrationWe met with the Director General of Enforcement of Mexican Immigration in Mexico City along with his key staff on January 14, 2014 to express our concerns and observations regarding the new Immigration law and the Mexico APIS procedures as they pertain to General Aviation. We explained the dynamics of the General Aviation market and the implementation of eAPIS in the USA and that there is currently a lot of confusion, frustration and fear that is causing many pilots to cancel their plans to fly to Mexico.
The Director General explained that they don’t want to obstruct travel but they want better quality information in advance before the aircraft or boat departs on a trip to/from Mexico. He confirmed that they have selected ARINC to administer the transmission of this electronic information. He also indicated that there have not been any fines issued to date. The implementation date of the law was December 31, 2013 for ALL AIRCRAFT, Commercial (passenger and cargo), Charter and Private.
Subsequently, we expressed some of the issues that we saw with the present status of the law and regulations.
• There is currently no FREE portal that can be used to comply unlike the USA and the CARICOM countries. The cost of ARINC is prohibitive and a “for profit” third party for compliance is major blow to GA tourism.
• The reporting requirements are inconsistent with the realities of General Aviation (having to file 30 minutes prior to takeoff and then again after the aircraft door is closed but prior to takeoff).
• There is no formal confirmation that Mexican Immigration has received a manifest.
• Nothing has been published in the Mexico AIP nor by NOTAM
• We also brought up the issue of Immigration charging overtime to private flights even though the law indicates that overtime does not apply to private flights.
Next, we made the following recommendations:
• That the requirements and timing for filing an APIS be adjusted to take into account the realities of General Aviation and that the implementation for private flights be postponed.
• That a FREE public portal be established so that pilots can comply without incurring a financial burden.
• To invite members from the Mexican and USA aviation communities to participate on a committee to review the APIS procedures and work with Immigration on new guidelines compatible with General Aviation.
• That in addition to a public portal, that other private companies be allowed to participate in the transmission of APIS manifests to promote competition, flexibility etc.
• That when an APIS is filed, a document from the Mexican government be issued confirming compliance with APIS requirements. Currently their only recourse is to call ARINC.
• Consider using the USA CBP eAPIS manifest as an option for compliance as the information contained is identical (with the exception of required country of birth for passengers). We pointed out that that the majority of the volume of General Aviation flights to Mexico was form the USA.
• That everything relative to the Mexican APIS be published via NOTAM and the Mexico AIP before it went into effect.
After presenting the proposals, The Director General responded that:
• The implementation has officially begun. Mexican laws do not allow them to postpone the process.
• They CAN adjust the procedures to better accommodate General Aviation.
• The process is currently in an evaluation mode and that users should hasten to get into compliance before enforcement begins (no date could be given).
• That they are open to looking for additional ways to make it easy to comply.
• That they want a follow-up meeting with us next week.
New Information Part 2 – Meeting with regional representatives for Mexico’s ImmigrationOne of our very active Caribbean Sky Tours Pilots Association members in northeast Mexico met with regional contacts in Immigration, Mexico’s DGAC as well as an airport Manager on this topic. The major topics and takeaways of his meeting are as follows:
- While it is clear that the law will eventually include private flights, enforcement is impossible because, per all the participates in the meeting, NO MEXICAN AIRPORT WHICH IS NOT SERVICED BY AN AIRLINE HAS THE COMPUTERS OR DATABASES WHICH CONTAIN THE APIS DATA AND SHOWS WHERE A MANIFEST HAS BEEN FILED. The immigration officials at these airports do not have the APIS system and they are essentially blind to it. They cannot enforce it, as of today. At the airports with airline service, the airlines are inputting the data and it is going to ARINC but from there it is anyone’s guess as NONE OF THE IMMIGRATION OFFICES AT THE AIRPORTS IN NORTHERN MEXICO HAVE DIGITAL ACCESS TO THE DATA. The eventual end users who will benefit from the data do not have it.
- The Immigration Director understands the private flight manifest cannot be enforced and delayed enforcement until the infrastructure, which they claim will include a free public portal, is in place. No fines in Mexico are in USD and the fine, when enforcement comes online, is based on the situation and significantly less. The Mexican government will soon clarify the situation as they are aware of the confusion and know it will have a negative impact on tourism and commerce.
As additional insurance against misunderstandings or if an immigration official goes off-script, one idea is to send an email to local Immigration office’s email address. This way a pilot has a record that they operated in good faith, complied with the spirit of the law, and was not hiding or withholding information from the Mexican Government.
SummaryEssentially we have three different perspectives. First, the enforcement branch of Mexican immigration wants compliance of reliable APIS data but cannot say when they will actually begin to enforce APIS submissions. Second, ARINC is urging everyone to sign up with them to avoid US$ 5,000 fines. Third, the local immigration officials say that even if they wanted to, they do not have access to the information to determine compliance. The unknown is what is being done with the APIS data currently being submitted to Mexican Immigration in Mexico City.
Therefore, pilots have three options:
1. Continue with business as usual and keep their eyes and ears open and hope that there will be advance warning when enforcement goes into effect.
2. Select an APIS provider and proceed with APIS submissions to be covered under any potential circumstance.
3. Avoid flying to Mexico.
As we have customers flying to Mexico virtually every day, many of them have expressed great reservations on assuming that they will not be the subject of enforcement. Therefore, we have had no choice but to sign up with ARINC and be able to provide APIS manifest submissions. We have been operational since December 31, 2013. If you are one of those who does not want to take any chances, we are offering a Mexico APIS submission service. If you want more details on the features and cost of this service,
click here 
