GETTING TIP REFUND?

This is the way it works now. When you obtain a new TIP and pay a deposit, the expiry date of that permit is the same expiry date as the INM document you have in effect at the time (Visitor's Permit or Resident Temporal). When you change from a Visitor's Permit to a Resident Temporal -OR- renew your Resident Temporal, INM (Immigration) does not tell Aduana (Customs) that there has been a change in your Permit expiry date. Banjercito (the money handlers collecting the money for Aduana) 15 days after the expiry date of your existing TIP tells Aduana that they have no record that your car has left the country. Aduana then checks their records to see if there has been any notification of a Permit extension. If not, they tell Banjercito to send your TIP deposit to the National Treasury - never to be seen again!

The only way to avoid this from happening now is to notify Aduana of a change to your Immigration Status within that 15 day period. Many of us that had Immigration renewals that took longer than 30 days (due to the backlogs within INM) lost our deposits as a result and are still working to try and retrieve them.