NEVER ENTER MEXICO AS A TOURIST

The only people that should enter Mexico as tourists are those who want to leave in 180 days.  Immigration is checking and cross referencing and the law states that if you enter or exit as a tourist then you will have your temporal or permanente canceled.

Why would people who have one of these documents risk losing everything including all the time and money spent?

Some commons reasons:

Ignorance about having to show their travel letter (or needing one when traveling while papers in process).
Being too cheap to pay for a travel letter
Not showing their visa sticker from the consulate in their passport upon arriving in Mexico.
Having an ignorant immigration agent who thinks all foreigners are tourists and who tells you to sort out any problems at immigration

NEVER leave the immigration counter if you were given a tourist visa and you are not a tourist, they will try to get rid of you but once you leave then you are stuck and risk losing everything. If your FMM form says 180 days then they marked you as a tourist.  If you get a visa from a consulate and enter Mexico your FMM form will give you 30 days.  Once you leave they will assume that you did wrong, not them and they will cancel your document.  

People with travel letters need to get both entry and exit stamps on the travel letter, show it at all times and do not let them take it.

People whose document expired while outside Mexico may enter within 55 days of expiration and MUST show their expired document and not get a a tourist card then apply for renewal within 5 days.

A new trick is to call people into immigration and deny them the right to an attorney or translator and then trick them into confessing that they entered wrong and have them sign a form all in Spanish, demand your right to an attorney or translator and NEVER accept blame for mistakes done by immigration.

Spencer, I'm a little confused by your post.

My husband and I have Residente Temporal cards. The last time we flew out, the folks at the check-in counter sent us to the immigration window where we received the "leaving the country" part of the FMM form. (The part that we used to hand back in when coming in and then leaving under a tourist visa).

Then when we flew back in, we filled out the FMM form again and handed it along with our Residence card to the immigration desk to get back in.

Everything seemed to go fine.

Wasn't this what we were supposed to do? I was assuming that they were just using the FMM form to keep track of us leaving and re-entering the country.

I understand what you mean about not getting lazy and neglecting to get a travel letter if you don't have a card yet, or simply failing to show your card and using a tourist visa instead. But now you've got me wondering about what IS the correct procedure once you DO have a Residente Temporal card.

You need to make sure they put you have a temporary document on the FMM and upon entry do not give you 180 days and write residente temporal to make sure there will be no future problems

It sounds like you're only talking about people who don't have their cards yet and are travelling using a letter of permission. Or maybe people who get lazy and get a tourist visa instead of showing their cards.

Right?

We had our cards at the time of travel and showed them, leaving and re-entering. But we still had to fill out FMM forms to record our exit and re-entry.

Can any other folks who have left the country and come back in on a Residente Temporal card weigh in that this is how they did it, too?

I don't mean to be paranoid, but ... I'm paranoid anyway. It seems so easy to violate a law down here despite lots of research and the best of intentions.

I have left and returned twice since getting my FM3 last year.
I did what you described. Filled out the exit half of an FMM, and had immigration stamp it. Then on return, I filled out the entry half and together with my FM3, I regained entry.

No problems.  

When leaving the U.S. the gate agent or flight attendant will try to hand you an immigration form meant for those who are just visiting Mexico. If you have a temporal, FM2, FM3, Permanente or a travel letter...DO NOT TAKE this form. Do not use it...again it is for those visiting Mexico and will be returning to the U.S. within 180 days. You should have the 2nd part of the immigration form to hand in upon arrival at GDL immigration before you pick up your luggage.

The form is the same now and many don't list their fm2 fm3 or temporary or permanent and the immigration guy in Mexico can make mistakes and you will pay for their error. They are checking more now and never accept responsibility for their mistakes.

So anyone, if ya have a temp card and drive yourself out say to Laredo, do you have to stop at immigration or not? And upon return, do you have to stop at immigration again. The reason i ask is because last year sometime i traveled by car with a friend who has a temp. resident card and i had a visitor visa, so when i stopped at immigration at the bridge upon re-entry he was told he didnt need to fill out anything.
I kinda got the impression that once you have a temp or perm card, one doesn't have to stop at the immigraion offices coming or going. Is this correct?
I ask because we are fixing to take another trip to Laredo and i have a temp card and want to make sure of the correct procedure.

All foreigners are supposed to have their entries and exits tracked although if exiting and reentering by land nobody will know if you do or don´t.