Ha-Ha Sailors Need to Check Their Visas

"Yesterday we had a big problem with our visas," report Marina and Myron Eisenzimmer, vets of numerous Baja Ha-Ha rallies with their San Francisco-based Swan 44 Mykonos.

"As we checked in with Alaskan Airlines to fly back to SFO from Puerto Vallarta, the person checking us in noticed that our visa cards had not been stamped ‘Paid’. She would not give us a boarding pass until we showed that the visas were stamped. We had to get a cab to a bank and hopefully get back in time for our plane. Getting a cab took forever because it was a short trip and the drivers all wanted full fares. The first bank we went to said our visa form was too old. We took off to another bank and paid the $60, in addition to the $30 or so for the cab. But we did make it back in time to catch our plane home.

"If we had brought the paid receipt that ship’s agent Victor gave us in Cabo," Marina notes, it would have saved us lots of time and money. We are still analyzing why this happened. But please pass this along to the other Ha-Ha boats."

Joe Pfeifle of the Hermosa Beach-based Beneteau 42 Set Me Free had similar complaints: "Both myself and crew had to double pay the immigration authorities upon leaving the country by plane. They say the law changed November 2012 and that you need the receipt showing payment of the visa. No matter that we had stamped valid visas. They wanted a bank receipt showing payment. Also, the fact that we surrendered any receipt we would have had to the initial immigration official didn’t seem to matter. Then they refused to give me a receipt and would only take cash!"

As everyone knows, Mexico’s rules for Immigration for mariners have been formed a little bit on the fly, and thus there have been issues. But in most cases if you have a visa stamped ‘Paid’, you should be fine. If you don’t, either hope you’ll be lucky or get to the airport early if flying home.