Although you can transfer any amount from the United States to Mexico, there is a limit of cash that you can transfer between countries without declaring; if you exceed it, you need to declare it at the customs of the destination country
There are many Mexicans who live in the United States, but who want to travel back to their land. There are also other types of people who want to visit the neighbor to the south. Regardless of the reasons for your trip, not many know how many dollars they can carry in cash without declaring either in the US or in Mexico.
If you live in the United States and want to travel to Mexico by land, there is a limit of up to $10,000 dollars of cash that you can enter or take out of the country without declaring it to the authorities.
Despite the fact that the Government of Mexico indicates that introducing or extracting from the country more than $10,000 dollars is not a crime, not declaring that amount is. That means that there is no limit of cash that you can deposit, as long as you declare it. If you don’t, you can get into serious legal problems in our neighboring country.
In the law, the total sum of all the money that you load is contemplated, regardless of the currency differences or separate means that it contains, such as:
• The cash
• National or foreign checks
• Payment orders
• Documents receivable
In this sense, it is your obligation to declare any figure that exceeds $10,000 dollars to the customs authorities when entering Mexico. The lack of declaration entails a fine that ranges between 20% and 40% of the amount exceeded.
Failure to declare sums equal to or greater than $30,000 dollars is punishable by imprisonment from six months to six years and the amount seized for the federal treasury if its lawful origin is not proven.
“If he does not prove his lawful origin, he will be sanctioned with a sentence of five to fifteen years in prison and a thousand to five thousand days’ fine,” says the Mexican Foreign Relations page.
The money can be declared at any of the ports of entry and exit of the country or through the portal of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) of Mexico to speed up the process.
Now that we are talking about money, there is also a price limit for merchandise that can enter Mexico by land without paying taxes and that only applies to Mexicans leaving the United States. During most of the year, Mexicans will be able to enter merchandise with a value of up to $300 dollars per person or its equivalent in national currency. However, during the Operations of the Paisano Program, Mexican nationals can enter up to $500 US dollars in merchandise per person.
The Operations of the Paisano Program take place during Easter, summer and winter, and apply to all Mexicans, except for people living in the strip or border region.