It’s not only criminals and illegal immigrants that have to make an occasional run for the border. Long-term tourists such as we also have to leave to renew their visas in order to remain legally in the country of their choice.

In Mexico, we had to vacate every six months while in Costa Rica it’s every three months. Many countries don’t have a limit on the number of consecutive visas they will grant although Costa Rica’s new immigration law – to go into effect in the spring of 2010 – states that only two consecutive stays will be permitted. That means that long-term visitors will either have to shorten their stays to only half a year or try to remain under the radar screen if they decide to stay put – and risk fines and/or deportation.

Because we’re too young and too poor to qualify as retirees in foreign countries, we are staying here as ex-pats on tourist visas. This is commonly done by people who are less than 60 years old and don’t have proof of a regular income being deposited in their bank accounts from Social Security or the Canada Pension Plan. Other people who do this are those who can’t be bothered with the legal hassles and so just make a run for the border as often as required.

The usual routine goes something like this: drive or take a bus to the nearest border, get an exit stamp from the immigration clerk, walk across the no-man’s land between the two border fences, pay a fee and get an entry stamp from the other country. You then spend a weekend or so in the other country as many nations require a departure of 48 or more hours in order to be allowed back in.

Youths usually find one of the border- or beach-party towns and whoop it up for a few days. We just find someplace to relax and not do much for a few days or – if in a new country – explore the towns, beaches and nearby parks. After a few days away, we repeat the process in reverse and go home until the next time we need to leave.

There usually aren’t any problems and – except for the time and money it takes – it isn’t too much of a hassle. But last year, when we left and re-entered Mexico after our first six-month stay, we worried that we’d mucked up the process so badly that we’d be made to pay a fine, a bribe or just not be allowed back in. We’d gone to Belize on the Caribbean coast for a couple of days and, when we returned to Mexico were thrown by a somewhat different process.

It wasn’t until a few months later when, upon careful examination of our visas to determine how much time we had left, we realize that the small difference we had noticed in the process could cost us dearly. We had been given a little piece of paper – a ‘cuenta’ or account – that we should have paid before re-entering Mexico. As this had never happened before and our bus was about to leave, we had just grabbed the paper, jumped on the coach and headed into the country. We now worried that our papers were not in order – because we hadn’t paid this new fee – and so could be made to pay a fine or a ‘mordida’ (a small bite or bribe).

When we left Mexico to move to Costa Rica, we crossed the border by bus and worried that our day of reckoning had come. We handed over our passports to the Mexican exit immigration officer (minus the cuenta), crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. She asked a few questions, saw that our papers were missing a stamp, rolled her eyes back, and with a sigh signifying (I think) “I don’t need this hassle” waived us through without giving our passports the required exit stamp.

We were relieved that we wouldn’t have to pay anything to get out of Mexico but now worry that, according to our passports, we didn’t leave the country as required after six months. Oh well, next time we enter Mexico we’ll either have to try explain what happened or use our other passports!

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