Travel Guide
Cancun Immigration Is Changing These 3 Things At The Airport To Help Visitors Feel More Welcome
Mar
Handling over 32 million passengers last year, Cancun Airport is one of the busiest hubs in Mexico, only behind Mexico City’s Benito Juárez.
That’s hardly surprising news, considering it serves both the city of Cancun, the number one resort destination for Americans flying abroad, and the wider Mexican Caribbean, which comprises secondary destinations like Isla Mujeres, Playa Del Carmen, and Puerto Morelos.
Be that as it may, the airport isn’t immune to criticism:
From the long border waits, to a perceived injustice in the treatment of certain travelers, to the infamous ‘Shark Tank’, a long corridor of shouting taxi drivers, mostly scammers, newcomers must walk in order to exit, it can be a stressful experience.
This year, airport authorities have vowed to crack down on the known issues and will be making 3 significant changes to help visitors feel more welcome—especially if they’re Americans concerned with the souring U.S.-Mexico relations:
100 New Border Agents Are Being Deployed
Let’s start with the main complaint travelers pose when landing: the insanely long border bottlenecks.
As you know, whenever you fly out of the States, you’ll be going through passport control at your destination: usually a border officer will interview you briefly to understand your reasons for visiting, ask to see some documentation, and then finally stamp you into the country.
In Mexico, this documentation includes (naturally) a valid passport if you’re a U.S. citizen, but they may also request proof of an outbound or return ticket, so make sure you have yours in hand just in case.
The issue is, lots of travelers lately have been complaining of ‘slow moving lines’, as the screening process gets stricter and border agents spend longer time interviewing individuals, and a ‘general inefficiency’ in the entry process as a whole, as reported by Riviera Maya News.
In fact, a number of travelers have even reported ‘mistreatment’, particularly when coming from underdeveloped Latin American countries or even from the U.S.
As you might know, bilateral relations between the United States and their southerly neighbor aren’t great at the moment, with the White House going as far as renaming the Gulf of Mexico ‘Gulf of America’, and intensifying border patrols.
This week, in a meeting chaired by Mara Lezama, the Governor of Quintana Roo, which governs Cancun, authorities announced that, in response to these concerns, 100 additional border agents will be deployed.
This should alleviate the pressure at the border by ‘covering’ the 110 checkpoints distributed around the airport’s three terminals and ensuring a smooth flow of passengers without significant delays, regardless of the terminal they arrive in.
The more interesting part, however, comes next:
According to Lezama, ‘training programs’ will be put in place to ensure officers and airport staff are able to provide ‘warm and friendly service‘ to visitors.
The Governor did not refer to the ‘incidents’ affecting select travelers as of late, though we understand it’s a direct response to issues raised by countries like Colombia, whose nationals have been known to be mistreated, and American travelers worried about the geopolitics of it.
e-Gates Are Increasing In Number
The second part still refers to the improvement of the border experience, except it largely concerns U.S. and Canada passport holders only:
The number of e-Gates, the autonomous gates for immigration screening, is increasing in all three terminals.
Since 2023, U.S. and Canadian citizens have been eligible to use e-Gates when landing in Cancun for faster screening.
This involves scanning their passport in one of the automated machines, and crossing into Mexico without further questioning, and bypassing the manual check on border agents’ part altogether—needless to say, these have proven a huge success from introduction.
Quintana Roo officials have not confirmed how many more e-Gates will be added, but if you’re keen on avoiding any border wait whatsoever, make sure you’re traveling on a biometric passport, and that it hasn’t suffered any damage.
If you’re wondering what a biometric passport is, just look for the tiny camera symbol at the bottom of the cover, and if it’s there, you’re good to go:
A majority of U.S. issued passports these days is biometric.
Free Wi-Fi At The Airport Soon?
Oh, there’s one more thing:
Airport authorities have confirmed they’re working on bringing free connectivity for a longer period of time to all travelers.
As any of you who have flown into and out of Cancun before will know, there is, in fact, free Wi-Fi at the airport, but it only works for up to 60 minutes, and after the one hour elapses, you’re required to pay to continue accessing the internet.
This can be a pain if you’ve just landed in Cancun, you don’t have a local SIM, and there’s a long wait at the border, or if you’re transiting through the hub, on your way somewhere or back home, and you have several hours ahead of you and no Wi-Fi available.
Some would deem that unacceptable, and rightly so: most airports have free, unlimited Wi-Fi, as we’ve reached a silent understanding it’s not a luxury, but a necessity for most, especially if you’re traveling and can’t afford to go AWOL for consecutive hours.
You know how these things go in Mexico: there’s no date of implementation yet, but we’ll be sure to check the next time we log into the INMVITADOS platform landing in Cancun.
Either way, this is all very promising.
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
