Late 2025 brought an unwelcome surprise for some expats in Baja California Sur. Drivers with Permanent Residency cards reported being warned — and in a few cases having their vehicles seized — at checkpoints near La Paz, all while driving foreign-plated cars within one of Mexico's so-called vehicle Free Zones. The episodes appear confined to Baja California Sur, with no seizures reported in Baja California, Sonora or Quintana Roo, but they have reignited a debate that has simmered since 2012.
Here's the legal backdrop. Mexico's immigration reform that year restricted Temporary Import Permits (TIPs) to visitors and Temporary Residents, plus Mexican nationals who can prove they live abroad. Permanent Residents, by the letter of the law, cannot get a TIP and therefore cannot legally drive a foreign-plated vehicle beyond the roughly 25km border buffer zone. A TIP lasts only as long as your visitor permit or Temporary Residency card, and the car must leave the country and the permit cancelled when it expires.
In practice, though, millions of drivers have carried on as before — inside the Free Zones. These are three defined areas where no TIP is required at all: the entire Baja California peninsula, a chunk of the state of Sonora, and the whole of Quintana Roo. Foreigners, including Permanent Residents, have freely kept and driven foreign-plated cars there for years, since the permit requirement simply doesn't apply within the zones. Many Temporary Residents who later upgraded to Permanent Residency just kept driving.
The La Paz incidents have muddied the waters. Online, expats are now arguing about whether tax residency — rather than immigration status — is the real determining factor, and whether the law ever intended to bar Permanent Residents from Free Zone driving. Neither SAT, Mexico's tax and customs authority, nor Banjercito, which administers TIPs, has issued any official guidance. In that vacuum, Permanent Residents appear to be continuing much as before.
If you're planning to drive a foreign-plated car into Mexico, the practical rules are straightforward. Inside the 25km border buffer zone, anyone — visitor, Temporary or Permanent Resident — can drive freely without a permit. Past the buffer zone but inside a Free Zone, Permanent Residents have so far been driving without issue, though the recent seizures show some local enforcement risk remains. Beyond the buffer zone and outside a Free Zone, only visitors and Temporary Residents can hold a TIP, so Permanent Residents simply cannot take a foreign-plated car there, full stop.
One more caveat worth heeding: insurers are still covering Permanent Residents driving in the Free Zones, but every policy voids coverage if a vehicle is seized. Given that at least a few cars have actually been taken, anyone relocating to Mexico with a US- or Canadian-plated vehicle should weigh that risk — or consider switching to a locally plated car once they hold Permanent Residency.
