Mexican customs for an accompanied hand carry

A courier is also a passenger, and a passenger cannot clear commercial goods on their own account beyond a narrow ceiling. Above the traveller allowance there is a limited path that lets a passenger pay a global rate without engaging a broker, but it stops at a published value and most line down, aerospace, semiconductor and medical parts are worth more. Both the ceiling and the rate have changed more than once, so they are checked at booking rather than quoted from memory.

One structural point favours an accompanied courier. A decree published in February 2023 pushed exclusive cargo operations out of Mexico City Benito Juarez to Felipe Angeles, and it expressly exempted combined passenger and cargo operations. A courier flying as a passenger with baggage is exactly that. Freighter capacity now sits at a different airport in a different customs district, while the courier walks off a passenger aircraft at Mexico City and clears at that airport's own customs office.

The pedimento is the electronic customs declaration Mexican law requires for every entry and exit of goods, definitive or temporary. It carries a key stating the regime, plus the tariff classification, the value, the parties and the duties. A1 is the ordinary definitive import. A3 regularises goods already in the country without proper clearance, including a temporary import that has run past its term.

A private individual cannot file one for commercial goods. The importer acts through an agente aduanal or an authorised legal representative, appointed by the consignee rather than by us, and briefed in advance rather than at the counter. A customs law reform that took effect at the start of 2026 removed liability exclusions brokers relied on, so expect more questions about an urgent hand carried consignment than before.

An arriving air passenger has a personal allowance in addition to personal baggage, and family members travelling together may pool it. It is set in United States dollars, it has been revised, and receipts are needed to prove value or customs will set it. It exists for a traveller's own goods, not for a commercial consignment, and treating it as one is how a courier ends up in a side room explaining a machined part.

The allowance covers almost nothing this business carries. A tooling insert, a control unit, a reticle or a clinical kit is commercial goods with a commercial invoice, and it is declared as such. The courier declares, presents the invoice and goes through the process rather than walking the green channel and hoping. That is decided before departure, because the alternative is a record against a person who can no longer be used on the lane.

An IMMEX or maquiladora plant does not import an urgent spare the way a general importer does. Inputs enter temporarily under one key and fixed assets under another, and they leave under a return key or change regime to definitive before the term expires. Virtual pedimentos move goods between IMMEX companies on paper, generating mirror declarations that must match. The part may need to enter under the plant's own programme, in the plant's name.

Repair and return follows the same logic in reverse: a unit leaving Mexico for overhaul, or a tool entering for a trial, is a temporary movement with a window somebody has to close. Mexico accepts the ATA Carnet and a passenger may present one directly, which is the cleanest mechanism for professional equipment carried by hand. Mexican carnet handling arrangements have changed recently, so confirm the current position with the guaranteeing association before relying on one.