In short: Guatemala charges nothing to leave. IGM’s published tariff — Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional 3-2022 — has 11 line items and not one of them is an exit fee. Mexico charges US$0 if your land stay is seven days or less, and $983.00 MXN above that, collected on the way out. Belize charges nothing to enter and BZ$40.00 (US$20) to leave, and the Border Management Agency publishes the three-part breakdown itself. The real cost of a border run is therefore transport, nights and time — not government fees. Set against the US$25.00 prórroga, which involves no travel at all, most runs lose on price before you count the risk that the officer grants you fewer than 90 days on the way back.
Almost every border-run guide online prices the government side wrong. It quotes a Guatemalan “exit fee” that does not exist in the tariff, a Mexican FMM fee of around US$30 that is neither the current amount nor the one you owe on a short trip, and a Belize departure charge somewhere between BZ$37.50 and BZ$47.50. This page prices the run from the fee schedules the three authorities publish themselves, and attaches the source and the date to every row — including the rows where the sources disagree.
If you have not decided whether you need a run at all, read do you actually need a border run first. Under the current residency regulation (Acuerdo IGM-016-2025, Art. 4) the answer for a lot of people is no. And because the answer changes completely with your passport, see border runs by nationality.
1. Guatemala: the exit is free, and here is the proof
The instrument that settles it is the Tarifario de Control Migratorio, Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional 3-2022. It is short enough to print in full, which is the point — there is nowhere for an exit fee to hide.
| Concept, as IGM lists it | Fee |
|---|---|
| Tarjeta de visitante | $15.00 |
| Certificación de arraigo | $10.00 |
| Certificación de movimiento migratorio | $10.00 |
| Certificación de estatus migratorio | $25.00 |
| Estatus especial de invitados | $50.00 |
| Pase especial de ingreso | $50.00 |
| Pase local para guatemaltecos en zonas adyacentes y mar territorial | $1.00 |
| Visita de barco en muelle | $50.00 |
| Visita de barco en fondeadero | $50.00 |
| Ingreso de solicitud de regularización migratoria | $25.00 |
| Reposición de sellos de entrada en pasaporte vigente | $10.00 |
Source: IGM, Tarifario de Control Migratorio (AMN 3-2022), retrieved 2026-09-16. No “salida”, “egreso”, “exit” or “stamp” line exists.
IGM’s own Requisitos para salir de Guatemala page agrees by omission: it lists documents — passport, the destination country’s visa where the nationality needs one, an interview — and for foreigners one receipt, the “recibo original de pago de multa por exceso de permanencia autorizada”. That is the overstay fine, not a departure charge.
The only money Guatemala can lawfully take from you on the way out is the overstay fine, and the statute prices it precisely. Decreto 44-2016, Article 194 numeral 2, penalises “permanecer más tiempo del que les ha sido autorizado, sin tener pendiente gestión de ampliación, multa de quince Quetzales por día de exceso de permanencia.” Q15.00 per day. Note the conditional clause — it only bites if you have no extension or residency application pending.
What gets asked for anyway
The gap between the official zero and what actually happens at the window is the whole scam surface at these crossings, and the amounts are deliberately small.
| Reported demand | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Q10 requested by “many border agents” on land exit | Melchor de Mencos | mimundoporelmundo.com.ar (undated, retrieved 2026-09-16) |
| Stamp is free “though some travelers report being charged Q20” | Melchor de Mencos | Overlanding Association (updated 2019-08-11) |
| Two men pressuring for Q100 each outside the building; escaped by paying Q20 to a taxi driver | Talismán | TripAdvisor thread, incident comment circa 2024 |
| Q40 (~US$5) for a photocopy service on the Guatemalan side | Melchor de Mencos | Pack a Sandwich (updated 2025-02-25) |
Two defences, both free. Ask to see the printed fee list inside the building — Along Dusty Roads’ formulation is the sharpest one published: “If it’s not printed, it’s not real.” And bring your own photocopies, which removes both the Q40 and the delay.
Third defence, and the expensive one to skip: check that you were actually stamped out. One traveller account reports Guatemalan officers not stamping passports at Melchor — a single source, and one whose author states they never crossed there by land, so treat the frequency as unknown and the consequence as certain. An unrecorded exit is the one failure that breaks the reset entirely — you paid for the trip and the clock never restarted.
2. Mexico: US$0 under seven days, $983 MXN above it
This is the single most consequential number on the page and it is written into the Ley Federal de Derechos, not granted at an officer’s discretion. INM’s own land-entry fee sheet prints it in capitals:
“LOS EXTRANJEROS QUE INGRESAN AL PAÍS VÍA TERRESTRE NO PAGARÁN EL DERECHO REFERIDO EN EL ARTÍCULO 8, FRACCIÓN I, SIEMPRE Y CUANDO SU ESTANCIA EN EL PAÍS NO EXCEDA DE SIETE DÍAS. EN CASO CONTRARIO SE PAGARÁ AL MOMENTO DE LA SALIDA DEL TERRITORIO NACIONAL.”
The same sheet’s table carries the line “ARTÍCULO 11 FRACCIÓN II — Extranjeros que no excedan 7 días — $0”.
| Item | Amount | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land entry, stay of 7 days or less | $0 | Statutory exemption, LFD Art. 11 fr. II | INM land-entry fee sheet, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Land entry, stay over 7 days | $983.00 MXN (2026) | Collected on exit, not on entry. Was $860–861 in 2025; the increase took effect 2026-01-01, published in the DOF on 2025-11-07 | Clark Hill PLC (2025-11-13); MigraLaw |
| Cargo-vehicle drivers loading or unloading in border customs precincts | $0 | Second exempt class on the same sheet | INM |
| The form itself | The paper FMM survives for land arrivals, and can be pre-filled online as the FMMe | The digital FMMd replaced paper for air arrivals only | INM FMMd article (2023-05-02); INM FMMe portal |
Two cautions worth carrying. INM’s PDF lives under a /Tramites_2015/ path and its own quoted cuota is the 2015 figure of $332 — take the rule from that sheet and the amount from the 2026 table. And the exemption is written against your stay in the country, not against a distance from the border: it is not a border-zone rule.
A two-night run to Tapachula therefore costs US$0 in Mexican government fees. A three-week trip to San Cristóbal does not.
3. Belize: free to enter, BZ$40 to leave
No source, official or otherwise, publishes a fee to enter Belize by land. The departure side is published by the agency that collects it.
| Fee, as the Border Management Agency lists it | Amount |
|---|---|
| Departure Fee | BZ$30.00 |
| Border Development Fee | BZ$2.50 |
| P.A.C.T. Fee | BZ$7.50 |
| Total | BZ$40.00 ≈ US$20.00 |
Source: Border Management Agency of Belize, Travel & Cargo Fees and FAQs, retrieved 2026-09-16. BMA’s framing: “Travelers, upon departure through any border point are subject to pay the following regulated fees”; its FAQ names the payer as “non-citizens and non-permanent residents”. The Belize Tourism Board lists the same total as “Land border departure: $20 USD”.
Carry US$20 in cash. The Belize dollar is fixed at BZ$2.00 = US$1.00 — the Central Bank of Belize states the rate is fixed and set the buying rate at 2:1 for all US monetary instruments from 1 June 2023, and the peg has held since 11 May 1976. Anyone offering you a “rate” on USD to BZD is taking a margin, not exchanging currency.
Figures you will see that are wrong. BZ$37.50 is the pre-Border-Development-Fee total and is stale. BZ$47.50 is unexplained by any published schedule. And the “US$20 PACT fee” you will find quoted traces to a 2017 conservation-fee increase that is not what BMA publishes for a land departure today — do not apply it to a land crossing.
One real waiver exists and does not help you: Belize waived the three departure charges for residents of Campeche, Yucatán, Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo staying up to seven days, at the Santa Elena/Corozal border with Mexico only (Amandala, 2024-03-06). It does not apply at Benque Viejo.
4. Route by route, with the date on every figure
Fares below are published fares or dated traveller reports, marked as such. Nothing here is estimated. Where a figure carries a year, that is the year it was observed.
Mexico via El Carmen ↔ Talismán (San Marcos) — 286 km, 5:00 hrs from Guatemala City
| Line item | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala exit | Q0 | IGM tariff AMN 3-2022, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Guatemala City → Tapachula, direct bus | US$27.00 one way, departures 07:30 and 14:30 daily | Tica Bus / OCC operator data, our operator table retrieved 2026-09-12; guatemala.com |
| Journey time for that bus | 5–6 h per our operator page vs 8h30–9h30 per the reseller — sources disagree, both printed | Marvelus Travel, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Xela → border, colectivo chain via Coatepeque | ≈ Q60 total, ~4.5 h (Q30 + Q15 + Q10 + Q5) | wanderingnomada, crossed July 2021 |
| Xela → border, colectivo chain via San Marcos | Q10 + Q15 + Q4 | diytravelhq, visit October 2016 |
| El Carmen → Malacatán, colectivo | Q4, ~30 min | TripAdvisor report, 2019 |
| Malacatán → Xela, direct bus | Q25, ~3 h | TripAdvisor report, 2019 |
| Mexico entry, stay ≤ 7 days | $0 | INM land-entry fee sheet |
| Talismán → Tapachula, colectivo | 20 MXN (2019) / 23 MXN (2021) | TripAdvisor; wanderingnomada |
| Tapachula hotel | from ~US$44/night (Hotel Fénix, one block from Parque Central, 24-h reception); cheapest observed in the 7 days to 2026-09-16 US$19–20/night | Booking.com and TripAdvisor listing data, read 2026-09-16 |
Distances and offices are official. The Guatemalan post is the IGM Delegación El Carmen, San Marcos; the Mexican one is INM’s Sub Representación Local Talismán at Carretera Federal 200, Km 000+000.
Mexico via Tecún Umán ↔ Ciudad Hidalgo — 254 km, 4:30 hrs from Guatemala City
| Line item | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala exit | Q0 | IGM tariff AMN 3-2022 |
| Guatemala City → Tecún Umán | US$16–27, roughly every 2 hours, ~5 h 4 min, Transportes Starbus | Rome2Rio (aggregator — treat the band as indicative), retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Mexico entry, stay ≤ 7 days | $0 | INM land-entry fee sheet |
| Bridge hours you can plan against | Puente Rodolfo Robles daily 05:00–22:00 | ANAM, Aduana Ciudad Hidalgo, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
Do not publish or plan against a Línea Dorada fare for this corridor. Its domain, lineadorada.com.gt, now serves an online-casino page — checked 2026-09-12. Transportes Fortaleza and Transportes Marquensita fares to the border could not be found on any operator source either.
This is the busiest and most chaotic of the three Mexican posts, and the gap between the official zero and what gets demanded is widest here. The money-changing trade on the Suchiate riverbank is an organised, municipally-taxed economy — InSight Crime documents the Ministerio Público’s money-laundering office raiding the Ayutla town hall over the taxes paid by five riverbank changers. Know the live MXN to quetzal rate before you arrive.
Mexico via La Mesilla ↔ Ciudad Cuauhtémoc (Huehuetenango) — 349 km, 6:30 hrs from Guatemala City
| Line item | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala exit | Q0 | IGM tariff AMN 3-2022 |
| La Mesilla → Huehuetenango, bus | Q20, ~1 hour | traveller report |
| San Cristóbal de las Casas → Huehuetenango, tourist shuttle | US$55–60 | shuttle resellers via Rome2Rio, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Mexico entry, stay ≤ 7 days | $0 | INM land-entry fee sheet |
| Gap between the two immigration buildings | ~4 km | consistent across traveller guides |
Residents who use these crossings regularly prefer this one on comfort grounds — heat and traffic at Tapachula versus the highland road to San Cristóbal. It is also the crossing where arriving outside business hours is most likely to cost you a day: the published hours run from Mon–Fri 08:00–20:00 (customs) through Mon–Fri 09:00–15:00 (INM migration) to an unofficial 06:00–21:00 seven days, and nothing resolves them.
Belize via Melchor de Mencos ↔ Benque Viejo del Carmen
| Line item | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala exit | Q0 | IGM tariff AMN 3-2022 |
| Guatemala City → Flores / Santa Elena, Fuente del Norte | Q263.00 Clase A; Q315.00–Q420.00 Clase B; 8–10 h | guatemala.com, published and updated 2026-03-31 |
| Guatemala City → Flores, Cristóbal Colón | Q269.00 Primera Clase; Q346.00 Diamante | same |
| Same route, booked through an aggregator | US$38–40 for travel on 2026-09-17, all Fuente del Norte | Busbud, dated quote read 2026-09-16 |
| Flores → San Ignacio, through-shuttle | US$30 (Adrenalina Tours, own site, 06:00 daily, 3 h) or from US$24.00 (Gekko Trails Explorer, own site, states it manages the border crossing) | operator sites, read 2026-09-16 |
| Flores → Melchor, colectivo (do-it-yourself) | Q40, colectivos every 15–30 min from 07:00 | nomadicbackpacker, updated 2026-07-13 |
| Border → Benque Viejo (2–3 km) | no scheduled bus — walk, colectivo ~BZ$2, or taxi BZ$5–10 | belizebus.wordpress.com (2023); belizebudgetsuites |
| Benque Viejo → San Ignacio, public bus | BZ$2.00–2.50, ~15–20 min | corroborated by four independent sources, 2023–2026 |
| Belize entry | no fee published by anyone | BMA fee page describes fees only “upon departure” |
| San Ignacio, hostel bed | 8-bed dorm from US$12.50, 4-bed from US$15, private room from US$32.50 — The Old House Hostel, 3 Buena Vista St | hotel-published rates, hostelbelize.com, read 2026-09-16 |
| San Ignacio, mid-range | Standard room US$109.00 → US$129.71 all-in at Cahal Pech Village Resort; the property states rates are “valid from now through Nov 30th, 2026, and are subject to 9% hotel tax and 10% service charge” | hotel-published, cahalpech.com, read 2026-09-16 |
| San Ignacio seasonality | peak Dec–Feb averages US$285/night; low season Jun–Aug averages US$184/night | TripAdvisor San Ignacio hotels page, read 2026-09-16 |
| Belize exit | BZ$40.00 (US$20) | BMA, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
Sleep in San Ignacio, not at the line. TripAdvisor lists four properties in Melchor de Mencos in total and states outright that no other properties are available in Benque Viejo del Carmen; Booking.com’s Benque page returns ten properties, every one of them labelled “San Ignacio – Near Benque Viejo del Carmen”. San Ignacio indexes 116.
The do-it-yourself chain beats the shuttle on price by roughly half — about US$11–12 against US$24–30 — on comparable time. What the shuttle actually sells is not speed; it is not handling the border yourself, and only Gekko states on its own page that it does that.
Our existing Melchor de Mencos crossing page covers the crossing mechanics; this page covers the money.
5. The comparison the fee tables are really for
| Option | Government cost | Travel | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prórroga at IGM | US$25.00, one time | A visit to 6 Avenida 3-11, zona 4, Guatemala City | Up to 90 more days, to a 180-day ceiling from entry |
| Run to Mexico, ≤ 7 days | US$0 in fees, both governments | The cheapest documented chain from Xela is about Q60 each way | A new entry, for however many days the officer grants |
| Run to Belize | US$20 on the way out of Belize | Petén bus fares from about Q263 each way, plus nights | A new entry, for however many days the officer grants |
| Overstay and pay at the airport | Q15.00 per day | None | A fine, and the exit is conditioned on the receipt |
Prórroga fee: Tarifario IGM-029-2023, numeral 2.2 — “Ingreso de solicitud de prórroga de visa de turista o viajero… veinticinco dólares de los Estados Unidos de América (25.00 USD)”. Ceiling: Acuerdo IGM-015-2025, Art. 14, and Decreto 44-2016, Art. 74.
On published fares, a Mexico run from Quetzaltenango is the only version that competes with the prórroga on price, and only if you already live in the west. From Guatemala City or Antigua, the prórroga wins on money before you count two days of your time. What to bring and what the office actually checks is in our IGM prórroga checklist.
6. The costs nobody prices
The officer’s discretion is the largest uncosted variable on this page. A traveller who drove to El Carmen in April, walked across to Talismán, had lunch and walked back the same day reported: “I was given 50 days which was fine for me.” Fifty days, not ninety. The 90-day figure in Article 74 of the Código de Migración is a ceiling on what may be authorised, not a floor on what you will get. If your plan needs 90 days and you are granted 50, the run’s real cost is the second run.
There is no published minimum time outside the CA-4. Nothing on igm.gob.gt sets one. The 72 hours convention and the competing 24 hours claim are both untraced to any statute, and one traveller reports an immigration official saying three days in conversation in 2025. Others report same-day turnarounds working. Treat the spread as the risk you are pricing, not as a rule you can rely on.
Re-entry can be refused, and repeat runs are a grey area. Our own earlier research on re-entry after a refusal or deportation sets out published entry bans — two years after deportation, five after a court-ordered expulsion, twelve months attaching to a refused or cancelled tourist visa. Those figures come from that page of ours rather than from a primary instrument re-read for this one; the instrument is cited there. Back-to-back runs are not a documented right.
Both governments’ Western partners advise against tourist travel in this strip. The UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel within 5 km of the Mexican border on the Guatemalan side from the Pacific coast up to and including Gracias a Dios — which includes El Carmen, Tecún Umán and La Mesilla — and within 40 km of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, a ring that includes Tapachula. That is a published position, not a mood; price it into your decision even if you conclude the crossing is routine, which many travellers report it is.
7. If you are driving
| Item | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Into Belize — fumigation | US$5 | Belize Tourism Board, travelbelize.org, retrieved 2026-09-16 |
| Into Belize — vehicle border fee | US$15 | same |
| Into Belize — insurance | US$8 per 24 hours (official figure); a 2019 report gives BZ$46 for two weeks and a 2016 one BZ$20 for three days — the per-day rate appears to fall sharply with term, so ask at the window | travelbelize.org; Overlanding Association 2019; Freedom With Bruno 2016 |
| Into Belize — temporary import permit | valid 30 days; the paper itself is reported free, the border fee above is the charge | travelbelize.org; Overlanding Association |
| Back into Guatemala — fumigation | Q18 | Overlanding Association 2019; Pack a Sandwich, updated 2025-02-25 |
| Into Mexico — TIP at a module | US$51 + IVA | ANAM; Banjercito |
| Into Mexico — TIP online | US$45 + IVA | same |
| Into Mexico — refundable deposit | US$200 (model year 2000 and earlier) · US$300 (2001–2006) · US$400 (2007 and newer) | same |
| Into Mexico — liability insurance | mandatory; foreign policies are not recognised. No per-day tourist rate for Chiapas could be sourced | ahorraseguros.mx; rastreator.mx |
Two warnings on the Mexican side. The belief that Chiapas is TIP-exempt is wrong as stated — the only free-circulation programme ANAM actually names is “Sonora Only”, and Chiapas appears nowhere on that page. If you are driving past the immediate border towns, get the TIP. And whether a Banjercito/CIITEV module physically exists at Talismán, Ciudad Hidalgo or Ciudad Cuauhtémoc could not be confirmed; Banjercito’s public module lists surfaced northern-border locations only, and ANAM directs enquiries to permisovehiculos@banjercito.com.mx. Ask before you drive.
If you are taking a Guatemalan-registered car out and back, our vehicle exit permit page covers the Guatemalan side.
What we could not verify
- Opening hours for the Guatemalan migration posts at El Carmen, Tecún Umán 1 and 2, and La Mesilla. IGM’s border-delegations page is a map image carrying distances only; no authority publishes hours for the Guatemalan side. Every “24/7” claim traces to travel blogs.
- The amount of the El Carmen vehicle fumigation fee. It is described as mandatory and never priced.
- 2026 taxi and tuk-tuk rates at any of the crossings. The only figures available are 2019–2021 colectivo fares.
- A per-day Mexican tourist auto-insurance price for Chiapas. Only annual Mexican-plated benchmarks were found.
- The full official Category A/B/C country list at minex.gob.gt, which returns a bot-protection challenge to every automated request.
Related
- Do you actually need a border run? — whether the trip is necessary at all, and the filing route that ends the 90-day clock.
- Border runs by nationality — fees and documents by passport, in both directions.
- The IGM prórroga checklist — what to put in the folder before you go to zona 4.
- Doing a border run with a dog or cat — the animal-health layer MAGA, SENASICA and BAHA add to the trip.
- Guatemala residency with no waiting period — the family door with no clock, compared with the marriage route.
Sources
Guatemala. IGM, Tarifario de Control Migratorio (Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional 3-2022), igm.gob.gt — retrieved 2026-09-16. IGM, Requisitos para salir de Guatemala — retrieved 2026-09-16. IGM, Requisitos de ingreso a territorio guatemalteco — retrieved 2026-09-16. IGM, Tarifario de Extranjería (Acuerdo IGM-029-2023), numeral 2.2. Congreso de la República, Código de Migración, Decreto 44-2016, Arts. 74 and 194. IGM, Reglamento de Visas Guatemaltecas, Acuerdo IGM-015-2025, Art. 14. IGM, complaint channel servicios.igm.gob.gt.
Mexico. INM, Pago de derechos internación vía terrestre (the seven-day exemption, verbatim) — retrieved 2026-09-16. INM, Forma Migratoria Múltiple Digital (published 2023-05-02) and the FMMe portal. INM, Oficina de Representación en Chiapas (office addresses and hours). ANAM, Aduana Ciudad Hidalgo (bridge and customs hours) and Importación de vehículos. Banjercito, Sistema de Importación Temporal de Vehículos. Clark Hill PLC, “Mexico Increases Government Fees … Effective January 1, 2026” (2025-11-13); MigraLaw, Derechos migratorios 2026.
Belize. Border Management Agency of Belize, Travel & Cargo Fees and FAQs — retrieved 2026-09-16. Belize Tourism Board, travelbelize.org — retrieved 2026-09-16. Central Bank of Belize (the 2:1 peg). Amandala, “Belize to waive border exit taxes from selected Mexican state visitors” (2024-03-06).
Advisories. UK FCDO, Guatemala regional risks and Mexico regional risks — both retrieved 2026-09-16.
Fares, lodging and traveller reports are attributed inline with their dates. Operator-published rates come from hostelbelize.com, cahalpech.com, adrenalinatours.com and gekkoexplorer.com; aggregate figures from Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Busbud and Rome2Rio are labelled as dated quotes rather than tariffs. Traveller accounts from diytravelhq (2016), TripAdvisor (2019), wanderingnomada (2021), Overlanding Association (2019), Pack a Sandwich (2025), nomadicbackpacker (2026) and Along Dusty Roads are used for sequence, colour and scam patterns only, never as the sole source for a government figure.
This page reports published fee schedules and dated fares. It is not legal advice, and fares move. Check the operator before you travel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Guatemala charge a fee to leave the country by land?
No. IGM’s published tariff — the Tarifario de Control Migratorio, Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional 3-2022 — contains 11 line items, and none of them is an exit, departure or stamp fee for a departing tourist. IGM’s own ‘Requisitos para salir de Guatemala’ page lists documents, not charges, and the only money it mentions a foreigner handing over is the ‘recibo original de pago de multa por exceso de permanencia autorizada’ — the overstay fine receipt. If someone asks you for money to stamp you out, it is not an official fee. (IGM, Tarifario de Control Migratorio; IGM, Requisitos para salir de Guatemala; retrieved 2026-09-16.)
How much is the Mexican tourist fee if I only cross for a day or two?
Zero. INM’s own land-entry fee sheet prints the exemption in capitals: ‘LOS EXTRANJEROS QUE INGRESAN AL PAÍS VÍA TERRESTRE NO PAGARÁN EL DERECHO REFERIDO EN EL ARTÍCULO 8, FRACCIÓN I, SIEMPRE Y CUANDO SU ESTANCIA EN EL PAÍS NO EXCEDA DE SIETE DÍAS. EN CASO CONTRARIO SE PAGARÁ AL MOMENTO DE LA SALIDA DEL TERRITORIO NACIONAL.’ The same sheet’s table prints ‘ARTÍCULO 11 FRACCIÓN II — Extranjeros que no excedan 7 días — $0’. It is a statutory exemption under the Ley Federal de Derechos, not an officer’s courtesy. Above seven days the 2026 amount is $983.00 MXN, collected when you leave Mexico. (INM, Pago de derechos internación vía terrestre; Clark Hill PLC, 2025-11-13; retrieved 2026-09-16.)
What does Belize charge?
Nothing to enter, BZ$40.00 to leave. The Border Management Agency of Belize publishes the breakdown itself: Departure Fee BZ$30.00, Border Development Fee BZ$2.50, P.A.C.T. Fee BZ$7.50. Its FAQ names the payer as ’non-citizens and non-permanent residents’. The Belize Tourism Board states the same total as ‘Land border departure: $20 USD’. Because the Belize dollar is fixed at BZ$2.00 = US$1.00 by the Central Bank of Belize, US$20 in cash clears it exactly. (BMA, Travel & Cargo Fees and FAQs; travelbelize.org; Central Bank of Belize; retrieved 2026-09-16.)
So what is the cheapest possible border run from Guatemala?
On published fares, the cheapest documented land chain is from Quetzaltenango to the El Carmen crossing: a 2021 traveller report gives Xela to Coatepeque Q30, Coatepeque to the El Virgen junction Q15, onward Q10, and the last leg to the border Q5 — roughly Q60 each way, about 4.5 hours. A 2016 report via San Marcos gives Q10 plus Q15 plus Q4. Both are dated traveller reports, not tariffs. Add US$0 for the Mexican side if you stay under seven days and US$0 for the Guatemalan exit. The unavoidable costs are the nights you sleep somewhere and the time. Compare that against the prórroga: US$25.00, one time, no travel at all.
Is the Q10 or Q20 people get asked for at the Guatemalan window real?
No. It is the signature scam at these crossings, and it is small on purpose. A Spanish-language traveller account reports that ‘many border agents request Q10’ on land exit; the Overlanding Association notes the Guatemalan stamp is free ’though some travelers report being charged Q20’. The best-sourced defence in circulation, from Along Dusty Roads: ‘If anyone requests payment — particularly outside the office or before you reach the immigration window — ask to see the printed fee list inside the building. If it’s not printed, it’s not real.’ Pay only at the official window, and only against a receipt.
What will a car cost me?
Belize publishes its numbers and Mexico publishes its own. Into Belize, travelbelize.org lists fumigation US$5, a vehicle border fee US$15 and insurance at US$8 per 24 hours, with a temporary import permit valid 30 days. Into Mexico, ANAM and Banjercito publish a temporary import permit (TIP) at US$51 plus IVA at a module or US$45 plus IVA online, with a refundable deposit of US$200, US$300 or US$400 depending on the vehicle’s model year, plus mandatory Mexican third-party liability cover. Coming back into Guatemala from Belize, two independent sources give a Q18 fumigation charge. (travelbelize.org; ANAM; Banjercito; Overlanding Association 2019 and Pack a Sandwich 2025; retrieved 2026-09-16.)
Is there a minimum number of days I have to stay out?
No published rule exists. Nothing on igm.gob.gt states a minimum period outside the CA-4 before re-entry, and our own earlier research reached the same negative conclusion. The ‘72 hours’ and ’two nights’ figures that circulate are a traveller convention, not law, and they contradict a second circulating figure of 24 hours. Budget for the conservative version if a refusal would be expensive for you.
Am I guaranteed a fresh 90 days when I come back?
No, and this is the cost nobody prices. One traveller who walked El Carmen to Talismán and back on the same day in April was re-admitted for 50 days, not 90 — ‘I was given 50 days which was fine for me.’ The 90-day stay is the statutory maximum under Article 74 of the Código de Migración (Decreto 44-2016), not an entitlement the officer must grant in full. A run that buys you 50 days costs the same as a run that buys you 90.
Does Mexico's seven-day exemption only apply near the border?
No. INM’s sheet writes the exemption as a limit on your stay in the country — ‘su estancia en el país no exceda de siete días’ — not as a distance from the line. It applies to land entries nationwide. A separate instrument, the Tarjeta de Visitante Regional, is the border-zone document, and that one is for nationals of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras rather than for other foreigners.
