Before the reform, this law established prison penalties to the foreigners that entered or stayed in Mexico without authorization or with an expired one. These penalties were rarely imposed and now have been totally put out of practice. Nevertheless, it is our opinion that the most important issue in this reform is that the renewed article 118 of the Law gives a legal base to the procedure of regularization for undocumented immigrants. Before the reform, the legal base of the regularizations depended on seldom made regularization programs.
The regularization procedure is strictly personal.

The Federal Law of Fees (Ley Federal de Derechos) was reformed in 2007 to make the Mexican Government able to charge the passengers of cruise ships for the expedition of the migratory category of Local Visitant. The charge is for 56 Mexican pesos and was due to come into effect by July 1st. Nevertheless, the Mexican Government has not finished the administrative implementations to begin charging the passengers, so this new charge has been postponed until October.

Starting from March 31, 2008, the Mexican government offers great conditions for New Zealanders to work while they holiday in Mexico. A FM3 will be given to the participants of this program with an authorization to do temporal remunerative activities, and with the statement: “Ciudadano de Nueva Zelanda, viajando bajo el Programa Vacaciones y Trabajo” (“Citizen of New Zealand, traveling through the WHS”). These conditions are reciprocal. More information here.