Cabo entry requirements for U.S. and Canadian travelers

Bottom line: A U.S. or Canadian passport valid for the length of your stay is the only document you need. There's no visa, no paper tourist card any more at SJD (your passport stamp is your permit, so check the number of days written in it), and no separate departure fee because it's already in your airfare. The one extra is Baja California Sur's own visitor fee, "Embrace It": MXN 488 (about US$25) per person aged 12 and over, paid online at the state's official site, not at the airport. The whole process from the plane to the curb takes twenty minutes on a quiet day, and the only thing that will slow you down is the hall of timeshare desks after customs.

Requirements at a glance

Requirement	U.S. citizens	Canadian citizens
Passport	Required; valid for the length of your stay	Required; valid for the length of your stay
Visa	None for tourism	None for tourism
Entry stamp / FMM	Passport stamp at immigration, up to 180 days; no paper FMM issued to air arrivals at SJD	Same
Entry fee	None collected at the airport; the tourism fee is bundled into your airfare	Same
State visitor fee	Baja California Sur's "Embrace It" fee: MXN 488 (~US$25) per person aged 12+ staying over 24 hours, paid online at embraceit.bcs.gob.mx (Quintana Roo's VISITAX does not apply to Cabo)	Same
Departure tax	Included in your airline ticket	Same
Return or onward ticket	Not routinely checked at SJD, but the airline may ask at check-in; have it on your phone	Same
Minors	Passport for every child; a consent letter is wise for one-parent or grandparent travel	Same
Customs	Random red/green light inspection after baggage claim	Same

That's the entire list. A passport card or an enhanced driver's license is not enough for a flight; those work only at land and sea crossings, and you'll be flying into SJD. The getting there guide covers the flights.

The entry stamp, step by step

Mexico used to hand every arriving tourist a paper FMM (Forma Migratoria Múltiple) that you carried for your stay and surrendered on departure. SJD no longer issues it to air arrivals. Here's what happens instead.

The airline may ask you to fill in a form or an app before landing. Some carriers still distribute a customs declaration, some don't. Fill in whatever you're given; it's the customs half, not immigration.
Immigration. Hand over your passport. The officer may ask where you're staying and how long. Answer with the resort name and the number of nights, and have the reservation on your phone if you're the anxious type.
The stamp. The officer stamps your passport and handwrites or prints the number of days granted, up to 180. Look at it before you walk away. Officers sometimes write fewer days than you asked for, and if you're staying three weeks and they wrote 14, you want that corrected at the booth, not at the airport on departure day.
Bags and customs. Collect your luggage, then press the button or walk through the random inspection. Green light, walk on. Red light, a brief bag check.
The hall. Between customs and the exit doors is a corridor of desks labeled "information," "transportation" and "tourist assistance." They are timeshare sales. Say no to everyone and go outside, where your pre-booked driver is waiting. Our transfer guide explains the pickup lane.

Don't pay anyone online for a "Mexico tourist card." Because SJD doesn't issue the paper FMM to air arrivals, there is nothing to pre-purchase. A cluster of websites with official-looking names charges US$30–100 to "process" an FMM or a "Mexico visa" for Americans and Canadians. They're selling you a form you won't be asked for. The only official source for Mexican immigration rules is the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) and your airline; if a site takes a credit card for a tourist form, close the tab. The same applies to VISITAX: that's Quintana Roo's tax for Cancún and the Riviera Maya, and the lookalike sites will happily take your money for a state you're not visiting.

Do pay the Baja California Sur "Embrace It" fee, and only on the official site. Since July 2025 the state charges international visitors aged 12 and over who stay more than 24 hours a per-person fee, MXN 488 (about US$25) in 2026, up from MXN 470 in 2025. It is paid online, before you fly or after you land, at embraceit.bcs.gob.mx, and you get an electronic certificate with a QR code. It is not collected at the airport, nobody at SJD will take cash for it, and checks are random spot requests for the QR code at airports and ports of entry. Rollout was muddled enough that some hotels still don't mention it; the state has confirmed it runs through 2026, so pay it on the .gob.mx site and keep the QR with your boarding pass.

Children, green-card holders and dual citizens

Traveling with kids. Every child needs their own passport. Mexico doesn't routinely demand a notarized consent letter from foreign minors flying in with one parent, but airlines sometimes ask on the way out and U.S. and Canadian border officers may ask on the way home. A signed, notarized letter from the absent parent (or both parents, if grandparents are taking the kids) costs little and ends the conversation. Bring a copy of the birth certificate if surnames differ.

Green-card holders. As of our last check, holders of a valid U.S. permanent resident card can enter Mexico as tourists without a visa regardless of their passport's nationality, as long as the card is valid for the stay. Carry the physical card, not a photo of it. If you hold a passport from a country that otherwise needs a Mexican visa, verify this with the nearest Mexican consulate before you book; rules change and we don't have traveler reports on file for Cabo to confirm the current practice at SJD.

Dual citizens. If you're a Mexican citizen with a second passport, Mexican law expects you to enter and leave Mexico as a Mexican. In practice that means presenting your Mexican passport at immigration in SJD and your U.S. or Canadian passport at the airline counter for the flight home. Carrying both is the clean solution.

Customs: what you can bring in

Mexico's customs allowances are set federally and change occasionally, so treat these as the shape of the rules and confirm the exact numbers on the official customs (SAT/Aduanas) site if you're near a limit.

Personal effects for the trip are duty-free: clothes, one phone, a laptop, cameras, sports gear including snorkel and fishing tackle.
Alcohol and tobacco have adult allowances measured in liters and packs; a couple of bottles and a carton per adult has never been a problem for the tourists we've read about. Duty-free tequila on the way home is the more interesting question, and the tequila and taco tours will steer you to what's worth the suitcase space.
Cash over US$10,000 (or the equivalent) must be declared. Under that, nothing to do.
Banned or restricted: fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and plants; firearms and ammunition (an absolute no, with serious jail time); drugs including cannabis even if it's legal at home; and, as of our last check, vapes and e-cigarettes, which Mexico prohibits importing and which customs confiscates. Leave the vape at home rather than test it.
Prescription medication in the original container with the label is fine for a personal supply. Bring the prescription for anything controlled.
Drones are a gray area; small hobby drones generally come in, but flying them near resorts and the Arch draws attention. Ask before you launch.

Departure day

There's no exit form and no departure tax to pay at the counter, because it's bundled into your airfare; the only thing anyone might ask for is your Embrace It QR code, and that's a random check, not a payment. Give yourself 40–50 minutes from Cabo San Lucas or 15–20 from San José del Cabo to reach SJD, plus the usual two hours for an international flight; the getting-around guide has the timing by area. Uber and Didi can drop you at the terminal without restriction, which makes rideshare the cheap option for the return leg even though it can't pick you up on arrival.

Security is standard. Passport control on the way out is a quick check; nobody asks for the paper card you never received. If you overstayed the days stamped in your passport, that's when it surfaces, and it's a fine paid at the INM counter that can cost you your flight. Check the stamp on arrival and it never comes up.

U.S. Global Entry and Canada's NEXUS work on the way home as usual. If you're arriving or leaving on a cruise ship rather than flying, the ship handles the paperwork.

Mistakes travelers report

We don't yet have community answers on file for Cabo entry questions, so these are the patterns from general Mexico travel reporting, adjusted for what's true at SJD.

Not reading the stamp. The most common and most expensive. A 10-day stamp on a 14-night trip means a fine and a delay on departure. Look before you leave the booth.
Buying an FMM or "visa" online. Wasted money; the form isn't issued to air arrivals here.
Paying VISITAX. Wrong state. Baja California Sur's fee is Embrace It, and the only place to pay it is the official bcs.gob.mx site.
Renewing a passport too late. Mexico only requires validity for your stay, but airlines and your own country may apply the stricter six-month rule at check-in. If your passport expires within six months of travel, renew it and stop worrying.
Flying with a passport card. Land and sea only. Air needs the book.
Stopping in the hall. Anyone who takes a seat at a "transportation" desk to ask a quick question has a 50/50 chance of walking out with a breakfast appointment they don't want.
Packing the vape. Confiscated.

Sort the passport, check the stamp, walk past the desks, and you're in the pickup lane in twenty minutes. From there, the first-trip itinerary takes over, or the planner if you still haven't decided where to sleep.