Crossing Mexican Border with Foreign Wife

[Bugs 455]

My wife is a Filipina, came here on a fiance visa, been married for a year now, she has her Conditional Greed Card. We are planning, for a fun day this Sunday, to walk around the outlet mall that is on the San Diego/Tijuana border, then walking across the border to enjoy a little taste of Mexico for the afternoon.

My questions are:

1. What exactly does she need to bring with her? I know I need my U.S. Passport. Does she need her Philippines passport, or just the Green Card? Birth Certificate? Anything else?

2. What time should we be heading back through U.S. Customs if we hope to be back in our car, which will be parked in the San Ysidro outlet mall, driving home by 4:00 PM (hoping to catch the Chargers/Patriots Sunday night football game that starts at 5:30 hehe). This question of course is for those who have experience walking across the San Ysidro/Tijuana border on a Sunday. I want to know how long it will take for her to get back across going through customs.

Many thanks!

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from Moving to the US and Your New Life to Working & Traveling During US Immigration Forum~

~Similar topics are often discussed at this forum~

[Bugs 455]

Thank you A&B. Wasn't sure really where to put this.

[DC85 113]

Passport and Gc

[TBoneTX 45,469]

From my many experiences at Texas crossings, you might want to flip your itinerary so that you visit Mexico in the morning. The POEs tend to get busier at the end of the day.

Go to cbp.gov and look for the real-time estimates of how long it takes to cross back over. The vehicular times can be applied to foot-crossing times, in places where walking back over is feasible. If I can find that exact link, I'll edit this post with it.

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Edit: See here: http://bwt.cbp.gov/

This is even better than the last time I looked at it. Very cool.

You can also telephone the particular port office to ask how heavy the return traffic tends to be.

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Edited yet again, to add: Mrs. T-B. had no problems with use of her conditional green card alone, when I took her on several day-trip pedestrian visits across several Texas POEs.

Edited December 5, 2014 by TBoneTX

[Sirliner 26]

Walking back across the San Ysidro border crossing is usually a short wait. About an hour or less. Of course, that assumes you don't get pulled into secondary inspection for some reason. Driving back is a whole different story. They don't call it the busiest border crossing in the world for no reason, Traffic is a nightmare. I've sat in line upwards of 4 hours when driving back. Not recommended, to say the least.

Have fun shopping on Avenida Revolucion.