Anonymous wrote:This is the OP reporting back.

I took the ADO public bus from Cancun to Merida for $40, a “luxury” coach. To get to downtown Cancun and the bus station from the resort area in Cancun, I took the R1 city bus for 12 pesos. Both felt very safe and it was comfortable.

I travelled during the day however. I would not hang around downtown Cancun at night but it was fine walking around during the day.

There is also the Mayan train but this has been operational for only about a year and I heard that it was not completely reliable yet.
I don’t know how true that is, I later heard that Mexicans opposed its development because it’s meant for tourists and was costly to build, many opposed it since the country remains poor.

Other things I learned on this trip - the “narcos” or drug cartels are mostly in the north, and they are also feared by locals in Mexico.
Tourists do not need be afraid of violence everywhere in Mexico.
Merida in particular felt very safe, and I’m a very cautious traveller.

Also, Miami airport layover is kind of a nightmare! 2.5 hour layover became less than 2 hours because plane takeoff was delayed by one hour. You have to take the sky train to next terminal to exit and enter customs, grab your luggage and re enter security, and then walk to the gate (which in our case meant going back to the terminal we started). We arrived at the gate 15 min before boarding started, but that was because we didn’t have any checked luggage to pick up.

At customs there is an “express connection” line but it didn’t seem any faster than other lines because it was longer than lines for visitors and visa holders.

Lastly, my son who was born in DC while I was a research fellow at NIH (returned to Canada when he was 18 months old), was asked why he wasn’t carrying his US passport and only had his Canadian passport — even though we were only entering the US on a layover in Miami back to Toronto. I said he has resided in Canada since he was a toddler and he hasn’t lived in the US since, and my son chimed in earnestly that he doesn’t know what his SSN is anymore (I misplaced it) so he can’t apply….there was a beat and then the officer decided we weren’t drug cartels or trying to illegally enter the US so our final destination was Toronto and not El Salvador.

Next time I think we’ll just take the bus back to Cancun and fly direct to Toronto because there a lots of Toronto-Cancun flights and that layover in Miami is a PITA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.

Ok I see. So my son should have been detained legally and then what? He would stay in jail until he got his US passport? Or until he renounced his US citizenship?

Would I also be detained and put in jail because I facilitated his crime due to misplacing his SSN over 15 years ago?

TBH we were relieved we didn’t end up in El Salvador. We were also relieved when our plane (American airlines) didn’t flip over when we landed at Toronto Pearson.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.

Transiting US on a foreign passport is of course legal. But a transit visa or ESTA waiver is required.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/other-visa-categories/transit.html

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/esta/frequently-asked-questions-about-visa-waiver-program-vwp-and-electronic-system-travel#:~:text=Yes.,to%20Apply%20for%20an%20ESTA

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP reporting back.

I took the ADO public bus from Cancun to Merida for $40, a “luxury” coach. To get to downtown Cancun and the bus station from the resort area in Cancun, I took the R1 city bus for 12 pesos. Both felt very safe and it was comfortable.

I travelled during the day however. I would not hang around downtown Cancun at night but it was fine walking around during the day.

There is also the Mayan train but this has been operational for only about a year and I heard that it was not completely reliable yet.
I don’t know how true that is, I later heard that Mexicans opposed its development because it’s meant for tourists and was costly to build, many opposed it since the country remains poor.

Other things I learned on this trip - the “narcos” or drug cartels are mostly in the north, and they are also feared by locals in Mexico.
Tourists do not need be afraid of violence everywhere in Mexico.
Merida in particular felt very safe, and I’m a very cautious traveller.

Also, Miami airport layover is kind of a nightmare! 2.5 hour layover became less than 2 hours because plane takeoff was delayed by one hour. You have to take the sky train to next terminal to exit and enter customs, grab your luggage and re enter security, and then walk to the gate (which in our case meant going back to the terminal we started). We arrived at the gate 15 min before boarding started, but that was because we didn’t have any checked luggage to pick up.

At customs there is an “express connection” line but it didn’t seem any faster than other lines because it was longer than lines for visitors and visa holders.

Lastly, my son who was born in DC while I was a research fellow at NIH (returned to Canada when he was 18 months old), was asked why he wasn’t carrying his US passport and only had his Canadian passport — even though we were only entering the US on a layover in Miami back to Toronto. I said he has resided in Canada since he was a toddler and he hasn’t lived in the US since, and my son chimed in earnestly that he doesn’t know what his SSN is anymore (I misplaced it) so he can’t apply….there was a beat and then the officer decided we weren’t drug cartels or trying to illegally enter the US so our final destination was Toronto and not El Salvador.

Next time I think we’ll just take the bus back to Cancun and fly direct to Toronto because there a lots of Toronto-Cancun flights and that layover in Miami is a PITA.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.

Ok I see. So my son should have been detained legally and then what? He would stay in jail until he got his US passport? Or until he renounced his US citizenship?

Would I also be detained and put in jail because I facilitated his crime due to misplacing his SSN over 15 years ago?

TBH we were relieved we didn’t end up in El Salvador. We were also relieved when our plane (American airlines) didn’t flip over when we landed at Toronto Pearson.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but your son broke US law by entering the USA (even in transit) on a foreign passport. The officer went very easy on you. If he doesn’t want to be a US citizen, then he needs to formally renounce it. Until then, he needs to file and pay US taxes annually by the way. Since Canada also has birthright citizenship, this shouldn’t be a difficult concept for you to understand.