More Immigration Officers Being Sent To Cancun Airport To Combat 2 Hour Wait Times

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Last Updated 2 years ago

The issue about lines at immigration getting ridiculously long has been addressed by Mexican immigration authorities. Folks have been reporting spending north of 2 hours in line at immigration at the Cancun airport. A phenomenon that has gone on now for weeks on end. Perhaps the most concerning fact is that this was an issue that was going on outside of what is considered peak season in Cancun. With spring break right around the corner immigration authorities finally heard the cries from the crowds, and are taking matters into their own hands.

How Many More Immigration Officers Are Going To Be Stationed At The Airport?

According to Francisco Garduño Yáñez, the commissioner of the national immigration institute he’s sending 55 more officers to the Cancun Airport. With this he hopes to combat the long lines that have been a main staple at the local airport for some time now.

The 55 new immigration officers will bring the alleged total number of officers to right around 150. Garduño Yáñez was quick to point out that the extra 55 immigration officers are meant to be active at all times. This was certainly one of the concerns that was raised by the President of Hotels’ Association Jesus Almaguer. 

Almageur mentioned that the problem wasn’t necessarily that there were not enough immigration officers stationed at the airport in theory. The Cancun airport had already been assigned over 100 officers when this line issue began popping up still in major pandemic days. In Almageur’s point of view the issue was that officers either were not showing up to work or manning their post. That was something that was easy to see since a lot of the immigration modules sat empty. Certainly a factor that contributed to the massive lines at the airport. 

The New Immigration Officers Are Here To Stay

Garduño Yáñez detailed the plan that the Immigration office is looking to follow to solve the lines issue. He mentioned that the 55 new officers are here to stay long term. This isn’t just meant to be a solution that will be put in place during the Spring Break season. To then be removed, and force tourists that show up after spring break to deal with the lines. Also, there are going to be 55 new officers always on rotation. It’s not 55 human beings in total that are going to be added to the rotation. 

Immigration officers are typically on 24-hour shifts, and then they’ll rest for the next 24 hours, and so on. Essentially this means that over 100 trained immigration officers are going to be dispatched to the Cancun airport to cover the necessary shifts. All parties involved hope that this action will provide a real solution to the line problem. 

New Solutions & Fewer Detainments At Immigration

The addition of immigration officers is not the only solution that is being explored by Mexican Immigration authorities. At the same time, the lines are not the only issue that was addressed! Immigration authorities have also committed to expanding the number of kiosks for digital check ups that are set to be available at the Cancun airport. This can certainly be another way to decrease the wait times that tourists are having to face at the airport. 

Another topic that was floated around was the number of people that were getting detained at the airport. Apparently, there’s been an increase in the number of innocent tourists that were held for further questioning at the Cancun Airport. The immigration office committed to improving their questioning methods. To be able to reduce the number of seemingly innocent tourists that are detained. Overall, these measures hopefully are enough to make things much smoother for tourists who plan to vacation in the area.      

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