If you have never crossed at Progreso before, the trip is shorter and plainer than most people expect. You park in Texas, you walk over a bridge, and the shops and clinics start almost immediately.
The parts that go wrong are rarely dramatic. They are small: the wrong document, no small change, no written quote, no idea how long the queue home will be.
This is the list.
Before you leave the house
Documents. A valid passport or passport card. A driver's licence or a state ID will not get you back into the United States, and this is the single most common way a trip ends before it starts. Check the expiry date while you are looking at it.
Cash. US dollars are widely accepted on the tourist strip. Bring a backup card, but do not plan around every counter taking one.
Quarters. The turnstile walking into Mexico takes four of them, per person. Coming back is cheaper and can usually be paid in pesos.
The clinic's details written down — name, street address, phone number — not only in an app on a phone that might not have signal.
Tell somebody. Where you are going, which clinic, and roughly when you expect to be back.
Have this settled before you arrive
Know roughly what the work should cost. We publish the prices each clinic has put out publicly, researched from published price lists rather than supplied or confirmed by the clinic. That gives you a range to walk in with. It is not a quote, and it is not a promise about what you will be charged.
Ask for the quote in writing, before anything starts. Itemised: what is being done, what each part costs, what happens if more is needed once they are looking. A verbal number in a waiting room is not something you can hold anybody to.
Know what happens if something goes wrong at home. Ask before treatment, not after: if this needs adjusting in three weeks, what does that look like, and what does it cost? You will be four hours away in Weslaco or McAllen, not down the road.
Questions worth asking at the clinic
None of these are rude. They are the ordinary questions any careful patient asks, and a clinic that takes them badly has told you something useful.
- "May I see your Cédula Profesional?" Mexican dentists and doctors are required to hold one, and it is normal for it to be displayed. Nobody from ClearCross has inspected a clinic or checked anybody's licence, so this is a question for you to ask in the room.
- "How many of these do you do in a month?" Volume is a fair proxy for familiarity.
- "How do you sterilise instruments here?" You are allowed to ask, and you are allowed to look.
- "What are you using?" For a crown, an implant, a lens — ask what the brand and material actually are, and write the answer down. We have not looked in anybody's cupboard and cannot tell you what a given clinic stocks.
- "What is the total, in writing, before we begin?"
On the day
Go early. The town is busiest in the middle of the day. Mornings are calmer, and weekdays are calmer than weekends.
Keep every receipt. For the treatment, for the pharmacy, for anything you buy. You will want them at customs and you will want them if there is ever a dispute.
Photograph the work. Before and after, on your own phone. It costs nothing and it is the only record you will control.
Drink bottled water.
Coming back
The queue you should plan around is the one going home — that is where everyone is inspected.
Check the live wait rather than assuming today is like last time; it moves hour to hour. We show the current CBP reading for the Progreso crossing on our [safety and crossing page](/safety), with CBP's own timestamp on it.
Declare what you bought. Each person gets an $800 exemption every 30 days, and declaring is what keeps a bag of shopping boring. There is a full breakdown in [what you can legally bring back](/blog/what-you-can-bring-back-from-nuevo-progreso), including the rules for medication.
The short version
If you only remember five things:
- Passport or passport card, in date.
- Quarters, and cash.
- A written, itemised quote before any work starts.
- Ask to see the Cédula.
- Check the live border wait before you walk back.
Everything else is shopping.
