How to Obtain Residency in Mexico

Why seek to obtain residency in Mexico?

• An absolutely gorgeous country with mountains, beaches, and historical towns.
• A low cost of living; Mexico is competitively ranked in the Numbeo Cost of Living Index.
• Affordable, quality real estate.
• Geographic location – same time zone as the US and Canada, which makes it a great base for work.
• Possible to obtain residency in Mexico without triggering tax residency if you don’t spend more than half the year in Mexico or don’t have the center of your life interests there.
• Possible to obtain paper residency (maintaining residency with minimal physical presence, to use as a Plan B).
• International and bilingual schools.
• Affordable healthcare.

What are the Residency options in Mexico?

You typically obtain a 1 year temporary residency. You must then come back to Mexico to renew it, at which point you are given a 3 year temporary residency card. After these 4 years, you can apply for permanent residency, which does not expire. As things stand, there aren’t any minimum physical presence requirements apart from being present in Mexico when applying for residency.

1. Residency through the ownership of local real estate (about $350,000 if you buy in your own name, or about $175,000 if you buy using a local corporation).
2. Residency through solvency:
   • Demonstrate about $2,600 of income per month for the past 6 months.
   • Demonstrate a bank balance of about $45,000 for the past 12 months.
   • These numbers vary from embassy to embassy, as well as the documents required to apply. Professional help to navigate the process will make your life a lot easier and will save you countless hours of dealing government bureaucracy.
   • There are also options for Residency through solvency specifically aimed at retired people, with higher minimums, but that offer permanent residency straight away.
3. Work permit.
4. Marriage.
5. Having a child in Mexico (permanent residency immediately for the parents, siblings and grandparents with minimal paperwork. More details on giving birth in Mexico to follow soon, but Sergei can also help with this).
6. A special 4 year residency is given to anyone who entered Mexico between 2015 and 2020 as a tourist. This special government program is set to expire in the coming months or so.

1. What documents to you need to obtain residency in Mexico

It’s one of the core advantages of obtaining residency in Mexico – few documents are required. Depending on the visa type and where you are applying from, you need a variation of the below:

• Passport.
• Proof of investment, economic solvency, work contract, or family ties.
• A bunch of Mexican Government forms to fill out and government fees to pay online.
• Marriage certificate.
• Birth certificate in some instances.

All  documents needs to be translated into Spanish. The immigration agent will take care of this. Documents from back home must be apostilled. Police background checks are not required for residency applications.

2. If you obtain residency in Mexico, can it lead to citizenship?

A resounding yes.

• You must first spend 5 years in Mexico and already be on permanent residency.
• You must then simply demonstrate that you spent 18 months of the prior 24 months in Mexico itself.
• A Spanish exam and Mexican culture test must be passed, but you can easily study for them.
• Unlike countries such as Panama and Paraguay that are often touted as easy citizenship options but that are not, Mexico has a fair and transparent naturalization system. If you meet the criteria, you will be granted citizenship.

3. How my immigration agent Sergei can help you obtain residency in Mexico

Sergei moved to Mexico 7 years ago with his family, obtained residency, and they are now all Mexican citizens. Needless to say, he has personal experience with the process 🙂

He helped my own family obtain residency in Mexico. If you hire him, he’ll ensure everything goes smoothly and that you don’t have to stress out over making mistakes and navigating the Mexican bureaucracy. He’ll tell you what he needs from you, and will then tell you where and when to go with which documents. His team will be with you on the ground in Mexico.

There is also a special 4-year fast track residency that can be obtained by anyone who set foot in Mexico as a tourist between 2015 and 2021. Applying for this residency will cost you a few thousand dollars in total.

If you want to move ahead and obtain residency in Mexico, get in touch with Sergei through the contact form below.

If you have questions Sergei will charge you $150 to answer all your questions in detail in a 30 minute call, creditable towards his fees if you go ahead with his services.

Or send an email to sergei@thewanderinginvestor.com.

Full transcript of “How to get Residency in Mexico”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. So today, we’re going to be discussing how to get residency in Mexico with Sergei. Sergei, how are you?

SERGEI: Fine, thanks. Hello, everybody.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So Sergei is an agent specializing in helping people obtain residency here in Mexico. He helped me with mine, I now have permanent residency in Mexico. So can you, please, elaborate on a few of the ways, the most common ways that people can obtain residency here in Mexico?

Get Residency in Mexico through proof-of-income

SERGEI: Yeah. The first way, it’s when you have enough money incomes or savings. For example, the name of this residency is solvencia economica. If you have $2,600 monthly on the last six months, and you can show all the papers to the Mexican embassy in your country, and you can explain of this money, they can give you the special visa. And with this visa, you just need to come to Mexico, in one month, we can change the special visa to the residence temporal card for one year. After one year, we can renovate it. And after four years of the renovation, we can make permanent residency. And with the permanent residency just one year for waiting until the citizenship.

Get Residency in Mexico through proof-of-savings

SERGEI: The second way, if you have savings for the last 12 months, it should be about 40,000 to 45,000 US dollars for the each month. And it’s the same, you show the papers to the Mexican embassy in your country, they will give you, after they enter the special visa. With this visa, you come here the same way in the first option. Incomes or savings, six months or 12 months. The second option–

LADISLAS MAURICE: I think, and what’s really interesting about this is that there are no really physical presence requirements. So it’s a very good plan B. So it’s something that a lot of people are looking for nowadays, and Mexico offers this. You don’t need to spend half the year in Mexico to maintain the residency, you just need to come here to get it and then come here whenever you need to renew it. And then, after a few years, it turns into permanent residency. And permanent residency in Mexico is really interesting, because when I look at my own card here, there is no expiry date.

SERGEI: Yeah. But just for the parents, just for the adults up to 18 years old. Because for the kids it’s for four years, for the adults it’s for the whole their life.

LADISLAS MAURICE: For whole life?

SERGEI: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool.

SERGEI: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So that becomes very valuable. So essentially, you just start the process now and then, in four years, if things don’t change, with just a few trips to Mexico, you would get permanent residency in Mexico, and which is valid for life. And importantly, that does not necessarily trigger tax residency, okay. So you can be a resident of Mexico, and you can be a permanent resident of Mexico without triggering a tax residency in Mexico. Unless if you have the center of your interest here, or you spend, you know, at least half the year in Mexico. So I mean, I’m not giving tax advice here, but essentially it’s very possible to be a permanent resident here without being a tax resident. And that’s a very valuable residency to have in times of uncertainty such as ours.

SERGEI: Yes. Yes, absolutely.

Get Residency in Mexico through investment

LADISLAS MAURICE: So then the other way is through investment.

SERGEI: Yeah. When you buy some property by your own name, you should pay like 350,000 US dollars in total.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Roughly.

SERGEI: Yeah. Or maybe a little bit more, depends by the economic station. And the second option, you can open the company, even if you’re a tourist, you don’t need to be the resident here to open company by your own name. And you can buy this property to the company. And in this case, you just need to pay like half of the price, 175,000 US dollars, twice less. And the same, after you can start the process in any embassy outside the Mexican embassy. After they checking all the papers, so they will give you this special visa, investor visa. And with this visa on the passport, you need to come to Mexico during half a year, 180 days. And in one month, we continue the process here to get the temporary residency card.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. So essentially, buy a house here or buy a house through a company, less money, a bit more accounting, etc. But a lot of people actually use corporations here to invest in real estate. So two interesting options, when I really look at it, generally, any person that has the money to pay $170,000 through a company or $350,000 to buy real estate directly would be able to qualify through economic solvency anyways. So in many cases, it’s a bit redundant, because anyways, there’s that easier way to qualify.

And then I think what’s important to note as well is in terms of economic solvency, it really depends on the consulate and the embassy at which you apply. So you mentioned $2,600 minimum monthly income for six months, or $43,000 to $45,000 over 12 months on your bank account. But it really depends. Some embassies want more.

SERGEI: Yeah. And some embassies have the one more interesting option for PR. When you have, for example, it’s like a retiring visa, when you have more than $4,500 incomes or about $175,000 savings on your bank account during this 12 month, it’s possible to start the process for PR for permanent residency from the very beginning. But of course, it depends by the different options by the different embassies. And always you need to check because from the beginning, we advise to send them the letter. They will explain to you exactly what you need to present and after you can start the process.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And that’s why it’s important to use someone like Sergei for this process because there are the rules, but then they’re a bit different in all the different embassies and consulates. And you know, sure, Sergei comes with a fee, but then your life is a lot easier and then but he helps you essentially choose the consulates as well, and then navigate the whole process, write the proper motivation letter, etc., and then come here, set everything up. I mean, I literally just had to show up at appointments and I got all my paperwork done. So that was an efficient use of my time.

But yes, this option of being able to immediately get permanent residency for some types of people is very, very interesting. And then, also, you wanted to mention as well if people have a child here in Mexico. Can you elaborate?

Get Residency in Mexico through giving birth

SERGEI: Yes. It’s one very interesting option, too, when you’re waiting for the baby, you can come to Mexico, just pay for the medicine like some dollars. And after the childbirth, in one month, usually or even less you can get your PR cards for the whole the family, not only for the parents, but for the siblings, for the grandmas, grandpas, and it’s really easy. And you like skip the process of the temporary residency because, from the very beginning, you get your permanent cards.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So this is absolutely amazing. So essentially, everyone should have their kid in Mexico, objectively. You come to Mexico, you have the child here, there’s great medical care. The kid becomes Mexican. And because you are the parent of a naturally-born Mexican citizen, you are entitled to permanent residency for life, as well as the other parent, as well as the grandparents on both sides, as well as the siblings. So this is absolutely a life hack.

Sergei, we’re going to do another video with this, on this very topic with Sergei, because he has an agency specializing in birth tourism in Mexico, setting up the whole package to make sure that the mother is taken care of, the good hospitals are chosen, good doctors, good care after the birth, etc. But that’ll be another video. But Sergei specializes in this as well.

SERGEI: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So economic solvency, investment, retired people, birth tourism. Any other ways?

SERGEI: Yeah. Just two options if you have employment in Mexico, or the second option, if you’re married in the Mexican woman, for example, and it’s easy to get a temporary residency card.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. Thank you, Sergei. So there is a link below with more information on Sergei’s services and on how to obtain residency here in beautiful Mexico.

SERGEI: Okay.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you.

SERGEI: Thank you so much. Bye.