Living in Mexico has been a dream of mine for many years. The picture perfect colonial cities, dazzling beaches and incredibly friendly locals make Mexico a great place to call home. Best of all, Mexico makes it relatively easy to get both temporary and permanent residency as long as you can meet the income/savings requirements (I’ll explain more on that later).
While it isn’t mandatory to get residency in order to stay in Mexico long-term, you never know when things can change. Presently, Americans (and many other nationalities) can get 6 month visas on arrival and these can be renewed continuously doing “border runs”. I personally didn’t want to go this route because I have had lots of visa issues in the past and I really wanted to find a place that I knew I could call home long term.
Step 1: Make an appointment at a consulate OUTSIDE of Mexico. The first step of the residency process has to be done outside of Mexico (although not necessarily in your home country). I wanted to combine the appointment with a trip back to Ohio to see family so I decided to go to the Detroit consulate. You can make an appointment at your nearest consulate here. Keep in mind that all of the consulates have slightly different income requirements so if you don’t meet the requirements for one, you still may be able to get residency by going through another consulate. As of 9/29/20, the requirements for permanent residency in Detroit were a minimum balance of $108,852 for the past twelve months. You can check out the update consulate info here.
Step 2: Start getting your paperwork in order. I printed off all of my bank statements and compiled everything into one gigantic pile of papers as well as the required form. When I got to the Detroit consulate for my appointment, I paid my $40 interview fee and gave all of my documents to one of the consulate employees.
I visited the consulate on 6/30 and didn’t have my newest quarterly bank statements yet. This ALMOST caused me the chance to get residency as they were requesting my most recent bank statement and wouldn’t accept ones from the previous quarter because they were too “old”. I was finally able to squeak through by having my bank issue a letter of good standing to show my recent bank account balance. If my appointment would have been just a few days later, I would have had my newest statements and the process would have been super easy. Despite the issues with my paperwork, I was in and out of the consulate within about 4 hours. (Most people are in and out in an hour.).
Step 3: Go to an INM office in Mexico and submit your paperwork for your residency card. I had to go to the office in Merida and get the paper forms and a list of other things I needed. I compiled all of THESE documents and took them back to the immigration office a few weeks later. The documents are all in Spanish and I was terrified of making a mistake so I had a Mexican friend double check everything for me. I submitted all of my paperwork and was told to wait a few weeks for an email confirming the next steps.
Step 4: Around 3 weeks later, I finally got a notification that my residency had been approved and that I needed to come to the office again within the next 10 days. I went first thing in the morning and showed them the notification I had received and was then issue an appointment for 5 weeks away. The appointment is not for another few weeks but at that stage, I SHOULD be able to submit my fingerprints and passport photos so I can finally get my residency card which will finalize the whole process.
Overall, the process for residency is relatively easy as long as you have the liquid assets to prove that you are “retiring” there since residency does not automatically give you the right to work. However, Mexico allows people to work remotely as long as they are not earning income from a Mexican source and there are many, many expats and digital nomads working from there. I am incredibly grateful with how easy the process was and knowing that I have found my new home.
Good article. Can you verify whether savings or income is the determining factor in getting the residency? I am assuming savings is the requirement. It is hard to port a six figure income over to Mexico. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your travels… I’ve had so many similar experiences. I too was enamored by the Pueblo Magicos and ended up making one my home- Coatepec, Veracruz. I’m not a beach bum either and didn’t want to live in the sweltering sea level climates. So I’m in the low mountains (maybe 4,000 feet?) but only 90 minutes from the beautiful gulf. Please keep posting! Have fun and stay safe!!!