Residency in Mexico, in plain terms

Three different stays.

A visitor without permission to work is the tourist entry most Americans and Canadians already know. It is not residency. It is a stay, with a limit.

A temporary resident is the status for someone who intends to remain more than 180 days and up to four years. A permanent resident is a later status, with its own routes — including time in temporary status, or family unity. Marriage to a Mexican does not skip the sequence the way people hope; the July 2025 guidelines still send many spouses through temporary residence first.

The money test, as written.

Trámite 5 of the visa guidelines published in the Diario Oficial on 25 July 2025 sets economic solvency for a temporary resident visa in Unidades de Medida y Actualización (UMA), not in dollars.

You show either an average monthly bank or investment balance equal to 11,460 daily UMA over the last twelve months, or employment or pension income, free of tax, greater than 680 daily UMA in each of the last six months. Consulates convert those peso formulas into local currency. Their checklists are not identical.

UMA daily value for 2026 is MXN 117.31 from 1 February 2026 (INEGI). 11,460 × 117.31 = 1,344,372.60. 680 × 117.31 = 79,770.80. Confirm the consulate’s local-currency list before you book the appointment. This is not immigration advice.

The visa is not the card.

The consular visa is typically a single-entry sticker, valid for a limited time, so you can travel to Mexico and finish the process. After you enter, you have a short window — the guidelines speak of 30 calendar days — to obtain the resident card from INM.

Family members have their own documents and, usually, their own solvency add-on. Remote work from Mexico is not a separate “digital nomad visa.” People who work for a foreign employer use the same temporary-resident solvency routes, if they qualify.

How we sit in this.

We help you sequence the move — when to apply, how the property timeline should wait on the visa, which professionals to sit with. A licensed immigration specialist files and advises. If a page on the internet and a consulate checklist disagree, the consulate wins.