Applications for Residency in Mexico via Consulates

With a few exceptions —mostly related to Family Unit circumstances— all applications for Mexican residency must begin outside of Mexico, via a Mexican consulate.

You can apply for residency in Mexico from any Mexican consulate world-wide; whether it is in your home country, or a ‘third country.’

However, if you apply from a country that is not your home country (or certain documents you submit in support of your residency application were not issued in the country where you apply), you will need to get certain documents that support your application, e.g. marriage certificates and bank statements, ‘legalized,’ also known as ‘apostilled.‘

Applying via a Mexican consulate in your home country

If you apply for legal residency in Mexico from your home country, the Mexican consulate will not normally ask for your home country issued documents, e.g. marriage certificates, bank statements, etc., to be notarized or apostilled (in Canada, ‘authenticated’) to accept them.

However, if your documents were not issued in your home country (e.g. you got married abroad, or your bank or investment account is in another country) or you are applying for Mexican legal residency from a third country instead of your home country, the Mexican consulate will ask for key documents to be apostilled.

Applying via a Mexican consulate in a ‘third country’

Sometimes, it might not be possible or practical to apply for legal residency in Mexico via a Mexican consulate in your home country.  This could be because:

• You are legally resident and situated in another country; or
• You are currently situated in a country that is geographically closer to Mexico than your home country; or
• There isn’t a Mexican consulate in your home country; or
• You are in Mexico now and need to leave to apply, and want to make the application from a country that is geographically closer to Mexico than your home country.

Key documents will need to be apostilled (legalized)

As part of every application for legal residency in Mexico, the Mexican consulate will ask to see key support documents: the most common are marriage certificates, bank statements and investment account statements—but there may be others, depending on which route you use to apply for residency.

If you decide to apply for legal residency in Mexico from a third country i.e., a country that is not your home country, —or a country different to where any of your key documents, especially marriage certificates and bank statements are issued— then you will need to get these documents notarized/apostilled in your home country (or the country in which they were originally issued) and couriered to you to support your application via the Mexican consulate in the third country.

Some documents need to be notarized first: Some documents can be directly apostilled, e.g. birth and death certificates, marriage certificates; however, some types of documents need to be notarized first and then sent to be apostilled (or ‘Authenticated’ in Canada)—examples include bank statements and investment account statements.

Note for Canadians: Canada is not signatory to the international Apostille convention, and instead uses its own ‘Authentication’ procedure.  Documents issued in Canada need to be ‘Authenticated’ and then must be sent to a Mexican consulate in Canada to be ‘legalized’ for Mexico.

Note for countries not signatory to the Hague Convention: Many, but not all countries and territories are signatory to the international Apostille convention. Documents issued in countries and territories that are not signatory to the convention cannot be Apostilled and instead need to sent to a Mexican consulate responsible for that country or territory to be ‘legalized’ for Mexico.  Note that Honorary Consuls cannot usually ‘legalize’ documents for Mexico: you must attend a Mexican Consulate.

Online services exist that can handle the notarization and apostilles for you.  If you decide to use a third party service to do this, you will need to hire the services in the country where the documents were originally issued.

How to get your documents apostilled

Learn about preparing key documents with apostilles where this is required for submission to a Mexican consulate by reading our article about the notarization and apostille (legalization) of documents for use in Mexico.

Learn more about Mexico visas and immigration

Mexperience publishes extensive information about visas and immigration to Mexico, including:

• Learn about the principal routes to obtaining legal residency
• Our free Mexico Immigration Guide that encapsulates what you need to know about applying for visas and residency permits.
• Our article about temporary and permanent residency describes legal residency in Mexico, and our FAQs page is updated regularly.
• Our latest articles about visas and immigration keep you apprised of current situations including financial criteria for residency, fees, and procedures.