On July 25, 2025 Mexico’s Secretaría de Gobernación published in the country’s Federal Register updated guidelines for the issuance of all visas—including visas for visitors, temporary and permanent residency applications, and others.
The new guidelines address key matters related to visa issuance and bring the law up-to-date since it was last revised over a decade ago in 2014.
Summary of key changes to the immigration rules
It will take a while to see how the new guidelines are adopted in practice by Mexican consulates abroad and immigration offices in Mexico. We’ll update this article with material new information as it becomes available. Meanwhile, here are some key points we have gleaned so far from researching the new guidelines:
Digital processes and documents
The new guidelines set out a framework for consulates and immigration offices to deepen their adoption of digital procedures including the issuance of visas using QR Codes. For example, electronic visas may replace paper stickers in passports, and it may no longer be necessary to visit a consulate in person to apply for and get a visa processed in some cases.
The new guidelines also recognize that key documentation provided by applicants to support visa applications is becoming increasingly digitized and provides a framework for consulates and immigration offices to accept these in lieu of paper.
Tourists and short-term visitors to Mexico
People with passports from countries on Mexico’s “no visa required” list may continue to arrive in Mexico for vacations and short term visits as before. If a passport you hold is not cited on Mexico’s “no visa required” list (and therefore you must pre-apply for a visa before traveling to Mexico), the process for this visa issuance is being digitalized so that you no longer need a physical paper stamp in your passport. See also: Who needs a visa to visit Mexico?
Temporary and Permanent residency applications
A significant change in the new guidelines is related to the rules for applying for temporary or permanent residency in Mexico by ‘economic solvency’ rules—using monthly income or savings/investments balances to qualify.
To now, Mexican consulates abroad have been using multiples of Mexico’s Minimum Salary to calculate the income or savings required to qualify. The new guidelines seem likely to compel the consulates to adopt UMA. (Read about UMA vs Minimum Salary here.)
However: In tandem with the guidelines specifically citing UMA for use in income or savings qualification calculations, the guidelines have also increased the multiples of UMA now required to qualify, and they align almost precisely with the amount of income or savings currently required to qualify for residency in 2025. Thus, although UMA may be formally adopted by consulates in the foreseeable future, the income or savings required to qualify will not go down as they would have done if the multiples from the 2014 guidelines had been kept unchanged.
In the immediate term: There will likely be no change to the amounts of income or savings/investment being asked for by Mexican consulates when you apply for temporary or permanent residency in Mexico during 2025. You can find out what those amount are on this article. With qualification criteria formally aligned with UMA, annual increases in income or savings required to qualify for residency ought to rise in line with increases of Mexico’s UMA.
Reduction in Notifications required
New guidelines setting out simplification of immigration procedures cite a reduction in the number notifications existing temporary or permanent residents are required to file at the immigration office about changes to their personal circumstances. Existing legal residents will no longer need to file a notification at the immigration office when they change: their name, their nationality, or marriage (civil) status. You’ll still need to file a notification if you change your home address.
We’ll keep you updated
When significant new immigration guidelines have been announced in the past, we have seen that it takes a while for Mexican consulates abroad and immigration offices in Mexico to respond to them in their everyday practices as they work to realign their existing procedures and documentation with the new rules.
We are regularly in contact with our immigration associates and as new material information becomes available we will update this article as well as other corresponding guides on Mexperience.
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Learn more about residency in Mexico
Mexperience publishes information and resources to help you learn about how to apply for and obtain legal residency in Mexico:
- Learn more about financial criteria for residency in Mexico
- Principal routes to obtaining legal residency
- Guide to Mexico’s immigration rules
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