proof of income requirements to move to mexico

You will need a Residencia Permanente in order to work or get a job offer before applying for a Residencia Temporal. For permit requirements look here: Requirements

oh okay thank you.  That seems confusing temporal seems temporary and permanente seems permanant, so confusing as to why one would need a permanente first, then a temporal.  Well it seems, that I may not move to mexico and just buy a house with some savings and go from there, I must have proof of income before going there correct? Thank you for your kind response joaquinx

There are three types of visa's as far as I know:

1.  Tourist - 180 days.
2.  Temporary - 1 year with renewals every year
3. Permanent (Residente Permanente) - Forever

Both 2 and 3 require proof of income.  I believe that the Temporary can be converted to a Permanent after 5 years.

It is less expensive to get a Permanent Visa then pay for 5 years of Temporary Visas and you only have to prove income once.

You can get a Temporary Visa that allows for work at a specific job.

A Permanent Visa allows you to get any job you want.  It's much easier to get a Permanent and then look for a job than getting a job offer and then applying for a Temporary since i believe the income requirements may be the same.

You don't need a Permanent Visa before you get a Temporary.  You either get a Temporary and convert it to Permanent later on or a Permanent from the start.

I got a Permanent Visa about 5 years ago by going to the Mexican Consulate in NYC.  Total time I spent in the Consulate and INM in Cuernavaca until I had the document in my hand was about 4 hours since I contacted the Consulate ahead of time to be sure I had every document they required before I went to them.

thank you  wkramer! That clears up some questions I had.  It is confusing looking at all the information available on line as much of it is contradictory.

I do not have an income at the moment I closed my business and went thru a recent divorce.  I am selling a residence which will give me some money to live on for a while and re invest in a new residence. 

Do you know if one can use a savings as proof of income rather than an actual job? and how much savings one would need for proof? been trying to search on line and can't find anything solid to go on.  many thanks!

Your best place to answer these question would be the nearest Mexican Consulate. You have to stop there anyway to get either a Temp or Perm visa.

The proof of income they require is either cash in the bank or assets or monthly income (a job, Social Security etc.).  I just used a retirement account that had more than enough in it to satisfy their assets requirement.  After I gave them a copy of the last retirement account statement they didn't even look at my bank statements that showed my monthly income.

If you own property in Mexico you only have to meet half of the income/assets requirements (at least when I got mine).

You should call the Mexican Consulate in NYC even if you have one closer  to you since I hear all kinds of horror stories as to what information you will get from different consulates.  The NYC is the largest and all the people who do the visas speak perfect English and are very helpful.

Thank you for your help

Also, you should know that once becoming a Perm. Res. you will no longer be allowed to drive foreign plated vehicles, you must import yours(very expensive) or buy one here. If you decide to buy a Mexico car, be sure to check the safety standards with that model as they are significantly less than up North.

Welcome to Mexico....it's a great place to live!!!

Thank you! and thanks for the advice, good to know! I am wondering now just how expensive it is to import my vehicle.

Delightedtogo wrote:

Thank you! and thanks for the advice, good to know! I am wondering now just how expensive it is to import my vehicle.

Personal expérience, owned a 2013 Sonate, moved to Mexico August 2017. Call the Aduana for cost = very expensive 16% of US dealer value + paperwork/admin cost + time consuming + high cost for insurance recent vehicule.

Same scenario, with permanent or temporary residency statut, spoke to Sonia Diaz www.soniadiaz.com  she gave us this advice "since it's a recent vehicule, you might be better off selling the vehicule in your country and buy one in Mexico from a dealer so the paperwork is included in the purchase price".

So, we sold the Sonata back home and got the INAPAM card (senoir's rebate card +60 years) and using the intra/inter cities buses for 50% (exemple: La Peñita de Jaltemba to Guadalajara retira 440$ pesos, 4,30hrs first class bus), intracity PV buses 3,75$ pesos. We have no intentions to buy a vehicule for the time being but purchased a "bicicleta urbana" for less then 3000$ pesos, great exercice and all services in La Peñita de Jaltemba are less then 1km away.

Adios, GyC.

Delightedtogo wrote:

Thank you! and thanks for the advice, good to know! I am wondering now just how expensive it is to import my vehicle.

I strongly recommend not bringing your personal car if you want permanent residence. As long as you are a visitor you can go back and forth with your car paying a import fee to go beyond two specific border states, which means fees for most of Mexico except the Sonora and Tijuana areas. The fee will be returned when you leave and then you can use that same money when you return. 6 years ago I payed a $300 dollar fee  for my older model Audi. The big draw back of having a non Mexican plated car is you get a lot more attention, especially from the police.

The visitor for 180 days plan is actually what you should do until you get your feet wet in Mexico and see what you think.

Importing a car is very expensive and problematic. Buying a Mexican car is better .  The idea that Mexico is full of just cheap beater cars is a myth.  The problem with used Mexican cars is that like many in the U.S. they are maintained mechanically in a way that wears down the engine and parts. Like a number of people do in the U.S. . Many here think revving the engine is a good thing and good for the car which it is not, So buying one of those cars could mean you are buying a stressed engine with a shorter life span. They have pretty much eliminated the Katrina cars sent to them by the U.S., but in some areas there could still be some flood damaged cars.

Buying a new car is possible , but your U.S. credit will not count. you have to have the money or Mexican credit which really won't happen until you create it as a permanent resident. So those are the facts I have tested myself. Find people who will help you that you trust, if you don't speak Spanish work on that.

For the time being stay as a visitor for awhile, meet people, and check out the local transportation like busses, taxies, walking, maybe Uber, but be very careful about Uber especially if you choose Mx. city or Puebla
Buena suerte

Very good! thanks to all with great advice.  I will be temporary for at least 6 months before I decide If I want to buy real estate and settle there for sure.  Just trying to get an idea of what I will have to go through if I decide to to live there long term, so I very much appreciate all points of view.

Hi "Delightedtogo", a final suggestion if I may, since you are from Oregon, your first 6 months trip could take you all the way down the west coast to Zihuatanejo then inland to Patzcuaro, Morelia, SMA, San Luis Potosi then onto the east coast to Cancun via Mexico in between Puebla, Campeche, Merida.

But there are even more areas to visit like Guanajuato, Queretaro.

Be prepared with the Guiá Roji travel atlas for Mexico, Lonely planet and Terry &Mike Church Mexican campground guide if you intend to camp.

Adios y muy buen viaje, GyC.

Thank you "mexicogc" not sure how far I will travel, but will keep it in mind.

AND....... ALL of Quintana Roo~~~ From Cancun to Chetumal
Is a 'Free' zone, so once here cancel your permit--get your money back---and never leave

Hi,  my wife and I plan to move to Tulim. We now live in the Virgin Islands and we have no Consulate here. We fly in and we want to apply in Mexico for our permanent residence once we are there. We are going to buy a car from a dealer there. Would this work?

NGPT wrote:

AND....... ALL of Quintana Roo~~~ From Cancun to Chetumal
Is a 'Free' zone, so once here cancel your permit--get your money back---and never leave

Nope , Do not believe all of Quintana Roo and Cancun to Chetmal are a free zone.  It would be most unwise to throw away your Permit or try to cancel it, could be expensive also.

The free zone continues to be "All of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, including the states Baja California and Baja California Sur are inside the free zone. Also, the northwest portion of the state of Sonora, where the zone Mexico Federal Highway 15 is delineated by a couple of Mexican Federal Highways. The Free Zone includes the portion of the state of Sonora that lies to the northwest of Mexico Federal Highway Number 2, starting at Agua Prieta, extending through Cananea, up to where it intersects with Mexican Federal Highway Number 15 in Imuris. From Imuris, the free zone is again all of the areas to the north and/or west of Mexico Federal Highway Number 15, which runs south through Magdalena, Santa Ana, Casa Blanca, Benjamin Hill and Hemosillo.

Just north of Guaymas, Highway 15 splits with the Libramiento Guaymas portion extending towards the southeast. Here the free zone encompasses the areas to the south and to the west of Highway 15, to include the areas of Santa Clara, Hacienda El Pardo, Guaymas, and Empalme. The end of the free zone is marked on Mexican Federal Highway Number 15 at kilometer 98, southeast of Empalme." note this is current 2014- 2017. No big recent changes.

Thank You, very helpful

The value of any property that you own in Mexico will be included in the total amount required to prove that you can support yourself.  Therefore if the requirement is to show assets of 1,600,800 pesos and you have bought property worth 1,000,000 pesos then you will need to have bank statements showing a balance of 600,800 pesos.  I do recommend that you enlist a lawyer (with recommendations) as they really smooth the process for you even though you can easily do it yourself.  Our experience with an immigration lawyer here is that he only charged us 800 pesos for both of us and made the process very simple.

Good luck

thank you rpattyn!

rpattyn wrote:

The value of any property that you own in Mexico will be included in the total amount required to prove that you can support yourself.  Therefore if the requirement is to show assets of 1,600,800 pesos and you have bought property worth 1,000,000 pesos then you will need to have bank statements showing a balance of 600,800 pesos.  I do recommend that you enlist a lawyer (with recommendations) as they really smooth the process for you even though you can easily do it yourself.  Our experience with an immigration lawyer here is that he only charged us 800 pesos for both of us and made the process very simple.

Good luck

Hi rpattyn,
Can you be more specific about what you had the immigration lawyer handle for you? We are coming from the US and will want a 180 day visitors visa but will want to change to permanent right after. Thank you!

Jan2017 wrote:

rpattyn wrote:

The value of any property that you own in Mexico will be included in the total amount required to prove that you can support yourself.  Therefore if the requirement is to show assets of 1,600,800 pesos and you have bought property worth 1,000,000 pesos then you will need to have bank statements showing a balance of 600,800 pesos.  I do recommend that you enlist a lawyer (with recommendations) as they really smooth the process for you even though you can easily do it yourself.  Our experience with an immigration lawyer here is that he only charged us 800 pesos for both of us and made the process very simple.

Good luck

Hi rpattyn,
Can you be more specific about what you had the immigration lawyer handle for you? We are coming from the US and will want a 180 day visitors visa but will want to change to permanent right after. Thank you!

We also came in to Mexico on a 180 day visitor visa and our lawyer made an appointment  at the consulate in Laredo for us to apply for our resident visas.  He advised us what documentation we needed, provided the application form and even made copies of our bank statements after verifying that we had all the statements etc. that were needed, advised us regarding photographs and where to get them from a studio that has been proved to provide exactly what is needed.  Once we had been to Laredo and got the passport update and were approved, we went back to him and he filed the request for visas at INM, filed the request for the extension of the TiP for my car and contacted us to let us know when INM wanted us to go for fingerprints - now INM will contact us to tell us when to go to pick up our visas.  I know that we could have done it ourselves but it was really inexpensive and we thought it would be good to remove any possible errors etc. and put the money into the hands of the local economy in exchange for peace of mind

rpattyn wrote:

Jan2017 wrote:

rpattyn wrote:

The value of any property that you own in Mexico will be included in the total amount required to prove that you can support yourself.  Therefore if the requirement is to show assets of 1,600,800 pesos and you have bought property worth 1,000,000 pesos then you will need to have bank statements showing a balance of 600,800 pesos.  I do recommend that you enlist a lawyer (with recommendations) as they really smooth the process for you even though you can easily do it yourself.  Our experience with an immigration lawyer here is that he only charged us 800 pesos for both of us and made the process very simple.

Good luck

Hi rpattyn,
Can you be more specific about what you had the immigration lawyer handle for you? We are coming from the US and will want a 180 day visitors visa but will want to change to permanent right after. Thank you!

We also came in to Mexico on a 180 day visitor visa and our lawyer made an appointment  at the consulate in Laredo for us to apply for our resident visas.  He advised us what documentation we needed, provided the application form and even made copies of our bank statements after verifying that we had all the statements etc. that were needed, advised us regarding photographs and where to get them from a studio that has been proved to provide exactly what is needed.  Once we had been to Laredo and got the passport update and were approved, we went back to him and he filed the request for visas at INM, filed the request for the extension of the TiP for my car and contacted us to let us know when INM wanted us to go for fingerprints - now INM will contact us to tell us when to go to pick up our visas.  I know that we could have done it ourselves but it was really inexpensive and we thought it would be good to remove any possible errors etc. and put the money into the hands of the local economy in exchange for peace of mind

Thank you rpattyn!
I so appreciate your response. Sounds exactly like what we have planned to do and I totally agree about paying to get assistance! I think Laredo is the point we would go through,  too. Is your lawyer in Mexico and would you feel comfortable sending his contact info to me in a private message? How did you settle on him? Right now I haven't the first clue how to find a Mexican lawyer plus be sure they are legit. We are so anxious to get all the loose ends together and move! Haha. I have found this forum to be so helpful. I do plan to contribute after we get everything done and moved,  too. Thank you again

Jan2017 wrote:

rpattyn wrote:

Jan2017 wrote:

Hi rpattyn,
Can you be more specific about what you had the immigration lawyer handle for you? We are coming from the US and will want a 180 day visitors visa but will want to change to permanent right after. Thank you!

We also came in to Mexico on a 180 day visitor visa and our lawyer made an appointment  at the consulate in Laredo for us to apply for our resident visas.  He advised us what documentation we needed, provided the application form and even made copies of our bank statements after verifying that we had all the statements etc. that were needed, advised us regarding photographs and where to get them from a studio that has been proved to provide exactly what is needed.  Once we had been to Laredo and got the passport update and were approved, we went back to him and he filed the request for visas at INM, filed the request for the extension of the TiP for my car and contacted us to let us know when INM wanted us to go for fingerprints - now INM will contact us to tell us when to go to pick up our visas.  I know that we could have done it ourselves but it was really inexpensive and we thought it would be good to remove any possible errors etc. and put the money into the hands of the local economy in exchange for peace of mind

Thank you rpattyn!
I so appreciate your response. Sounds exactly like what we have planned to do and I totally agree about paying to get assistance! I think Laredo is the point we would go through,  too. Is your lawyer in Mexico and would you feel comfortable sending his contact info to me in a private message? How did you settle on him? Right now I haven't the first clue how to find a Mexican lawyer plus be sure they are legit. We are so anxious to get all the loose ends together and move! Haha. I have found this forum to be so helpful. I do plan to contribute after we get everything done and moved,  too. Thank you again

Jan´s info. is incorrect. The house has to be worth $3,400,00 pesos and is not able to be added to any other source of income. The finanacial solvency mínimum requirements are listed as OR not as AND. So if the house or apartmnet is under that value you need minimum monthly income deposits and many Mx. Consulates require pension income deposits only or investment accounts with mínimum balances only to qualify.

Hi to all, by personal experience, my wife and I got our entry visas for permanent resident last July.

At the consulate in Montreal, for my wife they allowed the permanent resident because they considered that the combination of her monthly income + her investements were OK, they also at the start of the interview asked my wife if she owned proprety in Mexico but we don't.

Afterwards, when I pickup the passports with the visas in them (a week later), I asked the same lady if they always take all aspects of a person net value (income, investments and proprety owned in Mexico), she replied YES we do.

So maybe it varies from one consulate to another, finally we did all the process to obtain our residency cards on our own in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit where all employees speak english but since we speak spanish it was probably even easier to check our status via INM Internet site.

Adios y buen dia a todos, GyC.

mexicogc wrote:

Hi to all, by personal experience, my wife and I got our entry visas for permanent resident last July.

At the consulate in Montreal, for my wife they allowed the permanent resident because they considered that the combination of her monthly income + her investements were OK, they also at the start of the interview asked my wife if she owned proprety in Mexico but we don't.

Afterwards, when I pickup the passports with the visas in them (a week later), I asked the same lady if they always take all aspects of a person net value (income, investments and proprety owned in Mexico), she replied YES we do.

So maybe it varies from one consulate to another, finally we did all the process to obtain our residency cards on our own in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit where all employees speak english but since we speak spanish it was probably even easier to check our status via INM Internet site.

Adios y buen dia a todos, GyC.

https://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/montreal/i … y-residenthttps://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/montreal/i … t-resident

I guess your wife lucked out but if you had already qualified under the financial solvency minumums she would have been able to be approved under the "Vinculo Familiar"  Family Bond law anyway.

The law doesn´t state you´re allowed to use both investment balances and monthly income deposits and either does the Mexican Consulate in Montreal website state this, only one or the other or property value under the Residente Temporal application of $3,201,600 pesos. Interesting their website for Residente Permanente states only minimum pension deposits will be accepted, which is common.

"Retirees or Pensioners:

1. Original and a photocopy of proof of investment or bank accounts with an average monthly balance equivalent to $110,615.00 Canadian dollars during the last twelve months, or

2. Original and a photocopy of proof of monthly income from pensions in the amount of $2,765.00 Canadian dollars during the past six months."

No mention of using house property values under the requirements for Residente Permanente either only applications for Residente Temporal is this mentioned.

Hi "alleycat1", I agree on what you quote from the web site but they did asked my wife if she owned proprety.

Secondly for the family unity, I would have needed the official document from INM which is the permanent residency card thus this means going to Mexico get your card come back to Canada and get the "family unity" visa return to Mexico and INM for my wife's migratory status and residency card. We are glad they took both aspects of her monthly income and investments.

What you get at the consulate is an entry Visa not a "foreigner’s migratory status as a permanent resident in Mexico".

Finally the permanent resident migratory status is for as quoted on the web site (see below) but to many foreigners have the permanent residency card and they also have the canadian or american residency status their intention is not to live fulltime and indefinitely in Mexico!!!
" Foreigners     Visa

Foreigners who wish to remain in Mexico indefinitely may apply in person for a Permanent Resident Visa at the Consular Office closest to their place of residence"



Adios y buen dia a todos, GyC.

If you went to Mexico to your local INM office to be processed for your RP visa/card and your wife came down with you on a 180 day FMM tourist card as soon as you had your RP visa/card in hand then she could apply under the "Vinculo Familiar" Family Bond Law for a RT visa/card for 1 or 2 years and when  up to 30 days before it expires apply for and get a RP card all in Mexico. No need for you to return to Canada.