Among the Russian-speaking audience, it is generally accepted that in Mexico you can buy everything for money. Including your passport. This is illegal, however, demand creates supply. A Mexican passport opens up wide opportunities for traveling around the world and for this reason is perceived as an alternative to the main citizenship, say, Russian. But you need to understand that the passport — not the main document proving Mexican citizenship. You must first go through the steps of obtaining Mexican citizenship. And even after this, obtaining a passport may remain in question.
Mexican passport and citizenship — it's not the same thing!
Acquire Mexican citizenship «from scratch» permitted only on one basis — to be Mexican by birth. This means that you must be born in Mexico or one of your parents or a parent's parent must be a Mexican citizen. The only document proving Mexican citizenship by birth is a Mexican birth certificate. If you don't have Mexican roots, they will draw them for you. Let's say, through a paternity procedure, your father was supposedly Mexican, but you might not have been born in Mexico. You will even be given a second surname, as is customary in Mexico.
Based on parent — Mexican is entered into the Mexican Civil Registry and is issued a birth certificate or an extract from the registry confirming Mexican citizenship. Next you get CURP — Mexican Resident Identification Code and INE — a voting card, which is considered a basic internal identification document (Mexico does not have an internal passport). You personally receive these documents and see that at this stage everything goes smoothly. You are already able to live in Mexico and enjoy all the benefits that the state provides to its citizens on its territory.
In the package for purchasing a passport you will be offered other services — obtain a driver's license and RFC tax number, open a bank account, etc. — for credibility, because they are not related to the process of acquiring a passport.
Now the main task — quickly purchase a Mexican citizen passport to travel abroad. Fast — because in the era of digitalization, an entry in the Civil Register has the right to be checked, and then it has the right to turn out that the entry in the registry itself states that your father — a Mexican citizen, but there are no documents or other records confirming this. And there should be several such papers, and not just a freshly issued birth certificate! In addition, the father also has the right to have his own story, and it has nothing to do with the appearance of his son, in other words, you.
Receiving a passport — The process is the longest and most unpredictable. And it is at this stage that problems most often occur. They will promise you that you will receive a passport in 3 months. In fact, it is possible to draw up the right in six months, but will not receive the right at all. Applying for a passport — always only personal, with a visit to the passport office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, taking photographs and submitting biometrics. At the passport office you will be invited to an interview, where they will ask questions about you, your parents and any questions relating to your life in general. Passport office employees have the right to ask for any supporting evidence of your Mexican origin that you may not have, such as birth or marriage certificates of your parents, verified facts about your life, and even testimony from witnesses.
They will tell you that there is an agreement, and you just need to wait to get to the «right» shift, and then there will be no interview at all, or there will be one, but your answers will not affect anything. There is a possibility of waiting for a very long time. In our opinion, this is a game of «it will work out— it won’t work out», and most often there are no agreements. There really may not be an interview, because it is selective. You can complete it successfully yourself. Or you won’t pass, and then you’ll be accused that it’s your own fault for being poorly prepared. But you have the opportunity to make a second attempt to obtain a passport.
They will reassure you: you already have Mexican citizenship, you have a birth certificate, an INE card, CURP and a bank account. In other words, most of the work is done. But you didn’t come to Mexico to acquire citizenship, but a passport.
You may be offered to obtain a passport without visiting the passport office. Then rest assured that it is 100% fake, although it has all the attributes of a real passport.
Some leave Mexico without receiving their passport, others are afraid to go through the interview so as not to be exposed. But there are those who still received a passport. But even if you have received a passport, it is better not to use it for leaving and entering Mexico, only — abroad.
According to offers on the Internet, prices for services to obtain a Mexican passport start at $35,000, but can be as high as $90,000. However, a low price is not a sign of fraud, but rather indicates proximity to the «source». You have no right to determine by price whether this offer is reliable or not. And you can never be sure that the process will take exactly as long as they promise you.
Maximum validity period for a Mexican citizen's passport to travel abroad — 10 years. We don't have that long of accumulated history, but right now it looks like if after 10 years you want to get a new passport for the next 10 years, you'll have to go through the whole citizenship process and then get the passport again.