One of the easiest and most popular ways to acquire residency status in Mexico — through a work visa. You come to Mexico, find an employer, he issues you a job invitation, go to the nearest country and get a work visa, return to Mexico and change your visa to a resident card with a work permit. Of course, an employer, in other words a job, still needs to be found. But everything else looks pretty smooth: they gave me a job offer — will have a residence permit in Mexico.
In reality, everything is more complicated. You agreed with the employer, he provided you with an invitation to work. But that doesn't mean anything yet.
An invitation from an employer must be issued through the migration service. Based on the employer’s request, the National Institute of Migration (INM) issues an approval (oficio, or autorización de visa por oferta de empleo), which is the main document for acquiring a work visa. A visa will not be issued only by invitation from an employer. If the employer did not give you an oficio, such as the one shown in the image below, with a unique NUT number, consider that you also DO NOT have a job offer.
Firstly, not every employer is able to hire foreigners. First, he receives an Employer Registration Certificate (constancia de inscripción del empleador) from the migration service or already has such a certificate. In fact, this is a permit to hire foreigners. To obtain such a certificate, the employer provides the migration service with a stack of documentation, including his financial statements and a list of already working employees, including foreigners. If the main profile of an enterprise does not directly provide for legislative quotas for hiring foreigners, it should adhere to the principle: 1 foreign citizen for every 5 Mexicans. This principle can be circumvented if you hire a foreigner for a position that is not directly related to the main activities of the company.
The employer's verification, in other words the acquisition of constancia de inscripción del empleador, can last several months. And then the document should be updated annually.
Secondly, acquiring approval from the migration service for a specific foreign worker — the longest, most expensive and complex process. We estimate it at 70% of the cost of obtaining a residence permit in Mexico based on an invitation to work. More than once we have been faced with the fact that an employer gives an invitation to work, but is unwilling or unable to obtain approval from the migration service. He should contact the migration service to obtain approval either from a representative of the employer or a lawyer, again on behalf of the employer. The applicant himself has no right to purchase approval. Of course, the applicant has the opportunity, at his own expense, to hire a lawyer who will conduct the acquisition of oficio process. We have seen from personal experience that this does not speed up or reduce the cost of the process. In addition, not every lawyer will undertake this.
If the employer’s representative is not a member of the migration service, consideration of the application may drag on for months. Look at the current queues at migration service offices in Cancun and other cities: sign up to submit documents — 2 months in advance. If the employer's representative does not know how to bypass this queue, he will have to sign up and wait his turn for these 2 months. And then wait for his application to be considered.
When the application is reviewed, the oficio is issued, the case number (NUT) is entered into the migration database, consider that 70% of the process of obtaining a residence permit in Mexico by invitation to work is done. Any consular department using the NUT number has the opportunity to find documentation for the applicant in the migration database, and even before the interview with the consul, these documents can already be studied.
And when you received a work visa and entered Mexico on it, the employer should offer the migration service another document confirming its consent to hire you. This is just a letter and does not need to be visaed by the migration authorities.
When you receive a job offer from a Mexican employer, check if the package of documents contains the approval of the migration service with your name. If there is no such approval, and the employer refuses to issue it, we advise you not to waste time and look for another employer.