How to get a residence permit in Mexico under the settlement program yourself

We often write about the migration settlement program, which has been in effect in Mexico since April 2021 and thanks to which it is possible to gain residency status in the country without much effort. According to this program, any visitor to the country who has previously been to Mexico is able to request a Mexican temporary resident card with a validity of 4 years. This is the maximum period for which such cards are issued.

Program conditions for 2025:

• You entered Mexico between 2015 and 2023.

The entry record must be in the migration database. It does not matter that you later left and entered Mexico again, or that after entering you did not leave at all. The key condition is that you had entries in 2023 or earlier. The decision on eligibility for the program is made by a computer program based on entry data from the migration database.

• The permitted period of stay (on the stamp in your passport) or your migration document (paper FMM form) has expired.

We are talking about the deadline you received at the most recent deadline. In this case, it does not matter when the permitted period of stay ended, yesterday or two years ago, in other words, it does not matter how long you have been in Mexico in an illegal status. Moreover, it does not matter whether you still have the FMM form at all, if you had one.

If you meet these two criteria, feel free to go to the migration service and ask for a residence permit in Mexico. You will receivetemporary resident status in Mexico for 4 yearsand a temporary resident card with the same validity period.

You can find out the current requirements of the settlement program from thispublications. What papers need to be obtained in advance can be readHere.

The tariff for migration procedures will be about US$1000. Never before has it been possible for that kind of money to obtain residency status in Mexico without special conditions, especially for 4 years, and especially for a tourist.

Temporary residence status does not oblige you to stay in the country for a single day during these 4 years. But if after 4 years you want to establish permanent residence, you will have to return to Mexico before the expiration date of your temporary resident card.

Next, we will tell you what you need to do to independently prepare a residence permit in Mexico under the program for resolving the migration situation.

First visit to the migration service

If you don't know Spanish, take a pen, a piece of paper and write just a few lines:

Take this piece of paper, your passport, the latest FMM migration form (if you have it, in other words, if you entered Mexico by land) and go to the office of the National Institute of Migration. No other documentation is needed! Copies should not be made! INM office addresses can be foundHere

Your goal — obtain approval from the migration service and at the same time — sign up to submit documents (receive«situ»). The lines are long and you have to get in line at 6 or 7 am. You need to get in first come, first served at the window.Informacion. There, just hand over the papers and wait.

Your passport will be scanned and your entries will be checked against the migration database. If you meet the criteria described above, they will bring you a stack of papers and, perhaps, tell you what to do next, and set a date (they will issue you a “sit”) when you can submit the papers to purchase a resident card.

Fill out the application online

According to thislinkyou will find instructions on how to open the migration procedure and fill out the so-called “tramite”.

In the blockTipo de trámiteselectRegularizar situación migratoriaand thenRegularización por tener documento vencido o por realizar actividades no autorizadas. Finally, download the PDF file and print it, each page on a separate sheet. One copy is enough (that's 3 sheets).

On the last page, hand-write the name of the city and state (Lugar), your first and last name (Nombre), and sign (Firma). Set the date (Fecha) to the one on which you will have «sita» to visit the migration service to submit papers.

Set a date for visiting the migration service

(Electronic registration for visits to migration service offices has not worked since the spring of 2022. The information in this section is no longer relevant. You need to come to the migration service office in person with your passport to purchase an appointment (the so-called «situ», date and time) to submit documentation. Skip this section and read thismaterial).

Go to thispageto set a date for visiting the migration service office.

If you are not yet registered in the National Institute of Migration system, follow the Regístrate link and register.

Payment

There are currently 3 options:

• you received three invoices for payment immediately after the residence permit was approved by the migration service,
• you will receive three invoices for payment after submitting the documentation for the «site»; In some migration service offices you can pay in cash.
• you will pay state fees without invoices, with a bank card at the migration service office.

We provide examples of these accounts, but in your case the details may be different.

Amounts for 2025: MXN 1780 — for conducting the migration procedure, 2171 MXN — minimum fine for violating the migration regime (you are an illegal immigrant), 12529 MXN — for issuing a temporary resident card valid for 4 years. Total — from 15480 MXN.

The amount may be different if the maximum fine of 10857 MXN is applied to you. It depends on the migration service office.

Cover letter

The template for this letter is included in the set of papers that you received upon your first visit to the migration service office. In this letter, you should indicate the purpose of contacting INM and «under oath» explain why you need this. You have the right to enter the desired text into the resulting template or print your entire version on a new sheet of paper. There is quite a bit of space in the template issued by INM, so the second option looks simpler. We provide a sample text below.

At the top, indicate the same date on which you were scheduled to visit the migration service office. The letter must be signed. It needs to be in the original in 1 copy, no copy is required.

Interview and registration of a resident card

Then everything will happen quite quickly. Your set of documents should be as follows:

• Passport + copy of photo spread,
• Migration form FMM (optional),
• Completed application for the migration procedure (solicitar tramite migratorio),
• Cover letter,
• 3 payment receipts + 6 copies thereof, 2 from each,
• Proof of residential address in Mexico (utility receipt in any name, no older than 3 months) — It is not always necessary, but since you indicated the address in the application, you can ask for it to be confirmed.

Based on the migration service office, you may also be asked to provide:

• proof of solvency (bank account statement),
• contract with a foreign employer,
• two witnesses who will confirm that they know you as a decent person,
• a letter from the landlord stating that you actually live at the stated address.

On the appointed day and time, come to the office of the National Institute of Migration and submit a package of documents at the windowIngreso. At the entrance you will definitely be asked if you have an appointment (yes, you have an appointment). If you do not speak Spanish or English, you are welcome to bring an interpreter with you.

After checking your documents (payments will be checked especially carefully), you will be interviewed. The questions they will ask are the simplest: when and why did you come? what do you do in Mexico? What means do you live on? (remember that you do not have a work permit in Mexico) why are you unable to leave? They can ask you anything, but don’t be afraid, they won’t catch you asking questions. Quite often, an interview looks like a simple formality. We know of cases where there was no interview at all.

Based on the results of the interview, a protocol — decision to grant you a residence permit in Mexico. This protocol should appear on the INM website — When filling out the application, you indicated your email, and all notifications and links to access the migration service website will be sent to it.

Subsequent events occur differently in different offices. Somewhere you will immediately be asked to take a photograph, get fingerprinted, sign a number of papers and be given a resident card. In other offices, you will be asked to come back in a couple of days and will send an invitation with a date to your personal account on the INM website. Under any circumstances, you will eventually receive a plastic temporary resident card for Mexico with a validity of 4 years.

Remember: this card does not provide permission to work in Mexico. To purchase such a permit, you must either find an employer or register with the Tax Service (SAT) as a self-employed entrepreneur and then declare to INM that you have received self-employed status. After this, the migration service will give you a work permit and re-issue your resident card with the appropriate inscription. One way or another, this is a whole procedure that is described in publications on our website.