When going to Mexico for childbirth, take care in advance of the documents that you will take with you. Compiling or correctly composing some of them while already in Mexico will not be at all easy. The list of required papers is small, we present it in this publication. Perhaps in your case not all of them will be needed.
Passport.It doesn’t matter what kind of passport you have, biometric or simple. Its validity period is important. You may fly into Mexico with a passport that is about to expire, and you may even be able to purchase a new passport from your country's consulate in Mexico City. But most airlines require that the passport be valid for at least 6 more months. We suggest that the validity of your passport cover the period of your stay in Mexico. Ideally, the passport should be valid for at least another year.
Parents' marriage certificate.Mexico does not care what kind of relationship the parents have; the child will be registered without a marriage certificate. However, in some states, a certificate may be required when registering a child, although most often they will register without it if both parents are present. In addition, the certificate is not mandatory when registering the citizenship of the parents for a child and when the parents obtain permanent residence in Mexico. But just in case, take it.
For any document to become valid abroad, it must be certified with an apostille stamp. An apostille can only be placed on the original document and only in the country of issue, and often even only in the authority that issued it. It will be extremely difficult to do this while already in Mexico; the document will have to be sent to your homeland and back. Consulates do not issue apostilles.
We described how to put an apostille on any document in the publications posted at these links: inUkraineand inRussia.
Your parents' marriage certificate — grandparents of the unborn child — will be needed if they plan to obtain residency status in Mexico based on your residency permit.
Birth certificate.Birth certificates may be needed for two purposes — confirm family ties in the future during naturalization. If parents go to Mexico themselves, then no birth certificates are needed to obtain permanent residence. But if their minor children or their parents (grandparents) also come with them, then they need to take the following birth certificates:
- child — the child's birth certificate indicating the parents,
- grandmother/grandfather — birth certificates of parents, which indicate grandparents.
Instead of a birth certificate, there may be an adoption document.
When a child enters Mexico with a different surname than the parent's, the birth certificate is intended to confirm that he is not traveling alone, but with a parent. If he is traveling with his mother, who changed her surname after his birth, a certificate of change of surname or a marriage certificate must also be provided.
2 years after acquiring permanent residence, parents, and after 5 years, grandparents have the right to begin the procedure for obtaining citizenship, for which it is mandatory to have a birth certificate for each of them in the original with an apostille. If you plan to live these years in Mexico without returning to your homeland, take the certificate with you to Mexico when you first arrive.
Minor children can apply for Mexican citizenship after their parents receive citizenship, and they will already have a birth certificate, since it will be needed when applying for permanent residence.
Certificate of name change.If one of your relatives changed their first or last name, you will also need a certificate of name change (or a marriage certificate). If a relative has been married several times and each time changed his surname to the surname of his spouse, there may be several certificates. We would like to emphasize once again that we need all the papers through which it is possible to trace the family connection with the future citizen of Mexico.
All certificates and papers are certified by an apostille, as we wrote above.
Certificate of gestational age.Needed for air travel. Without it, the airline has the right not to board you on the flight. The certificate can be obtained from the attending physician, and preferably as close as possible to the date of the flight (some airlines require a certificate no older than 3 days). The certificate itself is in free form, in which the doctor is required to write down the gestational age, the expected date of birth, and in addition indicate whether there are pathologies and warnings for flying. The certificate is certified by the seal of the medical institution. If you are flying with a foreign airline, the certificate should be translated into English; the translation does not need to be certified.
Medical card.This is the document in which the doctor in your home country notes the progress of the pregnancy. In Russia it is called «exchange card». If the pregnancy is progressing normally, there is generally no need to bring a medical card to Mexico. When contacting a Mexican doctor, he will still conduct a full examination.
In Mexico, your medical record will not be considered a document. This means that you must rely on the experience and opinion of a Mexican doctor, and not on the opinions of doctors in your home country. But medical records can contain valuable information. If pregnancy has any complications, take the card with you to Mexico. You have the right to translate the necessary notes on paper in advance or, already in Mexico, verbally explain to the doctor the essence of the problem, independently or through a translator.
Consent for the child to leave.It may be necessary if one of the parents is traveling to Mexico with a child without the other parent. Let's say the expectant mother arrives with her eldest son, and dad arrives with his sister later.
Mexico does NOT require consent from the other parent when a child enters with one parent (but does if the child is traveling without a parent), and it is never asked at passport control. Your country may also not require consent for departure from the second parent. However, many airlines and travel agency websites state that the other parent's consent is required to enter Mexico. Although this is not true, in order to avoid problems with the airline, play it safe, go to a notary, and obtain consent for the child to leave from the other parent. Translate it into English or Spanish. A simple translation is enough; there is no need to certify the translation.
If the child is accompanied by both parents, no formal consent is required.
Vaccination card.Take it if you plan to send your children to a Mexican kindergarten or school. Can you translate it into Spanish? The card must be officially issued. The card or transfer does not need to be certified.
Driver license.Are you planning to rent a car in Mexico? Don't forget to take your driver's license. Until you receive a residence permit, you have the right to drive in Mexico with a foreign license, then you can get a Mexican one. Any ID that has a photograph of the owner and his first and last name written in Latin letters will do. Of course, the validity period and category of the vehicle must also be indicated there.
Insurance.You don't need insurance to enter Mexico, but you personally need it. It is unlikely that you will find insurance that covers childbirth abroad. But you can get guest government insurance for other cases. There are a lot of offers on the market for medical insurance for traveling abroad. You should check with your insurance company to determine whether your insurance will be valid in Mexico, how long it will be valid, and how to activate it.
From experience, in most simple cases in Mexico it is easier and cheaper to pay in cash. For more serious illnesses and injuries, it is better to have insurance.
Do not take prescriptions to Mexico! If you need specific medications, please bring them with you. Or take a medical report from your doctor, make a simple translation, go to a Mexican doctor, and he will write you the necessary prescription.
Before arriving in Mexico, make any certifiedtranslationsdocumentation is not required, they will not be accepted in Mexico. Upon arrival, you are invited to meet the official translator and make all the necessary translations from him. The translator will certify his translation with a seal, and such translation will be accepted by all government agencies in Mexico. We have collected contacts of all Russian-speaking official translators in thissectionour site.
Remember: your certificates use your middle name as part of your name, but your passport does not have a middle name. A Mexican official translator familiar with the situation will omit the middle name when translating.