If you have a Canadian visa, it will be sufficient to enter Mexico and no other visas are needed. While entering Mexico with a Schengen visa may present some difficulties, a Canadian visa, like a US visa, provides almost seamless entry into the country. You only have to make sure that your visa meets certain standards, which we will now discuss. The information on entering Mexico with a Canadian visa presented in this publication applies to citizenseveryonenationalities.
1. The type (category) of the visa does not matter. A guest with a national, by invitation, student or work visa is suitable. A transit visa will not work.
2. The visa must be marked MULTIPLE (No. of Entries) — This visa allows you to enter Canada multiple times within the validity period of the visa. ONE or TWO markings are not suitable.
3. It does not matter for what period the visa was issued — for 180 days, for a year or for 10 years.
4. The expiration date of the visa is important. You must enter Mexico before the expiration date of your Canadian visa. Mexico does not have any other requirements for the validity period of a visa, which means that entry is allowed even on the last day of the validity period. For obvious reasons, it is not recommended to wait until the last minute.
5. The validity of your Canadian visa does not have to cover the entire duration of your stay in Mexico. Maximum length of stay allowed in Mexico — 180 days. During this time, your Canadian visa may already expire, this is normal. The decision on how many days you can stay in the country is made by the migration officer upon arrival, and it is advisable that he does not notice that your Canadian visa will expire in a week. He will let you into the country, but will allow you to stay for fewer days.
6. Even if you have a 10-year Canadian visa, after entry you can stay in Mexico for no more than 180 days. Then you can leave and come back again, and so on several times until the visa expires. That is, a multi-visa for Canada is also a multi-visa for Mexico.
7. Before entering Mexico with a Canadian visa, it is not necessary to visit Canada itself; in other words, the visa has the right to be unused. This also applies to entry with other visas, Schengen, American, Japanese…
8. A Canadian visa allows you to enter Mexico by any means of transport, while an electronic permit — only by plane.
9. No visa or electronic permit guarantees entry into Mexico. The final decision on whether to allow you into the country is made by the officer at passport control. But the Canadian visa is “respected”, and if you follow other rules and have the necessary confirmations (return ticket, hotel reservation, money for the duration of your stay), there are no problems with entering Mexico with it.
10. Entry into Mexico depends more on your citizenship than your visa. Even if your Canadian visa is suitable for entry into Mexico, you may still be denied entry.
11. To be on the safe side, we advise citizens of Ukraine and Russia to make an electronic permit. If the passport officer doesn't like your Canadian visa, you will always have a backup reason to enter Mexico.