Residence and citizenship by marriage – Mexico

Technically it is called by “Family Unit.” I was able to get my Mexican Citizenship by birth (details in this post), and now I can get my wife Temporary Residence for 2 years and then Mexican citizenship – she does have to take the written test, but no need to proof financials and go through the embassy.

Like most procedures, it really is worth it to pay someone who is connected. a facilitator knows where to go, what documents you need, and how to fix things quickly. I will leave my INM facilitator contact info and the end of this post. Problems we ran into:

1. My wife never entered Mexico, according the to their system. The immigration officer entering in Allende (Priedras Negras entry point) didn’t enter this in his computer terminal. Confirmed because our buddy also had a problem when leaving at the Cancun airport. Not a huge deal, he had to pay the FMM fee, again. But for my wife getting temporary residence, its a bigger deal. Even though she had her passport stamped. And not that the same entry agent refused to stamp our passports at first and did only after we demanded it. Our facilitator was able to fix this and have them enter it in the system, immediately, not a week or a month later, yes!
2. My name in the Mexican passport does not match my name in our USA marriage certificate. Rather than changing any of those 2 documents, our facilitator had us get married in Mexico. Bam! took a couple hours. He took care of all the paperwork. He even brought witnesses.

Documents Needed for Temporary Residence via Family Unit in Mexico

• My Mexican national documents (Mexican Passport and birth Certificate)
  Proof of residence (Lease, bill – doesn’t have to be in your name)
• Wife (Applicant)
  USA passport
  Digital Entry FMM (tourist entry)
• Application form
• Marriage certificate (if from USA, you need it apostilled and translated)
• Proof of payment
• Make 3 copies of everything always, and I carry color and black and white – some accept only one or the other.

Here is the INM website temporary residence requirements
https://www.inm.gob.mx/mpublic/publico/inm-tramites.html?a=thgeGuQHx2k%3D&tr=3BDiCUH0Y9k%3D&h_sdp00=giUnJ9XgtISVcdYJXduIGw%3D%3D

And in 2 years my wife can apply for citizenship, skipping the permanent residence.

Thanks to our facilitator, Jose Alberto, we just had to show up when and were he said and ll this got done in 2 days. You will have to use google translate but he responds immediately and does what he says and is super punctual! I can stress enough how helpful and friendly he made the whole process.

INM Facilitator in Cancun, Jose Alberto, on WhatsApp

Post with links to other services we use that make life easier!