Visa information

Mexico offers two resident routes in the 2026 guide — a Temporary Resident visa for one to four years on proof of income or savings, and a Permanent Resident visa for higher income or after four years temporary — plus 180-day visitor entry that the guide warns is not for repeated long stays. Unusually, its schemes list prints the income tests themselves, and Mexico scores 78/100 for visa and bureaucracy.

The routes the guide names

Temporary Resident visa (1–4 years) — granted on proof of income or savings.

Permanent Resident visa — for higher income, or after four years temporary.

180-day visitor entry — for most nationalities, and the guide warns it is not for repeated long stays.

There is no dedicated digital nomad visa: the guide says the Temporary Resident visa on income works for remote workers, and that 180-day visitor entry is common.

The income tests — what the guide actually prints

Uniquely in this batch, the guide's schemes list does print the income tests, in its own approximate terms:

• Temporary residency on ~$4,300/mo income or ~$73k savings
• Permanent residency on ~$7,100/mo pension

Those are the figures this page uses. The Hub's own site FAQ states a different, much lower figure — a temporary resident visa requiring proof of income of around $1,620 per month. The two sources contradict each other by more than $2,600 a month; the FAQ figure is not blended in, and the contradiction is recorded in the source notes. Confirm the current consular figure before filing, because on the guide's numbers the bar is the ~$4,300/~$73k test.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees separately. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” line in each move plan — described as government fees, apostilles and translations, with the Luxury tier adding an immigration lawyer — and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $700 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,000 — Mid-range plan
• $1,000 — Retirement plan
• $2,400 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $1,850 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to permanent residency

This is the one batch country where the guide itself states a progression: a Temporary Resident visa for 1–4 years, and a Permanent Resident visa for higher income or after four years temporary. Beyond that sentence the sources give no renewal intervals, absence limits or citizenship timetable, so none is stated here.

Frequently asked questions