The Updated Mexico Visa Requirements for Long-term Stays

Published March 20, 2022

Mexico was already a popular destination for location-independent workers, digital nomads, snowbirds, and backpackers before the pandemic hit. With Mexico being one of the few low-priced countries that stayed open, it saw a flood of new visitors coming who wanted to stick around a while. It also got more interest from retirees and remote workers looking for a different place in the sun to make their home. With all that came changes in the Mexico visa requirements. Some official, some not, but real hurdles to deal with either way.

Remember that the visa situation for almost any country is a fluid thing and the rules are usually not applied consistently. This seems doubly true for Mexico, a country that has consulates in dozens of locations and immigration offices scattered all over its vast country. I wrote a few years ago that the formula supposed to determine how much income you needed to show had changed, but then most of the U.S. offices ignored the directive and stuck with the old minimum wage formula.

Also, it still shows on many official websites that foreign tourists can get 180 days upon entry, but without any change to that policy from any government office (that we have seen), many visitors are not getting anything close to that on their entry form.

As I detailed in an earlier post, my wife and I got Mexican residency visas last year after coming in and out on tourist visas for all but one of the years we lived off and on in the country. The pandemic border closings spooked us, plus we were spending a solid month in the USA so it seemed like a good move to visit a consulate with paperwork in hand and get legal.

Now we’re especially glad since two Mexico visa requirements changes have come since: the stricter stance on granting 180-day tourist visas and a higher income requirement for residency visas. I think we would still be fine on the latter, but we’d probably go to a different consulate since the Orlando one seems to be living in its own odd universe in some of the illogical rules it applies.

Here are the details on the Mexican visa changes as of March, 2022. These can and will change, plus there’s no consistency you can depend on between offices and airport immigration counters. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, with a Plan B in place if you don’t succeed at first.

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