How to get a Mexican passport and citizenship in 2026

Two years instead of five if a child is born in Mexico, and not a single lawful way to buy the passport. All routes to citizenship for Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian citizens: temporary and permanent residency, the application to the Foreign Ministry, the exam, 2026 government fees and the risks for naturalized citizens.

Mexico issued 6,125 naturalization certificates in 2024 - three times the 2020 figure. Applications rose by more than 560% over the same four years, from 887 to 5,906, according to Foreign Ministry data compiled by the country's federal audit office (Auditoría Superior de la Federación). The appeal is easy to see: a Mexican passport opens more than 150 destinations without a prior visa, including the Schengen area, the United Kingdom and Japan, and the wait is two to five years.

The passport cannot be bought. Mexico has no citizenship-by-investment programme, and the shortest lawful route for an adult is two years of living in the country on a resident card. The standard route is five. Anything promised faster is either a residence permit sold as a passport or a document the Foreign Ministry is entitled to annul.

Below are all the lawful routes for citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine: timelines, 2026 government fees in US dollars, the exam, the limits placed on naturalized citizens and the parts the adverts leave out.

What are the routes to Mexican citizenship in 2026

Two texts set the rules: Article 30 of the Constitution and the Nationality Act (Ley de Nacionalidad), whose Article 20 lists the residence periods. The decision belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, SRE), and the result is a naturalization certificate (carta de naturalización). Time is counted on a resident card: days spent in Mexico on a visitor stamp do not count.

There is one filter that matters: without a lawful basis to live in Mexico, the road to the passport stays closed. So the first question is not about citizenship but about which basis will get you temporary or permanent residency in Mexico.

Who a Mexican passport suits and who it does not

It suits those prepared to actually live in the country: remote professionals and entrepreneurs with income from abroad, families planning a birth and several years in Mexico, spouses of Mexicans. No investment in the economy is required: residency is granted on income or savings.

It does not suit anyone who wants a passport without relocating. The SRE checks entries and exits: more than six months abroad in the two years before filing, and the clock starts again. It is also a poor fit for anyone unwilling to learn Spanish or to sign a renunciation of their previous nationality. If the goal is a document without living in the country, it is more honest to look straight at investment programmes in other jurisdictions.

How to get a Mexican passport as a Russian, Belarusian or Ukrainian citizen: step by step

On the standard route, about six years pass between the first visa and the passport: five years of residence plus processing. Government fees for the whole route alone add up to about $3,500 for one adult. This is a sample calculation at the Bank of Mexico rate of about 18.2 pesos to the dollar, with each fee rounded up: the resident visa, one year of temporary residency, a three-year renewal, the change-of-status fee and the permanent resident card, the certificate and a 10-year passport. Translations, apostilles and certificates are not included.

Step 1. Entry. Russian and Ukrainian citizens do not need a regular visa for a short trip: a free electronic authorization is enough. It is requested online through the migration service's electronic authorization system (Sistema de Autorización Electrónica, SAE). Since 5 February 2026 the Foreign Ministry has called this regime an electronic visa (visa electrónica) and applies it to citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Brazil. The conditions are strict: air travel only, a single entry, the authorization must be used within 30 days, and the length of stay, up to 180 days, is set by the officer at the border. Belarusians are not on the list: they need a consular visa unless their passport holds a valid visa for the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom or a Schengen country.

There is a trap for anyone who flies in on the electronic authorization and decides to stay. Article 53 of the Migration Act (Ley de Migración) bars visitors from changing to resident status inside the country. The exceptions are a family tie to a Mexican or a resident, and humanitarian grounds. Everyone else can obtain a resident visa only at a consulate outside Mexico.

Step 2. Temporary residency. For those with no family or employer in Mexico, the most accessible basis is economic solvency. New General Guidelines for the Issuance of Visas (Lineamientos Generales para la expedición de visas) were published on 25 July 2025: amounts are no longer counted in minimum wages but in UMA. This is a reference unit (Unidad de Medida y Actualización) to which Mexico ties fines and thresholds; from 1 February 2026 one UMA equals MXN 117.31 per day.

Each consulate converts pesos into local currency at its own rate, so the dollar figures in Moscow, Madrid and Buenos Aires will differ slightly. Other bases for temporary residency are a job offer from a Mexican employer, study and family reunification. The law has no separate category for remote workers: those employed by foreign companies use the same income route, as explained on our page about the Mexico digital nomad visa.

Regularization under Article 133 of the Migration Act is a separate case: the INM may legalise the status of those who have a spouse, child or parent in Mexico with citizenship or residency. It is not something to build a relocation plan on: it is a way out for those already left without a valid document, and it comes with a fine.

On 1 January 2026 INM fees roughly doubled: a year of temporary residency went from about $310 to $615, and the permanent resident card from about $375 to $750. This was the effect of a reform to Article 8 of the Federal Fees Act (Ley Federal de Derechos). The same act gives a 50% discount to those applying on the basis of family unity, a job offer or an invitation from a Mexican organisation.

Step 3. Four years of temporary residency, then permanent. Under Article 52 of the Migration Act temporary residency lasts no more than four years. Article 54 then gives the right to permanent residency: an indefinite stay with permission to work. For citizenship the two statuses are equal: years on a temporary card and on a permanent card both count. Gaps are the thing to avoid: an expired card breaks continuity, and on the filing date the document must be valid for at least six more months.

Step 4. Application to the SRE. It is filed in person at the SRE's Legal Affairs Directorate in Mexico City or at one of the ministry's regional offices. Under Article 16 of the Regulations to the Nationality Act the file includes:

• form DNN-3, the application for a naturalization certificate, signed and fingerprinted in front of the officer;
• a resident card showing the CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población, the personal number in the population register assigned to every resident);
• a birth certificate with an apostille and a Spanish translation;
• a valid foreign passport;
• a list of every exit and entry over the last two years: since June 2026 it goes straight into the application form, with no separate letter;
• criminal record certificates, federal and local, for the place of residence in Mexico;
• proof of payment of the fee: about $525 in 2026.

Article 21 of the Regulations then sets the clock. The SRE has 15 working days to send the file to the Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación), which oversees the migration service. The Interior Ministry has up to 45 working days to give its opinion. The SRE used to have 90 calendar days for the final decision; since June 2026 it has 40 working days. In practice it takes longer: the filing appointment, the exams and the award ceremony add months. At the end of 2025 the whole path from filing to certificate took 6-9 months; no such timeframe is set officially.

The SRE can refuse even a complete file. Article 25 of the act allows it to withhold the certificate if the ministry considers the grant inadvisable; it must give reasons.

Step 5. Certificate, passport and voter card. Once the SRE decides in favour, the applicant renounces the previous nationality in writing and pledges allegiance to Mexico. The certificate takes effect the day after it is issued. With it, the CURP record is updated, and the new citizen obtains a passport and a voter card (credencial para votar) from the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE). The card is free and serves as Mexico's main domestic ID: banks, notaries and airlines on domestic flights all ask for it.

In 2026 a passport costs about $100 for 3 years, $135 for 6 years and $240 for 10 years. A one-year passport at about $55 is issued only to children under three. Applicants over 60 and applicants with a disability get a 50% discount.

Mexican citizenship by birth of a child: what the parents get

A child born in Mexico is a citizen from day one, and that is not a concession by the migration service but Article 30 of the Constitution. The parents' status does not matter: a tourist on an electronic authorization and a resident receive the same birth certificate (acta de nacimiento) from the civil registry (Registro Civil). With it the child gets a passport.

What the birth gives the parents is not a passport but the right to permanent residency without leaving the country and without an income test. The basis is Article 54 of the Migration Act: permanent residency goes to those who have children who are Mexican by birth. The INM's guidance on changes of status states in terms that a visitor may move to permanent residency on a family tie; it also names the child's grandparents and minor brothers and sisters. The fee for the permanent resident card is about $750, or about $375 each with the 50% family discount. All government fees on this route - the change-of-status fee, the discounted permanent resident card, the certificate and a 10-year passport - come to about $1,300 per parent.

Then the clock starts. After two years of living on a resident card the parents file form DNN-3 and tick the basis: children who are Mexican by birth. The exam, Spanish and the six-month cap on absences over those two years apply to them exactly as to everyone else. Flying in, giving birth and leaving with passports for the whole family does not work: without real life in the country the application will not survive the check on entries and exits.

Other relatives get less from the law than from the adverts. Grandparents obtain permanent residency but are not on the two-year list in Article 20: their path to citizenship takes five years. The newborn's minor brothers and sisters obtain permanent residency, and once the parents are citizens they can naturalize after one year of residence as minors under the parental authority of Mexicans.

For comparison: in Brazil the parents of a citizen child need one year of residence, and in Argentina the law requires two. On timing Mexico sits next to Argentina, but it adds a history and culture exam. Clinics, costs and the sequence of steps are covered on our page about giving birth in Mexico, and six countries are compared in our review of giving birth abroad for citizenship.

The legal line. At the border the purpose of the trip and the real address must be stated honestly. False statements in an application are grounds for cancelling the status and, later, the certificate.

Mexican citizenship by marriage and by descent

Marrying a Mexican citizen does not deliver a passport: it shortens the wait. Article 20 of the act requires the spouses to have lived together in the marital home on Mexican territory for the two years before filing. A marriage celebrated abroad must first be recorded in the Mexican civil registry. Migration status runs in parallel: the spouse of a Mexican receives temporary residency and, after two years of marriage, permanent residency.

Divorce after naturalization does not cancel citizenship. The exception is in Article 22: if the marriage is declared void through the fault of the naturalized spouse, the certificate is annulled. A sham marriage leads straight to that outcome.

Citizenship by descent is simpler. Since the 2021 reform of Article 30 of the Constitution, anyone born abroad to a father or mother with Mexican nationality is Mexican by birth, and there is no longer a generational limit. This is not naturalization: no exams and no residence period, only registration of the birth at a consulate or in the civil registry. A separate rule covers direct descendants of Mexicans who for some reason go through naturalization: two years of residence is enough for them.

Mexico citizenship by investment and a passport in 3 months: what is true

Mexican law contains no provision that gives an adult foreigner citizenship in three months or for money. The minimum residence period under Article 20 is two years, or one for minors and adopted children. The only exception to the residence requirement is outstanding service to the country, and that call belongs to the president personally. These are one-off decisions, not a programme anyone can apply to.

So what is being sold as a fast passport:

• Temporary or permanent residency. A resident card really can be obtained in 1-3 months, and adverts often call it the first step to a passport while staying silent about the five years between the card and the certificate.
• Permanent residency after a birth. Parents of a Mexican child get permanent residency quickly, but they must live in the country for two years before applying for citizenship.
• Documents obtained around the procedure. Article 26 of the act lets the SRE annul a certificate issued in breach of the requirements, and Article 33 sets fines for false information, witnesses and certificates. A passport issued on such a certificate falls with it.

Investment is a similar story. Putting $299,200 or more into a Mexican company, or owning property worth more than $598,500, brings temporary residency, not citizenship. After that come the same five years, the exam and the check on absences. If the aim is specifically a passport for an investment without relocating, other countries run such programmes: see our guide on how to choose a country for a second passport.

The Mexican citizenship test and Spanish: what is asked

Eight correct answers out of ten in ten minutes: that is the pass mark for the exam on Mexican history and culture under SRE rules. The questions are set by the ministry's diplomatic academy, the Matías Romero Institute (Instituto Matías Romero). The syllabus covers pre-Columbian cultures, the Conquest, independence, the Revolution and the 1917 Constitution, national symbols, geography, holidays and food. The SRE publishes a study guide, and that is what to prepare from.

Spanish is tested separately: a reading passage with questions and a short written task, with five points out of six needed to pass. There are two attempts. After a second failure a new application is accepted only a year later, so walking into the exam unprepared is an expensive mistake.

Article 15 of the Regulations exempts three groups from the history and culture exam: minors, applicants over 60 and recognised refugees. Everyone must still show they speak Spanish.

What changed in 2025-2026

• 25 July 2025: new General Guidelines for the Issuance of Visas were published; the income and savings thresholds for temporary and permanent residency were tied to the UMA instead of the minimum wage.
• 1 January 2026: migration service fees roughly doubled. A year of temporary residency now costs about $615 and permanent residency about $750. A 50% discount appeared for applications based on family unity, a job offer or an invitation.
• 1 January 2026: SRE fees were indexed: the naturalization certificate costs about $525 and a 10-year passport about $240.
• 5 February 2026: the Foreign Ministry launched the electronic visa system for citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Brazil: single entry, air travel only, free for Russians and Ukrainians.
• 16 June 2026: the official gazette, Diario Oficial de la Federación, published an SRE agreement simplifying procedures. Seven types of naturalization application were merged into a single procedure, the decision period was cut from 90 calendar days to 40 working days, and photographs, free-form written requests and the paper copy of the CURP were dropped.
• Demand is rising. In 2020-2024 the SRE issued 15,486 certificates, 6,125 of them in 2024. In 81.5% of 2024 applications the basis was five years of residence or origin in Latin America or the Iberian Peninsula.

What a Mexican passport gives: visa-free countries, the US, Canada and Europe

In 2026 the Mexican passport gives 156-157 destinations without a visa or with a visa on arrival. Uruguay's passport scores about the same. How passport rankings are built and why their numbers differ is explained in our review of the 2026 passport ranking.

Inside the country, citizenship removes everything tied to the migration service: cards, renewals, fees. A naturalized citizen votes and owns property free of the restrictions that apply to foreigners along the coast and the borders.

The Spanish bonus is not for everyone. Spain's Civil Code cuts the residence period for Spanish citizenship to two years only for nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries. A child born in Mexico qualifies; a naturalized parent does not.

What a naturalized Mexican citizen risks

A Mexican by birth cannot be stripped of nationality; a naturalized one can. Article 37 of the Constitution lists the grounds:

• voluntarily acquiring another nationality after naturalization;
• using a foreign passport;
• appearing as a foreigner in any official instrument;
• accepting titles of nobility that imply submission to another state;
• living abroad for five consecutive years.

Two practical conclusions follow. First, a Mexican passport obtained by naturalization does not fit a plan of getting it and leaving for good. Second, the renunciation of the previous nationality signed at the SRE is not a formality. Mexico does not ask for proof of release from Russian, Belarusian or Ukrainian citizenship, and under Russian law a statement signed in another country does not end citizenship: release is a separate procedure before the Russian authorities. In practice the old passport remains in hand. But showing it to Mexican authorities after naturalization hands them a ground to revoke the certificate. Entry to and exit from Mexico should be on the Mexican passport.

There are career limits too. Article 32 of the Constitution reserves a range of posts and professions for Mexicans by birth: from president and members of Congress to army officers, ship captains and pilots of Mexican aircraft.

The countries of first citizenship have rules of their own. Russia permits a second passport but requires notifying the Interior Ministry; the rules for Belarus and Ukraine are collected in our review of dual citizenship in 2026.

Pitfalls for citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine

Entry. The electronic authorization works only for air travel and only for a single entry. If the system refuses, the fallback is a regular visa at a consulate. There are no direct flights from Russia to Mexico, and a connection through the United States or Canada requires a visa for those countries. Belarusians cannot use the electronic authorization at all.

Consulate. A resident visa is issued only outside Mexico and only after a personal interview. Applying in a third country is possible, but the consulate will ask for proof of lawful stay there. Appointments are booked through the MiConsulado system, and available dates depend on the particular consulate.

Documents. Birth and marriage certificates need an apostille: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Mexico are all parties to the Hague Convention. A translation made at home will not do: the INM and the SRE accept translations by an officially recognised sworn translator (perito traductor), usually from the list kept by the court of a Mexican state. How to obtain certificates and apostilles while abroad is covered in a separate guide.

Spelling of the name. The instructions to form DNN-3 require the applicant's details to match in every document. A different transliteration of the surname in an old and a new passport, or in the translation of the birth certificate, is a reason to send the application back for correction.

Taxes and accounts. Living in Mexico, without which citizenship is out of reach, usually makes the applicant a Mexican tax resident: see our pages on taxes in Mexico and on the 183-day rule. Mexico takes part in the automatic exchange of financial account information under the CRS standard, so account data goes to the country of tax residence. The duty to declare foreign accounts and income at home does not go away.

How we help

We handle the whole route: from choosing the basis for residency to the citizenship application and the passport. Legal representation before Mexican authorities is handled by Murblz specialists together with partners licensed in Mexico.

If citizenship is still far off and only lawful status is needed for now, start with our overview of residence permits around the world.

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