How to Fill Out and Submit the Mexico Visa Application Form

The Mexico visa application form, formally the Solicitud de Visa, is a free PDF you download from your nearest Mexican consulate’s website, complete in black ink or by typing, and bring in person to a scheduled consular appointment along with your passport, a photo, supporting documents, and the consular fee. The same form covers every visa category, so most of the work is deciding which category you fall into and assembling the paperwork that backs it up.

Confirm You Actually Need a Visa

Citizens of the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, and many other countries can enter Mexico as visitors for up to 180 days without a visa. You also do not need a Mexican visa if you hold a valid multiple-entry U.S. B1/B2 visa, or if you are a permanent resident of the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, a Schengen country, or a Pacific Alliance member nation (Chile, Colombia, Peru), as long as you carry both your passport and your unexpired residency card.¹

If your nationality is not exempt, or you plan to stay past 180 days, work in Mexico, study, or establish residency, you need the Solicitud de Visa. Nationals of Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey traveling by air have a separate free option, the Sistema de Autorización Electrónica, which replaces the visa for a single 30-day entry on participating airlines.²

Pick Your Visa Category Before You Start Writing

The form has checkboxes near the top for the category you are applying under. Get this right first, because the wrong box wastes your appointment and your fee.

Visitor Visa (Visitante) — stays up to 180 days without paid work in Mexico. Covers tourism, family visits, conferences, and unpaid business.
Temporary Resident Visa (Residente Temporal) — stays longer than 180 days and up to four years. Used by remote workers with foreign income, students, and people joining relatives already in Mexico.³
Permanent Resident Visa (Residente Permanente) — for those intending to live in Mexico indefinitely.

If you are the spouse, parent, or child of a Mexican citizen or resident, you can apply under family unity rules within the temporary or permanent categories. The financial threshold drops to roughly $1,100 per month per sponsored family member, but the Mexican relative has to appear in person at your consular interview.⁴

Where to Get the Form

There is no single centralized download page. Each Mexican consulate posts its own PDF copy of the Solicitud de Visa under the visas or foreign services section of its website. Search the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs site (sre.gob.mx) for the consulate nearest you and pull the form from there. Consular offices also hand it out on the day of your appointment, but filling it in at home lets you review it calmly and gather anything you missed.

The form itself is identical across categories. It asks for personal information, passport details, travel plans, contact information at home, and where you will first stay in Mexico. A section at the bottom is reserved for minor applicants and their parents or guardians.

Filling It Out

The form’s own instructions call for typing or printing in black ink.⁵ If you write it by hand, use clear block letters. Answer every field. Blank fields are one of the most common reasons consular staff send applicants back to the waiting room.

Enter your full legal name exactly as it appears in your passport, along with your date and place of birth, nationality, current home address, email, and phone number. Add your passport number, its issue and expiration dates, and the issuing country. In the travel section, list your planned entry and departure dates and the address where you will first stay in Mexico. If you are visiting someone specific, be ready to provide their name and contact details.

Your signature on the form has to match the signature in your passport. A visible mismatch invites extra questions or a delay. If your signature has drifted over the years, practice matching whatever version is actually in the passport before you sign.

Applications for Minors

Parents or legal guardians complete the form for children under 18. Both parents must sign, even if only one accompanies the child. If only one parent can attend the appointment, the other has to provide a notarized authorization letter consenting to the application.⁶ If a third party (not a parent) is taking the minor to the appointment, both parents must sign a notarized consent letter. Notarization takes time, so line it up well before the appointment date.

Documents to Bring With the Form

The form on its own accomplishes nothing. You need supporting documents, and the list depends on your visa category.

Every applicant brings:

A valid passport, valid for the duration of your intended stay, plus a photocopy of the main data page. If you are transiting another country on the way, check that country’s own passport validity rule with your airline.¹
One color passport-size photo, front-facing, white background, no eyeglasses. Dimensions vary by consulate, generally around 39 mm × 31 mm, though some accept the 2 × 2 inch format. Check what your specific consulate wants. Religious headwear is generally allowed if it does not cover your face.⁷
Proof of legal status in your country of residence if you are not a citizen there — green card, student visa, work permit, or equivalent.⁴

Temporary and permanent resident applicants also have to show economic solvency. For temporary residency, the consulate accepts either twelve consecutive monthly bank statements with an average balance of at least $73,215 per month, or six months of pay stubs, pension statements, or equivalent showing monthly income of at least $4,393.⁸ These figures track Mexico’s minimum wage and can shift mid-year, so confirm the current amount with your consulate before your appointment. Family unity applicants face the lower roughly $1,100 monthly threshold per sponsored family member, and also present proof of the family relationship and of the sponsor’s Mexican nationality or residency.⁴

Financial documents should be originals or certified copies from your bank, often on the institution’s letterhead or with its stamp. Some consulates ask for certified Spanish translations of non-Spanish documents. Ask ahead.

Booking the Appointment Through MiConsulado

You cannot walk into a Mexican consulate without an appointment. All visa appointments run through the MiConsulado portal at citas.sre.gob.mx.⁹

Create an account with your country of residence, the consular office you want to visit, your nationality, name, phone, and email, then verify through the emailed link.
Log in, click Schedule, and select the consular office. Once selected, you cannot change locations for that appointment.
Enter your personal and passport details manually. Choose Visas as the service type, then the specific subtype (Visitor, Temporary Resident, Permanent Resident).
Pick from the available date and time slots. Busy consulates in major cities book out quickly; check the following month if the current one is full, and check back regularly.

Print the appointment confirmation and bring it. A booked slot does not guarantee approval; it just reserves your review.⁹

At the Consulate

On the day, bring your completed Solicitud de Visa, appointment confirmation, passport, photo, and all supporting documents. The consulate takes biometrics — a digital photograph and fingerprints — and a consular officer interviews you to confirm what the form says.¹⁰

The interview is a verification, not an interrogation. The officer checks that your documents are consistent, that you meet the financial threshold for your category, and that your stated purpose matches the visa type you selected. For family unity applications, your Mexican relative has to be physically present.

You pay a non-refundable consular fee at the appointment. For 2026, the ordinary visa fee is $56 and the long-term visitor visa fee is $54.¹¹ Accepted payment methods vary — some consulates take only money orders or cashier’s checks, not cash or personal checks. Confirm before you go.

Processing and Receiving Your Visa

Processing takes between one and ten business days depending on the consulate’s workload. Many finish the same day, but they will not guarantee it.¹² If you traveled to the consulate city just for this, plan on staying one to three business days.¹⁰

When approved, the consulate places the visa as a sticker in your passport. Some offices return the passport by mail; others require pickup in person. The visa is typically a single entry and must be used within six months of the date it is issued.⁴ Denied applications do not get a refund, and the consulate is not required to give a detailed reason, though incomplete documentation and thin proof of financial solvency are the usual culprits.

If You Got a Residency Visa: The 30-Day Step After Arrival

A temporary or permanent resident sticker in your passport is not the final document. Within 30 calendar days of entering Mexico, visit a local office of the National Institute of Migration (INM) to exchange the visa for a physical resident card.³ The card is what proves your legal status inside the country from that point on.

The card can take up to four weeks to issue while INM registers your details, and you are expected to stay in Mexico during that window. If you have to leave before it is ready, request a special exit and re-entry permit from INM.¹³ Missing the 30-day deadline is one of the most common mistakes new residents make. Put it on the calendar before your flight.

1
Consulmex. Visas English
2
Gobierno de México. Sistema de Autorizacion Electronica SAE
3
Consulado de Carrera de México en Leamington. Temporary Resident Visa
4
Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago. Family Unity Visa
5
Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. Visa Application Form
6
Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. Visa Application Form
7
Consulado General de México en Boston. Visas English
8
Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores. Temporary Resident Visa Economic Solvency Requirements
9
Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom. MiConsulado Users Guide
10
Consulado General de México en Houston. Information About Mexican Visa
11
Gobierno de México. Price List for Consular Service
12
Consulado General de México en Atlanta. Visas English
13
Consulmex Denver. Visas para Personas Extranjeras