Temporary Residency in Mexico

Almost anyone can travel from the United States to Mexico 🇲🇽 on a Tourist Visa. Usually all you need to do is fill out the paperwork on the airplane and you can stay in Mexico for up to 180 days. This is what we did last winter when our family of five spent 6 months in Mazatlán. 

We enjoyed it so much that we have decided to return for an entire school year this time, in hopes of giving our kids a jump start on becoming bilingual. But to stay for longer than 6 months, and have the kids enrolled in school, we needed to apply for "residencia temporal" or temporary residency visas, instead of the tourist visa we obtained last time.

The process went relatively smoothly, aside from one minor hiccup that required an extra trip into the Mexican Consolate in downtown Portland that could have been avoided had we fully understood the instructions.

First of all, we live in Oregon (and our children were born in Oregon). I'm sure the process is different for each state. We were required to visit the Mexican Consolate in Portland between 12 and 1:30 on Monday, Wednesday or Friday and bring with us the completed application, passports and birth certificates for each of our children, passport size photos,  along with financial records covering the last 12 minutes months showing at least an average balance of $25,000 per month. 

The confusing part to us was the birth certificates for the kids. We thought that since the certificates we had for the kids were the original state issued originals, with the state of Oregon seal or stamp in the bottom corner, that we had the correct documentation in order. However, the "stamp" that we actually needs had to be obtained at the corporate division in Salem. It is a separate piece of paper that is attached to the birth certificate that basically certifies the authenticity of the document for international purposes. 

Once you drop off all the neccessary paperwork, they send it off for review and background checks, and within 10 days they schedule an interview for you to come back in and get your visas. We had our appointment yesterday. Check our InstaStory here within the next 24 hours to see more from our appointment. The cost was $36 each (although it sounds like we will have to pay about $200 each once we actually arrive in Mexico). We have 30 days to check in with the Consolate their and finish the process.

But for now... we are kind of official temporary residents of Mexico 🇲🇽 😁☀️