Mexico temporary residency income: the rule counts days, and your consulate converts them into dollars

Mexico's visa guidelines set the income bar as a number of days of a peso reference value, not as dollars, so the amount you must prove depends on which consulate converts it and when. The sheets three US consulates have posted ask for monthly incomes up to about 7% apart, and the income has to hold for six months running.

A dollar figure from a forum or an old guide can leave you short at the interview. The guidelines Mexico's interior and foreign ministries published in 2025, in force from 9 August 2025, count the bar in days of the UMA, a daily reference value the national statistics office resets every 1 February, and they reset the number of days. Pages still quoting older day counts are out of date.

What the figure above counts

The figure above is 680 days of this year's reference value: a monthly income after tax, from a job or a pension, in each of the last six months. Instead, you may show savings or investments with an average monthly balance of 11,460 days of it over the last twelve months. Each family member applying to join you needs 220 days of it as monthly income, or as an average balance in savings; the Houston consulate's sheet says this is added on top of your own amount.

Consulates turn these counts into their own currency on their own sheets. San Diego's asks the least of the three read here, Houston's the most. The guidelines themselves say a consulate may not ask for requirements beyond those in the law and its rules, so a sheet asking for more than the guidelines can be queried with the consulate.

After the consulate

The visa only lets you enter. Within 30 days of arriving you apply to the National Migration Institute for the residence card, and the fee for it is shown above. On this route the main applicant pays the full fee. A family member joining under family unity pays half. A card valid for more than a year costs more.

Paid to the Mexican state:

• The visa fee at the consulate, in local currency.
• The residence card fee in Mexico, for each person, at half the rate for family members joining under family unity.

Paid to a facilitator or lawyer:

• Their own fee, kept apart from both state charges.

Before paying anyone, ask:

1. Which consulate will you use, and what does its current sheet ask for in its own currency?
2. Is the quoted income bar built on this year's reference value, or on the old minimum-wage formula?
3. Does your pension or salary clear the bar after tax in every one of the last six months, or will twelve months of savings serve better?
4. Is the card fee in the quote the full rate, and for how many years of validity?
5. If a spouse or child is coming, has the extra amount for each been added?

A facilitator or lawyer who has quoted for the visa and the residence card has given you something the box below can check: answer yes at the start and the quote is compared with the published rules and the prices firms on file publish for this route. With no document, answer no and enter your monthly pension or income after tax. The check compares a document or a figure with the published rules, and does not look at your application or advise on it; for advice on your own case, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.

General information, not legal advice.