Last year Ali, my wife, renewed her temporary residency here in México. She’s now good to go for the next three years, and after that she’ll be able to automatically roll into permanent residency.
It can be quite daunting to aimlessly click through Mexico’s government website trying to find the correct procedure and documents to fill out. The following link will take you to a blog with pointers and a free eBook “Mexico Immigration Guide 2019” on the process of renewing your residency and other procedures. I read the blog and skimmed the eBook before I ventured off on my own. You can download the “Mexico Immigration Guide” by clicking on the link in the blog. The government website is fairly self explanatory once you find the correct link on the site so you do not have to read the eBook or blog.
https://www.mexperience.com/about-renewing-your-mexico-resident-permit/
Another good website is the Mexican government’s site.
https://www.gob.mx/sectur/
In the top right is a search bar that works great for finding information on a variety of subjects, including residency questions.
Once you are ready to get started, go to the following site:
https://www.inm.gob.mx/tramites/publico/estancia.html
To renew: Under Que deseas hacer: Choose “Extender la estancia”
Under Especifica: Choose “Expedicion de Tarjeta de Residente por Renovacion”
The rest of the form is fairly simple, more so if you understand Spanish. Your name, address, document numbers, and so on. You’ll also want to fill out the formato basico form. That can be found here:
https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/426925/Formato_Basico.pdf
At the end you will save and print the document, then take it to INM, the Immigration office.
The office we went to helped Ali fill it out the paperwork during our meeting. It might be a good idea to print out two forms and have one filled out with another blank form to be used in case of mistakes. The office can be very busy and it can take time to get through the line so it is best to be prepared to avoid future visits.
Ali had to first change her name on her temporary residency card first before she could renew it. The Immigration office gave us the form to take care of this and we paid the 1277MXN fee to name change at the bank. The bank gave us the receipt and we took that back to Immigration.
We weren’t sure if Ali would get moved directly to permanent or have to renew her temporary card. INM had her listed as renewing residency based on income, therefore she had to renew for three more years and then will roll into permanent residency.
A week after paying for the name change Ali got her residency card with her new, married last name. Once she received her new card she was able to pay the bank the fee to renew for three more years. The next day Ali paid the bank the 7,872MXN. It’s important that the receipt you receive from the bank has all of your information spelled correctly. She took that receipt back to INM and signed a few more documents, and was told to come back in a week.
The following week Ali returned to pick up her residency card. She first had another thirty minutes of signing documents. It’s always best to be the first in line at INM, as each person is going to take a minimum of thirty minutes. But all the difficult work is over with, and she’s good to go for three more years! When it’s time to transfer to permanent she’ll go back to the INM website and fill out a few of the forms above, make another payment and she’ll be permanent with me!