Your first weeks in Mexico: thirty days for the card, and then the chain

You land with a visa in your passport and an entry document marked "canje", and from that day Mexico counts. Within thirty calendar days your application for the residence card must be with the INM; that is the only real deadline of the first month, and everything after hangs on it. Costs: the card for one year, 11,140.74 pesos, you pay before the appointment. The trap is not one counter but the order between them: the bank wants an address, the tax number wants the CURP, the CURP wants the card. Whoever tries it the other way round waits for everything at once.

Week one: the canje at the INM

Article 59 of the regulation under the migration law says it in one sentence: for forms of residence that require a card, "a period of thirty calendar days is granted" to apply at the INM office for the exchange of the entry document for the card. Make the appointment in the first week, not the fourth; what you bring and what it costs is in the residence routes to Mexico and in step 5.1 of the journey.

In the same week arrange a proof of address in your name: the rental contract plus a utility bill. Almost every counter after this asks for it, and it is the only document you can already have before the card. What a Mexican rental contract should look like is in the article on renting in Mexico.

Then: the CURP

With the card in hand you are, in the eyes of the law, a foreigner "in lawful residence status", and since July 2025 that is the condition for the CURP: article 91 of the population law calls the CURP the sole source of identity of Mexicans and of foreigners with lawful residence. It is a string of eighteen characters that bank, insurer, phone provider and tax office all ask for. What the biometric version does and does not require is in the article on CURP, RFC and registration.

Bank and RFC, in that order

The bank must, under the provisions of article 115 of the banking law, build a file with your name, birth details, nationality, occupation, home address and identity document, and the CURP and the RFC "when you have them". So you can go to the bank with card, CURP and proof of address; the RFC does not legally have to be there yet. But as soon as the account is in your name, article 27 of the tax code obliges you to register in the RFC. Do that straight afterwards at the SAT, and not only at the first tax return. What else the bank may ask and how you pay is in banking and paying in Mexico.

Activating healthcare

Mexico is no treaty country: your Dutch insurance has stopped, and what you have is the policy you took out before leaving, or the IMSS voluntary family package. That package exists by law: article 240 of the social security law gives "all families in Mexico" the right to sign an agreement with the IMSS, and article 242 lets whoever joins voluntarily pay an annual premium per age group, which the IMSS board may adjust each year. Activate your policy with your Mexican address and your CURP, or enrol with the IMSS, in the same week as the bank. Which door suits you is in healthcare in Mexico.

The driving licence: a test, not an exchange

The Netherlands and Mexico do not exchange driving licences. The federal mobility law instructs every state to require of everyone applying for a licence a medical check, a theory test and a practical test, and a licence issued by one state is valid throughout the country. As a tourist you drive on your Dutch licence; with the card you go to your state's counter. What that costs per state is in the article on household goods, car and pet.

The order, with the clocks

When	What	Clock
Day 1 to 30	canje at the INM, arrange proof of address	thirty calendar days after entry
After the card	CURP	no deadline; condition for everything after
After the CURP	bank account	the bank asks for CURP and RFC "when you have them"
After the account	RFC at the SAT	compulsory as soon as an account is in your name
The same weeks	activate health policy or IMSS package	annual premium in advance
After that	your state's driving licence	medical check and two tests
Ongoing	report every change of address, marital status or work	ninety days after the change

The ninety days are the clock that keeps running after the first weeks. Article 63 of the migration law obliges every resident to inform the INM within ninety days of a new address, a new workplace or a change in marital status. The move from your temporary rented flat to the house you buy in the second year is such a report.

What isn't here is the order in the form of a tickable list with the dates alongside; that is the journey to Mexico itself.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Mexico or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.