The residence routes to Mexico: two cards, thresholds in UMA and thirty days after landing

Whoever wants to stay in Mexico needs a residence card, and that route starts in The Hague, at the Mexican consulate.

"180 days visa-free" is correct, but it is exactly why people get stuck. 180 days is a tourist stay, not a right of residence, and it can't be converted.

Two cards, one gate

Mexico has two cards for whoever stays, and both start with a visa at a consulate outside Mexico.

The residente temporal (temporary resident) is the route of almost everyone. You get a visa on proof of your means, and you exchange it in Mexico within thirty days for the card. The first card is valid one year. After that you renew at the INM, the Mexican immigration service, up to four years in total. Then you apply for the permanent card, without a new means test.

The residente permanente (permanent resident) is the same gate, but for good at once. The Lineamientos, the guidelines for migration procedures, open that door for one group: jubilados o pensionados, pensioners. Whoever has a pension and clears the higher bar never has to renew.

What the brochure doesn't mention with that second card: a residente permanente may not have a car on foreign plates in the country. Whoever clears the bar, but wants a trial first, starts temporary and goes permanent later.

The thresholds, in UMA and in pesos

The Lineamientos of 25 July 2025 set the thresholds in UMA days. The UMA is a unit of account that INEGI, the Mexican statistics office, adjusts every year in February. In 2026 the UMA stands at 117.31 pesos a day.

That makes old consulate pages with dollar amounts quietly untrue. Do the sum yourself, with the UMA of the year in which you apply.

Card	Income a month, six months long	Or: average balance over twelve months
Temporary, on own means	more than 680 UMA days — in 2026 a good 79,771 pesos, roughly 3,800 euros	11,460 UMA days — a good 1,344,373 pesos, some 64,000 euros
Permanent, as a pensioner	more than 1,140 UMA days — 133,733 pesos, a good 6,300 euros	45,850 UMA days — 5,378,664 pesos, a quarter of a million euros
Family member via unidad familiar	220 UMA days — a good 25,808 pesos, from the income of the main applicant	—

Euros at a rate around twenty-one pesos. AOW and occupational pension count together, and the consulate looks at what arrives net on your account. The statements have to be per month, with a declaration or stamp from the bank. A printout from the app isn't enough. That bank declaration is the slowest item of the file, so request it first.

The application in The Hague

You come in person to the consulate with your passport, the proof of your means and a passport photo, and pay the fees: 990.79 pesos according to article 22 of the Ley Federal de Derechos, converted to euros or dollars. The consulate decides within ten working days.

The visa is valid 180 days, for one entry. So count back from your departure date: three months before the flight is a good moment.

On documents: the apostille requirement (the international certification stamp) covers public documents for the INM. A pension statement or bank statement the rules ask for as an original, not apostilled. Translations may be ordinary, so long as the consulate can verify them. Otherwise it wants a sworn translation by a perito traductor, a sworn translator. Ask for the list before you have apostilles put on.