Country-wide policy
The Visa Rules Were Replaced in 2025 and Amended in 2026
Mexican consular practice runs on a single administrative instrument, the General Guidelines for the issue of visas, issued jointly by the interior and foreign ministries. The version that stood from 2014 to 2025 is the source of almost every figure still in circulation, and it was repealed outright on 9 August 2025. New guidelines took its place, restating every money threshold in UMA, adding an electronic visa, and dropping the photograph and photocopy requirements. An amendment in May 2026 added an unpaid high-specialisation expert route, rewrote what a job offer must say, and told consulates in terms that they may not ask for more than the rules require.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
What it requires
- Check which version of the guidelines a figure comes from before relying on it
- Expect the 2014 thresholds to appear in guidance written any time before late 2025
- Applications already pending on 9 August 2025 are concluded under the rules in force when they were filed
At a glance
- New guidelines published
- Diario Oficial de la Federación, 25 July 2025
The date of publication. The instrument itself carries no article number for it.
- In force from
- 9 August 2025
Fifteen calendar days after publication, under the first transitional article.
- 2014 guidelines
- Repealed outright
- Amended again
- 15 May 2026
The date the amending acuerdo was published; it took effect the following day.
- Electronic visa
- Added, for visitors arriving by air, from nationalities the state designates
- Photographs and photocopies at a consulate
- Dropped
- Pending applications
- Concluded under the rules in force when filed
- Number of procedures in the guidelines
- 13
Counted from the instrument itself, which runs from Trámite 1 to Trámite 13.
Why this matters more than it sounds
The migration law has barely moved since 2011 and its regulation has not been reformed since 2014. Everything that changes in Mexican immigration practice changes in these guidelines, which are administrative, joint, and amended without any legislative step. A figure read in a guide written in 2023 was correct when written and is wrong now, not because the law changed but because an instrument below it was reissued.
What the rewrite actually did
It restated every money threshold in UMA, at multiples about 2.3 times the old ones in days of minimum wage. It created the electronic visa for visitors arriving by air from nationalities the state designates, to be issued immediately and without an interview. It removed the requirement to bring a photograph and photocopies to a consulate, replacing them with digital files and biometrics. And it left the thirteen-procedure structure of the 2014 text intact, which is why the procedure numbers in old guidance still mostly line up.
What the law says
«SEGUNDO.SeabroganlosLineamientosGeneralesparalaexpedicióndevisasqueemitenlassecretaríasdeGobernaciónydeRelacionesExteriores,publicadosenelDiarioOficialdelaFederaciónel10deoctubrede2014»Our translation - not official
SECOND. The General Guidelines for the issue of visas issued by the ministries of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on 10 October 2014, are repealed
The Diario Oficial's HTML edition drops the space at some line breaks, which is why words run together inside this quotation. It is quoted as the publisher renders it rather than tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Mexico's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here, and the visa guidelines, the acuerdos that amend them and the annual UMA values all appear here first and sometimes only here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes instruments as enacted and never consolidates them. The 2025 visa guidelines and the 2026 acuerdo amending them are two separate documents with no merged text anywhere, so what the rule says today has to be assembled by hand. An article number inside an amending acuerdo - ARTÍCULO ÚNICO, Transitorio Tercero - is an instruction to amend, not an article of the resulting instrument. Its HTML conversion also drops the space at many line breaks, so stored text contains run-together words and, in preambles, whole paragraphs without spaces; a quotation carrying such a join is reproducing the publisher exactly and must say so. Note that www.dof.gob.mx fails TLS validation while dof.gob.mx works.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«QUINTO.Lostrámitesyprocedimientosadministrativosmigratoriosqueseencuentrenpendientesderesoluciónalafechadeentradaenvigordelpresenteordenamiento,deberánconcluirsedeconformidadconlasdisposicionesvigentesalmomentodelapresentación.»Our translation - not official
FIFTH. Migration procedures and administrative proceedings pending resolution on the date this instrument enters into force shall be concluded in accordance with the provisions in force at the time of filing.
An application filed before 9 August 2025 is still judged against the 2014 thresholds. The Diario Oficial's HTML edition drops the space at some line breaks, which is why words run together inside this quotation. It is quoted as the publisher renders it rather than tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Mexico's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here, and the visa guidelines, the acuerdos that amend them and the annual UMA values all appear here first and sometimes only here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes instruments as enacted and never consolidates them. The 2025 visa guidelines and the 2026 acuerdo amending them are two separate documents with no merged text anywhere, so what the rule says today has to be assembled by hand. An article number inside an amending acuerdo - ARTÍCULO ÚNICO, Transitorio Tercero - is an instruction to amend, not an article of the resulting instrument. Its HTML conversion also drops the space at many line breaks, so stored text contains run-together words and, in preambles, whole paragraphs without spaces; a quotation carrying such a join is reproducing the publisher exactly and must say so. Note that www.dof.gob.mx fails TLS validation while dof.gob.mx works.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«La autoridad consular no podrá solicitar a la persona extranjera interesada requisitos adicionales a losprevistos en la Ley, el Reglamento, los presentes Lineamientos y demás disposiciones jurídicas aplicables.»Our translation - not official
The consular authority may not ask the foreign person concerned for requirements beyond those set out in the Law, the Regulation, these Guidelines and other applicable legal provisions.
Added in 2026. A rule of this kind is written because the practice it forbids was happening. The Diario Oficial's HTML edition drops the space at some line breaks, which is why words run together inside this quotation. It is quoted as the publisher renders it rather than tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Mexico's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here, and the visa guidelines, the acuerdos that amend them and the annual UMA values all appear here first and sometimes only here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes instruments as enacted and never consolidates them. The 2025 visa guidelines and the 2026 acuerdo amending them are two separate documents with no merged text anywhere, so what the rule says today has to be assembled by hand. An article number inside an amending acuerdo - ARTÍCULO ÚNICO, Transitorio Tercero - is an instruction to amend, not an article of the resulting instrument. Its HTML conversion also drops the space at many line breaks, so stored text contains run-together words and, in preambles, whole paragraphs without spaces; a quotation carrying such a join is reproducing the publisher exactly and must say so. Note that www.dof.gob.mx fails TLS validation while dof.gob.mx works.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«h. Asistencia técnica de alta especialidad ytransferencia de conocimientos en proyectos estratégicos»Our translation - not official
h. High-specialisation technical assistance and transfer of knowledge in strategic projects
The only new route added since the rewrite. The Diario Oficial's HTML edition drops the space at some line breaks, which is why words run together inside this quotation. It is quoted as the publisher renders it rather than tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Mexico's official gazette. An instrument takes effect on publication here, and the visa guidelines, the acuerdos that amend them and the annual UMA values all appear here first and sometimes only here.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It publishes instruments as enacted and never consolidates them. The 2025 visa guidelines and the 2026 acuerdo amending them are two separate documents with no merged text anywhere, so what the rule says today has to be assembled by hand. An article number inside an amending acuerdo - ARTÍCULO ÚNICO, Transitorio Tercero - is an instruction to amend, not an article of the resulting instrument. Its HTML conversion also drops the space at many line breaks, so stored text contains run-together words and, in preambles, whole paragraphs without spaces; a quotation carrying such a join is reproducing the publisher exactly and must say so. Note that www.dof.gob.mx fails TLS validation while dof.gob.mx works.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Diario Oficial publishes instruments as enacted and does not consolidate them. There is no official consolidated text of these guidelines, so the current rule is the 2025 publication read together with the 2026 amendment.
The procedural guidelines that govern what happens at the border and at the Institute's counters are a different instrument, published in 2012 and amended in 2014 and 2019. We read the 2012 publication; the two amendments touch articles 73 and 32, neither of which is cited in these records.