The route most families take
Most families move on a temporary residence visa applied for at a Mexican consulate before they leave. It covers a stay longer than 180 days and up to four years, and it carries a right to family unity, so your spouse and children can be admitted for as long as your own permit runs (Ley de Migracion, article 52 fraction VII, checked 2026-08).
The consular fee is MXN 990.79 per applicant, set by article 22 of the Ley Federal de Derechos. Consulates collect it in the local currency their finance ministry authorises, so a dollar price quoted at a US consulate is a conversion of that peso figure.
The money test is the part to read twice, because it is written in UMA rather than pesos. The Lineamientos Generales para la expedicion de visas (DOF, 25 July 2025) ask the main applicant for employment or pension income free of encumbrances above 680 days of UMA a month for the last six months. The daily UMA in force from 1 February 2026 is MXN 117.31 (INEGI, Comunicado de prensa 1/26, 8 January 2026). That is MXN 79,770.80 a month, roughly USD 4,700 at the Banco de Mexico rate published in the Diario Oficial for 26 August 2026 of MXN 16.9460 to the dollar. The alternative is investments or bank accounts averaging 11,460 days of UMA, MXN 1,344,372.60, over the last twelve months.
Your family is counted separately. Under the family unity heading of the same procedure you must show solvency for the maintenance of each family member: 220 days of UMA a month, MXN 25,808.20, for your spouse and again for each child. Two parents and two children means evidencing the main threshold plus three of those.
The visa itself is valid for 180 days and one entry. Within 30 calendar days of arriving you file at INM for the card that actually proves your status.
Schooling
State education is free at every compulsory level, and the law forbids conditioning enrolment, access to the building, exams or the release of documents on any payment (Ley General de Educacion, article 7 fraction IV). Article 9 obliges authorities to let children use those services on the same terms as Mexican students whatever their nationality or migration status, and to admit them to basic and upper secondary education even with no academic or identity papers, placing them by age, development and, where relevant, an assessment.
Enrolment is not the same as recognition, and this is what catches families out. Studies completed in a foreign school system only gain official validity in Mexico through revalidacion (Ley General de Educacion, article 142). Your child can sit in a Mexican classroom in September; the US transcript behind them is worth nothing on paper until an education authority revalidates it, and that record is what a Mexican secundaria or preparatoria asks for later.
The paperwork was at least simplified. Under Acuerdo 286 as modified by Acuerdo 02/04/17 (DOF, 18 April 2017), revalidacion of primary and secondary studies does not require an apostille or legalisation of the birth certificate or of the certificates and diplomas. It does require a plain Spanish translation of both, and the certificates must show the periods studied, the subjects and the marks. The federal fee for a basic education revalidacion is MXN 51.65 (Ley Federal de Derechos, article 186 fraction XII, checked 2026-08).
English-language schooling is the cost driver. Tuition at two Mexico City schools that publish their own 2026 to 2027 fees runs from MXN 219,000 a year at Eton School Mexico in early childhood to MXN 353,800 a year at The American School Foundation for grades 9 to 12, billed as ten monthly payments from August to May. Eton adds an enrolment or re-enrolment fee of MXN 47,920 to MXN 56,000 every year. ASF instead charges two registration payments a year, each equal to one month of tuition, plus a one time admission payment of USD 7,000 per student.
Healthcare for the family
Private cover is not one of the published requirements for the temporary residence visa, and the same Lineamientos state that a consular officer may not ask for requirements beyond those in the law, the regulation and the Lineamientos themselves.
Once you live there, everyone in Mexico without social security cover has the right to receive public health services, medicines and associated supplies free of charge at the point of need, without discrimination (Ley General de Salud, article 77 bis 1). Families can also enrol voluntarily in IMSS through the seguro de salud para la familia, paid as an annual contribution set by age band (Ley del Seguro Social, articles 240 to 242). Article 242 leaves the amount to the institute’s technical council. We could not reach the IMSS page publishing the current schedule on 26 August 2026, so no figure appears here until we can.
What the first year costs
Four consular visa fees at MXN 990.79 each. Four INM cards at MXN 11,140.74 each for a one year card, or MXN 25,057.82 each for the four year option. Read article 8 of the Ley Federal de Derechos before paying: a paragraph added by the reform published on 7 November 2025 halves those card fees for residents who prove to INM that their stay is for the preservation of family unity, which is the exact ground your spouse and children are admitted on.
Then schooling. A state school costs nothing in tuition, and your cash line is the MXN 51.65 revalidacion fee per child plus translations. An international school is MXN 219,000 to MXN 353,800 per child per year in tuition alone, before enrolment.
Two lines are missing on purpose. We could not verify two and three bedroom rents in Mexico City at any government, statistical or named published index source on 26 August 2026, so no rent figure appears here and this destination stays out of the estimator until one does. And there is no official source for what an international move costs, so this site never publishes a mover figure; if you request quotes through the form on this site, we get paid when you do.
What surprises families
Translations, not apostilles. Families arrive with everything apostilled and nothing translated, which is the reverse of what revalidacion asks for.
The dog paperwork changed this month. Cats have needed no health certificate since 16 December 2019, and both cats and dogs are checked at the Agricultural and Livestock Health Inspection Office at the port of entry for disease, ectoparasites and open wounds. From 3 August 2026 a pet dog must also carry a New World Screwworm Inspection Certificate signed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian no more than five days before arrival (USDA APHIS, checked 2026-08-26).
Toddlers renew every year. A child under three can only hold a one year card and renews it annually until they turn three (Reglamento de la Ley de Migracion, article 156).
Tax residency follows the house. Mexico treats you as tax resident once you establish your home there, and if you keep a home elsewhere, once your centre of vital interests is in Mexico, which includes more than half your calendar year income having its source in Mexico (Codigo Fiscal de la Federacion, article 9).
Who should not move here
Do not take this route if your income sits near MXN 79,770.80 a month and you have children, because each child adds another MXN 25,808.20 to what you must evidence. Do not take it if your children need to be taught in English and the tuition above is more than you can carry for the years you plan to stay. And do not build a budget from this page yet: the rent line is missing, and a housing figure is not something we will estimate for you.