Our Plan B Is Official: We Have Permanent Residency in Mexico

A lot of Canadians are asking themselves a version of the same question right now: what happened to my country? Home doesn’t feel like home anymore. Where can we go? We asked that same question five years ago. This week, we got our answer stamped and handed to us in the form of two permanent residency cards that never expire. My husband and I now have permanent residency in Mexico.

Here is how it happened, what it cost, and what you need to know if you are thinking about doing the same.

*Note: Some of these links are affiliate links, meaning that if you book through my link, I will make a small commission (at no extra cost to you).

The Friend Who Made It Look Easy to Get Permanent Residency in Mexico

Last year, my Cuban friend and her Canadian husband converted their temporary residency in Mexico to permanent. Her process, completed in 2025, was so straightforward that she did not bother hiring a lawyer. When she learned we were ready to do the same, she offered to help us fill out the paperwork. It was all in Spanish, and while I speak some Spanish, it was not enough to trust myself with immigration documents.

In her experience, she had filled out the forms, walked into the immigration office in Chapala, and was told to come back in two hours. She and her husband explored the town, returned, and walked out with their cards. They paid 17,000 MXN (about $984 USD at today’s exchange) for both. The whole thing was done in an afternoon.

We were optimistic.

The Paperwork (Fewer Forms Than You’d Think)

While we were visiting family in Canada, my friend went online to start our process to get permanent residency in Mexico and found there were now only two forms to complete instead of three. I sent her our information, she filled them out, and emailed them to us to print.

The first form was the Formato para Cambiar de Condición de Estancia de Residente Temporal a Residente Permanente (Application to Change Status from Temporary to Permanent Resident). The second was a Declaración Bajo Protesta de Decir Verdad (Declaration Under Oath of Truthfulness), confirming that everything we submitted was accurate. Knowing the names of these documents matters. It lets you ask for the right forms at the office or find them online without guessing.

We printed everything and arrived back in Mexico on April 21, 2026.

First Visit: Close, But Not Quite

The next morning we drove to the immigration office in Chapala, open Monday through Friday from 09:00 to 15:00. We had a rental car, which made the half-hour drive from where we were staying painless. Street parking out front is free, which is worth noting because parking in Mexico can be its own adventure.

A tall man in a white immigration uniform met us at the door. He looked like he meant business but greeted us with a warm “Hello!” I told him we were there to convert our temporals to permanentes (permanent residency in Mexico). He pointed us to the front desk to add our names to a sign-in spreadsheet on a computer, and we sat down to wait.

The office holds about forty people. The chairs are padded and comfortable, the staff speak good English, and the air conditioning was doing its best. Some people even hugged the guard at the door on the way out of the office. That was interesting to witness and completely unexpected. Within 45 minutes, I was called up.

I handed over my documents, my temporary residency card, and my Canadian passport, along with black and white photocopies of both our cards and passports.

The officer reviewed everything and delivered the news: my temporary residency card expired on May 26th, and the process could not begin more than 30 days before expiry. We had arrived too early. She asked to review my husband’s documents as well, caught a couple of corrections needed on both forms (we had forgotten to note we were married and had left out an interior number in the address), and told us to come back on Monday, April 27th.

We went home and fixed the forms.

Second Visit: We’re In

Monday morning, we returned. The office was not busy. We were invited to approach the desk together, which was a change from past visits where we had to go up one at a time.

Our corrected forms were accepted. We paid the administrative fee to start the process. Credit card only. No cash accepted.

Paying separately on the same card for permanent residency in Mexico, in a foreign country, for the same amount twice, was enough to make my heart rate climb. My card was bound to get flagged. The payment terminal went quiet. The officer checked her screen, confirmed both payments had gone through, and let us photograph our receipts. (Phones are normally prohibited in the office, but she made the exception.)

“You will receive two emails. Come back when the second one arrives. It should be a couple of days.”

The Waiting (And the Surprise Third Step)

The first email arrived the same day with a case number and login for the immigration portal. We checked the portal every morning for any status changes.

On April 29th, the portal flagged a request for additional information. We logged in and, with our friend’s help translating, completed an online form asking for basic personal details: height, weight, religion, and similar. Our friend said this step was new. My guess is it was the mysterious third document mentioned during our first visit, now moved online. We filled it in and submitted. A pop-up confirmed our information was saved.

The second email arrived Monday, May 4th. Our approval letters were in the portal. The email also stated we had three days from that notification to return to immigration for biometrics, or our files would be closed.

Three days.

We no longer had the rental car. We had only kept it for nine days, expecting the process to wrap up in two. We booked a trusted driver for 700 pesos (about $40 USD) to take us in first thing Tuesday morning.

Cinco de Mayo Is Not a National Holiday (Except When It Is)

Tuesday was Cinco de Mayo. For anyone who has absorbed this holiday through American pop culture: Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. It commemorates Mexico’s victory at the Battle of Puebla against the Second French Empire in 1862. It is a regional holiday. September 16 is Mexican Independence Day.

Communities around Lake Chapala do not celebrate Cinco de Mayo. No parties, no closures, not even cohetes (the fireworks that go off at all hours here during celebrations). I searched online to confirm the immigration office would be open. Every result said yes.

The internet was wrong.

We pulled up to find the office gated shut. Closed for the holiday. Everything else in Chapala was open. Not immigration.

We paid the driver anyway and went home. I called in a favour the next day and borrowed a friend’s car rather than spend another 700 pesos to drive to immigration to get our permanent residency in Mexico.

Final Visit: Done

We arrived at 11:30 on May 6th to a packed waiting room. The closure the day before had pushed everyone into the same morning.

While we waited, an older gentleman approached the desk and handed over his card. The officer looked at it and told him it was a permanent residency card issued in 2025. It did not expire. He had nothing to renew. He seemed genuinely surprised. Permanent in Mexico means permanent. No expiry date. I’m not sure how he missed the memo the first time.

Eventually it was our turn. We paid our fees. They took our fingerprints and photos. My husband is tall enough that the white background sheet did not reach above his head. The security guard had to hold it up in the air for the photo.

The officer handed us our cards with a smile.

“Welcome to Mexico. Your cards never expire. When you leave the country, show your card coming and going.”

The final visit took an hour.

What It Cost to get Permanent Residency in Mexico

The total for both of us was 30,000 pesos, roughly $1,734 USD. That is close to double what our friends paid in 2025, and what once took an afternoon now takes a week. Government streamlining at work.

Even so, permanent residency in Mexico is one of the more affordable options available to Canadians who want to know they have somewhere to land. We started this process four years ago when travel was in chaos and the world felt less certain than it used to. Mexico welcomed us with open arms. Now we can stay as long as we choose.

Your values travel. Pack them first. If you are thinking about your own Plan B, every Friday I share real talk about freedom, relocation, and life abroad in A Case for Freedom Fridays. Start your Plan B here.