---
title: "Mexico Investor Residency: Thresholds and Better Options"
description: "Mexico grants residency for investment in a company or real estate. The 2026 UMA thresholds, and why most people who qualify should use the savings route instead."
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og_description: "Mexico grants residency for investment in a company or real estate. The 2026 UMA thresholds, and why most people who qualify should use the savings route instead."
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last_modified: 2026-09-10
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author: "Hassan Yassine"
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Last updated: September 10, 2026

# Mexico investor residency: the thresholds, and why most people should not use it

Mexico does grant residency for investment. It is also the most expensive way to get a status you can usually have for a quarter of the money with nothing committed.

Quick answer

Mexico grants temporary residency for investment above **45,850 UMA** in a Mexican company (MXN 5,378,664, about USD 316,900) or **91,710 UMA** in real estate (MXN 10,757,327, about USD 633,800). Almost anyone who clears those figures also clears the ordinary **savings threshold of MXN 1,344,373** without committing anything. There is **no golden visa**: investment buys no faster route to permanent residency or citizenship.

Written by Hassan Yassine

Founder of GetMexicoVisa. Legal review by a licensed Mexican immigration lawyer is being added. Until then every regulatory figure on this page cites its primary source directly, listed at the foot of the page.

## What investor residency actually is

It is ordinary **temporary residency** with a different qualifying test. Instead of showing income or savings, you show an investment in Mexico above a threshold. Everything after that is the same: the consulate application, the canje at the border, the INM card, the four year ladder to permanent residency.

The two routes are investment in a Mexican company, whether in its capital or in fixed assets, and investment in Mexican real estate. Both come from the same **Lineamientos of 25 July 2025** that set every other threshold on this site.

We do not sell this. Our published service covers residency on solvency and pension income, and genuine investor cases are commercial and legal work beyond it. That also means this page has no reason to talk you into anything, which is worth knowing before the next section.

## The 2026 thresholds

| Route | UMA | In pesos | About, in dollars |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mexican company, capital or fixed assets | 45,850 | MXN 5,378,664 | USD 316,900 |
| Real estate | 91,710 | MXN 10,757,327 | USD 633,800 |

Same arithmetic as everywhere else on this site: the multiple times the 2026 UMA of MXN 117.31 a day. The peso figure is the requirement and the dollar figure is arithmetic at the Banco de México rate of 16.9722 on 10 September 2026.

One honest caveat. These routes are used by far fewer applicants than the solvency ones, so while the numbers come from the same published text, there is much less practical reporting about how posts read the evidence behind them. Treat the thresholds as sound and the surrounding practice as thinly documented.

## Set against the savings route, which is the real comparison

This is the section that matters, and it is why the page exists.

| Route | What you must show | Is the money committed? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Savings (temporary) | MXN 1,344,373 average balance | No. It sits in your own accounts, anywhere |
| Income (temporary) | MXN 79,771 a month | No |
| Company investment | MXN 5,378,664 invested | Yes, in a Mexican company |
| Real estate | MXN 10,757,327 in property | Yes, in Mexican property |

The savings threshold is about **a quarter** of the company investment figure and about **an eighth** of the real estate one, and it asks you to commit nothing. The money stays where it is, in your own accounts, in whatever currency, doing whatever it was already doing. You show twelve months of statements.

So the ordinary case is straightforward: someone with MXN 5.4 million to put into a Mexican company already clears the savings line several times over, and can have the same residency by leaving the money exactly where it is. Anyone in that position should read the [temporary residency guide](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-temporary-resident-visa) and run the numbers through the [calculator](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-residency-income-calculator) before considering this route at all.

The honest summary

Investor residency makes sense when you were going to make the investment anyway. It rarely makes sense as a way to obtain residency, because a cheaper route to the identical status is sitting next to it.

## When it genuinely does fit

Three situations, and they have something in common: the investment is the point and the residency is a consequence.

-   **You are buying or building a Mexican business.** The capital is going in regardless. Qualifying on it rather than on savings is then free, and it also fits the reality that you will be working in Mexico, which the solvency route does not permit.
-   **You already own qualifying Mexican property.** If the value clears the threshold, the evidence exists and costs nothing to use.
-   **Your wealth is in assets rather than accounts.** Someone whose money is tied up in property or a business, with little in liquid twelve month balances, may find the savings route harder to evidence than the investment they actually hold.

In the first case there is a further point worth taking advice on. Investing in and working in your own Mexican company touches immigration and tax at once, and the interaction is where the real complexity lives rather than in the visa.

## The process, which is the familiar one

Identical in shape to every other route on this site. Apply at the Mexican consulate with jurisdiction over where you live, through MiConsulado. Attend the interview. Collect a single entry sticker valid 180 days. Enter Mexico and ask to be admitted for the [canje](https://getmexicovisa.com/canje-stamp-mexico), not as a tourist. File with [INM within 30 calendar days](https://getmexicovisa.com/inm-appointment-resident-card), give biometrics, collect the card.

What differs is the evidence. Instead of bank statements and an employment letter you are producing the constitutive documents of the company, share or capital records, valuations, deeds, trust documents where the property sits in the restricted zone, and whatever else establishes both the value and that it is genuinely yours. That is a document set assembled with a Mexican lawyer and an accountant, not from a checklist.

Fees are the same as any other application: the consular fee of MXN 913.15 and the resident card fee, which the [cost page](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-residency-cost) sets out in full.

## What holding it obliges you to

The status rests on the investment that justified it. Disposing of that investment is a change in the circumstances the residency was granted on, and Article 63 of the Ley de Migración separately requires you to notify INM within **90 days** of changes to your address, employment, marital status or nationality, with a fine of 20 to 100 UMA for not doing so.

Anyone thinking of selling the business or the property that supports their residency should take advice **before** completing rather than afterwards. The four year ladder to permanent residency runs the same as any other temporary status, and reaching permanent residency changes the picture entirely, because a permanent card does not depend on the investment at all.

## This is not a golden visa

Mexico has no citizenship by investment programme and nothing that functions as one. There is no route from money to a Mexican passport, no shortened naturalization, and no fast track through residency.

Investor residency is temporary residency. It renews to four years, converts to permanent, and naturalization then asks for the ordinary **five years of legal residence** under Article 20 of the Ley de Nacionalidad, with Spanish and, for most applicants, an examination. Two years for the spouse of a Mexican national is the only shortened route, and it has nothing to do with investment.

If you are reading comparisons of residency by investment programmes and Mexico appears among them, that is the frame to correct. What Mexico offers is an alternative qualifying test for an ordinary visa, at a threshold well above what the same visa costs by other means.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much do I have to invest for Mexican residency?

The Lineamientos set two investor routes in UMA. Investment in a Mexican company's capital or in fixed assets is more than 45,850 UMA, which is MXN 5,378,664 at the 2026 UMA of MXN 117.31 a day, roughly USD 316,900. Investment in real estate is more than 91,710 UMA, MXN 10,757,327, roughly USD 633,800.

### Is buying a house in Mexico enough to get residency?

Only above the real estate threshold, which is roughly MXN 10.76 million or USD 634,000, and that is a great deal more than most people spend on a home in Mexico. A property below that figure does not create any residency entitlement at all, which surprises buyers who assumed ownership and residency were connected.

### Why would I not use the investor route if I have the money?

Because the savings route usually asks for less and requires nothing to be committed. Temporary residency on savings needs an average balance above MXN 1,344,373, roughly USD 79,200, which is about a quarter of the company investment threshold and an eighth of the real estate one. The money stays in your own accounts, wherever they are, and does nothing except sit there.

### Does investor residency lead to permanent residency faster?

No. Investor residency is a form of temporary residency and runs on the same ladder: renewals up to four years in total, then a change of condition to permanent from inside Mexico. It buys no shortcut, which is another reason it rarely makes sense purely as an immigration strategy.

### Can I buy property anywhere in Mexico as a foreigner?

Not directly everywhere. Property within roughly 50 kilometres of the coast or 100 kilometres of a land border sits in the restricted zone, where foreigners hold residential property through a bank trust known as a fideicomiso or through a Mexican company. That is a matter of property law rather than immigration, and it applies whether or not residency is involved.

### Does Mexico have a golden visa?

Not in the sense the term usually means. There is no route from an investment to Mexican citizenship, no fast track, and no shortened naturalization period. Investor residency is ordinary temporary residency with a different qualifying test, and naturalization still asks for five years of legal residence.

### Do I have to keep the investment to keep the residency?

The status rests on the investment that justified it, so disposing of it is a change in the circumstances the residency was granted on. Article 63 of the Ley de Migración also requires you to notify INM of changes to your employment and other circumstances within 90 days. Anyone considering selling should take advice before doing it rather than afterwards.

### Can I get residency by starting a business in Mexico?

Investing in a Mexican company can qualify above the threshold, and simply forming one does not. There is also a separate route for a foreign national with a Mexican employer, which is the employer's process to initiate rather than the applicant's, and which we do not handle.

### Does GetMexicoVisa handle investor applications?

Not as a service. Our published USD 599 Full Service covers residency on economic solvency and pension income, which is what the overwhelming majority of applicants use. Genuine investor cases are commercial and legal work beyond that, and we refer them rather than take them.

### Are the investor thresholds as reliable as the other figures on this site?

They come from the same Lineamientos published on 25 July 2025 and the same 2026 UMA, so the arithmetic is the same. What is different is that far fewer applicants use these routes, so there is much less practical reporting about how consulates read the evidence. Treat the numbers as sound and the practice as thinly documented.

## Sources

Primary texts read on September 10, 2026. Where a figure could not be confirmed in a primary source, the page says so in the sentence that uses it.

-   [Lineamientos Generales para la expedición de visas, DOF 25 July 2025](https://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5763837&fecha=25/07/2025) the investor routes and their UMA multiples.
-   [INEGI, Unidad de Medida y Actualización](https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/uma/) UMA 2026 of MXN 117.31 a day.
-   [Ley de Migración, Articles 52 and 63](https://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/LMigra.pdf) temporary residency and the duty to report changes of circumstance.
-   [Ley de Inversión Extranjera](https://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/LIE.pdf) foreign investment, including property in the restricted zone.
-   [Banco de México, FIX exchange rate](https://www.banxico.org.mx/tipcamb/tipCamMIAction.do) 16.9722 pesos to the dollar on 10 September 2026.

## Check the cheaper route first

Most people who ask about this qualify comfortably on savings and can keep their money where it is. That is what our published service covers, and it is worth ruling in or out before you consider committing anything.

Start here: [the income and savings calculator](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-residency-income-calculator), [the temporary resident visa](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-temporary-resident-visa), [permanent residency](https://getmexicovisa.com/mexico-permanent-resident-visa), or [who runs GetMexicoVisa](https://getmexicovisa.com/about).

**This page is general information, not legal advice.** It explains Mexican immigration rules as they stood on the date shown, for a general audience. Reading it creates no client relationship with GetMexicoVisa, and nobody here has reviewed your situation. Rules, fees and processing times change without notice and consular practice varies by post, so verify anything you are about to rely on against the official source (the DOF, SRE or INM) or ask us before you act. [Read the terms](https://getmexicovisa.com/terms). Last updated: September 10, 2026.

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