Who can file here from 31 August 2026
The embassy in Mexico City serves the widest consular district in Latin America: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Belize. It accepts applicants regardless of citizenship and immigration status, on one condition: that you are physically in one of the district countries and stay there for the whole process, from filing to the visa being issued. That is the strictest presence requirement of any consulate in the region, and it is spelled out on the embassy site in so many words. Coming to Mexico just to file is no longer an option: since 31 August the right to file is defined by citizenship and permanent residence, and how the post reads the new form field will only be shown by the first decisions — until then we do not offer this route.
For Mexicans the proof is the INE voter card; for residents, a residence card, temporary or permanent. The embassy has not announced how Mexico City will read the new “permanent residence” requirement: its page was updated on 2 September, but for another reason, and the 31 August rule is not in it.
From 15 September 2026 Mexicans need a visa
The embassy’s main piece of news. It announced this itself: from 15 September 2026 citizens of Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba with ordinary passports have to obtain a visa to enter Thailand, whatever the purpose of the trip. The 60-day visa-free regime is abolished as of that date. Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize already needed one. For anyone who has flown to Thailand visa-free for years, the five-year DTV becomes the simplest answer to the new reality.
The embassy’s page and the application form disagree
The embassy page says not a word about the criminal record certificate or about proof of permanent residence. But the e-Visa form is the same one for every consulate in the world, and since 31 August both items are in it. Anyone who assembles a package from the embassy site will see the missing fields only inside the portal. We assemble the package for the form.
What Mexico City asks for beyond the form
No other consulate in the region asks for this much:
- Accommodation booked in Thailand for the whole stay, issued by the hotel or the landlord themselves, with the guest’s name on it. Confirmations from a travel agency alone are not accepted.
- Return tickets from the country of departure to Thailand, covering every connection.
- Finances: the balance at the end of each of the last three months no lower than the required minimum. Not the average and not on a given date, but every month. Liquid funds in debit or savings accounts only. If the account is not in dollars or baht, a currency conversion is attached to the statement.
- For people working remotely: a CV, a letter describing the nature of the work, three examples of completed projects and three payment confirmations from the employer or from clients.
- Sponsorship: the sponsor’s statements under the same rules, a signed sponsorship letter, a document proving the relationship and a copy of the sponsor’s ID.
The embassy publishes neither the fee nor the minimum balance, and refers applicants to the portal. Processing time per the embassy site is five to ten working days. We have no evidence of actual filings through Mexico City yet, so we promise no timelines and no statistics.
The criminal record certificate
The federal certificate, the Constancia de Antecedentes Penales Federales, is issued online on the OADPRS portal against a CURP — the national population registry number — for 240 pesos, and is usually ready within minutes; if the name matches someone in the database, the check takes up to ten working days. An embassy’s request is valid grounds for issuing one, and a foreign resident with a CURP obtains it the same way. It can only be paid for with a Mexican bank card or through a línea de captura, the bank payment slip.
The certificate is in Spanish only, and filing needs an English translation. An apostille does not work for Thailand yet: the Convention enters into force there on 28 February 2027, and until then the right route is legalisation at SEGOB, which is markedly cheaper than an apostille. A state-level certificate covers one state only and is no good for the DTV.
How to fill in the name
A frequent cause of refusal, and one specific to this consulate: both surnames must go into the surname field together, and the embassy cannot correct the data after filing. A mistake means a new application and a new fee.
What we track here
The first filings after 15 September and how Mexico City applies the 31 August rule in practice: whether it demands a permanent residence card or accepts a temporary one. And whether the fee appears on the embassy site.
A package you have assembled yourself we check before filing — the Preflight Check: $300, a written report within two working days. Full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.
The state of every consulate is on the live board, and the consulate assigned to your country is on the map.