🇲🇽 Mexico

Mexico has no online bank-onboarding pathway for foreigners; opening a peso account is a single in-person branch visit. BBVA México, Banorte, and Santander México form the practical active trio for newcomers. Bring your passport, residency card, CURP, comprobante de domicilio, and ideally RFC.

Healthcare enrollment in Mexico runs through four parallel institutional doors, not one. The doors are a worker registered by their employer, a self-pay voluntary regime, family-derechohabiente coverage under an insured principal, or non-contributing IMSS-Bienestar care for persons without any social-security tie. Which door a newcomer walks through is determined by employment status and residency permit, not by choice of insurer.

Two federal identifiers anchor every newcomer procedure in Mexico: the CURP issued by RENAPO and the RFC issued by SAT. Standard CURP is generated automatically when an INM permit card is granted; foreigners with an in-progress INM or COMAR application receive a *Constancia Temporal CURP para Extranjeros* valid for 180 to 365 días. RFC inscripción at SAT requires a documento migratorio vigente and a comprobante de domicilio dated within four months.

The Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) grants permanent resident status through a *cambio de condición de estancia* filing at an INM regional office in Mexico. Article 54 of the Ley de Migración lists five operational routes — four-year continuous residente temporal, family unity, retirement or pension income, investment, and refugee or humanitarian protection. Conversion is never automatic: a formal application, biometric capture, two fee payments, and a positive INM resolution are all required.

In Mexico the *licencia de conducir* is issued by each of the 32 states, not by the federal government. This guide treats Ciudad de México (CDMX) as the baseline because it concentrates the largest foreign-resident population and its four licence types map closely to federal minimums. Residentes temporales and permanentes apply on equal footing with citizens; tourists are not eligible and drive on a home-country licence.