Naturalization for Latin Americans and Iberians.

What the law says

Article 20, fracción I, inciso c) of the Ley de Nacionalidad: two years of residency immediately before the application is enough where the applicant is originally from a Latin American country or from the Iberian Peninsula.

years of residency

2

exams, both of them

2

months of card validity left

6

MXN, the same fee

9,500

The Iberian Peninsula means Spain and Portugal. "Latin American country" is read as the countries of Latin America, and if your case is near an edge — a Caribbean nationality, a dual national, someone born in one country to parents of another — ask SRE before you file rather than assume.

What proves the origin

The Reglamento is undramatic here: for this route, you exhibit a valid immigration document showing legal stay and therefore residency in the country for the two years immediately before the application, valid at least six months after filing, and showing your CURP. Origin itself is shown by your birth certificate and passport, which are already in the standard file — apostilled or legalized and translated by a perito traductor.

In other words, the extra work for this route is small. What changes is the number of years your resident card has to cover. The document list

Both exams still apply

Origin shortens residency. It does not exempt anyone from an exam. You take the history and culture exam in Spanish and the Spanish test, like everybody else.

If you are a native Spanish speaker, the Spanish test is short but not optional. And being a native speaker is no help at all on the history exam, which asks about the Templo Mayor, the Constitution of 1917 and the Secretaría de Educación Pública. Try ten questions

Keeping your first nationality

Whether you keep your original nationality is decided by your country’s law, not by Mexico’s. Spain and several Latin American countries have their own rules about dual nationality with Mexico, and they differ. Check with your own consulate before you file — it is the one question on this page that Mexican sources genuinely cannot answer for you.

What Mexico requires is in Article 17 and Article 19 fracción II of the Ley: the renunciations and the protest are formulated as part of the process, and SRE cannot demand them until it has decided to grant the nationality.

The neighbouring routes

• Descendant of a Mexican by birth — also two years, proven with the ancestor’s Mexican birth certificate.
• Mexican children by birth — also two years.
• Marriage to a Mexican national — two years, with the marital home in Mexico. How that route works
• Declaratoria rather than naturalization — if you might already be Mexican by birth, this is a different and cheaper procedure. Which one is yours