The documents SRE asks for, and what it is strict about.

The list, from the Reglamento

This is the file for the five-year residency route, in the order Article 16 of the Reglamento de la Ley de Nacionalidad gives it. Other situations keep all of this and add the document that proves the tie — a marriage certificate, a child’s birth record, proof of origin, an ancestor’s birth certificate.

1. Legal age and civil rights. You apply for yourself; whoever holds the patria potestad applies for a minor.
2. The signed application form, in original.
3. Your valid resident card, temporary or permanent, showing legal stay for the required period, valid at least six months beyond the date you file, and showing your CURP.
4. A certified copy of your foreign birth certificate, legalized or apostilled, and translated. A recognized refugee may be excused from this.
5. Your valid foreign passport, in original, or a travel and identity document.
6. A statement under oath of your exits from and entries into the country, for computing absences.
7. Criminal-record certificates, in original, from the federal authority and from the state where you live.
8. Two identical recent colour photographs, passport size, 4.5 × 3.5 cm, white background, facing forward, no glasses, head uncovered.
9. A statement under oath that your information is true and matches the documents behind it.
10. The original receipt for the fee.

SRE’s June 2026 simplification removed photographs, escritos libres and the physical presentation of the CURP from several procedures. The Reglamento text was last reformed in 2013 and still lists them. Where the two disagree, the checklist SRE gives you at your appointment is what you file against. What changed in 2026

What SRE is strict about

The six-month rule on your resident card

Not "still valid on the day", but valid for at least six months after you file. A card with four months left is a card that stops the file, and renewing is an INM process with its own timeline. Check this date before you book, not after.

Both criminal-record certificates

Federal and state, not one or the other. People assemble everything else perfectly and arrive with one of the two. Issuing times differ by state, so start early.

The name has to match everywhere

Your birth certificate, your passport, your resident card and your form should read the same, accents included. A middle name that appears on one document and not another, or a married surname used inconsistently, is the kind of thing that turns one appointment into two.

Absences break residency

Article 21 of the Ley says temporary absences do not interrupt residency unless they fall in the two years before you file and total more than six months. The statement you sign about your trips is how SRE checks it, so count honestly before you write a number.

Start these first

Two items have lead times measured in weeks, and they run in sequence rather than in parallel: your birth certificate has to be apostilled in the country that issued it before a perito traductor translates it, because the translation covers the apostille too.

If you start the file the month before your appointment, this is the pair that will not be ready. How the apostille and perito traductor work

What each route adds

• Marriage. The marriage certificate, and proof you lived together in a marital home in Mexico for the two years. Citizenship by marriage
• Mexican children. The child’s birth certificate issued by a Mexican civil registry or consulate.
• Latin American or Iberian origin. Proof of origin, with the two-year resident card. Citizenship by origin
• Descent from a Mexican by birth. The ancestor’s Mexican birth certificate, to prove filiation.
• Adoption or a minor in a Mexican’s care. One year of residency instead of five, plus the documents proving the relationship.