Moving to Mexico from Australia

Visiting

With an Australian passport you can visit Mexico without a visa for up to 180 days. The immigration officer sets your days, usually matching the stay you describe, and Smartraveller says you cannot extend them. You need a Multiple Immigration Form (FMM). Visitor status does not allow paid activities in Mexico.

• Smartraveller says the 180 days are not guaranteed.
• We found no page saying that remote work for an Australian employer is allowed as a visitor.
• A year-long stay needs residence, not visitor status.

Sources: Diario Oficial de la Federación (Secretaría de Gobernación and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores), Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, Smartraveller, Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM). Checked 4 October 2026.

Staying a year or longer

The route for about a year is the temporary resident visa on economic solvency, for stays of more than 180 days and up to four years. Its income test is monthly income after tax of more than MX$80,000 over the last six months. The alternative is an average monthly balance of more than MX$1,400,000 over the last twelve months. You apply in person at the Mexican Embassy in Canberra.

• At the 2 October 2026 euro cross rate, the income test is about A$6,300 a month, or about A$110,000 as a balance.
• The visa allows one entry. The embassy says it does not allow work paid by a person or company in Mexico unless the National Migration Institute (INM) authorises it.
• After four years of temporary residence, the Migration Law allows an application for permanent residence.

Sources: Diario Oficial de la Federación (Secretaría de Gobernación and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores), Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), Embassy of Mexico in Australia, Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, European Central Bank. Checked 4 October 2026.

Documents, fees and timing

The embassy's 2022 information sheet asks for the application form, a passport with at least six months' validity, one photo with a white background, and stamped statements from an Australian bank in your own name. For income it wants payslips and matching bank statements showing steady income from a clear origin. Mexico's visa rules give a consulate up to 10 working days to decide.

• The sheet says Centrelink payments, transfers between your own accounts and plain deposits are not counted.
• The embassy accepts only statements from institutions in Australia.
• Some consulates elsewhere ask employees for a letter agreeing to remote work from Mexico.

Sources: Diario Oficial de la Federación (Secretaría de Gobernación and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores), Embassy of Mexico in Australia, Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego. Checked 4 October 2026.

Tax

A year away does not by itself end Australian tax residence. Australian residents are taxed on worldwide income, so a Mexican salary or fees still go on your Australian return while you stay resident. Mexico treats you as resident if you set up your home there, and taxes residents on worldwide income. Australia and Mexico signed a tax agreement in 2002, in force since 31 December 2003.

• If both countries treat you as resident, the agreement looks first at your permanent home, then at where your personal and economic ties are closer.
• Salary is generally taxable where the work is done. Each country gives a credit for the other's tax on some income.
• If you stop being an Australian tax resident, you are treated as having sold assets other than taxable Australian property at market value on that day, unless you choose to disregard this.
• Mexico is not on Australia's list of social security agreement countries.

Sources: Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, Australian Treasury, Embassy of Mexico in Australia, Australian Taxation Office, Department of Social Services, Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT). Checked 4 October 2026.

Setting up

Mexico is not on Australia's list of reciprocal health care agreements, so do not assume Medicare-style access. Smartraveller says private clinics and hospitals are very expensive and often want payment up front. Within 30 days of arriving on the visa, you apply to INM for your residence card.

• Temporary residents get a CURP, the population registry number, when INM issues their foreigner number.
• With a CURP you can register online with the tax authority (SAT) for an RFC, the tax number.
• Keep stamped statements from your Australian bank. While you stay an Australian resident, interest from a Mexican account is foreign income for your Australian return.

Sources: Embassy of Mexico in Australia, Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, Smartraveller, Victorian Department of Health, Secretaría de Gobernación, Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT), Australian Taxation Office. Checked 4 October 2026.

Living in Mérida

Smartraveller advises a high degree of caution across Mexico and asks you to reconsider travel to parts of several states. Yucatán, where Mérida is, is not among them. Smartraveller gives the hurricane season as June to November, and notes that Mexico has earthquakes and tremors each year. We found no official source for rents, bills, bus fares or other living costs in Mérida, so they are unknown here.

Sources: Smartraveller. Checked 4 October 2026.

Other places we looked at

The research also looked at Querétaro and Oaxaca de Juárez, for contrast. Smartraveller does not list either state among those where it asks you to reconsider travel. For Oaxaca, it notes that Mexico has earthquakes and tremors each year. We found no official source for rents in either city, so they are unknown here.

Sources: Smartraveller. Checked 4 October 2026.