Getting a Student Visa
in your Home Country

Important note: This section is only to give you advice on getting a student visa before coming to Mexico. It is NOT a complete, comprehensive or detailed manual about immigration matters and policies. We strongly recommend that you read the IMMIGRATION section on your INTERNATIONAL STUDENT HANDBOOK for everything you need to know and do about visas for your experience in Mexico.

1.- If you are from any of the following nationalities, read this section.

Germany, Liechtenstein, Argentina, Luxembourg, Australia, Monaco, Austria, Holland, Belgium, New Zealand, Bermuda, Norway, Canada, Portugal, Chile, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, San Marino, Denmark, Singapore, Finland, South Africa, France, South Korea, Great Britain, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, USA, Israel, Italy, Japan, Uruguay, Venezuela.

All students that will study for more than 2 months in Mexico are required to get a student visa. However, not every nationality needs to get the student visa before entering México.

By being from any of these nationalities, you are able to enter Mexico with only a Tourist visa, which you can get at the time you enter the country either by air or land. The only thing you need to show to get this visa is your valid passport to the immigration officer.

Once you are here in Monterrey, you then can change your visa from a tourist one to a student one. The whole process to change your visa will cost about 90 USD.

If you decide to get your student visa in your home country, you need to go to your nearest Mexican consulate or embassy to process it. But be careful!: make sure you call the consulate first to see if they issue student visas, since sometimes some consulates do not issue student visas.

Even with your student visa, you will still need to register your visa with the government once you are in Mexico. The cost to register your visa in Mexico will be around 60 USD and your will basically have to do the same process as if you were changing the visa from a tourist to a student one. So as you can see, you might as well do the whole visa process once you are here in Mexico.

As an international Office, we recommend that you do the whole process once you are here in Mexico with the following exceptions:

1.- You can get the student visa for free on a Mexican consulate. You will then save around 30 USD for just registering your visa instead of changing it from tourist to student. (60 USD instead of 90 USD)

2.- The consulate is near your home so you don’t have to travel long distances and spend a lot of money to get the visa. 

Remember that if you decide to get the student visa in your home country you will need  to wait for your original acceptance, that will arrive shortly after you receive your acceptance e-mail.

Once in Mexico and whether you are going to change your visa or just register it, the International Programs Office at Tecnológico de Monterrey – Campus Monterrey will give you advice on this procedure.

2.-  All other nationalities different from those above, please read this.

In order to enter the country you will need to get your student visa directly from a Mexican consulate or embassy. You will need an original letter of acceptance for this purpose.

International Office visa service:

Once in Mexico, The International Programs Office at Tecnológico de Monterrey – Campus Monterrey will give you advice on the procedure to register your visa with the Mexican authorities.