Children born abroad that come from a Mexican mother or father by birth are entitled to obtain a Mexican citizenship. This can be done at a Mexican consulate or at the registration and records offices of the Civil Registry in Mexico. The documents needed to perform this process would have to be the birth certificate of the child and the birth certificate of the Mexican-born parent. It is important to mention that by going through this process, a child who was born in the United States will not lose his or her U.S. citizenship status.

The cost for this process at the Registry Office in Tijuana is $1,077.00 pesos ($89.75 USD).

Office hours are from 8:00a.m. to 3:00p.m.

You must present the birth certificates translated and apostilled.

Translations can only be made by certain professionals; here is a list of a few you can choose from for this.

To initiate this process at a Mexican Consulate in the United States, the requirements are:

Complete the birth registration application.

U.S. birth certificate of registered person. Original plus two copies (The original birth certificate is not returned back to you).

Original birth certificate. A valid Mexican consulate I.D. or a current Mexican passport with two letter-sized copies. If a birth certificate presented, then one of the parents I.D. is required, original and two letter-sized copies. Copies must be of both sides of the document.

The cost for each certified copy of a Mexican birth certificate is $13.00 dollars.

If you have any doubts, you can consult the Mexican Consulate website directly.

Besides the Mexican citizen by birth, there is also the citizenship by residency.

For foreigners who want to be naturalized as Mexican citizens, they must fulfill some requirements and prove that they have resided in country for at least the last five years before they initiated the naturalization process (this type of residency is credited with the FM2 or FM3 immigration forms issued by the Ministry of Interior of Mexico).

You can refer to the website of the National Institute for Migration of the Ministry of the Interior.

It is noteworthy that in this case (citizenship by residency), the applicant must forfeit their original nationality in accordance with the provisions of Articles 17 and 19 of the Nationality Law.

As of March 20, 1998 a constitutional amendment took affect that allows for Mexican to keep their nationality. People who have dual citizenship are exempt from complying with the Military Service.

The time period for this process is from 6 to 8 months.

Joy.Ruvalcaba@sandiegored.com