Guides

Straight answers to the questions I am asked most, written from engagements I have actually run. Where I will not put a number on something before I know your situation, these pages say so.

What it costs to register a company in Mexico as a foreigner

Most advisors will not give you a number before a call. Here is one.

Can a foreigner work in their own business in Mexico?

Owning it and being allowed to work in it are two different things, and the gap between them is where a lot of setups go wrong.

Uso de suelo: the licence follows the building, not the business

Uso de suelo is the land use classification of a specific address. It decides what may legally operate there, and it is decided at municipal level rather than nationally.

COFEPRIS registration in Mexico

If your business touches health, medicine, food or anything else COFEPRIS regulates, this is the part of your setup that will take the longest and the part most likely to be quoted wrongly.

What you need for a municipal business licence in Puerto Vallarta

Everything down to the neighbourhood association sign-off is asked for on every licence, whatever your business does. The last two items depend on your activity. Other municipalities differ, but this is the shape of it.

Forms of business setup in Mexico

Most people meet this decision having already been told the answer by someone who benefits from a particular one.

RFC and e.firma

These are what my clients get stuck on more than anything else, including the licences themselves.

Neither is complicated. Both are one-shot appointments where a single missing document sends you away, and the cost of that is measured in weeks rather than hours.