Loading
Just a moment while this page opens.
Just a moment while this page opens.
Just a moment while this page opens.
The route most people from Mexico take, the mistake to avoid, and the facts that change because you are applying from Mexico, each read from the official page it links.
In the admissions data of IRCC, Canada's immigration department, most Mexicans who became permanent residents recently came through family or humanitarian routes, such as sponsorship by a spouse or partner who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Many work in Canada temporarily: Mexico was the leading country of citizenship in 2024 in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, for jobs no qualified Canadian or permanent resident is available to fill, IRCC's 2025 Annual Report to Parliament shows, and for seasonal farm jobs an agreement between the two governments has Mexico recruit and select the workers. Under the trade agreement CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement), a Mexican citizen with pre-arranged work in a listed profession can apply for a work permit; skilled work in Canada can later count toward the Canadian Experience Class, a permanent residence programme.
For Express Entry, Canada's points system for skilled workers, a foreign degree counts only with an educational credential assessment (a report on its Canadian equivalent). If you hold only a Carta de Pasante or Diploma de Generación, without the modalidad de titulación that earns the título, WES, an assessor IRCC designates, assesses your earlier qualification instead. The police certificate comes later: after IRCC sends a file number and a letter, you request the Constancia de datos registrales from the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), Mexico's Attorney General's Office, or through a visa application centre. The FGR asks Mexican men for their military service card (cartilla), which men abroad can arrange at a Mexican consulate.
The mistake to avoid, whatever your job offer, is planning to get your work permit at a Canadian airport. Since February 2024, Mexicans need a visitor visa unless they fly with an eTA (electronic travel authorization), open only to holders of a valid US non-immigrant visa or a Canadian visitor visa from the past ten years, and they must apply for a work permit from outside Canada, even with an eTA. Apply before you travel.
Express Entry asks a single applicant to show CAD 15,263 in settlement funds, about MX$192,855 at the latest cached exchange rate; larger families need more.
A qualification from Mexico is assessed for Canada by one of these organisations: World Education Services (WES), International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS), International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS), International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES) and Comparative Education Service (CES).
A Constancia de datos registrales (a check of judicial records) from Mexico's Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), requested at an FGR office with fingerprints and a request letter from the country asking for it; from abroad, you can apply through an authorized representative.
Canada has no youth mobility agreement with Mexico today, so citizens of Mexico can join International Experience Canada only through a recognized organization that accepts them.
Tests Canada accepts with centres in Mexico include IELTS General Training, CELPIP-General, PTE Core, TEF Canada and TCF Canada.
In the 2021 census, 37% of immigrants born in Mexico lived in Ontario, more than in any other province or territory.
Compared with other immigrants, those born in Mexico are most concentrated in Manitoba, among the places where at least 5% of them live.
Answer our free questionnaire and get a free summary of your eligibility for every Canada pathway we assess. The full report is a later choice, never a condition.
Start the free questionnaireEach fact above links the official page it was read from, with the day it was read.