We actually changed our reservation to stay in the Roma area. I'm assuming still take an uber from the airport? Any must do's in the Roma area? Thanks all and Happy Holidays.

Yah, I'd just take Uber. It will probably be around $7.

Roma and Condesa (just to the west of Roma) are interesting for the abundance of cafés, restos, parks, and nightlife in the area and as such are better for just exploring and seeing what catches your eye rather than must do tourists attractions. That being said, Plaza de Cibeles is pretty cool, Parque de México and the surrounding Avenida Amsterdam, and Avenida Tamaulipas are some of the emblematic areas in Roma/Condesa. Roma has quite a bit of French inspired architecture and it's fun to walk around and see random gems.

If you want to venture a bit further out, Bosque de Chapultepec is just to the west of Condesa, a big Central Park 3x the size of NYC's and I'd recommend going up to the top of the castle (Castillo de Chapultepec) for the amazing city views. Also plenty of other stuff to do in the park with an abundance of museums (Museo Nacional de Antropología is probably the best in Mexico), lakes, places to hang out, little markets selling food and souvenirs, etc.

Centro Histórico (historic center) is about a 30 minute walk northeast and also a must do. I'd probably take a day and head south towards Coyoacán and another day trip worth doing is the pyramids in Teotihuacán, a little town about 45 minutes north of CDMX by bus. Tons of other things to do (lucha libre is very near to Roma), but that should be a good outline to get you started.

Thanks man! Greatly appreciated.

Hola amigos! I arrived back home about two weeks ago. While the original plan was to blog about the trip here in quasi-real time, when I accidentally left my tablet on an overnight bus, that was the end of that. Below is a brief and very incomplete recap of my trip:

I spent six weeks in Mexico, and pretty much stuck to the planned itinerary; the only place that I skipped (and now regret) was Puerto Vallarta and some of its surrounding beach towns. While I enjoyed each city I visited, the highlights for me were Guanajuato, San Miguel, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Mazunte, a very small beach town (almost a village really) about an hour south of the surf mecca town of Puerto Escondido. I am so glad I eventually made it one of the beach areas of Mexico...while exploring colonial Mexico was cool, for me, life doesn’t get much better than a beer in my hand and toes in the sand while watching a multi-colored sunset descending into the sea.

While I didn’t get the opportunity to meet up with Bolivar in Guadalajara, I did have dinner & drinks with Fossilkid in CDMX, who came across as a good guy who’s creating a nice life for himself in a very cool city.

Shout out to ES2--Fossilkid & I ate at Pizza Felix, and while we agreed it was not the best pizza either of us had ever eaten in our lives, it was damn tasty, and at $8 a pie (8 slices) in a nice restaurant, a solid recommendation.

Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I’ll have time to post some pics; in the meantime, I'll just say this: while Fossilkid may come across as a cheerleader for Mexico (and in particular CDMX), he’s not blowing smoke--in fact, if anything I think he might be underselling the place a bit. While no place is perfect--and certainly Mexico and CDMX are not without their flaws-- imho the pros far FAR outway the cons. I can definitely understand why he’s chosen to live in Mexico, and I agree with him that Mexico is a great choice for online grinders (or any other kind of online entrepreneur) to base themselves out of. As someone who spent several years traveling all over SE Asia, while I understand the allure of places like Thailand, Vietnam, etc., for long-term stays, I’m beginning to think that Mexico might be a better choice, ESPECIALLY for North American gringos.

* It’s exponentially easier for an English-speaker learn to speak passable Spanish than it is virtually any other Asian language, and as
such somewhat more realistic to at least partially integrate into local life in Mexico versus places Thailand, Vietnam, etc..
* Flying back to the United States is quick & relatively inexpensive.
* While I’m not of the opinion that Mexican food is better than Thai or Vietnamese food (quite the opposite actually), there seems to
me to be a larger variety of different types of restaurants (especially in CDMX) in MX vs S.E. Asian countries.
* Unless heat & humidity are your thing, overall much nicer weather.
* It is realistic to establish residency if that’s something that one day you might want to do.
* Last but not least, alcohol is cheap, and all kinds of degen opportunities are available if that’s your thing!

Other random thoughts & observations:

Mexican pharmacies: it used to be easy to buy valium, sleeping pills, etc. at Mexican pharmacies. However, without a doctor’s prescription that is no longer the case. On the plus side, getting a doctor’s prescription isn’t expensive nor particularly difficult--frequently pharmacies have an onsite physician.

Anytime you buy anything, always always count your change! While I was always careful while changing money at banks and “Cambio de Casas” and never had problems there, while making small purchases and wasn’t really paying attention (restaurants, small tiendas, etc.) on more than a few occasions I think I was short-changed, and for the most part I don’t think it was by accident. “Short-change the Gringo!” seemed to me to be somewhat of a national pastime…

Loved loved LOVED all the bike and electric scooter rentals all over the streets of CDMX! I don’t remember if this has been mentioned in this thread, but in the tourist-areas of CDMX there are (CHEAP!) bike (and electric scooter!) for rent everywhere you go: https://medium.com/@thezeetree/3-way...y-f33553795642

Anyone who visits San Miguel de Allende should check out this place: https://www.madebyanado.com/

FOOD: Unfortunately (and surprisingly), this is one aspect of the trip which did not measure up to my expectations. However, I should preface that statement by saying that A) I had very high expectations going in, and B) this was likely largely my fault as I did very little pre-trip research into what to eat and where. For the most part I just followed my nose and my eyes--if a place (especially a street stall) looked good and was busy, I assumed that the food there must be really good. However, that was not my experience, and while I had very few truly bad meals, I had lots of just “OK” ones. Interestingly, a local in one town told me that just because a certain street stall was busy didn’t necessarily mean that the food there was especially good, it just as likely meant that the food there was clean and you were unlikely to get sick eating there. Considering the amount of street food I ate (a fair amount) it was perhaps ironic that the only time I got truly sick was at a baja-style seafood taco restaurant which left me kneeling and retching one night in Puerto Escondido. However, memorable meals I ate included:

Seafood tostadas in San Miguel de Allende at https://bajafishtaquito.com/

Sushi in CDMX at Tori Tori. I had the large omakase plus two servings of 4 mushroom miso soup (best soup I’ve ever had anywhere) and two beers for $60. Easily a $200+ dinner in LA, San Fran, NYC, etc.. https://toritori.com.mx/

Churro ice cream sandwiches in CDMX at Churros el Moro: https://toritori.com.mx/

Super thick, super dark hot chocolate drink called “Black Kiss” at Cafe Tal in Guanajuato--most amazing chocolate drink I’ve ever had, an orgasm for your taste buds! https://www.cafe-tal.com.mx/menu

Tie for best shrimp and fish tacos, both located in Puerto Escondido:
https://www.facebook.com/pinchestacospto
https://www.facebook.com/pepesfishtacos/

Seafood (especially the tuna tostadas) at El Contramar in CDMX; not cheap, but damn good:
http://www.contramar.com.mx/english.html

Like virtually every capital city everywhere, traffic in CDMX (and many other places as well) sucks, and the idiots maniacally honking their horns in rush hour traffic--to zero effect--did get on my nerves. On the plus side, however, you don’t need to leave your car to buy sandwiches, snacks, cold drinks, candy, cigarettes, and all kinds of other gadgets and trinkets, as street sellers walk up & down the lines of traffic hawking virtually anything you could possibly need. Kudos, too, to the acrobates, jugglers, clowns, etc., entertaining the crowds of commuters for tips--in one town I saw a guy performing fairly complicated tricks with a glow-in-the-dark slinky of all things!

I saw the best street art and graffiti in Mexico (and especially in CDMX) than I have seen in any city anywhere.

I'm aware that pollution is evidently an issue in CDMX, but the weather while I was there was near-perfect--t-shirt weather during the day and light sweater weather in the evening--and any air pollution that was there didn't bother me in the least.

There are at least a half dozen casinos in CDMX where you can play live poker! Unfortunately most of them are low stakes only (basically $1/$2), and the only room that I saw that played somewhat decent high stakes, i.e., 100/100 peso PLO (equates to roughly $5/$5) also allowed smoking, so that was a deal-killer for me. Additionally, in every poker room I visited, they would play one round of hold’em (or PLO) and one round of a game called “Mata Aces” (translated means “Kills Aces), so if you don’t know how to play that game (and I don’t) it’s not that much fun. On the plus side, they offer free food and drinks for poker players at all casinos I went to.

Ur post makes a local happy. And yh I agree that if u like big cities, DF (aka CDMX) is a great place to live, u get a ton of stuff for very little, especially if u somehow managed to earn a strong currency while speding a weak one like MXP. Def need to check El Contramar, think it rings a bell but I have never gone there.

On other not very related stuff, there has been a lot of non official info on the last weeks mainly on social networks, claiming that all expenses with Mexican credit/debit cards will start being watched by the SAT (the Mexican IRS), and if by the end of the year those expenses don´t match with whatever income you reported to the SAT, there'll be fines and you could even end up in prison.
So, while there are not a lot of Mexican professional poker players (probly less than 100 online pros and probly less than 200 live/online pros), I think most of us, if not all of us, have never declared our income, in part I think cuz the legal figure of professional poker player does not exist here, and in great part cuz the 30% that would be required feels like a ton, and not sure being a poker pro would still be worth while living in DF. Anyways, I did freak out for 3 or 4 days, but then I just thought that it´ll be impossible for the SAT to go after all the guys with discrepancies on their expenses and income reported, so I would like to think there will be some kind of filter, and they will only go after guys with very big discrepancies (like at least 50k usd yearly discrepancy I'd say). Still this means I will need to start using less my credit cards and sadly lose the comps you can get with them and start using more cash or international internet banks like transferwise or N26.

Confirmed, solid rec and great deal for that price.

I'm obviously very biased, but I think Mexico is an incredible spot for North American gringos for the reasons you aptly enumerated. I have no experience in SEA, but from talking to tons of people with experience and browsing those threads it just feels like Mexico is a way better cultural fit (dating, making friends, feeling like a part of the community, etc.)

Since this is basically the de facto Mexico thread, figured I'd do a quick TR.

My girlfriend and I are fans of warm weather, and while CDMX isn't "cold" per se (average highs are ~68 and lows ~45 in Winter), we wanted to avoid the colder temps so we decided to do a 4-week beach vacation in Mexico.

Neither of us care much about partying and I wanted to keep costs somewhat reasonable, so I ruled out Cancún, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta. I settled on Mazatlán b/c it's a larger city (nearly 1 million people) that would provide enough to do for a month, and I also found a well-located apartment for just under $600 for the month.

Mazatlán Highs:

Centro Histórico - Mazatlán is different from its more famous beach brothers in that it's more of a Mexican city that has tourists rather than just a tourist city that has a few Mexicans. It also has an intact and recently renovated historic center complete with a great plaza for restaurants, nice cathedral, and streets lined with colorful buildings. This appealed to me b/c I tend to lean towards the cultural side when planning vacations, so it felt like visiting an actual Mexican city, rather than a bunch of resorts/restaurants that could exist anywhere.





The Boardwalk:

I'm not sure on the exact distance, I would guess somewhere around 8km, but Mazatlán boasts the 2nd longest uninterrupted boardwalk in the world. I'm not sure I could ever tire of the long walks taking in the sites (beaches, restaurants, monuments, etc.). Another plus is that there is a bikeshare right on the boardwalk that costs a ridiculously low $3.50 for the entire month! It honestly felt like stealing and we used it nearly every day.







The food:

Birria, shrimp tacos/burgers, fish, seafood, Pacífico beer (it calls Mazatlán home), etc. I can't say I had more than one of two bad meals in the entire month and most fell in the good to great category. You'll pay $7-15 for a meal and drink at most places. Even in the heavily gringo populated Zona Dorada, there didn't seem to be any price gouging. My girlfriend even took me to a fancier, highly recommended place for my birthday and the bill for both of us came just under $50.

The sunsets:

Absolutely epic views from many spots on the coast.





The weather:

There was 1 day of the rain the entire month, not even a drop the rest of the time. Highs will be 75-80 every day. It can feel a bit hot if it's 100% sunny or slightly chilly on slightly overcast days. Lows are a comfortable 60.


Mazatlán not so highs:

The demos:

This could be a positive or negative depending on your age, but the vast majority of gringo tourists are 50+. It's not really a party city although there are a few solid clubs and obviously tons of outdoor places with views to have a beer. If you are looking for epic partying and a more Spring Break feel, then Mazatlán is not the beach.

The distances:

The long boardwalk is a positive and negative. On the one hand, I loved being able to bike or walk the whole thing, but on the other hand, things tend to be a bit spread out. You'll find a couple interesting areas on the boardwalk, then walk about 15-20 minutes until you get to the next interesting area.

Gringos will probably spend most/all their time in Zona Dorada, but I elected for the historic center, and felt like it was a solid choice. I could walk to the main plaza, a couple beaches, and tons of restaurants, but Zona Dorada was a ways away, either a 25-minute bike ride, 80-minute walk or a 15-minute Uber (although it will only cost $3-4).

I think it would be slightly more interesting if things were a bit more compact.

The music:

Mazatlán has a slightly conservative feel compared to CDMX, as such the people have their tastes, and there isn't much variation. You will hear banda music nonstop, which is charming at first, but gets a bit annoying due to the lack of variety and the fact that banda is a bit obnoxious.


Other notes:

Mazatlán has a metric ton of new condos and resorts going up and a ton of money is being pumped into the city. Starting in about 2005 they revived much of the historic center, they remodeled the baseball stadium and they have a couple big projects in the next few years. First, they're upgrading their aquarium. They claim it will be the largest in Latin America. Second, they have an ambitious central park project with a big museum, lakes, pavillions, etc.

My girlfriend and I both rated Mazatlán an 8/10, and I would happily return. I think it has a lot of potential to raise that # even higher once the new projects are completed and if people continue to come in larger #s.

Nice TR Fossil.

What types of activities did you guys do other than going to the beach? Were there any interesting day trips or anything? I've heard there are a couple cool islands off the coast, but have not personally been to Mazatlan.

Good question.

That's probably one more thing I should have added to the negatives column.

There aren't really any cool towns/cities close enough for a day or weekend trip. Whereas in PoC's trip through central Mexico, you can string together a ton of places in a short time, that isn't really possible in Mazatlán. Anywhere worth going is probably a 6-8 hour bus minimum, but realistically, you'll probably want to fly.

There are a couple smaller towns nearby, but they didn't look interesting enough or different enough compared to what we've already seen in Mexico.

A couple things we did besides beaches/walking/biking/restaurants/bars:

-Venados baseball. The stadium is cozy and nice, newly remodeled and the season runs from Oct-Dec, but we got lucky and they made a long playoff run (currently down 3-2 in the final series). So it was fun to see a couple games in the evenings.

-There are a couple islands off the coast worth visiting. The 3rd to last pic in my post is from Isla de Venados. We did a little tour costing $35 which included kayaking to and from the island, a bit of snorkeling, a short hike to the top of the island. The island also has a fun little beach of its own.

-At the very southern tip of the coast, there's a lighthouse on a hill. Worth the short hike up for the views of Mazatlán.

-The aquarium is decent, and worth a visit, but it's undergoing renovations and will supposedly be amazing in a couple years.

-Couple museums and a theater worth visiting

-Tour of Pacífico brewery

So basically, besides the normal stuff, there are handful of things to do. Probably sufficient for a couple weeks, but if you tire of the beach/boardwalk quickly, then you might get restless.

A friend recently asked for my CDMX restaurant recommendations, so I thought I'd repost here:

CDMX is about one quarter the price of SF, so we pretty much ate at the fanciest places we could find. You can get great food at every price point though. Avoid street food, as food hygiene is not a top priority. Don't drink tap water! Always ask for agua minerale at the table. My first trip I got laid low by Moctezuma's revenge, but it was because we were not paying attention to the water. Just because a fancy restaurant puts a sprig of mint or rosemary in it, does not mean it's safe to drink! Second trip passed without incident. Anyway, here's my list of restaurants from favorite to least favorite from our two trips there over the last six months or so:

La Docena (Roma) - great seafood, beautiful decor, and beautiful people. Hip and sceney with models and TV stars at various tables.

Contramar (Roma) - similar to La Docena. Ran into the band Metric when we were there last. It's gotten popular though, so likely need to reserve ahead of time.

Agua y Sal (Polanco) - Polanco is a quieter district, especially at the weekends. It's a bit like the FiDi. This is a quieter spot, but we had the best ceviche and octopus here.

Pasillo de Humo (Hipodromo) - another hidden gem. Specializes in Oaxacan food, which tends to be more meat based. I recommend the tlayuda which is like a flatbread pizza.

Lardo (Condesa) - unlike the other restaurants, this is more of a gringo spot, and the prices kind of reflect that. The food is amazing though, and I include it because its always open, which is very handy. On Sundays (and to some extent Mondays as well) CDMX pretty much shuts down. Plan ahead with respect to groceries and banks.

La Capital (Hipodromo) - similar to Contramar and La Docena, in that there is definitely a sceney vibe, although the decor had a bit of a hotel restaurant feel to me. Plus the superbowl was on and the service ground to a halt during halftime while all the Mexicanos gauped at Shakira.

Filigrana (Roma) - the architecture and decor was stunning, but we were here mainly for drinks and snacks. We ordered badly as well - the guac came with bichos, which I'm not a fan of. I can do the chapulines, but this included hormigas, and I kind of tap out at that point. I'll probably give it a second shot at some point though, because some of the dishes coming out looked amazing.

Azul (Condesa) - the only disappointing meal we've had in CDMX. The food was kind of meh, and the service was bizarre. It felt like they were trying to be a high end restaurant, but didn't really know how.

You'll notice Pujol (Polanco) is not on the list, which is probably the most famous CDMX restaurant. We've never made it, because you have to book so far in advance. But I have also heard mixed things about it, with some people complaining it is running on its reputation these days.

As for drinks, the bars are mainly in Roma and Condesa, but there are a lot of gringo spots, which we tried to avoid. Two good places we found were La Clandestina (Condesa), which was a great mezcaleria, and Ladina Bar (Roma), a cocteleria, which had some amazing mixologists.

One other recommendation I have is the Condesa farmer's market, which takes place on Tuesdays on Calle Pachuca. It's several times bigger than any farmer's market I've been to in the US, and includes meat and fish, jewelry and clothing, in addition to produce. It's definitely worth browsing for an hour.

We went to Lardo twice on the last trip there. Super-fresa, and super-delicious. Don’t roll in looking like a poker grinder.

Since this is the General Mexico thread as well, we drove from NorCal down to Cabo San Lucas & back for the holidays (to meet family in Cabo) spending 2 weeks along the way (too short).

The Mex-5 running from Mexicali along the Sea of Cortez has been repaired and (according to the old-timers on a FB group) is in the best condition in decades. The hurricane that rolled through a couple years ago had really damaged things, but even normally rough spots (like just South of San Felipe) are now smooth as butter. Only 2-3 miles of detours when we went (& probably done now).

If you’re into Geology, landscapes, beach camping, & random exploring, there’s so much along the way. Suzzer’s thread captures it better than I can write or photograph.

Hey Fossil, can we get a "man on the streets" perspective on how things are in CDMX from you? Are street vendors / food stalls still operating...are sidewalks still jammed w/ people, eerily quiet or what?? Public transportation & private buses still running?

What about you? Have you given any thought to returning home or to USA or too late for that now?

Hey PoC, I would say the reaction hasn't been great up until now, but is starting to improve.

AMLO, the president of Mexico, has been staying lots of stupid things while addressing the media. He seems to be taking the approach that it is better for Mexicans to continue living their lives, rather than staying in and possibly risking starving if they can't work. However, the mayor of CDMX has taken it upon herself to close most non-essential businesses as of yesterday.

It has thinned out a bit in my area in terms of foot traffic, but still seeing about 75% of the usual street vendors. Public transport still running, and unfortunately many Mexicans need it to survive, and many travel up to 2 hours each way to get to work.

I've decided to stay put in CDMX. Although Mexico doesn't have the facilities that most western countries do, CDMX has more than its share of the hospitals in this country. On top of that, many are private hospitals and I think might not be so full b/c there aren't many Mexicans who would be able to afford a couple hundred to pay for care. I have a travel insurance which I believe would cover me here, but not in the USA, so I wouldn't even have any insurance in the USA.

The reaction in the USA has not been great either, especially in my state of Nebraska, so I think putting myself at risk on planes and in airports would probably be the biggest risk, plus I'd probably have to stay with my parents, and my mother is in an elevated risk category, I think would be a needless risk.

On top of that, quarantining is quite easy for me. I've got plenty to keep me occupied, 8-10 hours per day of online poker/studying, studying Spanish/French, yoga/meditation, browsing forums for corona news, Netflix, etc.

Hey Fossilkid, hope things are well in CDMX. Can we get another C-19 "man on the ground" update from CDMX? Is AMLO acting more responsibly?

I'd say the response has improved to a C. AMLO finally asked everyone to stay indoors to stop the spread and large gatherings are closed. But it's still like a semi-shutdown b/c restaurants and cafés remain open.

I went to the grocery store for my 1 weekly visit and they were making all customers use hand sanitizer before entering. The foot and car traffic are way down so it seems like some progress is being made. Of course, this is all in my gringo/rich Mexican bubble so who knows how the reaction has been in the uber-dense neighbourhoods on the outskirts.

So at least the response is improving and AMLO is finally on board, but there are plenty of countries doing more.

^^^^^

Thx for the update!

Im glad to know all the $ ive lost to you in plo on BOL has gone to good use. Nice thread, look forward to seeing more

Haha, if you played me the last 2 nights you might have won some of it back. GL and be safe

whats up man, appreciate the review of mazatlan. That was one of my top3 or so when I was looking on where to move to down there. I'm so up in the air about where to go in mexi - gdl is easy, but assuming I don't find my dream beach town I might hop over to DF for a couple months to finish up some residency things.

As of a couple months ago, permanent residency can be obtained immediately in mexico for economic solvency alone, so gonna jump on that. I saw a lot of places were gonna start opening May 17th and May 31st, I hope thats the case.

Was originally thinking that mexico would have a sharp spike and then mellow out, rather than a prolonged stay in place type of period - but it seems like they actually have their **** together when I talk to lucia and everything is 100% closed up in gdl and PV at least. I haven't been to any major cities since this thing started, but imagine that would be tougher in a megacity like DF. Can we get another general update on daily life outside the apartment now that we're in May? I'd be coming down late June or so, and feel like things are gonna start to become a bit more clear this month with timelines of how this is all gonna pan out, 2nd/3rd waves of the virus, and get a more accurate response of how economic life will or won't move forward.

Do you have any (online) source that confirms this? All the info I can find is that you need to apply at a Mexican consulate /embassy and that you can only apply for PR directly based on solvency if you are a pensioner. Even the official government website states that you either have to be retired or have family ties.

Temporary residency seems to be easy to get though and can be exchanged to PR after 5 years.

they haven't updated since the minimum wage increase that came about in january or so. TR is a 4 year process, that's what I'm doing currently, but all of a sudden now that can be expedited which is awesome. Speak with your mexi immigration lawyer, mine is based out of PV and SM de allende. I need to get my **** together as well, not sure if I start all over again at mexi embassy outside of mexico or just instead of extending my TR, it goes straight to PR by showing required docs (basically just 130k in savings, which is about the same as what you needed for TR last year).
http://www.soniadiaz.mx/citizenship.html

Thanks, please update me on this when you have more info.

For a TR you need a lot less, it's 5000 times the minimum daily wage. Is it really worth it hiring a lawyer for this? The process seems to be pretty straightforward if you know Spanish.

for economic solvency last year it was 98k needed, something along those lines. You can get TR by other means like family or marriage, but economic solvency from SAVINGS was 98k. You can show income that is less I think, but they only accept government pension or military pension for that. Plus everything is discretionary, just show em you are a net asset to the country and will contribute and less questions will be asked/success rate will skyrocket.

I did 100% of things on my own. I'm a stupid nit, don't be like me It's mexico, its a nightmare. Lawyers cost nothing. My buddies in GDL got a lawyer, flew to texas for the day, and got the entire process handled immediately. I spent 2-3 weeks dealing with crap at the embassy in USA, and then another 2 months waiting for things to process and going back and forth to immigration in mexico. It was at that point I got in touch with a lawyer to just do things for me moving forward. If your time is worth more than $2/hour or so, just grab an immigration lawyer to guide you.

Seems like some embassies/consulates ask for more.
I spoke to someone who used the London embassy and needed to show around 65K GBP.
I asked my local embassy and they said 5000 of the daily minimum wage (about €25K) in just savings is enough. Pretty much all the recent information online including blogs, forum posts and the website of the lawyer you posted seem to mention the 5000 days number.

How does a lawyer charge, if you don't mind me asking?

Sorry to go on about this, but my busto ass was under the impression I could get a TR in Mexico.

Those #s seem way high. I'm in a couple of Mexico expat groups and $20k in savings is quoted quite often as being the requirement for TR. Some people have even said if you show ~$2400 a month coming in for 6 straight months, that can work also. The Vegas consulate is mentioned often as being super lenient, but I'm not sure if you have the option to pick and choose in the States or if you have to go the one specific to your region.

I'm gonna apply for TR as soon as corona madness dies down a bit. It's been going well w/my girlfriend of a year so marriage could be a possible route towards citizenship. I think I'd only have to do 2 years of TR and 2 of PR and I could apply for Mexican citizenship in maybe 4 or 5 years.