A Guide to Birth Tourism in Mexico 🇲🇽
Cost breakdown vs. USA, things to lookout for, and more...
“Ohhhh, your baby only has one last name…how did you get that done?!”
The employee at the US Embassy in Guadalajara, Mexico looked confused. Astonished. Baffled.
“We’ve done this a few times before” I replied.
In fact, we’d done it many a times. They don’t call me “El Impregnador” for nothing.
P.S: No one calls me that.
This was our third baby. We had them all in Guadalajara, Mexico. All with the same gynecologist. Two of them at the same hospital. We followed the exact same birthing plan. Same pediatrician afterwards.
I’d like to think we had it systemized by the third one.
We’ve navigated the annoyances at the Registro Civil before. We’ve dealt with the drama from the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores prior.
‘Twas not me first rodeo.
If you’re curious about having a child in Mexico, I’ll breakdown exactly how things work below, what went well for us, pitfalls to avoid, and more.
Oh, and for reasoning behind why you might consider this, there’s a couple major benefits:
Low Costs: It is not expensive to give birth in Mexico at modern hospitals with great doctors.
Dual Citizenship: The baby will automatically get Mexican citizenship by birth.
Permanent Residency: Both parents automatically qualify for permanent residency in Mexico.
All of these items will be discussed in-detail below.
A Guide to Birth Tourism in Mexico 🇲🇽
See what had happened was…
My girl, wife, baby mama, whatever you want to call her — is from Mexico. So when she got preggers for the first time, we figured we’d have the baby in Mexico.
Just seemed like the simplest solution. Easy. No hoops to jump through.
Luckily, it was.
We’ve had three incredible births with the same gynecologist in Guadalajara, Mexico. Zero complications. Zero drama. Fantastic overall medical care. I have no complaints.
Below I’ll detail the process step-by-step for anyone interested in giving birth in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Arrival
Guadalajara has a fantastic international airport, Aeropuerto Internacional Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, with direct flights to USA, Canada, Europe, and more.
Digging deeper…
We have traveled as a family while my girl was pregnant many times at this point. It’s not remotely difficult.
What you need to know is:
Long-haul international flights are generally a no-go after a certain point in the pregnancy.
Let’s call it third-trimester for simplicity’s sake.
This means you need to arrive in Mexico at least three months before the due date of your child.
Personally, I’d recommend arriving around four months before the child’s due date.
Why?
First, this will give your family time to get acclimated to Mexico and get comfortable.
Next, this will allow your girl to easily hide the baby bump on the flight with a hoodie or sweater. While this shouldn’t be an issue, we prefer to not to draw extra attention while traveling with pregnant people.
Now if you’re coming into Mexico as a tourist and you want to get a 180-day tourist visa, you’re going to need to show a return ticket that justifies a 180-day visa.
Book the cheapest tickets out of Mexico 175-179 days post-arrival.
Not everyone gets 180 days automatically — be prepared to show proof of accommodation, return flights, and funds if the agent questions your stay
By arriving 4-months prior to your baby’s due date and making sure to get a 180-day tourist visa for all involved, you’ll then have 2-months after the baby is born to sort out permanent residency in Mexico for your family. This is more than enough time to get it done.
And once you have the permanent residency, you won’t need to worry about the tourist visas ever again. You can stay in Mexico indefinitely.
Oh, and that will come in handy. Due to all the documentation and paperwork, you should plan to stay a minimum of 3-6 months after the child is born. This is basically a requirement if you’re US citizens, as the child won’t have US citizenship or passport for months on end.
Where to Stay
The only area in Guadalajara, Mexico I like for families is Providencia and the surrounding areas.
Basically anything around this map is ideal:
Providencia is fairly safe, walkable, filled with parks and coffee shops, etc. It’s a solid place to spend 6-12+ months with your family.
Finding an apartment in this area, however, can be brutal.
The options on Airbnb are slim and pricey. Then once you decide to look off of Airbnb for a long-term lease, you’re going to struggle to get anyone in Guadalajara to rent to you as a foreigner without an aval.
What is an aval you might ask?
An aval (sometimes written as aval bancario or just aval) is a guarantor or co-signer — it's a very common requirement in Mexican rental and financial transactions.
If you’re a foreigner, this becomes a huge barrier. How are you going to find a Mexican citizen who owns property and will basically co-sign your lease?
Massive pain in the ass.
Luckily, there’s a workaround. Far simpler. Far cheaper than Airbnb.
