There are 3 main categories (for tourists and expats): 1) Visitante like old FMT Tourist Visa; 2) Re

There are 3 main categories (for tourists and expats): 1) Visitante like old FMT Tourist Visa; 2) Residente Temporal old FM2 and FM3; and 3) Residente Permanente allows indefinite stay with no need to renew and includes the right to work.
With the Residente Temporal, you now have the option for a multi-year visa choosing hotels in italy between one to four years depending on how long you re staying and how much you want to spend. See the new fees listed below.
Once you ve had Residente Temporal for four years you can apply for Residente Permanante. The time you had your FM2 counts towards the 4 year qualification, but it s not clear whether time with an FM3 counts.
If you are applying for Residente hotels in italy Temporal or Residente Permanente from scratch (i.e., you do not currently have an FM2 or FM3), you need to do so at a Mexican consulate in your home country. Visitors in Mexico on tourist/Visitante visas CANNOT apply to change immigration status while inside Mexico.
in July i returned to America after spending the past ten years living in the mountains of central Mexico with a fm3 visa! although hotels in italy i loved Mexico, hotels in italy the mexician neighbors and the Mexican climate hotels in italy i had to return hotels in italy partly for safety hotels in italy reasons, partly because i am getting very old and may need help in my last years and partly because hotels in italy of nearly impossible to understand Mexician laws!
if Mexico wants Americans and Canadians to retire and spend their last years in Mexico, they MUST make the laws clearer, vastly easier to recieve an fm2 or 3 visa and malke the visas good for 5 year periods, NOT one year and at a reasonable fee!.
to renew my fm3 each year i had to have my bank send me via FED-EX my bank statments (costly) then i had to drive 85 miles one way over dangerous narrow hotels in italy mountain roads to Morelia the capitol of the state i lived in, pay a huge fee, then return to Zitacuaro and wait about 30 days then drive over those same dangerous mountain roads just to go back to Morelia to pick up the new visa.
i know not all retirees will do like i did, i built a new school for a poor community, a new house for an abandoned poor mother with 4 kids and helped feed, clothe and keep in school 14 abandoned kids, but some will, so encourage the retirees to live in Mexico, don t keep them in a constant state of confusion and fear! thanks.