How to change your name in Mexico
Mexican law gives you your name on your acta de nacimiento and nothing you do later moves it on its own: marrying adds no surname, and divorcing takes none away. A different name means changing the acta itself — an aclaración for a slip of the pen, otherwise a rectificación, which in Ciudad de México is now filed at the Registro Civil and in many states is still a case before a judge. A marriage celebrated abroad counts in Mexico once its acta is transcribed at the Registro Civil where you settle, and the law gives you three months from arrival to do that. After the acta, everything else — CURP, INE, passport, RFC, IMSS — copies from it.
After marriage
Nothing happens to a surname on marriage in Mexico. Your name is the one registered on your acta de nacimiento: your given name or names, then your two surnames, and the acta de matrimonio records the marriage, not a new name for either spouse. There is no form, no deadline and no fee for a name on marriage, because there is no act to perform, and no office — not the Registro Civil, not the INE, not the SRE — will put a spouse's surname on your documents on the strength of a marriage certificate.
The form "María Pérez de García" was a social usage: a married woman wrote her husband's surname after her own, preceded by "de". It was never entered on the acta and never became her legal name, and it has largely faded; a bank or an employer that once accepted it was accepting a customary signature, not a change of record. Nothing stops you using it socially today, and nothing lets you make it official.
If you want your spouse's surname as part of your actual name, the only route is the one below for any other change: an alteration of your own acta de nacimiento. Whether a registrar or a judge will grant that for the sake of a marriage is at their discretion — the grounds the codes name are error, identity and homonymy, not marriage — and requests made for that reason are commonly refused. So most couples register the marriage, if it was abroad, and change nothing.
After divorce
Because marriage changes no name in Mexico, divorce restores none. There is no former name to come back, no notification to make and no deadline: your acta de nacimiento, your INE, your CURP and your passport carried your own name throughout, and none of them needs reissuing. If you had used a husband's surname socially, you simply stop.
What the divorce does change is the record of your civil status. A divorce decreed by a court is notified by the court itself: article 131 of the Código Civil Federal gives the judge eight days to send a certified copy of the final judgment to the Juez del Registro Civil, who notes it in the margin of the acta de matrimonio and of the actas de nacimiento (article 132). Where both spouses agree, have no children and have settled the sociedad conyugal, the federal code lets them divorce before the Juez del Registro Civil without a court at all (article 272): they appear in person with certified copies of their actas, the judge takes their declaration and cites them back in fifteen days to ratify it, and on ratification declares them divorced and annotates the marriage record. Ciudad de México keeps the same divorcio administrativo (its article 272), and its 2024 reform lets the Registro Civil note a judicial divorce on the acta de matrimonio directly. Each state's code sets the details, and some allow the administrative route with adult children who need no maintenance.
A divorce granted in another country is a separate problem. Article 51 of the federal code takes a civil status acquired abroad from the certificates the parties present, but a foreign judgment has to be recognised — the homologación the Código Nacional de Procedimientos Civiles y Familiares provides for — before a Registro Civil will note it on a Mexican acta de matrimonio, and that is a proceeding before a Mexican court, usually through a lawyer. Have the foreign decree apostilled and translated by a perito traductor before you begin.
For any other reason
One family of routes covers every other reason, and it acts on the acta de nacimiento rather than on the person. The federal code draws the line between two of them. An aclaración is for "errores mecanográficos, ortográficos o de otra índole que no afecten los datos esenciales" — a typing or spelling error that leaves the essential data untouched — and is handled by the Oficina Central del Registro Civil (article 138 Bis). Anything more is a rectificación, which the federal code says "no puede hacerse sino ante el Poder Judicial y en virtud de sentencia de éste" (article 134), on two grounds: falsedad, that the event registered never happened, or enmienda, "cuando se solicite variar algún nombre u otra circunstancia" (article 135). The person whose acta it is may ask (article 136), the case follows the Código Nacional de Procedimientos Civiles y Familiares (article 137), and the final judgment is noted in the margin of the acta whether it grants or refuses the change (article 138).
Each state writes its own civil code, and the states are moving these procedures out of the courts. Ciudad de México is furthest along: since its reform of 29 November 2024 its article 134 says a rectificación "no puede hacerse sino ante la autoridad del Registro Civil", and since 27 August 2025 its article 135 names four grounds — falsedad; enmienda, to vary a name or another essential datum affecting civil status, filiation, nationality, sex or identity; correcting an essential datum or a typing or spelling error; and homonymy, or a name that harms the individualisation of the person's identity — with article 138 Bis sending the request to the Dirección General del Registro Civil and leaving the requirements to its Reglamento. Since 2015 Ciudad de México also issues a wholly new acta de nacimiento for the recognition of gender identity, administratively, at the Juzgado Central, to a Mexican adult who presents the request, a certified copy of the original acta, identification and proof of address (articles 135 Bis to 135 Quater); most states have since adopted a version of it. Elsewhere the rectificación is still a case before a family judge, filed through a lawyer, with the registrar and sometimes the Ministerio Público as parties. Ask the Registro Civil of the state that holds your acta which route applies; it publishes its own requirements and its own fee.
What counts as a good reason is the registrar's or the judge's call within those grounds. A name that has caused you harm, a name nobody has ever called you, a spelling your family uses, a homonym that confuses your records: these are the cases the codes were written for. A change made simply to carry a spouse's surname is not among the named grounds, and is often refused.
Then the new acta has to land, and the order is fixed because each office asks for the document the last one issued. Order a fresh copia certificada of the acta de nacimiento showing the annotation; check that the CURP now carries the same name, since it is generated from the acta; correct the credencial para votar at the INE, which is free; renew the passport at the SRE; update the RFC at a SAT office and your IMSS record; and last tell the bank, the employer, the AFORE and everyone else. A name changed on the acta reaches nothing else by itself.
If you married outside Mexico
Mexico takes a civil status acquired abroad from the foreign record itself. Article 51 of the Código Civil Federal says that to establish the civil status Mexicans acquired outside the Republic, the certificates the parties present of the acts concerned are sufficient, subject to the Código Nacional de Procedimientos Civiles y Familiares, "y siempre que se registren en la Oficina que corresponda de la Ciudad de México o de los Estados" — provided they are registered at the corresponding Registro Civil office. A marriage that is valid where it was celebrated is therefore valid in Mexico, and it becomes usable here once it is on the Mexican register.
That registration is the transcripción, and it has a clock. Article 161: Mexicans who marry abroad shall, within three months of their arrival in the Republic, have the acta of the marriage transcribed in the Registro Civil of the place where they take up residence. If the transcription is made within those three months its civil effects reach back to the day of the wedding; if it is made later, it produces effects only from the day of the transcription. Ciudad de México's own article 161 says the same for the first three months of residence there. Nothing stops a later transcription — the marriage is still registered — but the property regime, an inheritance and a spouse's residency all count from the later day.
What the Registro Civil asks for is the foreign acta de matrimonio, apostilled by the competent authority of the country or state that issued it, and a Spanish translation by a perito traductor authorised in the state where you file; both spouses' identification; and the Mexican spouse's acta de nacimiento and CURP. Each state's Registro Civil publishes its own solicitud and its own fee, so the document in this guide is a preparation sheet in the office's field order, not the office's form.
The apostille depends on where the certificate came from. Mexico has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 14 August 1995 and the United States since 1981, so a US certificate carries one apostille from the competent authority of the state that issued it — usually that state's Secretary of State — and needs no consular legalisation; the Reglamento de la Ley del Servicio Exterior says as much (article 86). Where the country of celebration is not a party, the Mexican consulate there legalises the document instead (article 85).
If you live abroad, the consulate is not the office for a marriage celebrated before a foreign authority. Under article 84 of the same Reglamento a consulate acts as Registro Civil for the births, marriages and deaths of Mexicans that happen before it — it can marry two Mexicans at its own counter and issue a Mexican acta for that — and it corrects the acts it issued itself, but a wedding conducted by a county clerk or a foreign registrar is transcribed under article 161, in Mexico, when you settle there. Use the time abroad to get the apostille and the translation while the issuing office is easy to reach.
An online ceremony — an officiant in another country while you were physically in Mexico — sits in a gap. No Registro Civil and no consulate publishes a rule about marriages celebrated by video, and the published requirement is the foreign civil record, apostilled and translated, which reads the same however the ceremony was held. Treat the position as unsettled rather than settled in your favour, and take advice before you rely on such a marriage for property or for a residency application.
What to bring
- Your credencial para votar (INE) or Mexican passport, original and a copy; your spouse's passport if they are not Mexican.
- Your CURP, printed from gob.mx/curp.
- Your marriage certificate (a certified copy from the office that issued it in the country or state where you married).
- An apostille on that certificate from that country's or state's competent authority (in the United States, usually the Secretary of State of the issuing state), or consular legalisation where the country is not a party to the Apostille Convention.
- A translation into Spanish by a perito traductor authorised in the state where you file, if the certificate is not in Spanish.
- For a divorce: a certified copy of the judgment or of the acta de divorcio administrativo, apostilled and translated if it was granted outside Mexico, and the court's recognition of it if it was.
- Only for a name change: a certified copy of your acta de nacimiento, your identification, proof of address, and whatever your state's Registro Civil or court asks for as evidence of the reason; afterwards, a fresh copia certificada of the acta showing the annotation.
Steps, in order
Step 1
Have your foreign certificate apostilled or legalised
The competent authority of the country or state that issued it
Order a certified copy of the marriage certificate (or of the divorce decree) from the office that issued it, then have that copy apostilled. In the United States that is usually the Secretary of State of the issuing state, which takes the request by post; the Hague Conference publishes the list of US competent authorities. If the country is not a party to the Apostille Convention, the Mexican consulate there legalises the document instead. Do this while you are still near the issuing office: the Registro Civil in Mexico will not take the certificate without it.
- Fee
- Set by the authority that issues it; a US state charges per document (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/authorities1/?cid=41
Step 2
Have the certificate translated by a perito traductor
A perito traductor authorised in the state where you will file
A document not in Spanish needs a translation by a translator the state's courts or Registro Civil recognise — a perito traductor autorizado — and the lists are kept state by state, so choose one from the state where you will transcribe the marriage. Send the translator the apostilled copy; the translation travels with the original and the apostille, and the apostille itself is translated too, because it is part of the document the clerk reads.
- Fee
- Set by the translator; no office publishes a rate (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 3
Transcribe the marriage at the Registro Civil where you settle
The Registro Civil of the municipality or alcaldía where you live; in Ciudad de México, the Juzgado del Registro Civil for your address
Article 161 of the Código Civil Federal gives Mexicans who married abroad three months from their arrival in the Republic to have the acta transcribed at the Registro Civil of the place where they live, and the deadline decides only when the marriage's civil effects begin: within it, from the wedding day; after it, from the day of transcription. Take the apostilled certificate with its Spanish translation, your acta de nacimiento and CURP, both spouses' identification, and your proof of address; each state's Registro Civil publishes its own solicitud, and the sheet in this guide carries your answers in that order. The office draws up a Mexican acta de matrimonio, and that acta, not the foreign certificate, is what a notary, a bank or an immigration office will ask for. If you still live abroad there is nothing to file yet: a consulate registers the marriages of Mexicans celebrated before it, not a wedding conducted by a foreign authority, so get the apostille and the translation now, while the issuing office is easy to reach, and file this the year you settle.
- Form
- Solicitud de inscripción de matrimonio celebrado en el extranjero (your state's own form)
- Fee
- Set by the Registro Civil of your state and published in its own schedule; ask the office before you go (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 4
Order your acta de matrimonio
The Plataforma Nacional del Registro Civil, or the Registro Civil that holds the record
Once the marriage is on the Mexican register — at once for a wedding in Mexico, after the transcription for one abroad — order a copia certificada of the acta de matrimonio. The Plataforma Nacional del Registro Civil issues actas de nacimiento and de matrimonio online for the states that have joined it, paid by the state's own fee and printable at home with a verification code; the rest come from the office that holds the record. This acta is what a bank, a notary, a health insurer and an immigration office will ask to see. It carries your own name: no office copies a spouse's surname from it.
- Fee
- Set by the state that holds the record; the platform shows it before you pay (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 5
If your divorce was granted abroad, have it recognised first
A Mexican court, through a lawyer
A Registro Civil notes a foreign divorce on a Mexican acta de matrimonio only once a Mexican court has recognised the judgment — the homologación the Código Nacional de Procedimientos Civiles y Familiares provides for. The application is filed by a lawyer with the apostilled decree and its translation by a perito traductor, and the court sends its decision to the Registro Civil. Nothing in this step touches your name, which the divorce never changed; it settles your civil status in Mexico so that you can marry again or deal with property there.
- Fee
- Court fees are set by the state and the lawyer sets their own; no office publishes a total (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 6
Check that the divorce is noted on your marriage record
The Registro Civil that holds the acta de matrimonio
A court that decrees a divorce sends a certified copy of the final judgment to the Juez del Registro Civil within eight days, and the judge notes it in the margin of the acta de matrimonio and the actas de nacimiento (Código Civil Federal, articles 131 and 132); a divorcio administrativo is annotated the day it is declared. Order a fresh copia certificada of the acta de matrimonio and check the annotation is there. Your name was never on the marriage record as anything but your own, so there is nothing else to change.
- Fee
- The annotation is free; a copia certificada is priced by the state (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 7
Only if you want a different name: file for the rectificación of your acta
The Registro Civil of the state that holds your acta de nacimiento; in Ciudad de México, the Dirección General del Registro Civil; in states that keep the judicial route, the family court, through a lawyer
Ask the Registro Civil that holds your acta which route your state gives you. A typing or spelling error is an aclaración at the counter (Código Civil Federal, article 138 Bis). Anything more is a rectificación: in Ciudad de México it is filed with the Dirección General del Registro Civil, on the grounds its article 135 names — falsedad, enmienda of a name or another essential datum, an error in an essential datum, or homonymy — and in many states it is still a juicio before a family judge, filed by a lawyer. Bring a certified copy of the acta, your identification, proof of address and whatever evidence supports the reason; the solicitud in this guide is drafted in Spanish for the office or the court. The decision, granting or refusing, is noted in the margin of the acta, and only that annotated acta moves anything else.
- Form
- Solicitud de rectificación de acta de nacimiento (your state's Registro Civil or family court)
- Fee
- Set by your state's Registro Civil or court and published in its own schedule; a lawyer's fee is separate where the route is judicial (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 8
Only if you want a different name: file for the rectificación from abroad
The Registro Civil of the state that holds your acta, through a representative; your consulate only if the acta was issued at a consulate
A consulate can correct an acta it issued itself — a birth registered at a Mexican consulate — under article 84 of the Reglamento de la Ley del Servicio Exterior; an acta from a Registro Civil in Mexico is rectified by the office or the court of the state that holds it. From abroad that usually means a representative in Mexico with a poder, which the consulate can notarise (article 87), filing the solicitud in this guide with a certified copy of the acta, your identification and the evidence for the reason. Where the route is judicial the representative will be a lawyer. Start here: nothing else in this list can move until the annotated acta exists.
- Form
- Solicitud de rectificación de acta de nacimiento (your state's Registro Civil or family court)
- Fee
- The Registro Civil's or court's fee is set by your state; the consulate publishes its own fee for a poder notarial (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.gob.mx/sre
Step 9
Order a fresh copy of the acta with the annotation
The Plataforma Nacional del Registro Civil, or the Registro Civil that holds the record
Once the aclaración or rectificación is noted in the margin, order a new copia certificada of the acta de nacimiento; every office after this asks to see that copy, not the resolution. The Plataforma Nacional issues actas online for the states that have joined it, paid by the state's own fee; elsewhere the office that holds the record prints it. From abroad this is the step that has to travel, so order it before you book anything else.
- Fee
- Set by the state that holds the record; the platform shows it before you pay (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.miregistrocivil.gob.mx
Step 10
Check that your CURP carries the new name
RENAPO, through gob.mx/curp and the Plataforma Nacional del Registro Civil
The CURP is generated from the acta de nacimiento, so a rectified acta should be followed by a CURP in the new name; download it from gob.mx/curp and check. If it still shows the old name, the Plataforma Nacional's Certificación de CURP ties your CURP to the annotated acta, and any Registro Civil módulo can do the same over the counter. Every later office — the INE, the SRE, the SAT, the IMSS — checks the CURP against the acta, so nothing else should move until they agree.
- Fee
- Free (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.gob.mx/curp/
Step 11
Correct your credencial para votar at the INE
Instituto Nacional Electoral, at any módulo de atención ciudadana
The INE's Corrección trámite covers the apellido paterno, apellido materno, nombre(s), place and date of birth and sex. Book at a módulo, and take the annotated acta de nacimiento in original, an identification with a photograph, and a comprobante de domicilio no older than three months. The new credencial is printed and collected at the módulo; the INE charges nothing for any credential trámite. Nothing after this step can move until the new credencial is in your hand, because it is the identification every other office asks for.
- Fee
- Free (2026)
- Official page
- https://ine.mx/credencial/tramite-credencial-tipo/
Step 12
Get a credencial para votar in the new name from abroad
Instituto Nacional Electoral, through your consulate
A Mexican living abroad applies for the credencial at the nearest consulate or embassy with a document proving nationality — the annotated acta de nacimiento — an identification with a photograph, and a comprobante de domicilio, which need not be in your own name. The INE sends the credencial to your address by courier; after three failed deliveries it waits up to ten days for collection before going back to Mexico. There is no charge.
- Fee
- Free (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.votoextranjero.mx/web/vmre/solicitud-de-credencial
Step 13
Renew your passport
Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, at an oficina de pasaportes
Book at citas.sre.gob.mx once the new INE is in hand: the passport has to match it. A renewal is proved with the previous passport, proof of Mexican nationality where the SRE cannot verify it in its own database — the annotated acta de nacimiento is the document to bring — and a current official identification such as the INE. The SRE prints the solicitud at the appointment, takes the photograph there, and issues the passport for the validity you pay for.
- Form
- Solicitud de pasaporte, printed by the SRE at your appointment
- Fee
- MXN 920 for 1 year, 1,795 for 3 years, 2,440 for 6 years, 4,280 for 10 years (from 1 January 2026; half price for people aged 60 or over and people with a disability)
- Official page
- https://www.gob.mx/pasaporte
Step 14
Renew your passport at your consulate
The Mexican consulate for your district
Last, once the annotated acta and a matching identification are in hand: book with the consulate that covers where you live and take the previous passport, the annotated acta de nacimiento and a current official identification. The consulate prints the solicitud at the appointment and takes the photograph there; the fee is paid at the consular office.
- Form
- Solicitud de pasaporte, printed by the consulate at your appointment
- Fee
- USD 44 for 1 year, 101 for 3 years, 137 for 6 years, 209 for 10 years (from 1 January 2026; half price for people aged 60 or over and people with a disability)
- Official page
- https://www.gob.mx/pasaporte
Step 15
Update your RFC with the SAT
Servicio de Administración Tributaria, at an oficina del SAT
The name on the RFC is identification data, which the SAT does not let you change from the portal: book an appointment at citas.sat.gob.mx and take the annotated acta de nacimiento, the new CURP and your identification. Your RFC key stays the same; only the name attached to it moves, and the constancia de situación fiscal you download afterwards shows the new one. The SAT charges nothing for RFC trámites.
- Fee
- The SAT charges no fee for RFC trámites and publishes no price for this one (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.sat.gob.mx/portal/public/tramites
Step 16
Correct your IMSS record
Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, online or at your Subdelegación
The IMSS's Solicitud de corrección de datos del asegurado (trámite IMSS-02-012) corrects the name, date and place of birth, sex, CURP or NSS on your record. File it online at serviciosdigitales.imss.gob.mx with your CURP and an email address, uploading the annotated acta de nacimiento, your identification and a document showing your NSS; or hand the printed format in at the Subdelegación, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 15:30, with a comprobante de domicilio as well, and collect the certified resolution there. The sheet in this guide carries your answers in the format's own order. It is free.
- Form
- Solicitud de Regularización y/o Corrección de Datos Personales del Asegurado (IMSS-02-012)
- Fee
- Free (2026)
- Official page
- https://www.imss.gob.mx/tramites/imss02012
Step 17
Tell your bank, your employer, your AFORE and the records that name you
Your bank, employer, AFORE, university and the property registry
Take the new INE, the annotated acta de nacimiento and the new CURP. Cards, statements and payroll are reissued in the new name; the AFORE and INFONAVIT read the IMSS record once it is corrected. The same papers are what a título profesional and cédula profesional, a driving licence from your state, and a property title at the Registro Público de la Propiedad need; a property title is changed through a notary.
- Fee
- No fee to tell them (2026); a university, the state licence office, a notary and the property registry each charge their own
Questions people ask
Does my surname change when I marry?
No. Mexican law has no married name: your acta de nacimiento, your INE, your CURP and your passport keep the name you were registered with, and the acta de matrimonio records the marriage, not a new name for either spouse. The "de" a married woman once wrote after her surname was a social usage that never touched the record. If you want your spouse's surname as part of your actual name, the only route is an alteration of your own acta, and requests made for the sake of a marriage are commonly refused.
We married abroad. Is the marriage recognised in Mexico?
Yes, if it was valid where it was celebrated: article 51 of the Código Civil Federal takes a civil status acquired abroad from the certificates the parties present, provided they are registered at the corresponding Registro Civil. That registration is the transcripción of article 161, at the Registro Civil of the place where you settle, and you have three months from arrival for its effects to reach back to the wedding day. Bring the certificate apostilled and translated by a perito traductor.
Can my consulate register our marriage?
Not a marriage celebrated by a foreign authority, as a rule. Under article 84 of the Reglamento de la Ley del Servicio Exterior a consulate acts as Registro Civil for the births, marriages and deaths of Mexicans that take place before it — two Mexicans can marry at the consulate and receive a Mexican acta — and it corrects the acts it issued itself. A wedding before a county clerk or a foreign registrar is transcribed in Mexico under article 161 when you take up residence. Ask your consulate; practice varies by post, and the consulate can at least confirm what it will take.
We missed the three months. Is the marriage still valid in Mexico?
Yes. Article 161 does not refuse a late transcription; it only moves the date the marriage's civil effects run from — the wedding day if you file within three months of arriving, the day of transcription if later. Property acquired in between, an inheritance and a spouse's residency count from that later day, so file as soon as you can.
We married online, by video. Does that count?
It is unsettled. No Registro Civil and no consulate publishes a rule about a ceremony run by an officiant in another country while a spouse was physically in Mexico. What the offices ask for is the foreign civil record, apostilled and translated, and such a certificate reads the same however the ceremony was held. Treat the position as open and take advice before relying on the marriage for property or a residency application.
Do I need an apostille?
For a foreign certificate, yes, if the country that issued it is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention: one apostille from that country's or state's competent authority, and no consular legalisation. In the United States that is usually the Secretary of State of the state that issued the certificate; Mexico has been a party since 1995. If the country is not a party, the Mexican consulate there legalises the document instead. Either way, add a translation by a perito traductor.
We divorced. Do I get my old name back?
There is nothing to get back. Marriage never changed your name, so divorce restores nothing, and none of your documents needs reissuing. What the divorce does change is the record: the court sends the judgment to the Registro Civil, which notes it on the acta de matrimonio and the actas de nacimiento, and a divorcio administrativo before the Juez del Registro Civil is annotated the day it is declared.
Can we divorce without going to court?
Sometimes. Article 272 of the Código Civil Federal lets spouses who both want the divorce, have no children and have settled the sociedad conyugal appear before the Juez del Registro Civil, who takes their declaration, cites them back in fifteen days to ratify it, and then declares them divorced. Ciudad de México allows the same administrative divorce and each state's code sets its own conditions; some admit adult children who need no maintenance. A divorce granted abroad has to be recognised by a Mexican court before a Registro Civil will note it.
Can I change my name just because I want to?
Only by changing the acta de nacimiento, on the grounds your state's code allows. The federal code names a typing or spelling error (an aclaración, at the counter) and, for a rectificación, falsedad or enmienda of a name or another circumstance, decided by a judge. Ciudad de México has moved the rectificación to the Registro Civil itself and lists four grounds, including a name that harms the individualisation of your identity; most states still send it to a family judge. A reason within those grounds is what the registrar or the judge weighs.
I changed my name in a US court. Does Mexico recognise the order?
Not by itself. A US court order changes your US records and reaches no Mexican acta; your Mexican passport, INE and CURP keep the name on your acta de nacimiento. To move the Mexican name you file for the rectificación with the Registro Civil or court of the state that holds your acta — the US order can be part of the evidence for the reason, apostilled and translated — and then the CURP, INE, passport, RFC and IMSS follow from the annotated acta.
My spouse is not Mexican. Can they live in Mexico?
Residency by vínculo familiar with a Mexican is the route, and it is the clearest reason to transcribe a foreign marriage: the Instituto Nacional de Migración and the consulates ask for the acta de matrimonio, and a Mexican acta from the transcription is the one that raises no questions. The Instituto's requirements and fees are its own and change yearly, so read them on gob.mx/inm before you apply.
Build my checklist for Mexico
The steps above become a checklist you can work through and tick off, with the office, the form and the fee on every one. It is free, and it is the whole plan if Mexico is where your records are.
Build my checklist for MexicoIf you live in the United States
If you are a Mexican citizen living in the United States, your US records — Social Security, driver license, bank, employer, and a US passport if you hold one — change with the US checklist, and a US marriage certificate needs no apostille for a US agency. Mexico only has to hear about the marriage when you need something from it there: property, an inheritance, a spouse's residency, or a divorce heard in Mexico. The consulate does not, as a rule, transcribe a marriage celebrated before a US authority; that is done at the Registro Civil of the place where you settle, within three months of arriving, and the sensible move now is to get the apostille and the perito's translation while the county that issued the certificate is easy to reach.
Your Mexican passport, INE and CURP keep the name on your acta de nacimiento whatever your US documents say, and a US court order changing your name does not reach the Mexican record. To move the Mexican name you file for the rectificación with the Registro Civil or the court of the state that holds your acta — from abroad usually through a representative with a poder the consulate can notarise — then order the annotated acta, check the CURP, apply for the INE credential from abroad through the consulate (free), and renew the passport at the consulate (USD 44 to 209 by validity, from 1 January 2026). Keep the order: each office wants the document the previous one issued.
A US divorce is the one case where nothing can be done at a counter. A foreign judgment needs recognition by a Mexican court before a Registro Civil will note it on the acta de matrimonio, and that is a proceeding in Mexico, through a lawyer, with the apostilled and translated decree.
Your US records, from Social Security to your state license and the everyday accounts, change with the US checklist; it prepares each form and letter in the order the agencies check them.
Start the US checklistChange Your Name is a self-help form-preparation service, not a law firm; this page is general information about Mexico, not legal advice.
Sources
- Código Civil Federal (Cámara de Diputados, texto vigente, última reforma DOF 14-11-2025: arts. 51, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 138 Bis, 161, 266, 272) — checked
- Código Civil para el Distrito Federal / Ciudad de México (Consejería Jurídica, texto vigente, última reforma G.O. CDMX 24-12-2025: arts. 134 as reformed 29-11-2024, 135 as reformed 27-08-2025, 135 Bis to 135 Quater, 138 Bis as reformed 27-08-2025, 161, 272) — checked
- Reglamento de la Ley del Servicio Exterior Mexicano (última reforma DOF 27-05-2025: art. 84 consular Registro Civil functions, art. 85 legalisation, art. 86 apostille, art. 87 notarial functions) — checked
- Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Pasaporte (requisitos para primera vez y renovación; costos a partir del 1 de enero 2026 en pesos y, en oficinas consulares, en dólares; citas en citas.sre.gob.mx) — checked
- Plataforma Nacional del Registro Civil (actas de nacimiento y matrimonio en línea, corrección de registro de acta, aclaración administrativa de acta, certificación de CURP, inscripción de sentencias) — checked
- Instituto Nacional Electoral, Trámites de la credencial (Corrección: apellidos, nombre, lugar y fecha de nacimiento, sexo; acta de nacimiento, identificación con fotografía, comprobante de domicilio; todos los trámites gratuitos) — checked
- Instituto Nacional Electoral, Credencial para votar desde el extranjero (solicitud en consulados y embajadas, envío por mensajería) — checked
- Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Solicitud de corrección de datos del asegurado, IMSS-02-012 (nombre, fecha y lugar de nacimiento, sexo, CURP, NSS; en línea o en la Subdelegación; trámite gratuito; formato publicado en el DOF el 31-07-2015) — checked
- Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, formato Solicitud de Regularización y/o Corrección de Datos Personales del Asegurado (fillable PDF, nine pages, fetched 2026-09-22) — checked
- Servicio de Administración Tributaria, Trámites (the portal renders only in a browser; the RFC step rests on no fee it publishes) — checked
- RENAPO, Consulta e impresión de la CURP — checked
- HCCH, Apostille Convention status table (Mexico a party since 14 August 1995; the United States since 15 October 1981) — checked
- HCCH, Apostille Convention: competent authorities for the United States — checked
- HCCH, Apostille Convention: competent authorities for Mexico (the Secretaría de Gobernación for federal documents and one authority in each of the 32 states) — checked
- Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (the consulates' own pages sit behind a bot challenge; the consular route rests on the Reglamento above and on gob.mx/pasaporte) — checked