If you are afraid to return to your country, you can request protection as a refugee in Mexico through the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) The process is free and confidential.
Step 1. Submitting an Application
Go to a COMAR office (Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance) within 30 working days after you arrive.
If you couldn’t go in that time, talk to the authorities and explain why.
You can go to a COMAR office in:
- Mexico City
- Tapachula and Palenque (Chiapas)
- Tenosique (Tabasco)
- Oluta (Veracruz)
- Cancún (Quintana Roo)
- Guadalajara (Jalisco)
- Tijuana (Baja California)
- Saltillo (Coahuila)
- Monterrey (Nuevo León)
You can also request to be contacted with COMAR from a migration station and submit your application there.
If there is no COMAR office in the state where you are located, approach the Migration Regulation Offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM).
Step 2. Fill out the form
- You will fill out a form.
In it, you will explain why you left your country and why you cannot go back.
If you are with your family, include them in your application.
If your family is still in your country, say so. - You will receive a CONSTANCIA.
It is a paper that shows you have started your process.
Keep your original CONSTANCIA safe! - As a refugee applicant, you have the right to get a temporary CURP.
This document helps you access services and do official paperwork. - With your CONSTANCIA, you can apply at INM for a Visitor Card for Humanitarian Reasons (TVRH).
This card lets you work while you wait for a decision. - You have the right to a public lawyer during the whole process.
⚠️ You have the right not to be sent back to your country while your application is being reviewed.
Step 3. Eligibility Interview
COMAR interviews you to understand the reasons why you left your country. You will also explain why you don’t want to or can’t go back. It is important that you provide as many details as possible.
If you have any information or documents related to your case, you should submit them, but you should know that you don’t need proof of what happened in your country.
The interview will be carried out individually. You may also choose to be interviewed by a man or a woman.
🗣️ If you don’t speak Spanish, you are entitled to have an interpreter or translator during the process.
Step 4. Application Decision
✅ If it is positive: In coordination with COMAR, you will go to the National Institute of Immigration (INM) to process your Permanent Residency in Mexico as a refugee. All your family members included in the application will be recognized as refugees and now your CURP will be permanent. Processing your permanent residency will allow you to live anywhere in Mexico.
❌ If it is negative: You are entitled to appeal within 15 business days (Monday through Friday, not including Mexican holidays) following your notification. COMAR will then review your case for a second time. This can take up to 90 calendar days (Monday through Sunday). If you don’t have a lawyer free of charge, you can go to any branch of the Federal Public Defender’s Office.
🛑 If COMAR rejects your case a second time, you are entitled to receive the advice of a lawyer to continue the appeal before a judge.
Bear in mind that during the refugee status recognition process:
- You must present yourself to register your visit by signing at the COMAR or INM offices (where you started your procedure) on the days indicated to you.
- You must remain in the state where you submitted the application. If you want to go to another state, you must request COMAR’s authorization. Note that if you change states without COMAR’s authorization, your case may be dropped;
- Attend all interviews requested by COMAR.
💡 Find all this information in the refugee application procedure booklet.
📞 You can ask UNHCR for orientation by calling toll free: 800 226 8769 or 800 283 2718.
📱 WhatsApp: +52 55 7005 5950 and +52 55 2535 2950
📧 e-mail: [email protected]
On Facebook you can also find us as @ConfíaEnElJaguar.