If you are afraid to return to your country, you can request protection as a refugee in Mexico through COMAR. The process is free and confidential.
Step 1. Submitting an Application
Approach the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) within the first 30 business days of your arrival in Mexico. If you did not do so within this period, approach the authorities and explain the reasons why it was not possible for you to present yourself.
You can submit your application to COMAR in Mexico City; Tapachula and Palenque in the state of Chiapas; Tenosique in the state of Tabasco; Oluta in the state of Veracruz; Cancún in the state of Quintana Roo; Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco; Tijuana in the state of Baja California; Saltillo in the state of Coahuila; and Monterrey in the state of 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 explaining why you left your country and why you cannot return. If you are with your family, include them in your application; if they are in your country of origin, indicate that.
A CONSTANCIA (certificate) will be issued to you as proof that you have started your procedure. Take care of your original CONSTANCIA!
You will be given a Temporary Unique Population Registry Code (CURP), which allows you to access public procedures and services.
With the CONSTANCIA, you can apply for your Humanitarian Reasons Visitor Card (TVRH) at the INM, which allows you to work during the process.
You have the right to a public attorney throughout the procedure.
⚠️ When applying for protection as a refugee, you have the right NOT to be returned to your country.
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