# Moving to Ireland from Mexico | Moving from | Moving to Ireland > Mexico is one of the largest sources of Latin American arrivals in Ireland, and the reasons cover the full range: engineers and developers joining… Source: https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-mexico/ Moving from · Country guide # Moving to Ireland from Mexico 8 min read · Updated 15 September 2026 Mexico is one of the largest sources of Latin American arrivals in Ireland, and the reasons cover the full range: engineers and developers joining Dublin's tech and finance firms, researchers and postgraduates at Irish universities, pharma and medtech professionals, and a large group who come to study English while working in hospitality. Family, marriage to Irish partners and simple curiosity about Europe bring others. What surprises Mexicans most is how mild the food is and how early people eat, with dinner done by eight when a Mexico City evening would just be beginning.
Quick factsMexico to Ireland
Visa to enterNo, up to 90 days
Permission to stay beyond 90 daysYes, needs a permit or scheme, then an IRP
Mexican licence exchangeableNo
Double taxation agreementYes
Social security agreementNo
PetsListed country, no blood test
## Do you need a visa? Mexican citizens are **not visa required**, so you can enter Ireland for up to 90 days without applying for anything. Staying longer is a different matter: you need an immigration permission before the 90 days run out, and you cannot turn a visit into a job from inside the country except through a handful of schemes. Get the permit or the college place sorted first, then travel. Ireland has added visa requirements for several countries since 2022, so check the current list on irishimmigration.ie before you book. - **Critical Skills Employment Permit** for jobs on the critical skills list (from 1 March 2026 the minimum salary is 40,904 euro, or 68,911 euro for other eligible roles). Spouses and partners can join you and work on Stamp 1G without their own permit, and you can apply for Stamp 4 after two years. - **General Employment Permit** for most other jobs, minimum salary 36,605 euro from 1 March 2026, usually after the employer runs a labour market needs test. Healthcare assistants, home carers, chefs and construction trades come in on this permit. - **Stamp 2 study permission** for a degree or a recognised English language course, with the right to work 20 hours a week in term time (40 in the holidays). Graduates of Irish degrees get the **Third Level Graduate Programme** (Stamp 1G) to look for work for one to two years. - **Family** routes if you are joining an Irish citizen, an EU citizen exercising treaty rights, or a permit holder. - **Stamp 0** for retirees and people of independent means, with income of around 50,000 euro a year per person and private medical insurance, and no right to work. Whichever route you take, you must register for an **Irish Residence Permit** (300 euro) within 90 days of arriving: online in Dublin, or at the local Garda immigration office elsewhere. If you have an Irish born parent or grandparent, check the **Foreign Births Register** first, because once registered you are an Irish citizen and none of the above applies. ## Finding work and getting your qualifications recognised English among Mexican arrivals ranges from fluent professionals to beginners in language schools, and both are common; employers hire on how you interview rather than a certificate, though universities and professional registration bodies may require IELTS. Irish appears on signs but is not needed. Because most routes need a job offer first, the search happens from home. Irish CVs run to two pages, carry no photo and no date of birth, and lead with what you did rather than your job title. Most hiring runs through LinkedIn, IrishJobs, Jobs.ie and the employers' own sites; agencies are strong in tech, finance, pharma and healthcare, and employers used to sponsoring permits say so in the advert. Get your degree assessed by **NARIC Ireland** (free, through QQI) before you apply; it maps a Mexican qualification onto the Irish framework and employers recognise the letter. Regulated professions register with their own body: nurses with NMBI, doctors with the Medical Council, teachers with the Teaching Council, engineers with Engineers Ireland, and physiotherapists, radiographers and social workers with CORU. Those bodies, not employers, are the ones that ask for an English test. ## Your driving licence Mexico is **not on the NDLS list of recognised states**, so you cannot swap a Mexican licence for an Irish one. You can drive on your Mexican licence for up to 12 months as a visitor, ideally with an International Driving Permit, but once you are resident you must go through the Irish process: pass the driver theory test, get a learner permit, complete Essential Driver Training and pass the driving test. The good news is that experienced foreign licence holders only need **6 EDT lessons instead of 12** and can skip the usual six month wait before the test. Learner permit holders must be accompanied by a full licence holder, which is the part that catches people out. Remember that Ireland drives on the left. ## Tax, pensions and money Ireland and Mexico have a **double taxation agreement**, so income taxed in one country is generally credited in the other and the treaty decides which country taxes what. You become Irish tax resident after 183 days in a tax year (or 280 days over two years), and from then Ireland taxes your worldwide income, with credit for Mexican tax under the treaty. Register with Revenue through myAccount as soon as you have a PPS number so your employer taxes you correctly, and tell the Mexican tax authority that you are leaving. There is **no social security agreement** between Ireland and Mexico, so the two records stand alone. You need at least 520 paid PRSI contributions (ten years) to qualify for any Irish State Pension (Contributory), and the full rate takes 40 years of contributions. Check whether your Mexican state pension can be paid to you in Ireland, and whether you can keep contributing voluntarily from abroad. Your credit history does not follow you. Irish lenders only see the Central Credit Register, so expect to build a record from scratch before a mortgage or car loan. Moving money from the Mexican peso into euro is cheapest through a specialist transfer provider rather than a bank; open the Irish account first, because you need an Irish IBAN to receive salary. ## Healthcare Ireland has a public system run by the HSE, but it is not free at the point of use. Once you are ordinarily resident (living in Ireland or intending to for at least a year) you use public hospitals as a public patient, and inpatient charges were abolished in April 2023. A GP visit costs roughly 50 to 70 euro unless you qualify for a medical card or GP visit card on income grounds (children under 8 get GP visits free), and prescriptions are paid for up to a monthly cap under the Drugs Payment Scheme. Emergency departments charge 100 euro without a GP referral. Students, Stamp 0 holders and most visa applicants must show private medical insurance, so many people arrive with a policy already. Around half the population holds private health insurance from VHI, Laya or Irish Life Health, mainly to shorten waiting lists. If you are 35 or older, buy it within 9 months of arriving to avoid a Lifetime Community Rating loading. Register with a GP as soon as you have an address; practices in Dublin often have closed lists, so ask several. ## Bringing your things and your pet Goods arriving from Mexico are imports from outside the EU. You can bring your household belongings free of duty and VAT under **Transfer of Residence relief** if you have lived outside the EU for at least 12 months and owned the goods for at least 6 months; your removals company files the declaration and you cannot sell the goods for a year. A car qualifies for VRT relief on the same terms, but shipping a car from Mexico rarely makes sense once freight, registration and Irish insurance are added up. Mexico is a **listed country** under the EU pet rules, so no rabies blood test is needed. Your dog, cat or ferret needs a microchip, a rabies vaccination given at least 21 days before travel, an EU animal health certificate issued by an official vet within 10 days of travel, and for dogs a tapeworm treatment 24 to 120 hours before arrival. Pets from outside the EU must arrive as manifest cargo or with an approved airline on an approved route (Dublin Airport handles most), and are checked on arrival. ## Settling in: community and daily life The Mexican community in Ireland is large, young and well organised, concentrated in Dublin with active groups in Cork, Galway and Limerick. Newcomers find each other fast through Facebook and WhatsApp groups, football, Day of the Dead and Independence celebrations, Catholic parishes, university societies and the embassy's cultural programme. Irish weather is cool, wet and grey with no real seasons in the Mexican sense, and the daylight swing between summer and winter is dramatic. Rents are high and sharing is common, eating out costs more, and you will spend time hunting for decent chillies and tortillas. Tipping is light, cards are the norm, and driving is on the left. There are no regular direct flights between Dublin and Mexico, so getting home usually means one stop, most often via London, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam or a North American hub; budget for the time as well as the fare. ## First 30 days checklist - Apply for a PPS number through MyWelfare.ie with your passport and proof of Irish address. - Register for your Irish Residence Permit within 90 days (300 euro); book the appointment the week you land because slots fill up. - Register with Revenue myAccount once you have a PPS number so your employer can tax you correctly. - Open an Irish bank account; a utility bill, tenancy agreement or employer letter usually counts as proof of address. - Register with a GP and, if you want it, buy private health insurance within 9 months. - Get a Leap card for public transport and book the driver theory test if you plan to drive. ## ★ Useful links - [Immigration Service Delivery: visas and permissions](https://www.irishimmigration.ie/) - [Employment permits](https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/) - [NARIC Ireland: qualification recognition](https://www.qqi.ie/what-we-do/qualifications-recognition) - [National Driver Licence Service](https://www.ndls.ie/) - [Revenue: moving to Ireland](https://www.revenue.ie/en/life-events-and-personal-circumstances/moving-to-or-from-ireland/index.aspx) - [Department of Agriculture: bringing your pet to Ireland](https://www.gov.ie/en/service/1b1e5-bringing-your-pet-to-ireland/) - [Health Insurance Authority](https://www.hia.ie/) ## More movers from Latin America and the Caribbean [All 154 guides in this section](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/) - ### [Moving to Ireland from Argentina](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-argentina/) Argentina has deep ties with Ireland through generations of Irish emigrants who settled on the Pampas, and today the traffic runs the other way… 8 min read - ### [Moving to Ireland from Bolivia](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-bolivia/) Bolivia is not a common starting point for a move to Ireland, but those who come usually arrive for English-language study, for postgraduate courses at… 8 min read - ### [Moving to Ireland from Chile](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-chile/) Chile has a growing stream of people heading to Ireland, and the reasons are mostly professional and educational: engineers and developers joining… 8 min read - ### [Moving to Ireland from Colombia](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-colombia/) Colombia is one of the biggest sources of new arrivals to Ireland from Latin America, and English-language study is the main reason: a large number come… 8 min read ## In-depth country guides in the app - ### [Moving to Ireland from the US](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-the-us/) Census 2022 counted 13,412 US citizens living in Ireland, up 27.5% on 2016, plus another 30,044 people holding dual Irish and American citizenship… 4 min read - ### [Moving to Ireland from the UK](https://www.movingtoireland.co/guides/moving-from/moving-to-ireland-from-the-uk/) UK citizens are the second largest non-Irish group in the country. 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