Mexico vs Uruguay - Which Is Better For Expats In 2026?

Moving Abroad Resources:

👉 Moving Abroad Relocation Roadmap Guidebook that walks you through the five phases of moving abroad ($27): https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/relocate

👉 Moving Abroad Relocation Blueprint Course which offers step by step guidance on everything from choosing the right country to immigration to taxes and everything in between: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/blueprint

👉 Want us to handle the details of your move abroad? Apply for our white-glove relocation services here: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/consult

👉 Free Moving to Mexico Guide: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/mexico

👉 Free Moving Abroad Checklist: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/abroad 

Remote Work and Online Income Resources:

👉 Expat Income Accelerator course which shows you the multiple ways you can make money globally based on our 15+ years of experience in online business, investing internationally and living in multiple countries: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/income

👉 Get Your First High Paying Client Online Bootcamp which walks you through the first four foundational steps of creating and monetizing an online business based on 15+ years of experience in online business: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/firstclient-yt

👉 YouTube Mastery Workshop which shows you how we’ve built two YouTube channels that bring clients and passive income from digital course sales (including turning Entrepreneur Expat into a six-figure business in six months): https://www.YouTubeMasteryWorkshop.com

👉LinkedIn Mastery Workshop which shows you how to use LinkedIn to find remote work, clients and connect with recruiters based on Justin’s experience building a six-figure business and finding remote work on LinkedIn: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/linkedin

👉 Free Make Money From Anywhere Guide: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/money-guide 

V I D E O S    T O    W A T C H    N E X T :


Online Business Tips to Working and Traveling In Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGH0voCyOc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j&index=2

Moving to Mexico: 10 Reasons Why We Chose to Live in Guadalajara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK23vD8_xjc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_LAY7UV78YMgms-f2e1UcwN&index=23

Tips for Moving Overseas: Top 5 Remote Work Skills That Make Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzjCrlNAL8&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j


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Inquiries: community@entrepreneurexpat.com


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Disclaimer: The information in this video should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Entrepreneur Expat can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.

Transcript

Justin: 0:36

If you're interested in living in Mexico or anywhere in Latin America as an entrepreneur, expat, you might be asking, where's the easiest, smartest, best country to get a second passport in 2026? Today we're comparing two options, Uruguay and Mexico, and what it means for businesses taxes. Freedom and lifestyle. Neither is a super fast track or buy a passport type of scheme. Exactly. And each has its own trade-offs. By the end of this video, you'll have clarity on which path might fit you the best, You're gonna know what some of the steps are that you need to take to start along that journey. Hi, I'm Justin Keltner, and here at Entrepreneur Expat we share with you tips and strategies on how to build. A better life overseas. Whether that involves building a business that allows you to make money wherever you are in the world, figuring out the visa, the immigration process, the taxes, and so much more. We tend to work a lot with high net worth individuals who have got. Wealth that they're looking to protect, they're looking to secure, and maybe the US right now and Canada are not the best places to do it. So we help people invest. We help people buy real estate, find real estate to rent, maybe short term while they're getting their feet on the ground in different countries. We can help you with all of that. If you have a million dollars or more in net assets, just book a call below@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult and we can help you come up with a customized plan, including tax strategy, wealth management, visa planning, and overall relocation strategy for you, your family, and your business. So why does a second citizenship or passport matter so much for entrepreneur expats? Well, number one, it gives you freedom. Of travel, whether you're from the US or Canada or elsewhere, you might find that even though you have a good passport, perhaps you don't have as much freedom of travel on that passport as you would like to. Maybe you can't go to Russia or you can't go to different countries in Asia without a visa. If you have a Mexican passport, for example, you can spend up to six months in Japan visa free, and there's so much more of Latin America you can travel to, including Brazil without having to get a visa. It also gives you business mobility and it's a really nice hedge against geopolitical and tax risk. As we know, western governments do not lower the taxes over time. They keep increasing them and even. Taxes that aren't really taxes like inflation where they just decide to print more money. That's really a tax, right? And so if you're running a cross border business or you're, you're making income from multiple different countries, or you're even living in a country with better tax strategies available, then you can hedge some of that risk. And of course, also having a business that can run anywhere, which we also teach people to do. Just check out some of the free content and courses in the description below. But having a business that can run from anywhere is also a really good hedge, and you can also have a second base that can give you some flexibility for that business, whether you're looking to tap local talent pools, or perhaps expand and get more reach with customers across Latin America. Having presence in one of these countries gives you the ability to do that. A lot of people also want the lifestyle and tax planning benefits. they'll do their relocation, get residency and look at different structures for investment and all those things interplay with the citizenship options. Of course, there's caveats, there's time, there's cost. There's in some cases physical presence requirements, and we'll get into what those are specifically and how they differ from country to country. And there's tax and residency implications depending on how much time in a year you're going to spend in a given country. Let's get into first what it looks like to actually obtain your citizenship in Mexico. So there's a naturalization route, and that's the most common foreign nationals can apply after legally residing in Mexico for five years. That does drop to two years. If you're married to a Mexican citizen, if you have a Mexican child, or if you're from a Latin American or Iberian country. Now, to get the residency in the first place, to just qualify for that, you do need to have. Certain financial requirements. So you start typically with temporary residents, which we've gone into in depth and in other videos. So check out some of those on our channel with some of the numbers that are required. But, ballpark number as of today is around$4,200 per month in income or close to$70,000 us. In a bank account to show that you are capable of supporting yourself in Mexico or that you have remote income, uh, that will allow you to take care of yourself here without taking jobs away from locals or without having to depend on any sort of social security net here. Now Mexico does allow you to have dual nationality. You don't have to renounce. Original nationality, so that's pretty cool. There are some countries in the world that don't recognize dual citizenship and that make you renounce your other passport, but there's plenty of people who hold both a Mexican passport and a US passport, and there is nothing wrong with having both of those passports in either country. One thing that Mexico does not offer though is it does not offer a direct investment for passport type of program in the sense of you pay say a quarter of a million dollars or half a million dollars and you get citizenship like they had in Malta previously, or like they still have in some citizenship by investment programs in the Caribbean. It's more about your lawful resident status integration into society and time and. As an entrepreneur, expat based in Mexico, citizenship does give you full rights. You can vote, you're free to work. You're, you can own property unrestricted without citizenship. You can still own certain kinds of property, but other types of property, like by the coastline or by the international border, are restricted. There's loopholes, there's ways around it, but it's not quite as secure as own property, uh, as an actual card carrying member of Mexico. Right? Uh, and it can also simplify your residence structure, right? So if you, if you do have. That passport, obviously you don't have to worry too much about, Hey, are we, you know, in the country? Do we need to renew something? Whatever. It simplifies the planning of when you're gonna be here. When you aren't, there isn't as much of a requirement. Now, in some cases, if you're absolutely not in Mexico at all, you spend five years or more. Outta the country. There have been some cases where people have gotten their citizenship revoked, but for the most part, as long as you're coming from time to time, you don't have any issues. You do wanna pay attention to tax obligations though, both in Mexico and your home country, Because both of those things still matter. If you're a US citizen, for example. No matter where you are in the world, you always have to declare and oftentimes pay taxes to the US government. Obviously there's some treaties, there's things like that. If you are. Interested in getting specific hands-on advice with your unique personal situation, just go to entrepreneur expat.com/consult and my team can advise you on some of the best ways to optimize things for that. So in summary, there is a relatively clear path, especially if you're planning on living and operating your life and your business. In Mexico, dual citizenship is accepted and there's a strong. Lifestyle component here. The lifestyle is very, very nice. The weather's amazing. There's a lot of friendly people. There's a ton of ex expats, and the infrastructure is pretty good as well. The cons are, it's a little time heavy, two years to the typical five years of what most people are gonna spend. And you do have a physical stay and residency required. It's not. A quick passport by any means. Now we're gonna cover what it looks like to get citizenship in Uruguay. So in Uruguay, they also don't have any sort of pure citizenship by investment scheme. That's typical in some of the Caribbean nations. You do have the option, and this is the most common one that. Digital nomads and, and people that are making money online come in on, which is your independent means option. So you've got a stable passive income or an active income, and there's also an investment route through real estate or business, which can accelerate things a little bit. The timelines typically look like for a married couple. Naturalization can be possible after three years of residence for singles after five years. And there are residency requirements in terms of physical presence, uh, in order to actually be able to get that citizenship. It's lower. the benefit of being an investor is that the threshold is lower. You only have to spend roughly 60 days per year in a lot of cases if you are. An investor, like you're, you're building a business there, you're investing in things in Uruguay. but you do have to spend closer to around six months per year if you are not an investor. And if you're just coming with passive or active income into the country, you do have to spend more, at least long enough that you can convince them that you are serious. Typically, anecdotally, at least they're, there's no real published requirement, but they're typically saying at least six months. Per year is what you wanna spend in Uruguay. Contrast that with Mexico. There really is no requirement to be in the country at all other than for those renewals. And Uruguay also does allow dual citizenship. There's no issues with that. They do not require you to renounce your previous nationality. Now, as with most countries, whenever you are an Uruguayan citizen in Uruguay, you're typically treated just as an Uruguayan citizen, right? They're not looking at you as a dual national. And that's, that's the case almost anywhere. Like if you go. To the US and you're a US citizen and the Mexican citizen for the purposes of the US government, you are a US citizen. Now, you may still be able to get consular support and things like that, but typically you are the citizen of whatever nation you're in. If you hold that nation's passport. So Uruguay is called, especially for their stable economy and their great banking. It's called the Latin American Switzerland or the Switzerland of. South America, it's great for diversification, but you do need genuine residents and genuine integration and an intention to stay there. The pros, like I mentioned, are that you've got flexible residency options. Citizenship in as little as three years if you're married, which is slightly shorter than the standard five years in Mexico. And you can have dual citizenship just like you can with Mexico and that lifestyle is excellent. Uh, some of the cons are that it can be, like I mentioned, a little bit, uh, of a longer term play than some other passports. You need to integrate. You may have to make a significant investment in the country if you don't. Plan on living there roughly six months per year. And it's also quite a bit more expensive in Mexico, I'll say that as well. We were looking at apartments in Wai because we were kind of considering it and we thought for what we would spend there on apart on an apartment, we could have our condo here in the AL area. We could have a small apartment in Southeast Asia and an apartment or a condo in uh, central Europe, and we would be paying the same total as a 12 to$1,500. Just basic apartment in some place, like Monte Veo, it, it is a little bit pricier than Mexico and, and the English might not be quite as good as other places, like very heavy expat communities in Mexico. So Spanish is very, uh, strongly suggested. Obviously there's expat communities wherever you go, and Uruguay and in other countries, but those are some of the things to consider. So here are the main decision factors for you as an entrepreneur, expat, and how Wai and Mexico stack up. Just to kind of recap here, so the time to citizenship Mexico is two to five years, but for most people, unless you've got a Mexican parent or a Mexican spouse, it's gonna be closer to five years. For Uruguay, it's three to five years or potentially longer. Mainly banking on the fact that you're going to spend at least half of your time in Otay. That's. What gives you the fastest path to that citizenship in Uruguay at the lowest cost. Now, investment versus residency requirements in Mexico, you do have to have the residency plus integration, but no heavy investment in Uruguay. You can do it through purely residency and time in the country, but investment options will give you a quicker path with lower stay requirements. In terms of that physical presence, you really don't need to spend. Any specific number of days in Mexico in order to convert your temporary residence later on for a Mexican passport other than about three months per year average in the two years before you request that passport. So let's say years one, two, and three. You're kind of in and out as much as you'd like, and then years four and five, you are there at least three months per year average for those two years before you apply. Of course Uruguay had that lower presence route, uh, as little as 60 days for in invest investors. But you do need genuine residency higher than Mexico in any case. Both allow for dual nationality and for businesses and entrepreneurs might be a better fit for, going to Mexico. There's a lot of opportunity here. Uruguay is cool for banking, it's cool for investments, and uh, it's really, really great for retirees. Honestly, both are actually pretty good if you're gonna gonna run a business, especially if it's a remote business. And there's plenty of opportunity in both countries. They both have, uh, very solid economies. Their economies are booming compared to a lot of countries in the West where things are kind of starting to to go down. So lifestyle and infrastructure. Mexico already. Um, it's familiar to a lot of people. You, it's got a very similar culture to the us. Uruguay is actually a similar culture in a lot of ways to, to Europe. It's a very European country, especially some of those big cities. Uh, the other thing that I'll mention about Uruguay, that's very, very cool that they have going on now. They actually will give you a tax holiday for 11 years, meaning they normally do tax on passive income and dividends, but for 11 years you can elect to get a tax holiday on all of that dividend income. Or alternatively, you can choose to pay only 7% tax on your dividend income. For life. Now, Mexico, this is kind of what they say a lot about Mexico. Mexico is one of the higher tax countries in Latin America where nobody really pays taxes. So technically they have a sliding scale of, uh, like a progressive tax system all the way up to about 38%, including on your active income. But realistically, most expats don't declare or even pay taxes in Mexico. So it's a little bit of a wash. But if you're, especially if you're making a lot, like maybe you're making six or seven figures in your business or more. You wanna do things like totally on the up and up Uruguay might be better even if the cost of living is higher there by two or three x because there's no tax on any active foreign income, and you can elect those tax advantageous plans on any passive income that you have from overseas. So that was our comparison on UA versus Mexico in 2025 going into. 2026. If you're an entrepreneur, expat or aspiring expat, you need some help figuring out these plans for yourself. We've got a ton of courses down below this video and off to the side as well that you can check out. You can get our relocation roadmap blueprint, where we talk about the exact step-by-step strategy to build your plan for relocating to any country. We talk about a lot of the principles and the best practices that are gonna help you understand where you want to go. Why you want to go there, how to get there, and how to actually integrate and have a successful life as an expat. Definitely buy that course while we have it available. And if you've got a million dollars or more in net assets, then book a call below and we can help you one-on-one. Our team is going to help you get started and. Wherever you're at on that journey, we can help you, including tax planning, business strategy, and visas and so much more. That's entrepreneur expat.com/consult. Thanks again. Don't forget to like this video. It helps us out a ton and subscribe to this channel because we're coming out with new content every single day about how to make your expat dreams a reality. Thanks so much.