Company Incorporation Guide

Mexico company registration for foreign owners

Applicable country/region: MX - Mexico

Published: October 1, 2026Updated: October 1, 2026

Written by our advisory team
Mexico rules and requirements
Checked against official sources

Guide overview

From the public deed to the first filings

Mexico company registration means forming a commercial company before a fedatario público, in a deed of incorporation before a notary public (notario público) or a póliza before a corredor público, and recording it in the Registro Público de Comercio (RPC), the public registry of commerce, which gives the company legal personality. For a foreign group, the company is a subsidiary formed as an S. de R.L. or an S.A., either with variable capital. The process raises these questions, in order: which form to use and whether foreign ownership is limited, why documents issued abroad are apostilled and translated, which conditions are law, which are practice and how costs build, what the tax registration starts, and what follows the deed.

COMPANY TYPES

Which legal form fits a foreign-owned subsidiary

Of the legal forms in the General Law of Commercial Companies, a subsidiary uses two, differing in how ownership moves. In a Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable (S. de R.L. de C.V.), a limited liability company, admitting a partner or transferring partes sociales needs consent from partners holding most of the capital. A Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable (S.A. de C.V.), a stock corporation, has freer share transfers and a mandatory comisario (statutory examiner). Variable capital can rise or fall without amending the bylaws (estatutos sociales). The Foreign Investment Law lets foreign investors hold any proportion of the capital outside business activities it reserves or restricts. Before the deed, the Secretaría de Economía (SE) authorizes the company's name.

Reading the company types

Rows cover ownership, shareholder and director rules, capital and notes for each company type.

Mexico SRL Basic Information

Ownership:

Consolidated Ownership

Limited Liability:

Positive

Publicly Participates In Capital Market:

Negative

Mexico SRL Shareholder / Director / Secretary Requirements

Requirements For Shareholders:

At least two

Requirements For Directors:

At least one

Legal Representative Not Mandatory:

Negative

Local Directors Not Mandatory:

Positive

Local Secretaries Not Mandatory:

Positive

Mexico SRL Registered Capital Requirement

Minimum Registered Capital Requirement:

1. There is no minimum requirement, usually 3,000 Mexican pesos.

Capital Injection Not Required:

Positive

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

Whose identity the formation file has to reach

The owners' file exists because the fedatario must know who stands behind the company. Under the Federal Tax Code, the notary or corredor identifies the beneficial owners (beneficiario controlador), and the company keeps that record current. Certifying a company's formation is also a vulnerable activity under the anti-money-laundering law. So the file of a legal-entity shareholder reaches through to the natural persons who own or control it. Public documents issued abroad need an apostille under the Hague Apostille Convention, or legalization, and a Spanish translation by a perito traductor. A foreign power of attorney handled this way and protocolized before a Mexican notary lets an attorney-in-fact, who need not be a lawyer, sign for an absent owner.

Reading the documents

Rows are document types grouped by who provides them; each entry ends with its process and format.