Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Aeronautical & Regulatory Obtaining a Mexican license from a US license

Occasionally, we get requests from US pilots wanting to know how to obtain a Mexican license from their US license. The reasoning is that they are going to vacation or live in Mexico and they want to be able to rent Mexican registered aircraft.

The short answer is that unless you have an inexhaustible supply of patience, time and money, forget it.

First off, the idea of flying clubs and FBO's renting aircraft by the hour to fly around just do not exist in Mexico. Mexican aircraft are identified by their tail numbers as to what activity they can perform. Mexican regsitered aircraft whose tail numbers begin with XA are for commercial use and can ONLY be flown by someone with a Mexican commercial licnese even if it is a private flight. By law, ONLY Mexican citizens who were born in Mexico and have not acquired a second nationality can be Mexican Commercial Pilots. Therefore, a non-Mexican could ONLY obtain a Mexican PRIVATE rating regardless of the ratings they hold on their non-Mexican pilot license. Therefore, a non-Mexican could only operate an aircraft with a tail number that begins with XB which are private aircraft. There are extremely few, if any, XB egistered airplanes for rent (commercial enterprise). You will either have to find individuals willing to "loan" their aircraft to you or purchase one.

Secondly, after having gone through the process of obtaining a Mexican license from my US license, I can assure you that you must have a VERY COMPELLING reason to do so. The process is painfully arduous, expensive and time consuming. Your US medical is not accepted so you have to obtain a Mexican medical as well. Each rating has to be renewed and paid for each year.

All in all, you will find that having a Mexican pilot license will be much more difficult and expensive than maintaining your US license. Secondly, if you ever considered owning a Mexican XB registered aircraft, you will also find that this is far more epxensive and complicated than owning a US registered aircraft.

However, there are a number of Mexican aviation organizations like FEMPPA and APAC who have been working diligently to push for changes to Mexican Civil Aviaiton law to simplify and reduce the burden of having a Mexican private pilot license and owning a Mexican XB registered aircraft. If the initiatives that they have been pushing for go into law, this could significanlty change the panorama described above.