If you are not an American citizen, then you need a visa to enter the United States to visit a national park, attend university, give a concert or attend a business conference. Before morning breaks lines of clients hoping to travel to the United States begin to form outside the Embassy and each of our nine consulates to apply for the appropriate visa. Our consular officers reviewed more than 1.5 million applications last year – for tourism, business, study and work in the United States. On our border, Mexicans use a special Border Crossing Card to criss-cross into the United States, sometimes several times a day, for shopping and family visits. Each year, more Mexicans travel to the United States using visas and Border Crossing Cards issued by our consular officers than citizens of any other country.

In Ciudad Juarez we help over 80,000 people a year apply for legal residency in the United States. We process more immigrant visas here than anyone anywhere else in the world. We have built the world’s largest consulate facility in Ciudad Juarez to provide a wide range of services on the border.

At every one of our 24 consular locations inside Mexico, we help Americans register their newborns, apply for passports, register to vote and collect social security. We visit Americans arrested in Mexico, connect missing Americans with their families back home, and reunite abducted and wrongfully detained children with their parents. When Americans die in Mexico, we help their families return them to the United States.

When disaster strikes, whether it’s a bad car accident or a major hurricane, we are ready to provide the help we can, as soon as we can.