Registration, banking and utilities in Monterrey

The national sequence, briefly

If a Mexican consulate issued your residence visa abroad, you exchange it for a residence card at the Instituto Nacional de Migración after you arrive, and the window is short. Take the day count from INM or from the consulate that issued the visa rather than from an expat group, because it is quoted wrongly online more often than it is quoted right. The card is what everything downstream asks to see: the CURP follows from residency, the RFC comes from SAT, and a bank will want those plus a proof of address. Allow a few weeks for the chain and avoid booking anything that depends on the end of it.

• Residence card from INM, then CURP, then RFC from SAT, then bank and utilities.
• Ask SAT what its current document list is and whether you need an appointment before you travel to an office.
• Keep your entry record and every receipt until the card is physically in your hand.

Water: SADM, and which trámite you are doing

Water and drainage across the metropolitan area come from Servicios de Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey. A new service contract can be started from an online form at sadm.gob.mx, and the service line is 073 around the clock. A cambio de titular, the change of account holder SADM lists for taking over an existing supply, is a separate procedure with its own document set, so establish at signing which of the two applies to your flat.

• Requirements are published by user category at pfiles.sadm.gob.mx/PFiles/requisitosparacontratar.
• Tariffs sit separately at pfiles.sadm.gob.mx/PFiles/tarifas.
• The index pages list categories only — open the guide for your category to see the documents and the costs.
• Domestic, multifamily and commercial supplies are treated as different categories, so pick the right one first.

Electricity, gas and the handover

Electricity is CFE, and gas is either a tank on the roof or a piped supply depending on the building, so ask which one you are inheriting. Ask CFE which tariff your address is on and what it costs at summer consumption, rather than assuming a winter rate holds in July. Put both accounts into your own name at handover with the meter readings written into the inventory, so that the previous occupant's consumption does not arrive as your first bill.

Proof of address, and which town hall you belong to

Institutions here want a comprobante de domicilio in your own name and recently dated: a utility bill or a bank statement. In a rented flat the bills often stay with the landlord, so agree at signing how you will get one. The other local wrinkle is that a municipal formality is handled by the town hall of the municipality you actually live in, which for a lot of arrivals is San Pedro Garza García, Guadalupe or San Nicolás rather than Monterrey itself. Check the address before you queue anywhere.

In order

1. 1Confirm the exchange deadline with INM or your consulate before you travel.
2. 2Complete the INM formality and collect the residence card in person.
3. 3Confirm your CURP is registered and printable.
4. 4Ask SAT what the RFC procedure currently requires, then do it.
5. 5Open a Mexican bank account and note your CLABE.
6. 6Establish which municipality your address belongs to.
7. 7Open or transfer the SADM water account using the guide for your user category.
8. 8Transfer CFE and the gas account at handover, with meter readings recorded.
9. 9Get one bill in your own name and keep it as your comprobante de domicilio.