Mexico Criminal Record Check

Who is the source of criminal check data in Mexico?

Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana

What is the process in Mexico?

The requesting party will request the check from the ATS or their Zinc account.

• Automated instructions are delivered to provide some personal details in a dynamic web form.
• Zinc submits the request to the authorities.
• Zinc received the results (digitally) and provides a signed digital report
• The candidate receives a notification to say the process is completed

What details are required to submit the check?

• First Name
• Last Name
• Birth Date
• Consent
• Current or Last Known Address in Mexico
• Government ID Copy
  • For citizens: ID copy with CURP number (National ID Number), which can be found in any of the following documents:
    • Mexican INE (Voter’s Credential)
    • Mexican Driving License
    • Mexican Passport
    • Constancia de CURP
    • Mexican National Social Security Card
    • Mexican Resident Permit
    • Mexican Cedula Profesional
    • Mexican Birth Certificate
  • For Foreigners (for those without a CURP):
    • Copy of Passport or the identity document used to enter Mexico.
    • Valid VISA page with Passport Number is acceptable.
    • Expired Foreign Passport is acceptable.

What is covered in the criminal check?

The complex Mexican federal system imposes many challenges to complete a thorough criminal check for multiple reasons:

(i) access to information is mostly manual which leads to longer processing times

(ii) high corruption levels across the region lead to unreliable records (criminal, included) not being disclosed or being fully or partially anonymised in diverse open databases due to existing threats

(iii) a non-functional decentralised judicial system making it difficult to keep databases frequently updated

(iv) the lack of a defined legal framework applicable to background screening.

To address these obstacles, our checking partner has developed a robust, two-stage Criminal History verification process. This approach combines the review of publicly available online sources with on-the-ground verification conducted by our trusted network of legal professionals across Mexico. The screening is national in scope and covers both citizens and foreign nationals aged 18 and older.

The first stage of verification:

Our checking partner conducts an initial online verification through the following sources that are publicly available and accessible by law:

• Court hearings from over 130 Courts and Tribunals in Mexico, such as:
  • The Supreme Court (Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación)
  • District Courts (Juzgados de Distrito)
  • Circuit and Appellate Courts (Juzgados de Circuito y Tribunales de Apelación)
  • The Federal Judicial Council
  • Official Gazette publications
• The Federal Judicial Council and other federal court records, including the Federal Supreme Court Registry, which captures Juicio de Amparo filings (constitutional protection proceedings), which is a remedy for the protection of an individual’s constitutional rights. It is important to note that the constitutional protection proceedings are available in the open databases of the district courts and/or the Supreme Court of Justice, including the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico, albeit with limitations in criminal legal proceedings.
• Public Sanctions Lists, Government Blacklists, Most Wanted Lists, and Arrest Warrants (inexceptional cases where authorities publicly disclose such alerts).
• State-Level Criminal Databases: Each of Mexico’s 32 states maintains its own criminal and police databases, in addition to a central national registry. Some of these may be partially accessible online through state judicial portals when the information is made public.

Any potential records identified will be reviewed based on the provided identifiers, which may include:

• Full or partial name, or
• Date of birth (which may appear as year, age, month, or in rare cases, the full date), or
• City

If there is any ambiguity or a name match without additional identifiers, we do not proceed to the second stage. However, if a match passes the preliminary check and we obtain at least two identifiers or a full name match, we conduct an in-depth review of the records. This includes verifying the nature of the charge, case outcome, case number, and appeal status, depending on the information provided by the competent authorities.

The second stage of verification:

This second stage supplements the initial verification with a personal check conducted by our trustworthy network of lawyers across Mexico who are duly vetted following our Principles of Partner Management.

Our in-country Partner receives all potential matches that pass the initial screening to crosscheck the data through competent local sources to compare and/or confirm the results. By using the consent provided by the candidate, the Partner will formally request confirmation as to whether the candidate is involved in the case previously identified as a claimant and/or whether there is any ongoing criminal proceeding, active complaint, or open investigation file against them within that jurisdiction.

Each of these sources operates under its own internal regulations (reglamento interior), and the decision to grant partial or full access to information is made at their discretion, in accordance with their institutional mandate and applicable laws.

This is a consultative process and does not serve the purpose of gaining access to the candidates' judicial or police files.

What is the expected turnaround time?

Here

Period covered by the check:

The records are kept based on the legal prescription and rehabilitation periods applicable for each type of conviction provided by the local regulations in Mexico.

Privacy Statement:

The details contained in this report should not be used as the sole reason for making a decision. Zinc Work Ltd is not liable for any inaccuracies or incompleteness in the information appearing in this report since it is provided to Zinc Work Ltd by third parties. This report has been produced for the purchaser of the report and Zinc Work Ltd will have no liability to loss.