There is a new Matricula Consular card in town!
The matrícula consular is a photo ID card issued by the Mexican government to Mexican nationals living outside of Mexico.
The card is extremely popular for Mexicans in the United States.
It’s a way for the Mexican government to keep track of its citizens for consular and tax purposes, collect data on them, and provide identification.
Several U.S. states, municipalities, and businesses accept the card as an official form of identification. In fact, many financial institutions accept the card as a valid proof of identification. Mexican nationals can use a matrícula consular to obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) in order to pay federal income taxes. Some states (but not all) accept the card for the purpose of obtaining a driver’s license.
The card does not define U.S. immigration status for the person to whom it is issued. Therefore, both lawfully present and undocumented immigrants may use the matrícula consular for identification purposes.
For Notaries Public in many states, we could not accept them in the past because they did not contain the one element required by notary regulations --- it did not contain a physical description of the card holder. As of July 2022 that has changed. There is a new generation of Matricula Cards being issued.
An announcement made by Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles on June 9, 2022, the Foreign Ministry reports that the new third-generation consular ID cards will be issued.
The new third-generation consular ID cards use the latest technological advances, which make them virtually unforgeable. It also includes information such as eye and hair color, height and weight and, for minors, the names of their fathers, mothers and/or guardians. These features will provide more certainty about the user's identity and increase acceptance of the consular ID cards as an identity document.
With the new third-generation consular ID card, we will have that missing piece of information that will allow us to accept these as identification. The roll out may be slow, just keep in mind that you are looking for physical description in order to know if you are being presented with a version of the card that you can accept. One caveat; for real estate documents; this does not establish the signer as legally being present in the United States and the lender may require additional proof such as a Visa Immigration Card, Green Card, etc. As always, please check with your state regulating agency, SOS, Governor’s Office, etc, to make certain that your state allows Notaries Public to accept a Matricula Consular Card.
Here is the best image I could find of the new Matrícula card:
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