My fastener Mexico Diary Vol.1 - How to establish the company in Mexico in real -

A series of processes to establish a company

    One year ago, in September 2023, I visited Mexico and after much consideration decided to establish a company in Querétaro. My original plan was to start preparations at the end of the year, have the company registered by April, travel to Mexico in May, sign a contract for a warehouse, conduct interviews for employees, and start in July! I thought. And then the registration was actually completed in September 2024, and finally in October, we came to the final stage of signing the warehouse contract and opening the bank account.

What delayed me so much was that it took so much time to get the first step, the notarization of the incorporation of the company, done and signed by a notary public. The reason why it took so long was that my father, who had been the chairman of the board, passed away in February, and the contents of the register changed, so I had to start from scratch with Japanese documents.

    Thailand is not a signatory to the Hague Convention. So, in order to have it recognized as an official document in Mexico, I had to go to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and get their stamp and signature on it. I asked the Thai members, but they replied that they did not know when they would be able to get the signature, and no one was sure if the document itself was what Mexico was looking for, so in the end we gave up the idea of capital participation from Thailand from the beginning. And so the time went on and on... “I'll never be able to start a company, will I? I was very impatient.

    Another thing I keenly realized was that nothing would get done unless I went there and did the work in person. I sent the necessary documents to the local office and waited for the draft of the notarized certificate of incorporation to appear, but no matter how long I waited, it never appeared. I was told many times that it would be done next week or tomorrow, but it never appeared. I thought, “I'm screwed! I thought, “I'm going to Mexico, what's going on?

    What are the lawyers doing every day? Honestly, if they got the format right and changed the company name for our company, the capitalization rate, etc., it would be done, wouldn't it? What kind of work do you do? I thought, “I'm going to go there and talk to them in person! So I decided to buy a plane ticket and go. I went to the lawyer's office to make an appointment with the consultant, and to my surprise, the draft was ready! In my mind, I thought, “Yes! I thought to myself, “Oh, my God, it's done!

I was so excited and at the same time, I was like, “It's done! I was able to get a taste of the real Mexican way of doing business, and I now understand the importance of always being ahead of the curve and talking to the people who will be doing the work directly to me. I am grateful for that.

Once this step was done, the rest of the process went smoothly. Commercial registration, RFC registration, password award from SAT, etc. were all able to proceed on schedule.

Opening a Bank Account

    We are a small business, and I don't say this with sarcasm, but Japanese banks will not open an account for us. However, we had no choice but to ask a local bank to open an account for us, and while we were thinking how to ask a local bank to open an account for us, we happened to have an opportunity to be introduced to a person from Mitsubishi UFJ Bank by a customer.

I told him that I had given up trying to get a Japanese bank to open an account for me, and he said, “I will introduce you to Banorte Bank, the largest local bank in the area. Mitsubishi UFJ and Banorte Bank have a business tie-up, and recently Banorte Bank seems to have a strategy to increase business with foreign companies, so they have a special international team to deal with people like us.

There were many documents to open an account, and some of them were difficult, but we managed to submit all the documents quickly and with the help of some new ideas. We have not been able to actually open the account yet, but we have been informed that all the documents are complete for now.

So we are making progress so far! There are still a couple of things left to do: IMSS (social insurance) and my work visa (lol).

What I felt after 50 days

    People say that Mexico has a long sense of time. but I have the impression that there are many people who work quickly and tightly. I may not be baptized enough yet (lol), but the Mexicans I meet are really wonderful people who are willing to help me and my company!

    I have only been in Mexico for about 50 days, so I am still a beginner, but I can say that I have learned that I have to work locally and on site to get things done. So I hope to be able to talk to everyone more in Spanish without the use of an interpreter! I will do my best! I will write more about the events and screws in Mexico in my next entry!

Postscript

    This photo is a bit frightening for Japanese, but in Mexico, there is a special day called the Day of the Dead, which is a special day for Mexicans. It is a day to celebrate the return of deceased family members and ancestors, just like Obon in Japan. It is the same as Obon in Japan. As many of you know from the Disney movie “COCO” the whole town is filled with “skeletons” (lol).