Want to move to Costa Rica? Here is the information about Visas and Residency part 2 – Part one is here.
Temporary residence:
There are five general categories of acquiring a temporary residence in Costa Rica, which have been listed below.
- Temporary Residency for a Retiree
- Temporary residency for students, researchers, teachers, and internships
- Temporary Residency for Executives, Managers, Representatives, and Technical Personnel and their dependents
- Temporary Residency for Rentiers
- Temporary Residency for Spouse
Let us have a look at the requirements for obtaining a Temporary Residency for people belonging to each of these categories individually.
- Temporary Residency for Retiree:
People can apply for this type of residency at the Immigration Office of Costa Rica. Given below are the requirements for applying to this type of temporary residency in Costa Rica.
- Lifetime Pension is offered by a capable authority, which indicates that the person will be receiving an amount of more than $1,000 per month in the form of pension.
This certification should be properly legalized and authenticated or apostilled if it has been issued abroad.
- The dependents of the foreigner can also be included so they can reside in Costa Rica, who can either be spouses or children (under the age of 25 years or having any disabilities).
Under these circumstances, a spouse must provide a marriage certificate and children with disabilities should provide a medical certificate.
2. Temporary residency for students, researchers, teachers, and internships:
People can apply for this type of residency at the Immigration Office of Costa Rica. Given below are the requirements for applying to this type of temporary residency in Costa Rica.
- Students should provide a letter of acceptance that has been obtained from the educational institution, which should be properly signed by either a legal representative or the director of the educational institution.
Students should also provide certification regarding their economic status, which has been obtained from an authorized accountant, and it should describe the details stating the source of funds.
If the source of funds for the student is a scholarship, then certification describing the amount, timeframe, and expenses should be provided by the institution.
Students under the age of 18 years, who intend to stay without their parents in Costa Rica should provide Special Power of Attorney by parents or legal guardians, which is properly legalized or authenticated to apostille.
- A properly legalized job offer letter should be provided by teachers and researchers.
- People who belong to the category of volunteers or interns should provide a letter from the respective program, which is signed by the legal representative.
This letter should consist of the details related to the volunteer/internship project, financing details, and the information related to the person’s stay in Costa Rica.
3. Temporary Residency for Executives, Managers, Representatives, and Technical Personnel and their dependents
People can apply for this type of residency at the Immigration Office of Costa Rica. Given below are the requirements for applying to this type of temporary residency in Costa Rica.
- A properly legalized and annotated certified document describing the bond from the person’s country of origin should be provided if the spouse of children of that person intends to stay.
- Employees should provide a copy of the work contract concerning the fundamentals in articles 23 and 24 of the labor code.
This should describe the monthly salary and this salary should be raised 25% regarding the legal minimum salary of that particular position.
- Executives and managers should provide certification that has been signed by the legal representative of the contracted company.
This certification should ensure that the person will work for that company and should also consist of details regarding the person’s position, the period they spend in the country, and the monthly salary.
- The respective insurance company should provide certification stating that the company is up to date concerning the coverage fees of work risks or proof that the pay is up to date and is appropriately certified or in correspondence with the original.
- Legal representatives of the company or society should present certification, which has been provided within one month between the date of issuance and the date when the person applies for temporary residence.
- A certified copy from the company stating the constitutional protocol or the original document along with a copy that can be handled by a public official.
- Proof ensuring that the company or society has been paying all the necessary taxes until now.
- Certification of income issued by an authorized Public Accountant along with a balance sheet.
- The person who is working with the company (registered with the General Management) should meet with criteria mentioned in the corporate regulations.
4. Temporary Residency for Rentiers:
- Document ensuring that the person has been receiving a stable and permanent monthly rental income of at least USD 2,500 or the amount equivalent to it in colones.
This certificate should have been issued at least 3 months before the application.
If the income is received from abroad, the document determining this information should be apostilled.
- The dependents of the foreigner can also be included so they can reside in Costa Rica, who can either be spouses or children (under the age of 25 years or having any disabilities).
Under these circumstances, a spouse must provide a marriage certificate and children with disabilities should provide a medical certificate.
All the documents should be legalized and apostilled properly while applying from abroad.
5. Temporary Residency for Spouse:
People can apply for this type of residency at the Immigration Office of Costa Rica. Given below are the requirements for applying to this type of temporary residency in Costa Rica.
- Marriage certificate, concerning the Costa Rican national, which has been issued by the Costa Rican Civil Registry.
If the marriage didn’t take place in Costa Rica, then it should have been properly registered in Costa Rica.
Common Documentation:
Regardless of the category, all the people who are applying for temporary residency in Costa Rica should provide the following documentation.
- Request Letter. This letter should contain information regarding the reasons why you are applying for a temporary residency in Costa Rica.
- The letter should consist of information such as Full Name, Nationality, Information related to Occupation, Age, Current Address, and either the place or means through which the individual can receive notifications.
- This letter should either be signed by an immigration officer or through a public notary.
- Two recent passport-sized photos
- Two types of payments must be made. First, a payment of $50 should be deposited in the form of colones in the account 242480-0 of Bank of Costa Rica (Banco de Costa Rica).
Secondly, payment of $1.25 and $2.50 per page, which have been presented within the request for residency. In both cases, the applicant’s name should be indicated as the depositor.
- A form that has been filled and signed accordingly.
- Proof of fingerprint registration, which has been issued by the Ministry of Public Safety, is only a requirement for individuals older than 12 years of age.
- Proof of consular registration, which has been issued by the respective consulate in Costa Rica.
- Birth certificate, which has been issued in the person’s country of origin within the previous 6 months and is appropriately legalized and annotated.
- A legalized and annotated certificate related to a person’s criminal record obtained from their country of origin (or country of current residence for the past three years).
To ensure this certificate, the legality of the person’s stay in that country should also be provided additionally, which is a certified copy of the mitigatory document acquired within the indicted term.
- Photocopy of all the pages in a passport, which should be certified and compared concerning the original, and this should be done by the official who received them or with the help of a public notary.
The process of applying:
- First of all, make sure that you have all the necessary documents ready.
- While getting the documents ready, you must also make sure that the documents are accurate and are up to date. Most of the documents should not be longer than some specific timeframes.
- Gather all the necessary documentation and submit the application to the Platform of Services of the central offices of the Department of Immigration, or else, you can go to the regional offices.
- While submitting, you must mention to the respective officer that it is the first time you are applying for residency.
- In general, the official will provide you with a receipt, which means you are assisted by them, and inform you about the place where you have to go next.
- Wait until the indicated time and then attend the place mentioned by the official. Then, provide all the documents to the respective official at that place, and then the documents will be reviewed and entered into the system.
- The official who assists you will provide you with a paper that shows your personal information, file number, and the documents that have been provided by you. You should make sure that all information provided by you is accurate by checking that paper.
- After this process, the department will take around 90 days to let you know about their decision.
- If any of the necessary documents are missing, then you will be provided with a time of 10 days to submit the missing documents.
- In case you need more than 10 days to provide the missing documents, you should submit a request (written) within that deadline for extending the timeframe.
- After three months, the answer regarding your residency would be provided through fax (if you provided it), or else, you should reach the Platform of Services in person and contact the receptionist regarding your application status.
Residency through Investment:
Apart from the general options available, individuals can also obtain residency in Costa Rica by making an investment. Earlier, individuals were required to invest an amount of $200,000 in qualifying projects to obtain this type of residency.
However, this amount has been reduced to $150,000 recently, which sounds good to the people who want to gain residency in Costa Rica and be able to afford this amount.
Additionally, people can also get residency by investing $100,000 in projects related to forestry in Costa Rica.
- Starting a New Business
People can invest an amount of $150,000 in a new business, which can be a hotel, restaurant, factory, service company, or any other type of business, and become eligible for this type of residency program.
People who want to acquire residency through this method should come up with a good business plan and because of that, most people don’t opt for this method.
- Investing in an Existing Business
People can invest an amount of $150,000 in an existing business, which can either be buying off the entire business or buying a part of that business.
Buying a part of a business means that you will be buying a bunch of stocks or shares of an existing company.
There are no specific requirements regarding the type of business or the number of shares, as long as you invest an amount of $150,000 in an existing business.
- Real Estate/Vehicles:
In this category, you must have real estate and/or vehicles worth $200,000 in Costa Rica, which can be a farm, house, condo, lot, or vehicles (means of transport through land, sea, or air).
You will be allowed to bring over vehicles (cars, motorcycles, boats, helicopters, etc.), furniture, appliances, etc., without having to pay any sort of taxes.
However, the value of the property, properties, vehicles, or a combination of these should add up to a minimum of $150,000.
- Forestry Projects:
You can also get residency if you invest a minimum of $100,000 in a forestry project such as lumbering, preservation, regeneration, etc. However, you should acquire the necessary permits from the environmental agency (SETENA) and the local municipality.
The investments in forestry projects should be held for at least 3 years before a person can be able to apply for permanent residency or withdraw their investment.
There are some specific timeframes regarding these residency permits i.e., the number of days that a person has to stay in Costa Rica as a requirement for acquiring the residency status.
Permanent residence:
In most cases, the permanent residence status can be obtained after two years as a temporary resident, yet it differs for the investment made in the forestry projects (3 years).
In general, the process of acquiring permanent residency is unrestricted, and people can continue their work in Costa Rica during the process.
The citizens of Spain can apply for permanent residence status instantly. The people who gain permanent residence status should visit Costa Rica at least once a year.
The number of days needed to stay in Costa Rica as a Permanent Resident may vary by the time you read this article.
This permanent residency should be renewed after every five years. An amount of $300 should be deposited as a guarantee, which should be deposited to the Government of Costa Rica.
After seven years of staying in Costa Rica, a person becomes eligible for applying for the process of naturalization.
Bottom Line:
All the information provided in this article is accurate by the time of writing, yet there is a possibility that it may vary by the time you are reading it.
Also, you must know all the details accurately before you apply for a visa or residency in Costa Rica. Even a small mistake during the application process can result in extra charges or result in a waste of time.
Having said that, we hope that you were able to find this information useful during the process of applying for a visa or residence.
That being said, if you need any services related to obtaining a passport or visa in another country, we might be able to assist you with the relevant services.
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