Overall7/10Easier visas than about 75% of cities
Good to know
Good to Know
- The number of days written in your passport stamp — not a blanket '90' or '180' rule you read online — is what legally governs your stay, and it's decided by the individual immigration officer at the border.
- Always carry proof of onward travel (a return ticket, or a bus ticket out to Panama or Nicaragua) and be ready to show it — officers can and do ask for it before stamping you in.
- The old $20-ish 'tourist card' entry fee was eliminated in 2019, so visa-exempt tourists no longer pay anything at the airport for entry itself.
- If you're arriving from certain African or South American countries, you may need a yellow fever vaccination certificate — check this before flying if your itinerary includes those regions.
- Health/medical insurance for this visa must be long-term residency coverage, not a standard travel-insurance policy, and must show at least $50,000 USD in coverage for your full stay.
- All non-Spanish documents need an official Spanish translation before submission — this is one of the most common causes of application delays.
- The $100 government fee must arrive as a net $100 after bank fees, so senders should budget extra for wire fees (Banco de Costa Rica separately charges around $15 to receive it).
- To renew for a second year you must have actually been physically present in Costa Rica for at least 80 days during your first year on the visa — pure 'visa on paper' residency won't qualify for renewal.
- The visa's tax exemption only covers income from outside Costa Rica; taking on local clients or local employment while on this visa can jeopardize your status and creates local tax exposure.
- This visa maxes out at 2 years total (1 year + 1 renewal) and does not convert into permanent residency — long-term stayers typically transition to Rentista, Pensionado, or an investor category afterward.
Visa Free Entry
- Process
- No pre-arrival visa application, fee, or online form is required for visa-exempt nationalities. You present your passport at immigration on arrival (air or land border) and receive an entry stamp showing your authorized stay length.
- Baseline Rule
- Costa Rica uses a nationality-based visa waiver system. Most nomads from Western/Latin American passport countries (Group 1) do not need to apply for any visa in advance and simply receive a stamp on arrival.
- Who Qualifies
- Citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, EU/EEA member states, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Chile, Uruguay, and most other Central and South American countries.
- Official Source
- Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME), Costa Rica's official immigration authority — https://www.migracion.go.cr/
- Border Runs Caveat
- So-called 'border runs' (leaving and immediately re-entering to reset the tourist clock) are increasingly discouraged and are not a legally reliable strategy — immigration officers have discretion to refuse re-entry if they suspect repeated abuse of tourist status.
- Extending Or Overstaying
- Extending a tourist stamp from inside the country is possible in principle through the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) but is described by multiple sources as a slow, non-trivial bureaucratic process, and is not something Group 1 tourists are routinely granted. Most nomads who want to stay longer than their stamp simply leave and re-enter, or apply for one of Costa Rica's longer-stay visas (e.g. the Digital Nomad visa or Rentista/Pensionado residency) instead.
Length Of Stay
- Official Standard
- Up to 90 days per entry, decided by the immigration officer at the port of entry and stamped directly into the passport.
- Conflicting Reports
- A number of current guides and travel-blog sources report that Group 1 nationalities (US, Canada, EU, UK, etc.) are now sometimes being stamped for up to 180 days at officer discretion, rather than the traditional 90. In practice the stamped number varies by officer and travel season, and that stamp — not any general 'rule' — is the only thing that legally governs your stay.
Entry Requirements Typically Checked
- Passport (officers commonly ask for at least 1 day of remaining validity beyond your stay, though many third-party sources recommend carrying 6 months' validity to avoid airline boarding issues)
- Proof of onward/return travel (a return flight, an outbound bus ticket to Panama/Nicaragua, or cruise departure proof) dated before your stamped stay expires
- Proof of sufficient funds — commonly cited as roughly US$100 per month of planned stay, e.g. via a bank statement or credit card, though officers don't always ask
Digital Nomad Visa And Tax
- Visa Ease Tier
- moderate
- Visa Name Official
- Estancia para Trabajadores o Prestadores de Servicios Remotos (Digital Nomad / Remote Worker Visa), under Law No. 10008
- Visa Ease Tier Rationale
- Costa Rica offers a well-documented, fully online digital-nomad visa with a moderate $3,000/month threshold and an explicit tax carve-out from its 183-day residency rule, but it caps at 2 years total with no path to permanent residency and layers on translated-document and biometric-registration bureaucracy on top of the underlying 90-day visa-free tourist baseline.
Tax Notes
- System
- Territorial tax system
- Import Duty Perk
- Digital nomad visa holders may import essential remote-work equipment (laptops, phones, cameras) duty-free under the EXONET program.
- Important Caveat
- The exemption covers foreign-sourced income only; any income earned locally (e.g., serving Costa Rican clients, local employment) is taxed under normal progressive resident rates, and taking on local work is itself a violation of the visa's foreign-income-only condition.
- Home Country Taxes
- The visa has no effect on tax obligations in the nomad's home country — for example, US citizens remain fully subject to US federal tax on worldwide income regardless of Costa Rican tax exemption.
- Digital Nomad Visa Carve Out
- Digital Nomad Visa holders are explicitly exempted by law from Costa Rican income tax on their foreign-sourced earnings even if they remain in the country beyond the normal 183-day tax-residency threshold, and are not subject to local tax filing/reporting duties on that foreign income.
- General Tax Residency Trigger
- Costa Rica's standard tax-residency threshold is physical presence of more than 183 days (continuous or discontinuous) in a fiscal year; this applies to anyone in the country regardless of immigration status, including tourists.
Renewal Path
- Max Total Stay
- Initial 1-year stay, renewable once for an additional 1 year (2 years total); it does not lead to permanent residency — after that, holders must leave or switch to another category such as Pensionado, Rentista, or Investor.
Renewal Requirements
- Proof of presence in Costa Rica for at least 80 days during the first year
- Continued proof of meeting the income requirement
- Valid passport
- Continued health insurance coverage for the full stay
- Renewal fee of $90 USD
Application Path
- Portal
- Applications are filed online through Costa Rica's official immigration portal, Trámite Ya, run by the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME); in-person filing is also possible at DGME offices but the affiliation form must still be submitted digitally.
- Processing Time
- Costa Rican immigration authorities typically review applications within approximately 15 working days, though if documents are incomplete the office issues a written notice and gives the applicant roughly eight working days to fix it.
- Post Approval Step
- Within three months of arrival, approved holders must register biometrics with local immigration to receive their residence card/permit.
Documents Required
- Signed application form (via Trámite Ya or paper form at DGME)
- Valid passport copy (photo/bio page); Costa Rican entry stamp if already in-country
- Proof of foreign-sourced income: 12 months of bank statements plus a signed affidavit confirming the statements came from the applicant's financial institution, showing the required monthly minimum
- Long-term health/medical insurance (not travel insurance) covering the full authorized stay with minimum $50,000 USD coverage, from an international insurer or a Costa Rica-regulated insurance firm
- Proof of payment of the $100 USD government fee (or colón equivalent) to Banco de Costa Rica, account 001-0242480-0 (a separate ~$15 receiving-bank fee also applies)
- Marriage certificate or proof of civil union (issued within last 6 months) if applying with a spouse; documents for any accompanying dependents
- Official Spanish translation of any documents not already in Spanish
Income Requirement
- Individual
- CRC 1,365,000
- Family With Dependents
- CRC 1,820,000
- Notes
- Income must originate entirely from foreign sources (employer, clients, or own business abroad); working for a Costa Rican employer is not permitted under this visa.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.