Lang & Asociados provides its clients with the services of its Relocation Bureau, a department within the Firm that specializes in immigration and relocation assistance. Our attorneys supervise the cases directly, and are deeply involved throughout the process that will lead to obtaining residency and, if desired and applicable, permission to work legally in the country.

Our firm offers a multilingual service, in Spanish English, French and Italian, thus, providing the client the ability to communicate directly to us in the language in which he feels more comfortable.

Costa Rica offers foreign citizens an array of options in terms of residency. In general terms, for the approval of a residency application, it is crucial for the beneficiary to demonstrate enough means to initiate a business activity in the country or to show a strong financial basis (either in Costa Rica or abroad) to the government.

The different residency regimes available in the country can be referred to as follows:

General Requirements

In general, a residency applicant must prove that he or she will not be a burden to the country by demonstrating that enough income is generated either as their primary financial support or as the means for the establishment of a secondary source of income such as a business venture or other investment projects.

With the exception of the Resident Annuitant and Resident Pensioner Regimes, and residencies related to labor contracts with major companies, which at this moment can be filed in Costa Rica, on all other residency applications must be filed at a Costa Rican Consulate in the applicant’s country of citizenship or country of legal residency. If there is no Costa Rican Consulate in such countries, the filing may be done in any Costa Rican Consulate (as long as a certificate issued by the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating that there are no Costa Rican Consulates in such countries is attached). The applications at the Consulates must be filed personally or through a third party holding a special power of attorney in a form provided by our Firm.

The following are general requirements applicable to all regimes:

a. Birth Certificate:
A birth certificate for the applicant and his dependents (if any) is required. This document must be issued by the appropriate authorities at the place of birth. It is imperative that the certificate clearly states the names of both parents.

b. Police certificate:
A clean criminal record certificate for the applicant and for its dependents fifteen years or older to be included in the regime is required. It must be issued by the local police bureau of the place where the applicant has lived during the last six months before the application. This document is valid only for six months after its issue date.

c. Marriage Certificate:
Required only for applicants that wish to include their spouse under the regime.

d. Fingerprinting
For the resident pensioner and resident annuitant regimes, the Costa Rican Police Archives will take the applicant’s fingerprints, and all the information will be passed on to INTERPOL for the clients’ background check. In all other types of residencies, only a fingerprint registration is necessary. The personal presence in Costa Rica for this fingerprinting is required for all regimes.

e. Foreign documents
All documents originating abroad require authentication by the Costa Rican Consulate located in the country of issue. Costa Rican Consulates are divided into jurisdictions. In the majority of cases, Consuls will not legalize or authenticate documents not issued by authorities in their jurisdiction. In the United States, specific consulates serve certain States. Consult the Consulate nearest the place of issue of the document for procedures, office hours and fees for each specific document.

Resident Annuitant and Resident Pensioner Regimes

These two regimes are especially appealing since the process is much more agile when compared to other types of application, they allow for a fast and positive outcome for residency applications based on (i) receiving a monthly income of no less than $1,000 United States Dollars for at least five years, in a permanent, irrevocable and constant manner (in the case of the resident annuitant status) or (ii) receiving a life pension of no less than $600 United States Dollars (in the case of the resident pensioner status), pension that we recommend to come from a government entity.

In both cases, the beneficiary would be able to establish his own business, but not to be an employee of any third party or company. Additionally in both cases, both the applicant’s spouse and children under eighteen years old can be covered in the regime.

Company recognition status

This regime permits companies established in the country and with an accounting net worth currently higher than $150,000 thousand United States Dollars to be granted, after filing a series of corporate and legal documents, a specific authorization in the form of a recognition from the Immigration Authorities, permitting to obtain residencies for its foreign employees.

This residency will be linked directly to working for the applicant company (the residency allows to stay in the country as long as the beneficiary works for such company and only to do so). This status allows covering the main applicant’s spouse and children under eighteen years old, who may study but not work while in the country.

Permit for Students

This regime grants foreign students a temporary permit to stay in the country. The applicant must prove that he or she is enrolled in a private or public school, which is authorized by the government. School registration documents must be filed with the application.

An individual with local residency must guarantee the applicant’s stay in the country, thus, documents proving the sponsor’s sound financial status will be required. In the case of minors, a special power of attorney issued by the parents is required.

The beneficiary of this residency may not work while under this type of permit.

Temporary Work Permit and Labor Contract Residency

This regime allows the applicant to obtain a work permit or a temporary residency based on the existence of a labor contract. The applicant must be able to prove that he has been hired by a local company, attaching a copy of the labor contract and an application by the company.

Other regimes

There are other residency regimes currently available in Costa Rica, such as the Entrepreneur’s Residency and the Financially Sound Residency. Although each case must be evaluated individually, in general terms, these regimes are not recommended by our firm at this time.

If the applicant’s objective is to obtain residency based on his investment in a business in Costa Rica or on his own financial soundness, although strictly speaking the above mentioned could be alternatives to be considered when making a decision, our experience is that these regimes require a lengthy process, several government authorizations and extensive documentation, making them less time and cost efficient when compared to other options that offer the applicant faster and more certain results.

A key issue in these regimes is that the Immigration Authorities have ample discretion for approving or denying these types of applications, on which they are currently very restrictive and are frequently changing what they take into account to define an investment as of interest to the country or a financially sound person. Furthermore filing must be done at a Consulate, which may prove to be challenging.

©2004 Henry Lang, Lang & Asociados. All rights reserved.