No one can now opt for Costa Rica investor residency incentives

No one can now opt for the import and tax incentives that Law 9996 offered foreigners taking up Costa Rica’s investor residence. The law took effect on publication on 14 July 2021, and its Article 12 allows the incentives to be opted for “only during the first five years” from then. This indicates that the period ended on or about 14 July 2026.

The term “Golden Visa” appears in none of the Costa Rican legal texts read for this article. What a Vietnamese investor searching for one finds is temporary residence as an investor under the General Migration Law, Law 8764, and that category still stands.

Article 12 lets those who opted in during the five years keep the incentives for ten years from the grant. What the window leaves unsettled is the amount.

Law 9996 set USD 150,000 “for the period this law establishes” (por el plazo que establece la presente ley); its regulation, Decree 43926, and a February 2026 measure of the migration directorate (DGME) still cite USD 150,000.

None of the official sources that could be reached says which amount applies to files lodged after July 2026.

What Law 9996 offered, and for how long

Law 9996 was passed in 2021 to attract investors, rentiers and pensioners and help the economy recover from Covid-19.

It gave its beneficiaries duty-free import of household goods, of professional instruments and of up to two vehicles for personal or family use, the vehicles also free of value-added tax; a 20% cut in property transfer tax on real estate bought “within the period of validity of this law” in the beneficiary’s name; and an income-tax exemption on the sums declared to qualify.

SINALEVI, the official legal database, shows Law 9996 in a single version, of 5 July 2021, with no amending or extending norm, and a full-text search of the database for “9996” on 13 October 2026 returned no norm dated 2026.

This indicates that no extension has been enacted. SINALEVI lists enacted norms only, so a pending bill cannot be ruled out.

What each text says about the amount

Law 8764 sets no investment amount for investors, though it does for pensioners and rentiers. Law 9996’s Article 8 set “a new investment range” of at least USD 150,000 “for the period this law establishes”, in assets from real estate and shares to venture-capital funds and sustainable tourism projects.

Article 12, which the law heads “Vigencia de la ley” (validity of the law), is where it sets the five years. The five years are therefore the period Article 8 refers to.

Decree 43926 of February 2023, unamended on SINALEVI, sets the investor amount at USD 150,000 with no time limit written into it. The same decree repealed the earlier investor articles of the Foreigners Regulation, Articles 87 to 93.

No other investor amount was found in Law 8764, the consolidated Foreigners Regulation or Decree 43926.

DGME’s February 2026 measure

DGME resolution DJUR-0045-02-2026-JM, published in the official gazette La Gaceta on 16 February 2026, states that there is “a significant delay” (“retraso significativo”) in issuing residence identity cards (DIMEX). For up to one year from publication, it lets pending card requests be processed on a shorter list of requirements.

For an investor holding shares, it asks for a notary’s certificate stating that the amount is USD 150,000. By its title the measure governs the issue of identity cards, and it predates July 2026. It therefore does not show what DGME asks of a file lodged after the five years ran out.

What an investor resident must meet

The investor permit is granted for two years and is renewable for equal periods, and renewal requires proof that the investment was kept continuously since the grant. Real estate must be held in the investor’s own name, not through a company or other legal entity, and neither the investor nor dependants may do paid work.

Dependants are a spouse, minor children, adult children with a declared disability and unmarried, economically dependent children under 25. Parents are not, but Article 137(c) of the Foreigners Regulation gives economically dependent parents of a temporary resident a separate special category, for people already in Costa Rica with authorised entry and current stay. This indicates that an investor counts as a temporary resident for that purpose.

Under Article 78 of Law 8764, a foreign national, spouse or first-degree blood relative who has held temporary residence for three consecutive years may opt for permanent residence.

Article 14 of the Constitution sets seven years of official residence, plus the other requirements the law fixes, for naturalisation, and five for Central Americans, Spaniards and Ibero-Americans by birth. This means that a Vietnamese national falls under the seven-year rule.

DGME cancels temporary residence after an absence of more than two consecutive years, unless a proven exception applies; neither Law 8764 nor Decree 43926 sets a minimum number of days in the country. Cover with the social-security fund, the CCSS, is required from the grant without interruption and is checked at first card issue and at each renewal.

Fees and processing time

Decree 43926 lists USD 50 to file and USD 200 under Article 89 of Law 8764, which the law writes for a non-resident who changes category while in Costa Rica.

On approval come the document cost stated in the resolution, two payments of USD 30, a USD 25 payment that Law 8764 charges at the grant and at each renewal (the decree calls it annual), and a guarantee deposit equal to the price of a one-year open ticket to the country of origin, set in the approval resolution under the deposit regulation.

Once a file is complete, the Foreigners Regulation gives DGME at most three months to decide.

Entry and filing for Vietnamese nationals

Under DGME’s visa directive, in force since 17 November 2025, Vietnamese nationals need a consular visa, valid for a single entry and a stay of up to 30 days, extendable to 90, with a passport valid for at least 180 days.

They are exempt with a multiple-entry visa or residence of the United States or Canada, a multiple-entry Schengen C or D visa, or a UK, EU, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swiss residence permit allowing multiple entries or valid for at least 90 days.

The visa regulation requires a person whose visa was sought for residence purposes to file with DGME within the first 30 days after entry. Law 8764 says temporary-residence applications go through consular officials abroad or, failing that, DGME’s offices; Decree 43926 sends investor files preferably through DGME’s digital platforms.

What this article has not established

DGME’s live pages could not be checked, so its investor checklist, fee table and published processing times, and the amount it applies to files lodged after July 2026, are not established.

Whether a bill to extend or amend Law 9996 is pending was not established: the Legislative Assembly’s website did not respond, and SINALEVI may lag the official gazette. The sources do not say whether the window’s last day was 13 or 14 July 2026.

The amount the repealed regulation articles required was not checked in an official text.

The Foreigners Regulation requires consular registration unless the applicant’s country has no diplomatic representation in Costa Rica; whether Vietnam has one, and which Costa Rican consulate serves Vietnamese applicants, were not established.

Nor were the Ministry of Finance’s handling of incentive requests after July 2026, the route and cost of CCSS cover for investors, or how temporary residence counts towards naturalisation. Actual processing times are not known.