Costa Rica Investor Visa

The threshold is one hundred and fifty thousand US dollars, converted at the official selling rate set by the Central Bank of Costa Rica or its equivalent in colones.

What stands out is that seven asset classes all count toward the one threshold: real property or registrable movable property, shares, securities, productive projects, projects of national interest, venture capital funds, and sustainable tourism infrastructure projects.

The decree states expressly that an applicant may aggregate several different investments to reach the figure. The evidential rules are where it tightens, and they differ by class.

For real property the applicant must be the registered owner in the National Registry, and the text rules out two things outright: property held in the name of a legal person is not accepted, and notarial or public-accountant certifications are not accepted to evidence a real-property investment.

Where the purchase is financed by mortgage, the applicant must show an initial payment of not less than USD 150,000, or that the figure is reached together with the other investments listed.

A real-property file must also carry a certificate from the relevant municipality issued no more than three months before filing, showing the value on which taxes are assessed and confirming municipal taxes are paid up.

Shares require a certificate of legal personality and share capital drawn up by a notary from the company's legal books, showing the foreign national's real participation; projects and funds require certification by an authorised public accountant.

One limit on who may apply deserves care: where the investment is made through a trust, only the settlor may take this subcategory, as that is the person who makes the investment.

What this route creates is not merely a right to reside but a package of benefits, and the structure of the instrument itself says so:

Implementing Decree 43926 is signed by the President together with three Ministers — Governance and Police, Finance, and tourism — so the residence route is tied to the tax side from the moment of enactment.

The underlying statute carries that purpose in its title: Law 9996, the Act for attracting investors, rentiers and pensioners.

The benefits consist of tax exemptions and fiscal incentives, and the two most concrete are these.

The first is exemption from import duty on household goods under Article 115 of the Central American Customs Code, covering furniture, household appliances, home decoration, kitchen and bathroom utensils and bed linen, new or used, in quantities reasonable for the needs of the beneficiary and their immediate family.

The second is exemption on an imported vehicle, with the release from the tax obligation issued by the Exemptions Management Department through the Exonet system at the beneficiary’s request.

The part most worth reading, however, is the two conditions that can destroy the whole package, both of which sit outside immigration law.

First, Article 74(5) of the Act establishing the Costa Rican Social Security Fund: failure to meet social security obligations is a ground for losing the exemptions and fiscal incentives already granted, determined through due process.

Second, Article 18 bis of the Code of Tax Rules and Procedures: anyone seeking or processing any exemption or fiscal incentive regime must be up to date on their tax obligations, both substantive and formal, including having filed the returns required before the Ministry of Finance.

The investor subcategory is granted for two years and is renewable for equal two-year periods, and the renewal condition is what decides the route:

Before renewing, the foreign national must demonstrate that the investment has been maintained continuously and without interruption from the moment lawful permanence in Costa Rica was granted.

The clock therefore does not stop on the day of grant; every two years the investment is examined again.

The decree uses the phrase renew biennially for the principal applicant and dependants alike. Three shorter deadlines sit inside the file. The municipal certificate of a property's value must have been issued no more than three months before filing — an older certificate is a defective file.

Certificates of legal personality and share capital carry their own age limit measured from filing. And for applicants under the passive-income category that this same decree governs, the bank documentation must evidence a stable income over a period of not less than two years.

One annual obligation belongs here too, because it recurs on a fixed cycle: the holder must make an annual payment of twenty-five dollars to the Government, so a duty falls due each year even between the two-year renewals.

The residence conditions here contain a provision a skimming reader will miss, and it changes what the permit is: Article 13, restricted condition, provides that a foreign national granted temporary residence as an investor and their dependants may not perform any remunerated manual or intellectual work.

This is a permit to live, not a permit to earn. The second duty is to keep the capital in place: the investment must be maintained continuously and without interruption from the moment residence was granted, and that must be proved again before each two-year renewal.

The third duty is a cross-check that is rarely mentioned. The Directorate General of Migration and Foreign Nationals must notify the Ministry of Finance of any change in the immigration status of a person holding investor, rentista or pensioner status.

That applies whether the person voluntarily changes category, voluntarily renounces it, or a measure is enforced against them.

On presence, the whole decree makes no mention of absence, leaving the country or being outside the territory, so this instrument sets no minimum number of days present.

What it does set is sanction: residence granted on the basis of false or altered documents is dealt with under Article 129 of the General Migration and Foreign Nationals Act, without prejudice to criminal proceedings.

And immigration matters not expressly regulated by this decree fall under the Foreign Nationals Regulation, Executive Decree 37112 of 21 March 2012.

The implementing regulation states in article 5 that foreign nationals and their dependants may remain lawfully in the country under the Investor subcategory, and article 6 then defines a dependant in a single sentence.

A dependant is a person who is the spouse, a minor child, an adult child with a duly declared disability, or an unmarried child under 25 in a relationship of economic dependency, of someone applying for or already authorised under the Investor subcategory.

That person must file the documents listed in items 1 to 7 of the preceding article.

A child under 25 must file three further things: a sworn declaration of single status before the receiving officer or a notary, a certificate of current enrolment in a trade or a profession, and evidence of economic dependency.

An adult child with a disability must additionally file a medical assessment establishing the condition and the reliance on a third party. A spouse is evidenced by a legalised or apostilled marriage certificate, and the regulation contains no provision for an unmarried partner.

There are no parents, grandparents or siblings: the regulation nowhere mentions a father or mother.

Dependants receive documents alongside the principal and renew on the same two-year cycle, at a document fee of USD 30 each, and there is no additional financial threshold because article 6 requires only the same items as article 5 rather than multiplying the investment.

One notable restriction: article 13 forbids both the investor and the dependants from paid work, whether manual or intellectual.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Costa Rica passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Costa Rica passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Costa Rica passport reaches 157 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

This is one of very few programmes whose statute carries a tax provision written into it, and the provision says no.

Article 6 of Law 9996 is headed Residencia fiscal and provides that foreigners classified as investors, retirees or rentiers under this law who invest in Costa Rica shall not automatically be regarded as tax residents under Law 7092, the Income Tax Law.

That status arises only where the final paragraph of article 2 of Law 7092 and article 5 of the income tax regulation are satisfied, and the beneficiary is subject to a due-diligence procedure for information exchange under article 106 quáter of the Tax Code.

Article 5 grants a set of benefits: a one-time exemption from import and customs duty on household effects, exemption from import duty and value added tax on up to two vehicles, and exemption from import duty on professional instruments.

It adds a 20 percent reduction of the property transfer tax where the beneficiary is the registered owner, and exemption from income tax on the very amounts declared in order to qualify. But income arising in the territory from the investment itself remains taxable under Law 7092.

Article 7 requires repayment of all exempted tax if the immigration status is renounced or cancelled, and article 10 adds a penalty of 10 percent of the exempted tax for falsified documents.

One time limit needs reading closely: article 12 allows these benefits to be applied for only during the first five years from the entry into force of the law, while a person who applied within that window keeps the benefits for ten years.

The decree prints a complete fee schedule, and while the total is small against the investment threshold it is split into items falling due at different moments, so it must be read by milestone rather than by total.

On filing there are two: fifty dollars under Article 255 of the General Migration and Foreign Nationals Act, and two hundred dollars under Article 89 of that same Act.

On approval there are four: the payment under Article 251 of that Act, thirty dollars for the document evidencing permanence under Article 252, a further thirty dollars under Article 253, and twenty-five dollars payable annually.

On renewal, every two years, the same set of four repeats exactly: Article 251, thirty dollars, thirty dollars, and the twenty-five dollars a year.

All are paid to the Government in US dollars or the equivalent in colones at the selling rate set by the Central Bank. Two further groups of costs are not priced by the decree but certainly arise, because the text requires them: certification by an authorised public accountant for investments in shares, projects and funds.

Certificates of legal personality and share capital drawn up by a notary. A municipal certificate for real property; and, for documents issued abroad, legalisation through the Costa Rican Consul and authentication at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, with the consular fees duly paid.