Costa Rica Residency

The practical benefits of attaining residency in Costa Rica as a foreigner are very tangible, unlike in some other countries:

1. Access to social security continued care.

2. Access to checking accounts and credit service from some banks

3. Permission to engage in labor relationships

4. Exclusion from the one dollar a month fine for extended stay beyond tourist visa term

5. Freedom from worries about immigration checkpoints and possible deportation

6. Ability to purchase personal and business property and real estate

7. Qualify for citizenship & Costa Rica Passport once requirements are met

8. Right to purchase telephone lines

Documents: All applications must be documented with the following documents:

1. An original Birth Certificate. This document has to be authenticated* by the Consul of Costa Rica nearest to the issuer authority of the birth certificate.

2. A Police Report from the applicant’s home country revealing no criminal convictions. The local Police in the applicant’s usual residence if different from the applicant’s home state may issue this report but the police report usually coincides with the applicants US drivers license number. This document must also be authenticated* by the nearest Consul of Costa Rica. Many US state and local law enforcement agencies have websites and special phone numbers to issue such reports, upon request by the applicant.

3. Certified photocopies of all pages of the applicant’s valid passport.

4. Eight recent passport size photographs (for Migración and the Police Archive).

Each applicant must visit Costa Rica to sign original documents as well as other requirements at the proper time.

NATURALIZATION (CITIZENSHIP):

1. Even though, foreigners are granted the same rights that the Costa Rican citizens are given, naturalization has some strategically potential applications. Due to the universal and compulsory social security system, the impossibility of extradition of Costa Rican citizens, the mutual visa exemption agreements between Costa Rica and all the European Union countries, Scandinavia, Canada, Japan and Russia, and some low profile and tax policy considerations, many foreign residents of Costa Rica may benefit by obtaining the Costa Rican citizenship.

2. Naturalization (citizenship) applications are processed and granted by the Supreme Electoral and Civil Records Tribunal (Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones y del Registro Civil), the Costa Rican electoral and civil records institution with constitutional rank that many specialists consider a “fourth power” of the Republic.

3. Similarly to residency application procedures, this is a rather accurate and very formal procedure that the interested resident does not want to expose to risk. The attorneys that direct Delos provide qualified and professional counsel to all clients.  An average processing term ranges from 18-36 months depending on the case.

4. A Delos applicant for citizenship may submit for nationalization after a legal resident in the country for two years. The application has to be submitted together with: a certification from Immigration Council of Costa Rica about the applicant’s legal resident status, a certification from Computer Department (Mecanizada) of Immigration about applicants’ entrances and exits to and from the country, an affidavit, two Costa Rican witnesses who will testify about the applicant moral capacity to obtain citizenship, certified copies of the applicants’ passport, residency card, birth certificate and some legal stamps which Delos will provide at the proper time.

5. Delos IV, Ltda. Is an international business firm directed by attorneys that specialize in providing a full array of legal services to foreign citizens including real estate, international trade and immigration, tax strategies and tax deferred programs, international corporations, trusts and asset protection planning. We have a strong international and dynamic background.