Costa Rica digital nomad visa

What the status actually is

The Costa Rica digital nomad visa is not residency and not a work permit. Under Costa Rican immigration law it sits in its own subcategory: estancia para trabajadores y prestadores remotos de servicios - a stay permit for remote workers and service providers. The legal basis is Law 10008, passed in 2021; the programme only started functioning after its regulation was published in July 2022 (Decree 43619-H-MGP-TUR).

The gap between estancia and residencia is where most disappointment comes from. Residency accumulates time: two years of temporary status, a renewal, then permanent residency and eventually naturalisation. An estancia accumulates nothing. It is up to two years of legal presence with a comfortable tax treatment and a hard ceiling - no third renewal, and none of that time counts toward permanent residency or citizenship.

What you do get is everything a tourist entry does not give you: the right to stay beyond the visa-free window, to work legally for foreign clients, to open a local bank account, to receive a DIMEX (the foreigner identity document), and to pay no Costa Rican tax on income earned abroad.

Key parameters

The restriction is simple and absolute: the money has to come from outside Costa Rica. Employment with a Costa Rican company or work for local clients is off limits under this status. If the plan is to open a business locally or take a local job, that is a different category entirely.

Income requirements and who can come with you

The threshold is fixed in US dollars: $3,000 a month for a single applicant and $4,000 a month if you include family. The logic matters - $4,000 is a household threshold, not $4,000 per person, however many people are in the group. For a couple or a family with children, the step up from a solo filing is only $1,000 a month.

How income is proved

The standard route is bank statements covering the 12 months before filing, together with a sworn affidavit on the origin of funds. The alternative is a certification from an accountant or auditor. Foreign documents need an apostille or consular legalisation and a Spanish translation done by an official translator - a translation from anyone else gets the file bounced.

The practical trap is this: the income has to be personal and rhythmic. Your company's turnover is not your income. Money sitting in a corporate account is not your income. One large transfer or a dividend declared once, just before filing, reads to an immigration officer very differently than it reads to the applicant. A steady inbound flow from one or two foreign payers across the full year is the strong case; scattered freelance payments from a dozen platforms and crypto with no banking trail is the weak one.

Who counts as a dependent

• a spouse or registered partner;
• minor children;
• unmarried children aged 18 to 25;
• elderly relatives who depend on you financially.

Each dependent needs an apostilled document proving the relationship, their own policy with $50,000 of coverage, and their own fee. Dependents receive a DIMEX just as the main applicant does, but their status is tied to yours and ends when yours does. They cannot work in Costa Rica under it either.

Taxes: what the exemption is worth

This is the strongest part of the programme and the most misunderstood.

Article 16 of Law 10008 is unusually explicit: holders of the status are fully exempt from the profits tax (impuesto sobre las utilidades), are under no circumstances considered habitual residents of the country for tax purposes, and the income they receive from abroad is not treated as Costa Rican-source income. Which means that even if you spend all 365 days in the country, the 183-day residency test does not reach you - the category removes you from Costa Rican tax residency by definition.

The honest caveat: Costa Rica is a territorial jurisdiction anyway, and foreign income is generally outside its tax net. Law 10008 mainly closes off ambiguous readings and removes the risk of being deemed resident by day count. That is worth having. It is not a tax structure, and it is not a reason to assume you owe nothing anywhere.

What you still pay

• 13% VAT on goods and services bought in the country;
• property tax and municipal charges if you buy a home;
• the annual marchamo and fuel duties if you buy a car;
• whatever your home jurisdiction demands.

That last one decides everything. A Costa Rican exemption does not touch your obligations at home. US citizens are taxed on worldwide income regardless of where they live and rely on the foreign earned income exclusion or foreign tax credits to avoid double taxation, and they still have to file.

One unresolved risk sits in the background: the regulation does not clarify whether working under an employment contract from Costa Rica can create a permanent establishment for your foreign employer. To an employee that sounds academic. To the employer's tax team it does not, and this is where relocation approvals sometimes stall.

Rates, if income ever becomes local

The 2026 brackets come from Decree 45333-H and are reindexed every year; check the colón exchange rate on the date you calculate. None of this applies to a nomad's foreign income - it becomes relevant only if you later switch category and start earning inside the country. Full breakdown on our Costa Rica taxes page.

Duty-free gear, driving and banking

Import duty exemption on equipment

The law exempts from import duties the equipment you need for remote work: computers and laptops, tablets, monitors, phones, cameras and recording gear. The mechanics live in Decree 43619-H-MGP-TUR. Worth knowing: the exemption is not something that happens automatically as you walk through the green channel - it is processed through customs, and the equipment must be for your own working use, not for resale. The value of the benefit is obvious to anyone who has priced electronics locally: a normal import carries duty plus 13% VAT on top.

Driving licence

A valid licence from your home country is recognised for the duration of your legal stay, so there is no need to convert it. Rental companies and insurers can be stricter than the law requires, so carrying an international driving permit is a cheap way to avoid an argument at the rental counter.

Bank account

The law obliges the national banking system to let holders of the status open a savings account. In practice that means you will not be refused simply for not being a resident once you hold a DIMEX - but compliance still applies, and you will need proof of address, an explanation of your source of funds, and patience. An account unlocks SINPE Móvil, the local instant transfer system that day-to-day life effectively runs on. More on the process in our guide to personal accounts in Costa Rica.

Healthcare

Nomads are not required to enrol in the CCSS social security system or pay its monthly contributions, unlike residency holders. The flip side is that you have no access to the public system. Hence the mandatory policy: $50,000 minimum coverage per person, for the full authorised stay, from an international insurer or a company authorised by the Costa Rican insurance regulator SUGESE. Travel insurance is not accepted, and submitting it is one of the most common reasons files get rejected.

The process, step by step

1. Assemble the file: passport, 12 months of bank statements with a sworn affidavit or an accountant's certification, the health policy, and relationship documents for family. Everything foreign needs an apostille and an official Spanish translation.
2. Pay the $100 filing fee to the Banco de Costa Rica account, per applicant. Account for correspondent bank charges: if less than $100 lands, the payment is not credited, so send with a margin.
3. File through Trámite Ya, the DGME immigration platform. You can file from abroad or from inside the country while on tourist status.
4. Wait for the decision. The benchmark is around 15 days from a complete file; in practice, requests for additional documents stretch it, so do not schedule a move to the day.
5. Once approved, you have three months to enter and complete accreditation in person: biometrics, photo, and a $90 payment for document issuance and the immigration fund. Miss that window and the approval is cancelled.
6. Collect your DIMEX. From that point you can open the bank account, process the equipment import, and get on with it.

Mandatory costs

The approval resolution may also set a guarantee deposit; its size is determined case by case and should be confirmed at filing.

Getting in

Entry rules depend on nationality. Group 1 passports, which include the US, Canada, the UK and EU states, are admitted visa-free for a stay set by the officer at the border, commonly up to 180 days. Group 2 passports are admitted visa-free for up to 90 days and must have at least 90 days of passport validity on arrival - falling short of that gets people turned away even though no visa is required. Other nationalities need a consular or restricted visa arranged in advance, which adds weeks to any plan.

What living in Costa Rica costs

Costa Rica is the most expensive country in Central America, and the cheap-tropics assumption does not survive contact with the invoice. The $3,000 threshold is not arbitrary: it is roughly what one person needs to live in the capital region without strain.

Those are aggregated averages for San José, and three corrections matter more than the numbers themselves.

First, the coast costs more than the capital. Tamarindo, Santa Teresa, Nosara and the other surf towns - the places people actually move for - run on tourist pricing, with higher rents and groceries than the Central Valley and a thinner supply of good long-term housing.

Second, imported goods, electronics and especially cars are expensive because of duties and VAT. A car that feels affordable at home costs noticeably more here, and the annual marchamo adds to the running cost.

Third, connectivity. The Central Valley has widespread and decent fibre; coastal coverage is uneven, and people who live on calls usually keep a backup connection or satellite service. Verify speeds at the specific address, not at the level of the country.

Renewing for a second year

The renewal happens once, for one year. After that the category is exhausted: change your basis of stay or leave.

The physical presence rule is where official sources disagree, and you should know that before you plan around it. The law and the immigration authority point to a minimum of 180 days in the country during the first year, while the state tourism portal's renewal requirements state 80 days. That is not a trivial gap - it is the difference between a visa you rearrange your life around and a visa you can hold while travelling constantly. The sensible approach is to plan on at least 180 days and confirm the current rule at filing. Entry and exit stamps are the evidence, so avoid replacing your passport mid-term.

The renewal file: an application through Trámite Ya, updated income evidence for the past year at the same thresholds ($3,000 or $4,000), a valid policy covering the new period, a valid passport, the $90 issuance fee and the government fee set out in the resolution. File before the current status expires, not after - an expired estancia turns you into someone with an immigration breach on record, and that follows you into later applications.

What happens after two years

The thing to understand before you file: nomad time does not convert into residency. Two years later you are exactly where you started, only with a local bank account, a driving history and a clear sense of whether you want to stay.

If you do want to stay, you move into an ordinary temporary residency category. Here is how the main options compare with the nomad status.

Note the last column: residency brings rights and an obligation to contribute to social security, which for a family is a real monthly line item. In exchange you get access to the public health system and, more importantly, a clock that runs.

From there the sequence is: three years of temporary residency qualifies you for permanent residency, and naturalisation requires seven years of legal residence (five for nationals of Spain and Latin American countries) plus Spanish language and history exams. A separate route opens if a child is born in the country, since Costa Rica grants citizenship by birthplace - which changes the calculation for the parents. More on both on our residency by investment and citizenship by birth pages.

The practical conclusion: if the endgame is a passport, do not start with the nomad visa. Start with a residency category, because those two years are otherwise time you cannot get back.

Who this visa is wrong for, and what goes wrong

The section programme descriptions usually skip, and the one that matters most.

Look elsewhere if

• You want permanent residency or a passport. The category grants no credit toward either, and two years on it move you no closer.
• Any part of your income comes from Costa Rican clients, or you plan to take one on. That breaches the terms of the status outright.
• You are coming for less than three months. Most Western passports get a generous visa-free stay, and going through filings and policies for a short trip makes no sense.
• Your income lives in a company rather than in your own name. Corporate turnover, retained profit and money in a business account do not meet the threshold.
• You are a couple earning $2,000 each with no single applicant showing $4,000. The threshold is assessed at household level, but it has to be evidenced by the principal applicant, not by two separate careers added together.
• You earn in crypto without a banking trail. Nothing in the law forbids it, but proving it with 12 months of statements is close to impossible.

The usual failure points

• Travel insurance instead of health insurance. The single most common rejection. It has to be a medical policy, $50,000 minimum coverage, for the whole stay, from an international insurer or a SUGESE-authorised company.
• An underpaid fee. You send exactly $100, correspondent banks take their cut, less than $100 arrives, and the payment is not credited.
• Missing apostilles or unofficial translations. The translation must come from an official translator or the file is incomplete.
• Missing the three-month accreditation window. Approved, but you did not enter and complete biometrics in time, and the approval is cancelled.
• Falling short on physical presence. Too few days in the country and the renewal is refused, costing you the second year.
• Employer pushback. A compliance team can baulk at the unresolved permanent establishment question and simply refuse to let you work from Costa Rica.
• Budget shock. Coastal costs run well above the national averages, and health insurance premiums rise with age faster than most people plan for.

Benefits of the digital nomad visa

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