Costa Rica — Residency

Costa Rica Investor Residency (Inversionista)

Processing time: 3–6 months
Physical presence: Temporary residence is granted for two years and renewed as long as the investment is kept. There is no heavy stay to maintain it, but you must visit at least once a year; permanent residence follows after three years, and citizenship after seven years of continuous legal residence.
Family: Spouse, dependent children and dependent parents can be included with the main applicant.

See the investment routes and what each one really costs →

Limits and drawbacks

The pricing is in flux: the reduced 150,000 USD threshold under Law 9996 expired on 14 July 2026, and unless the Assembly renewed it, the minimum is 200,000 USD. Confirm the current figure with the DGME before committing.
This is residency, not citizenship. Naturalisation comes only after seven years of continuous legal residence — one of the longer horizons in the region.
The investment must be kept for the whole of your temporary residency; disposing of it early can end your status.
Costa Rica is a lifestyle and territorial-tax base, not a fast or cheap passport; judge it on that.

What it gets you

Territorial tax: foreign-source income is not taxed in Costa Rica
No inheritance tax and no wealth tax
A stable democracy with a well-known lifestyle draw
A forestry route from 100,000 USD for national-interest projects

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What we do for you

Citizenship or residence, the honest answer often is not the one you arrived with. We take the whole procedure with you — eligibility, the route that fits your situation, the file, the follow-up — with one person on your side throughout.

For Costa Rica specifically, you are talking to someone who already knows the file: who to speak to on the ground, what the unit actually asks for, and the points where applications stall.

One point of contact, from the first call to the certificate
Vetted partners on the ground — law firms, licensed agents, banks — introduced, not listed
It starts with a short qualifying call, and no, it is not a sales call

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