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I am 61 years young. Several of my galfriends are researching relocating outside the USA and forming a “loose” communal space where can can support each other and have a business or two. Each of us has been a professional adn need some information. Please can you give us some places to educate ourselves? Gracias.
This is a very big, open ended question… Can you perhaps be more specific?
Do you speak Spanish? Or are you planning on doing business only with English speaking people? What area are you considering? And sort of previous business experience do you have?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAll of a sudden, I am reading more and more articles about American companies and individuals looking to relocate outside of the U.S., many to Costa Rica. New economic pressures on businesses in the States and now Europe to find cheaper labor and Boomer retirees to find cheaper places to live seems to be causing a crescendo of inquiries. Those who wanted to stay ahead of the crowd in this movement may have already missed the boat for the best real estate opportunities.
Edited on Jul 13, 2008 08:29
There will be real estate investment opportunities in Costa Rica for many years to come…
Later this year I will start writing some articles about the new vacation home that I will be building en el campo (in the country) and we’ll show how simple and how affordable it still is to build a comfortable cypress wood home. Admittedly a wood home in the country is not everybody’s cup of tea, but what home is?
We close on the land next month – 5,000M2 – and we’ll start from there…
It will be similar to the vacation home I built a short while ago which you can see at [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1635.cfm ] I LOVED that place…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI will be eagerly looking forward to those articles!
I don’t doubt there will be real estate investment opportunities in Costa Rica for years to come but I have the impression that the easy money has already been made and the best deals for land purchases have come and gone till the next cycle. It would be interesting to know how the demographics might be changing right now with foreign real estate investors in Costa Rica.There has been no mention of the fact that it is ‘illegal to work here’, unless one has permanent residency which can take 4-5 years! Yes, you can own and manage a business, but cannot perform the actual work yourself.
Hi Scott, Yes it is a very broad question and your response made so much sense. Most of “the group” have owned a company or worked in the corporate world. I ownwed a title company for years and Patti has an accounting background and ran a B and B herself as well. We don’t speak Spanish ans are remedying that now.
The two areas we are perusing at the moment is a small B and B and a food stand that specializes in gourmet hot dogs …. not your run of the mill Americana fare.This thought is in the infant stages and I just read the last message indicating the permanenet residency issues. Our goal is to be able to afford a relaxed lifestyle in a beautiful location as we love the outdoors and have a great deal of artistic abilities between all if us. I am a Body Talk practitioner and plan to practice there. I will continue to research and so much appreciate all that you do Thanks.
Thank you for that information.. I am researching and gleaning information from all different sources and thank you for that important info. To date, I had not seen these requirements anywhere.
PLEASE SEARCH FORUM AND LOOK FOR ANYTHING TO WITH WORKING OR WORK IN COSTA RICA OR JOBS IN COSTA RICA
Dreams are good ceebula and I don’t want to be a dream stealer but dreams are not necessarily connected with the legal and bureaucratic reality on the ground.
1. The people that I know who have successful B&Bs (and there’s a Canadian guy that owns a popular hot dog stands in Escazu), do NOT have a “a relaxed lifestyle.” They work very, very hard and very, very long hours.
2. You can own a business here and employ people – with all the complications involved but working here is a lot more complicated.
3. “If” you can speak Spanish and “if” you have truly unique skills and “if” you can compete with other experienced Spanish speaking professionals who would probably work for $400 per month full time then “maybe” they would give you a work permit after applying for and getting the correct residency status which would probably take at least a year.
4. A good way to approach this would be to assume that it’s as difficult for you to work here legally as it would be for a Costa Rican who decided to move to the USA and just start working.
5. And please do not consider working here illegally, all it takes is one phone call from a jealous competitor and a visit by the immigration police and you could be directly on your way to the airport. And yes! It happens.
Best wishes
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comNot sure my information is up to date but some friends came from France to buy a B&B 5 years ago. They then applied for residency as Inversionistas. The process took about 1 1/2 year but in the mean time, they had a temporary cedula and they could stay in the country and operate their business legally. Back then I think the minimum investment was around 100 000$, now I don’t know what it would be.
Good luck
JoRegardless of which residency status you apply for, once Immigration formally accepts your application, you are no longer in a “tourist” status and you do not need to leave Costa Rica for seventy-two hours every ninety days. Once your application is accepted, your attorney can give you a document that verifies that fact.
I think I know that the amount of investment required to qualify for inversionista residency status varies with the type of endeavor you commit to invest in.
Minuit, it is perfectly legal to ‘own and manage a B&B’ no matter what your residency status is, it is the working at it, ie, serving, cooking, cleaning, bookkeeping, etc that is the illegal part. Unless this law has changed since then.
*You cannot operate the ‘Body Talk practice’ either, until you have permanent status. You can own, but not teach or perform any hands on help.
Hola CrFinca,
In the example I gave, my friends were permitted to serve, clean, cook etc. I think you are right when one asks for a pensionado o rentista residency, they are not permitted to work, but in the case of inversionista, I think it is legal. But as I said, I’m not an expert.
Jo
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