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I am in Florida and have recently retired. I have visited Costa Rica just 3 times, via Cruising. I have heard many good things about living there. With the real estate market in Fl and other states, I am seriously thinking of moving to CR and giving up my house in Fl. I am not ready to buy, but considering a long term lease or rental. 6-9 months to see the lay of the land. I also have 2 dogs. What are the rules on bringing them into country?
I am a healthy 66 year old, and am content to live pretty quietly. I do not speak Spanish, but of course willing to learn.
My income is basically SS and have no desire to really work. No need for gardening or housekeeping help. I am ok with local food, fruits and veggies. But an occassional English speaking person would be nice.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Susie Q
I’m assuming a cruise ship doesn’t allow you too much time in Costa Rica Susie so a good long trip where you rent a property to see it for yourself (BEFORE giving up your house) is certainly a good idea…
We’ve got over 3,000 articles on this site Susie and tens of thousands of discussion forum threads.
The questions you are asking a very common – it’s easy to bring in your dogs – so please try to search the articles as well as the discussion forum (TWO DIFFERENT search engines) for your keywords like “pets” and you should find enough reading to keep you busy ’till Sunday …
Good luck
Scott
we have also thought of renting before we settle down in CR..
and true that the forum has answered your questions but i have one that i cannnot find an answer
if we want to rent long term, how do we do that if you can only stay max 3months?????
do we have to leave for 72 hrs each quarter? that would be a hardship if we had to
any suggestions
deniseA tourist will be granted a visa for a maximum of ninety days. Subsequent visas may be for a shorter time, so be warned. You need only leave Costa Rica for a brief time — maybe an hour or two — to be granted a new tourist visa.
The right approach, of course, if you plan to be here long term, is to apply for whatever status of legal residency for which you qualify. Once Immigration has accepted your residency application for processing, you need no longer leave the country when your tourist visa expires.
And “leaving the country” need only consist of taking the bus up to the Pacific coast of Nicaragua for the turn around. If you choose to stay for two nights to fulfill the 72 hours, hotels there have packages just for that. Try Google.
David, are you saying you know folks that are just going across the border, having a beer and then coming back in?? We are hearing that some passports are being stamped for shorter periods.
Also, as a response to the original poster, it can be VERY hard to live in Costa Rica on Social Security alone. Search the Forum for detailed discussions of this topic.
it really depends on what you get on SS. if it’s below $1000, it’s going to be a struggle, esp if you have to pay rent of $350 – $500, plus utilities. i know a lot of people who own their homes outright and live quite well on what they get from SS, but you ain’t gonna live a fancy lifestyle but then most of us didn’t come here for that anyway. Having a car is a huge expense. I’ve been here 6 years and I still don’t have one — taking taxis and the bus (which i do for free on the local lines) is a whole lot cheaper and easier for me. your lifestyle will dictate how much you spend and where you wind up living. Also, if you need to have all the packaged food imported from the States, you are not going to have a grocery bill of $30 – $50 a week, but more like $80 a week or higher.
[quote=”sueandchris”]
David, are you saying you know folks that are just going across the border, having a beer and then coming back in?? We are hearing that some passports are being stamped for shorter periods.
[/quote]Chris, the “72 Hour Rule” has to do with qualifying for the $500 (or maybe it’s $1,000) exemption from import duty. It has no applicability whatsoever to obtaining a new tourist visa. It is a common misunderstanding that a tourist must be outside Costa Rica for 72 hours in order to qualify for a new tourist visa. S/he need only cross the border and then re-enter.
And yes, elsewhere it has been reliably reported that some re-entering “tourists” are being granted new tourist visas for as little as thirty days if they cannot demonstrate that they are in the process of applying for legal residency.
Taken as a whole, the Costa Rican law is quite clear in that the intention is that those who live in Costa Rica long-term be legal residents and not perpetual tourists. Were that not the case, why would the law even make provision for legal residency with the various requirements of the various types? Why not just give every arriving foreigner an open ended tourist visa?
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