How long does temporary residency in Costa Rica last?

It authorizes a stay longer than 90 days and up to two years, renewable for equal periods. However, renewal depends on the basis of the original grant still being in place, so it is verified rather than automatic.

How much do I need to invest for investor residency in 2026?

For applications filed from 15 July 2026 onward, the minimum is USD 200,000 under Article 87 of Ley 8764, because Ley 9996 and its reduced USD 150,000 threshold expired on 14 July 2026. Applications submitted while that law was in force are nevertheless resolved under its terms and keep the reduced threshold and associated benefits for ten years from the grant date.

Can I work in Costa Rica with temporary residency?

It depends entirely on the subcategory. Pensionado and rentista holders cannot work as employees, whereas categories tied to employment or a corporate role can, but only once the application has an approved resolution. Therefore work intentions must shape the category choice from the outset.

Why was my criminal record certificate rejected?

Most commonly because it covered only a state or province rather than the entire national territory. Applicants from countries with both local and federal criminal jurisdictions need a certification covering the whole country, generally by name, identification number and fingerprint where records are issued that way.

Do I have to leave Costa Rica every 90 days while my application is processed?

No. After filing, the immigration department issues a hoja de trámite that allows you to remain lawfully while the file is reviewed. Note, however, that it authorizes your presence only, not employment.

How long does the process take?

In our experience, applications tied to a company registered as a recognized employer with immigration commonly run two to three months, while those without that registration more often take five to six. Above all, file quality is what applicants actually control, since rejections restart the process entirely.

Can my spouse and children be included?

Yes, by proving the relationship with an apostilled marriage certificate and birth certificates translated into Spanish. Bear in mind that each dependent generates a separate documentary chain with its own validity window, and all of them must be current on the filing date.

When can I apply for permanent residency?

Generally after holding temporary residency for the period required by law — three years in the investor category, for example. Nevertheless, eligibility also depends on your immigration history, so gaps caused by late renewals become relevant at that stage.

Temporary Residency in Costa Rica: 2026 Requirements

Temporary Residency in Costa Rica: Categories, Requirements and Process in 2026

Temporary residency in Costa Rica is not one permit but twelve legal subcategories, each tied to a different profile — investor, pensioner, executive, specialized employee, athlete, spouse of a Costa Rican national, and others. Every subcategory shares a common documentary core, and then adds its own specific evidence. Because an incomplete file is rejected outright rather than held open for correction, the category analysis has to happen before a single certificate is ordered. This guide sets out the subcategories, what each one demands, and where applications most often fail.

Quick Take

Temporary residency authorizes a stay longer than 90 days and up to two years, renewable for equal periods while the underlying basis holds.
There are twelve subcategories. The one you file under determines your evidence, your work rights and your route to permanent status.
Important 2026 update: Ley 9996 expired on 14 July 2026 without extension. The investor minimum returned to USD 200,000 (Art. 87, Ley 8764) for new applications filed from 15 July 2026 onward.
Once your file is submitted you receive a hoja de trámite, so you no longer need to exit the country every 90 days while it is under review.
Documents issued abroad must be apostilled or legalized, translated into Spanish, and are generally expected to have been issued within the previous six months.

By Sergio Monge Astúa

Senior Associate · Immigration Law

Updated: August 7, 2026
Area: Immigration · Temporary Residency

Why this source

AG Legal is listed on the List of Attorneys published by the U.S. Embassy in San José for the Costa Rican consular district. The firm also appears in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office directory of English-speaking lawyers in Costa Rica maintained for British nationals.

Both governments state clearly that inclusion on these lists is not an endorsement or recommendation. They are directories of counsel available to assist their nationals abroad.

What this guide covers

What temporary residency in Costa Rica actually grants
The twelve subcategories
General requirements for every category
Category-specific evidence
Investor category and the 2026 threshold change
Pensionado category
Do you still have to leave every 90 days?
Including a spouse and children
DIMEX renewal after approval
Where applications most often fail
Our service: filing and follow-up
Frequently asked questions

What temporary residency in Costa Rica actually grants

Costa Rican immigration authorities grant temporary residency as an authorization of entry and stay for a defined period — longer than 90 days and up to two years — renewable for equal periods provided the basis of the original grant still holds. That last condition is easy to overlook. Renewal is not automatic, and it is verified against the same facts that supported the initial application.

Consequently, temporary residency is best understood as a status with ongoing conditions rather than a one-off permission. Each subcategory attaches its own limits, particularly regarding local employment. Several categories do not permit working for a Costa Rican employer at all, and filing under one of them while intending to work locally creates a problem that is difficult to fix afterwards.

The twelve subcategories of temporary residency

Costa Rican law organizes temporary residence around the condition under which the person will live in the country. In practice, these are the recognized subcategories:

Scientists, professionals, interns and their dependents
Correspondents and news agency personnel and their dependents
Athletes and their dependents
Executives, representatives, managers, managerial and technical personnel and their dependents
Self-employed specialized workers and their dependents
Specialized employees in a dependency relationship and their dependents
Investors and their dependents
Pensioners and their dependents
Religious workers and their dependents
Annuitants (rentistas) and their dependents
Specialized technicians and their dependents
Spouses of Costa Rican nationals

Several profiles could plausibly fit more than one of these. An engineer relocating with a local employer, for instance, might qualify as a specialized employee or as a technician, and the two paths carry different evidence burdens. Therefore the choice is a strategic one, not merely descriptive.

General requirements for every category

The common documentary core

Regardless of subcategory, applications generally require the formal application for legal permanence, proof of payment of the corresponding fiscal stamps, two passport-size photographs, a birth certificate from the country of origin duly legalized or apostilled, a criminal record certificate, a photocopy of every page of a valid passport, proof of economic solvency issued by a competent authority, and proof of consular registration.

In addition, the process carries government fees, currently understood to be USD 50 for the application itself, payable in colones. Applicants who entered as tourists and wish to change category are generally required to deposit a further USD 200 on the same basis.

The criminal record trap for federal systems

Applicants from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other countries with both local and federal criminal jurisdictions face a stricter standard. The certification must cover the entire national territory, which typically means a check by name, identification number and fingerprint where the country issues records that way. A state-level or county-level certificate alone will not satisfy this requirement, and this is one of the most frequent causes of rejection among North American applicants.

Similarly, the certificate must cover the country where the applicant has legally resided for the last three years, which is not always the country of citizenship. For US documents specifically, apostilles for federal and state records are processed by different offices; the US Department of State’s apostille requirements explain which route applies to each.

The six-month window

Documents issued abroad are generally expected to have been issued within the six months preceding the application. As a result, sequencing matters enormously. Ordering an FBI check first and then spending four months gathering the remaining evidence usually means re-ordering and re-apostilling it. We plan the order of acquisition backwards from the intended filing date for exactly this reason.

Category-specific evidence

Beyond the common core, the immigration officer verifies the defining requirement of the chosen category. Depending on which one applies, that may include employment contracts, a sworn statement from the hiring employer, certification of the worker’s qualifications and experience, corporate certifications together with a letter explaining the reason for the hire signed by the legal representative, or a statement specifying the specialized functions and knowledge the position demands.

Other categories call for different proof entirely. Athletes require certification from the National Council of Sports and Recreation, or from the public or private entity holding national representation of the sport. Applicants relying on income must generally provide certification prepared by a Certified Public Accountant along with a balance sheet.

Investor category and the 2026 threshold change

Update: the investor minimum changed in July 2026

Ley N.° 9996 and its regulation (Decreto N.° 43926-MGP-H-TUR) expired on 14 July 2026 without legislative extension. The reduced investor threshold of USD 150,000 that applied under that law is therefore no longer available for new filings. From 15 July 2026 onward, the minimum reverts to USD 200,000 under Article 87 of Ley 8764.

Transitional rule: applications filed while Ley 9996 was in force are resolved under its terms. Those applicants keep the USD 150,000 threshold and the associated tax benefits for ten years from the date the status was granted.

An investment may qualify through real estate, shares, or an operating business, and reduced thresholds have historically applied to certain forestry and reforestation projects under a separate legal regime. Because that regime is distinct from the general rule, anyone considering it should have the specific figure confirmed against current law before committing capital.

Approval is granted for two years and renewed for equal periods, provided the investment that supported it is maintained. After three years of temporary residency, an investor generally becomes eligible to apply for permanent residence. For how a qualifying investment is structured and evidenced in practice, see our guide to residency by investment in Costa Rica.

Pensionado category

The pensionado subcategory is open to foreign nationals receiving a lifetime pension or retirement income of at least USD 1,000 per month. That income may come from a government programme such as US Social Security, or from an independent source such as a union or a private company pension scheme.

The central piece of evidence is a letter from the pension provider itself, confirming that the applicant receives at least USD 1,000 monthly for life. Notably, the letter must be issued by the provider — a bank statement showing deposits arriving does not substitute for it, and this substitution is a common reason files are returned. Holders of this category cannot legally work as employees in Costa Rica, although they may own and receive income from a Costa Rican company.

Do you still have to leave every 90 days?

No. Once your application is filed, the immigration department issues a hoja de trámite, which allows you to remain in Costa Rica lawfully while the file is under review. In other words, you are no longer dependent on tourist entries and border runs from the moment of filing.

There is an important limit, however. If you are applying as an executive or as part of a company, you may only begin working or be registered with Costa Rican social security once the application has an approved resolution. The hoja de trámite permits your presence in the country; it does not authorize work.

Processing time varies considerably with the employer’s status. In our experience, when the hiring company is registered as a recognized company with immigration, the process commonly runs two to three months. When it is not, five to six months is a more realistic expectation.

Including a spouse and children

Dependents are added by proving the relationship. That means the marriage certificate and the children’s birth certificates, duly legalized or apostilled and translated into Spanish, in addition to the general requirements. Applications for minor children must be made by their parents.

Families routinely underestimate this. Each dependent generates their own documentary chain with its own validity window, and every one of those documents has to be current at the moment of filing. A family of four is not one file with attachments; in practical terms it is four parallel document-gathering processes that must converge on the same date.

DIMEX renewal after approval

Approval produces the DIMEX, the identification document for foreign nationals in Costa Rica. Above all, remember that it must be renewed — within 30 days of expiry — and that late renewal generates a monthly fine as well as a gap in your immigration record.

That gap is the part worth taking seriously. Fines are recoverable; a discontinuity in your legal status is examined years later when you apply for permanent residency. Our guide on DIMEX renewal in Costa Rica covers the procedure in detail.

Where applications most often fail

A partial criminal record certificate. Applicants from federal systems submit a state-level check that does not cover the whole national territory.
Documents ordered out of sequence. The earliest certificate expires before the last one arrives, and the cycle restarts.
Proof of income that is not from the source itself. Bank statements substituted for a pension provider’s letter, for example.
A category that does not match the intention. Filing under a non-working category while planning to take local employment.
Assuming the hoja de trámite authorizes work. It authorizes presence in the country, nothing more.
Treating renewal as a formality. The basis of the original grant is verified again at each renewal.

Important note: This article is general information about temporary residency in Costa Rica, not legal advice for a specific case. Requirements, fees and evidence formats are set by the immigration authority and change over time. Speak with our immigration team before filing or committing funds based on this content.

Our service: filing and follow-up

AG Legal has served corporations and foreign nationals settling in Costa Rica for more than 25 years. For international clients specifically, the practical relevance of our inclusion on the U.S. Embassy’s List of Attorneys is that it is where the consular section points US citizens who need local counsel. We hold the equivalent listing in the FCDO directory of English-speaking lawyers in Costa Rica for British nationals. Neither listing is a government endorsement, and both say so explicitly.

Our work on temporary residency files typically covers:

Subcategory analysis and eligibility assessment before any certificate is ordered.
Document sequencing, so that validity windows overlap rather than expire.
Apostille and official translation management for documents issued abroad.
Filing before the immigration authority and follow-up through to DIMEX issuance.
Renewal calendars and the eventual permanent residency application.

Filings are made before the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, which publishes current procedural requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Categories and requirements

How long does temporary residency in Costa Rica last?: It authorizes a stay longer than 90 days and up to two years, renewable for equal periods. However, renewal depends on the basis of the original grant still being in place, so it is verified rather than automatic.
How much do I need to invest for investor residency in 2026?: For applications filed from 15 July 2026 onward, the minimum is USD 200,000 under Article 87 of Ley 8764, because Ley 9996 and its reduced USD 150,000 threshold expired on 14 July 2026. Applications submitted while that law was in force are nevertheless resolved under its terms and keep the reduced threshold and associated benefits for ten years from the grant date.
Can I work in Costa Rica with temporary residency?: It depends entirely on the subcategory. Pensionado and rentista holders cannot work as employees, whereas categories tied to employment or a corporate role can, but only once the application has an approved resolution. Therefore work intentions must shape the category choice from the outset.
Why was my criminal record certificate rejected?: Most commonly because it covered only a state or province rather than the entire national territory. Applicants from countries with both local and federal criminal jurisdictions need a certification covering the whole country, generally by name, identification number and fingerprint where records are issued that way.

Process, family and renewals

Do I have to leave Costa Rica every 90 days while my application is processed?: No. After filing, the immigration department issues a hoja de trámite that allows you to remain lawfully while the file is reviewed. Note, however, that it authorizes your presence only, not employment.
How long does the process take?: In our experience, applications tied to a company registered as a recognized employer with immigration commonly run two to three months, while those without that registration more often take five to six. Above all, file quality is what applicants actually control, since rejections restart the process entirely.
Can my spouse and children be included?: Yes, by proving the relationship with an apostilled marriage certificate and birth certificates translated into Spanish. Bear in mind that each dependent generates a separate documentary chain with its own validity window, and all of them must be current on the filing date.
When can I apply for permanent residency?: Generally after holding temporary residency for the period required by law — three years in the investor category, for example. Nevertheless, eligibility also depends on your immigration history, so gaps caused by late renewals become relevant at that stage.

Filing for temporary residency in Costa Rica?

We identify the right subcategory and sequence your documents so nothing expires before the file is complete.

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