Can you take your fiancée to the US? You are single and you fell in love after you moved to Costa Rica. Now you have to decide if you want to stay in Costa Rica to start a family or move with your partner to the US? You will find there are lots of reasons…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Are you a perpetual tourist in Costa Rica and stay legal by doing a 3-monthly border run? The ARCR has released useful information for those who do. Question: I´m a perpetual tourist and my visa is to expire soon or has already expired. Should I try to renew it? Our…
A participant in Christopher Howard’s Live in Costa Rica Tour asked me if Resident Registration of home address necessary in Costa Rica. Chris and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: great question! It’s really something I never thought about because home addresses are so messy here. It’s so bad, that if…
Do you want to try renting a house as a tourist in Costa Rica? It’s often hard to figure out what’s legal and what not when renting a house as a tourist. There are so many wrong ideas about it. Nathan wasn’t sure about a lot of things, so he decided to email me: Hello,…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Is it possible for a foreign build to start a construction company in Costa Rica? Yes, it is. But is it recommendable? I get so many people asking me if they can start a construction company in Costa Rica that I have decided to write a blog about it. So…
Can a surfer become a real estate agent in Costa Rica? It is vacation time again. After a couple of weeks of surfing and living on peanut butter sandwiches, who would want to abandon paradise? Usually, after such a vacation, nobody wants to go back home and thinks of making a living as a real…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes The landlord is now responsible for making sure the tenant is in the country legally. I don’t know how the Costa Rican government will be able to make this hard, but here it goes! A new article of the immigration law in Costa Rica obliges hotels, bed & breakfast and…
Living in Costa Rica on your tourist visa? The Costa Rican government has been working hard. Between Costa Rica Immigration Services and the CCSS, the Costa Rican government has been trying to control the flow of illegal Nicaraguans into the country because so many of them work illegally. Many employers who hire them don’t register…
I have my real estate license in Michigan, so I know what I’m doing”. I’m sorry but you don’t, at least not in Costa Rica. The US doesn’t have a nationwide real estate license either. Costa Rica is another country with a different language and very different rules than the US. Real estate licensing is…
Is it easy to renew a driver’s license if you don’t have legal residency in Costa Rica? In the past, just about anyone (residents and non-residents alike) could get a driver’s license in Costa Rica. Once it expired, it was easy to get a renewal. But, last year, everything changed. The government announced that new…
Renewing your tourist visa and having fun is quite easy. My mom has been staying with us since November, so we knew that around February we should leave the country for her 72 hours out. This border run is necessary for renewing your tourist visa. I am a resident of Costa Rica, so have never had…
Ever tried to get an authenticated marriage certificate from your home country? Well, I had to, and here is the story. Last week, I told you about the renovation of my Caja carnet in Costa Rica and the need for delivering an authenticated marriage certificate from my home country, Canada. I have found a way of obtaining…
See how Paula gets a new Caja carnet. Paula is a Canadian who moved to Costa Rica with her husband quite a few years ago. The Easy Times has had numerous requests from readers to help find a solution to the problem of getting or renewing the Caja carnet. The Caja carnet is necessary to…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Obtain Costa Rica residency through your real estate purchase. You can buy a property anywhere in Costa Rica, live in it, and use the purchase as an investment to apply for your Costa Rica residency. In January of 2011, the government published the proposed regulation to the Immigration law and…
Are you a perpetual tourist but planning on formal immigration to Costa Rica? Expats in Costa Rica seeking to regularize their migratory condition should take the opportunity the Costa Rican Government is currently offering, for a limited time only. The Costa Rica Immigration Department based on four transitory articles included in the latest Bylaws to the…
Did you know that resident expats have a mandatory registration with Social Security? When you move to Costa Rica, legal residency should be on the top of your list and this article can be of great help to your immigration due diligence. Any foreign resident in Costa Rica that wants to obtain or renew their…