Charges Predicated on Individual Applicant:
Applicant: +13% Total:
$1,500.00 $195.00 $1,695.00
(Effective August 24th, 2025)
At Time of Start of Process:
Payable to: Costa Rica Immigration & Moving Experts:
Additional Costs with Explanation: Cost: +13% IVA SubTotal: Total:
1. Limited Power of Attorney:
2. Notarization of Passport:
3. Estimate Cost of Translation
of Documents:
4. Concierge Service Fee:
5. Total:
$165.00 $21.45 $186.45 $186.45
$40.00 $5.20 $45.20 $231.65
$200.00 $26.00 $226.00 $457.65
6. Immigration Application Fee:
7. Change of Status Fee:
8. Immigration Maintenance Fee:
9. Total:
Cost: +13% IVA SubTotal: Total:
Total if paid in Costa Rica: $1,695.00
Total if paid from OUTSIDE of Costa Rica: $1,500.00
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
These funds must be available prior to the start of the process at the Attorney's office.
$600.00 $78.00 $678.00 $1,135.65
$501.00
10. Costs applicable only at time that your status is approved. Not included in Section 1, 2 & 3 fees.
11. Security Deposit:
12. Dimex Creation Fee:
13. Two-years' Advanced Payment
for Status:
14. Total:
$1,135.65
$272.00
$360.00 N / A $360.00 $360.00
*Translation fees are predicated upon the number of words in the documents.
$43.00 N / A $43.00 $403.00
$205.00 N / A $205.00 $205.00
$55.00 N / A $55.00 $260.00
$12.00 N / A $12.00 $272.00
*These fees in Section 3 are to be paid directly by the client at The Bank of Costa Rica when here. We will take you to the bank and assist in the transactions.
Section 4
$98.00 N / A $98.00 $501.00
Cost: +13% IVA SubTotal: Total:
Section 5
15. This section pertains to the compulsory joining of the National Health Program (CCSS). We can provide addresses, contact numbers, etc. Premiums vary by amount of declared monthly income.
STEPS TAKEN ON BEHALF OF OUR CLIENTS
FOR A TYPICAL RESIDENCY APPLICATION, ALL THREE STATUSES
Our objective here at Costa Rica Immigration and Moving Experts is to ensure you have an expedient and pleasant experience throughout the complete process of obtaining the legal right to live and enjoy Costa Rica. Using our constantly-updated website, emails and WhatsApp, or even via phone, we ensure that there are no unanswered questions or unexplained solutions with regards to the obtaining of the required paperwork from your home country. We personally assist you with the creation and collection of all the local paperwork. Experience has proven that the better informed the prospect is, the more likely they will proceed with the Immigration process and, incidentally, more likely that they will use our services.
You will have all the documents obtained and Apostilled, or witnessed, depending on your home country, and ready for us to process them at Costa Rica Immigration.
Instructions as to how to obtain those documents are found on our webpage and on the same page, as you scroll down, you will find which documents have to be Apostilled.
Upon your arrival here in Costa Rica, yes, we can advise you of several choices for hotels, motels, etc.
1. We meet with you to review the documents and provide you with a receipt for those documents.
2. We take you to our lawyer, who creates the document required to enable us to represent you and your application at Immigration.
3. At that time, photos suitable to submit to Immigration are created and copies of the pages of your passport that are required by Immigration are made (these documents do not need to be translated).
4. We take you to the local branch of the Banco de Costa Rica where we will assist you with the payment of those items pertaining to Government fees. i.e., Immigration application fees, change of status fees, and Immigration site maintenance fees. Receipts for these documents must be submitted by us to Immigration as part of the application process.
5. We arrange to have your home country documents translated by an officially recognized and Immigration approved translator. These documents are added to the other documents waiting for submission to Immigration. Note: Immigration does not accept partial paperwork with the possible exception of your local fingerprints. Immigration is aware of the situation with the understaffing of the local police departments. They will accept copies of the fingerprints at the time of approval of the application.
6. We take you to be fingerprinted, if a suitable time for the appointment is not available we simply arrange for this step at the time Immigration approves your application.
7. At this stage of the application process, your physical presence is no longer required. Part of the paperwork created by the lawyer consists of a limited power of attorney, which allows us to represent your interests at Immigration.
8. Using the Limited P.O.A., we create:
a. the written formal request to Immigration as required, introducing you and members of your family as the clients.
b. Advise Immigration which type of legal status it is that you will be applying for.
c. Provides Immigration with a local contact, both via email and telephone, acting on your behalf, and conversing in Spanish which is of prime importance.
9. We request permission to submit the paperwork to Immigration.
10. We expect and typically receive permission to submit the documents within 5 working days.
11. We typically receive acknowledgment of acceptance of the application within the following 5 days.
12. With the acceptance of the paperwork, we are, acting on your behalf, provided with an official number called an Expediency Number. We provide you with a copy of the acceptance document plus the number, which officially denotes that you are no longer considered a tourist, but rather are a person(s) in the process of obtaining legal status. This means that as far as Immigration is concerned, you do not have to worry about overstaying your visa.
13. Upon Immigration advising us your application has been approved, we enter the follow-up stage. There is no reason for us to follow up on the application for the first 60 days. During this time, your application is going through the verification process. Your submitted documentation is to be checked at the document’s point of origin. After that time frame, the status of each client’s application is checked at Immigration as to the status of each file. A fine line between becoming a nuisance at Immigration or remaining a strong advocate for speedy processing for our client exists.
14. Upon our being advised that the application has been approved, the following two steps must be undertaken.
15. Step One is the payment of your:
a. Refundable security deposit for each person on the application.
b. Dimex creation fee for the person on the application.
c. A 2-year advance payment for status for each person on the application.
As we have no idea as to your address here in Costa Rica will be at that time, and based on the fact that Immigration allows the payment to be made at any of their branches throughout Costa Rica, we simply provide you with the address of the closest BCR branch and the appropriate account number to be used to deposit the funds. The receipts for these payments are to be provided to Immigration at the time your Dimex card is being issued.
16. Joining the CAJA, the national health system, is compulsory. As the offices in charge of interviews and applications, the CCSS, are located throughout Costa Rica, we can provide addresses, contact numbers, etc., and can provide you with an estimated monthly amount you can expect, but we simply cannot physically attend your appointment with the CCSS.
