Costa Rica.
How Costa Rica sells residence for investors (golden visa): one programme, open today. Every number and rule below links to the document it comes from.
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- numbers
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- prices and rules
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- events
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- documents and articles
Temporary investor residence
Sells the right to live in the country (a “golden visa”), sometimes leading to citizenship later.
Official name: Costa Rica temporary residence as investor (residencia temporal, categoría inversionista: Ley General de Migración y Extranjería 8764 art. 79; Reglamento de Extranjería arts. 87-93; Ley 9996)
US$150,000 under Ley 9996, in force 14 Jul 2021. Caveat: the law sets this amount 'for the period set by this law', and its benefits ran only five years (to about July 2026). It is unresolved whether the minimum has gone back to US$200,000 (t-39ca44e5c4) since then. Investment can be in real estate, shares, securities, productive projects and other assets.
Notes from the research
Temporary residence for a foreigner who invests at least US$200,000 (Reglamento de Extranjería 2012, art. 87) in real estate, registrable goods, shares, securities, productive projects or projects of national interest; Ley 9996 (in force 14 July 2021) set a new minimum of US$150,000 "for the period set by this law", added venture capital funds and sustainable tourism projects, and gave tax and import exemptions that could be claimed only in the first five years (to July 2026). Whether the US$150,000 threshold continues after July 2026 is unclear from the law's wording; not resolved in this pass. Run by the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME). No official counts found. Launch date of the investor category before the 2012 regulation not checked.
Prices and rules
What is measured
No published numbers found for this programme. That is itself worth knowing: see the notes and the documents below.
What happened, and when
The 2 documents behind this page
- 2021-07 · Law or regulationLa Gaceta No. 135, 14 de julio de 2021: Ley No. 9996, Ley para la atracción de inversionistas, rentistas y pensionados · Imprenta Nacional, Costa Rica
- 2012-05 · Law or regulationReglamento de Extranjería, Decreto Ejecutivo No. 37112-GOB (Alcance 64 a La Gaceta 95, 17 de mayo de 2012) · Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (normativa compilation)
Who buys passports and golden visas, what they cost, and what happens when governments change the rules. Written from this data, in the newsletter.