Americas · Move Kit
🇨🇷 The Costa Rica Move Kit
Pick the right visa, the right town, and the exact papers — before you book a flight.
A step-by-step move plan for Costa Rica built around the three routes actually on file: the Digital Nomad Visa (Estancia / Rentista remota) at about $3,000/mo income and a $100 fee, the Pensionado retirement residency at about $1,000/mo guaranteed lifetime pension, and the under-used Student Temporary Stay. Includes real monthly budgets for Puerto Viejo, Atenas, San José and Tamarindo, a document checklist that turns "proof of income" into something you can actually produce, a first-30-days order of operations, and the CCSS healthcare obligation most guides skip. Every figure is sourced, and every official link is printed so you can check us.
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What's inside
Which route is yours
Nomad, Pensionado and Student compared honestly — including who should not bother with each.
Where to live on your budget
All four cities on file with real monthly totals, internet speed, safety score and the trade-off each one makes.
The money, broken down
Rent, food, transport and coworking line by line, and which line you can actually move.
What you have to produce
The document checklist per route — what "proof of income" and "apostilled" really mean in practice.
The first 30 days
Ordered arrival plan, with what blocks what.
Tax, healthcare and verifying it yourself
The CCSS obligation, the tax exemption on file, the gaps we have not verified, and every official URL.
Read before you buy
Free chapter: The first 30 days
The complete chapter, exactly as it appears in the Costa Rica Move Kit. Open it on its own page
Ordered, because several of these block each other.
Before you get on the plane (this is still day one). Your criminal record and pension or income letters must be obtained and apostilled at home. You cannot practically fix an apostille from a beach town. Book a one-way or flexible flight (Aviasales, Trip.com), book four weeks of accommodation rather than twelve months of lease (Travala), and buy travel insurance that covers the flight itself (Travelex) as well as the medical policy your visa file needs. If your inbound flight gets cancelled or badly delayed, AirHelp handles the claim so you're not doing paperwork on arrival day.
Days 1–3: land soft. Arrange the airport transfer in advance (Welcome Pickups) — arriving at a foreign airport after a long flight is the worst moment to negotiate. If you're viewing flats the same day, park your bags with Bounce or LuggageHero rather than dragging them through appointments. Get a local SIM at the airport or the first proper shop you pass; almost everything below needs a local number.
Days 3–7: connectivity and money. Test your actual internet speed wherever you're staying, at the hour you actually work — the city figures on file (~60 Mbps Puerto Viejo, ~80 San José, ~90 Atenas, ~120 Tamarindo) are averages, and your building is not an average. Get your Wise account working with a local top-up route so you're not paying card fees on everything. Buy a coworking day pass before a monthly one.
Days 7–14: file, or prepare to file. If you're on the nomad route, your file should already be complete — processing is 1–3 months, and that clock only starts once it's in. If you're on Pensionado, the same logic applies harder: 3–9 months processing means every week you sit on an incomplete file is a week added to the end. Get to San José for anything that needs to be done in person; that's one reason to base your first month there whatever town you've fallen for.
What blocks what, plainly:
- No apostilled criminal record → no Pensionado file. This is the long pole; start it first.
- No medical insurance certificate → incomplete nomad file.
- No proof of enrolment → no student stay. Course acceptance comes before everything else on that route.
- No local address and phone number → almost every subsequent errand is harder.
- For Pensionado, CCSS registration is part of the route, so budget for the contribution as soon as you have status — not later.
Days 14–30: sign nothing you'll regret. Only now look at twelve-month leases, and only in a neighbourhood you have slept in on a weeknight. Rent on file runs $650 (Puerto Viejo) to $900 (San José, Tamarindo); if you're being quoted far above that, you're being quoted the foreigner price. Ask what utilities cost in the hottest month — air conditioning is the line that breaks tropical budgets. If you're settling somewhere remote like Puerto Viejo, this is also the week to sort medical evacuation cover (Medjet), because the time to arrange it is not the day you need it.
One note on kit: the nomad route carries an import duty exemption on work equipment, which is a real benefit if you're bringing a full setup. Bring the receipts and the boxes' documentation, and confirm the procedure with Migración — an exemption you can't evidence is not an exemption.
That's one of 7 chapters — get the full Move Kit.
Get the full kit — $49Still deciding? The free Costa Rica guide covers every visa route, living costs by city and safety.
Visa rules change often and official sources can conflict. This is AI-assembled research, not legal or immigration advice — always verify with the official link before you act. Full disclaimer
The full Costa Rica plan is locked
Unlock the visa playbook, taxes, healthcare, city picks, the first-30-days checklist and the templates.
Get set up for Costa Rica
The tools we use for every move — insurance, money, connectivity and more.
Bounce — luggage storage
Drop your bags at 15,000+ spots worldwide between check-out and your next move.
Solis (SIMO) Go Hotspot
Global 4G/5G pocket Wi‑Fi with pay‑as‑you‑go data in 140+ countries — the flagship "always connected" device.
Nomad travel gear
Passport holders, packing cubes, and the carry-on jacket that swallows a wardrobe.
SafetyWing — nomad insurance
Health + travel cover built for people who live abroad. Monthly, cancel anytime.
Insubuy
Compare travel-medical and expat health plans, including the long-stay policies visa applications ask you to prove. Useful before you file, not just before you fly.
AirHelp — delayed or cancelled flight?
Claims compensation for delayed, cancelled or overbooked flights. No win, no fee. Worth knowing when you fly as often as nomads do.
Travelex — trip insurance
Trip cancellation, interruption and baggage cover for the moving-day flights, where a missed connection costs real money.
Welcome Pickups — airport transfer
A local driver meets you at arrivals with your name on a sign, at a fixed price. The single easiest thing to get right on day one in a new country.
LuggageHero — luggage storage
Store bags by the hour or day in shops and cafes across Europe and North America — for the gap between one lease ending and the next starting.
Aviasales — flight search
Searches hundreds of airlines and agencies at once, including the budget carriers the big sites miss. Good for one-way and open-jaw routes.
Trip.com — flights & hotels
Particularly strong across Asia, where the Western booking sites are often more expensive or miss carriers entirely.
Travala — stays, pay your way
Hotels and apartments worldwide, with crypto accepted alongside cards — handy when your money lives in more than one place.
Travel Freely — track your points
Free tool that tracks credit-card sign-up bonuses and annual-fee dates across every card you hold, so points fund the flights.
Allianz Travel Insurance — trip protection
Trip cancellation, travel medical and baggage cover from Allianz, bought through a licensed travel agency's storefront. Check each plan's terms — plans are sold to US residents.
Medjet (medical evacuation)
Air‑medical transport + evacuation membership — if you're hospitalized 150+ mi from home, get moved to the hospital of YOUR choice. Not travel‑medical insurance; it pairs with it.
NEXT Insurance — business insurance for freelancers
Online small-business insurance — general and professional liability, errors & omissions, equipment — for US-based freelancers and one-person LLCs who keep working while they travel. Quotes in minutes; US businesses only.
NordVPN — stay secure
Public-wifi safety, and reach your home services from anywhere.
TravelFun.Biz — earn 25% sharing travel
Travel creators on TikTok, Instagram or a blog earn 25% on every sale they refer to the TravelFun host travel agency and agent training. Free to join, 365-day cookie, paid within 30 days of the sale. Earnings aren't guaranteed.
GetYourGuide
Tours, day trips and skip-the-line tickets in your new city.
Viator
Large tour and activity marketplace, useful for the first weeks of exploring.
Tours By Locals — private local guides
Private guides who actually live there — good for orientation in a city you have just moved to.
Tiqets — museums & attractions
Instant mobile tickets for museums and attractions.
EconomyBookings — car hire
Car rental comparison, for the stretch before you sort local transport.
BikesBooking — scooter & bike rental
Scooter and motorbike rental, the default way to get around much of Southeast Asia.
Busbud — intercity buses
Intercity bus tickets across 80+ countries — usually the cheapest way between nearby cities.
Project Expedition — tours & excursions
Curated tours and excursions worldwide.
Rocket Lawyer
On‑demand legal documents, business formation (LLC), and attorney Q&A — useful for nomads setting up a base or a business.
Booking.com
Hotels + apartments worldwide; the default lodging affiliate.
Some links are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only list tools we'd use ourselves.
Questions
Can I work for Costa Rican clients on any of these routes?
On the Digital Nomad Visa, our file says local work is allowed — but the category is built around stable foreign remote income of about $3,000/month and an exemption on foreign earnings, so confirm the exact scope with Migración before you sign a local contract. The Pensionado route does not permit local work. The Student Temporary Stay does not permit local work. Those last two are not grey areas.
My retirement income is $2,500/month from investments, not a pension. Do I qualify for Pensionado?
Probably not as written. The requirement on file is a guaranteed lifetime pension of about US$1,000/month — the guarantee and the lifetime are the qualifying features, not the amount. Drawdown portfolios, rental income and savings are income but not a lifetime pension. Ask Migración which category fits your situation before you pay for a single apostille.
What does the whole move actually cost in the first year?
Living costs on file run $1,520/mo (Puerto Viejo), $1,580 (Atenas), $1,900 (San José) and $1,950 (Tamarindo), or roughly 30% less with shared housing — $1,020 to $1,310. The nomad visa fee on file is US$100. On top of that budget flights, four weeks of temporary accommodation, apostilles and official translations, medical insurance, and — if you're a resident — CCSS contributions, which are income-based rather than a flat premium. We do not have the Pensionado or student fees on file; check those at the official links before you plan around them.
Do I have to join the public health system, or can I just keep my nomad insurance?
CCSS affiliation is obligatory for foreign residents who are legally in the country — it's a duty that comes with residency, not a product you choose. Employees are enrolled by their employer; self-employed residents enrol and contribute themselves, and contributions are a percentage of income. The nomad route separately requires private medical insurance. Whether a one-year nomad stay triggers the Caja duty is something we have not verified — ask CCSS directly at ccss.sa.cr/asegurados rather than taking a forum's word.
Which town should I pick if I'm on video calls all day?
Tamarindo (~120 Mbps) or Atenas (~90 Mbps) on the raw numbers, with San José (~80 Mbps) a strong choice because it also has the deepest coworking scene, the highest nomad score (8/10) and the government offices you'll need during processing. Avoid building a call-heavy schedule around Puerto Viejo at ~60 Mbps unless you've tested the specific building. City averages are not your flat's connection — test before you sign.
Can I just do visa runs instead of applying for anything?
You can improvise, but you'll be improvising for years: no residency clock, no CCSS affiliation, and treatment as an uninsured patient paying full price if something goes wrong. If your income is under the nomad threshold and you have no lifetime pension, the Student Temporary Stay is the route most people overlook — it's granted on proof of enrolment, renewed annually, and it makes you legally present. It doesn't allow local work, and its fees and financial requirements are set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which we don't have on file — email them and ask for the current list in writing.
How long does this actually take from decision to landing?
Processing on file is 1–3 months for the nomad route and 3–9 months for Pensionado — but those clocks start once a correct file is submitted. The real timeline is the document chain before that: obtaining a criminal record certificate, apostilling it, getting official translations, and collecting an income or pension letter that matches your bank statements. Assume that stage takes weeks to months, sequence the criminal record so it doesn't go stale, and start it first.
Instant access · lifetime updates · yours to keep.
Moving somewhere else too? The All-Access Vault unlocks every country kit.
Research & planning only — not legal, immigration or tax advice. Verify every step at its official source. All sales final.