Visas & Customs Requirements

General Requirements:

United States Citizens may enter the country without a tourist visa and can stay up to 90 days. The requirements for entry are: a valid passport with a blank visa page, the expiration date of the passport must be greater than 30 days from your date of entry into Costa Rica, and a pre-paid airline ticket to exit the country. If you want to stay more than 90 days you should leave the country and come back in after several days.

Penalty for Overstaying Visas: If you overstay your visa you must pay a fine of $100 U.S. dollars per month of violating your visa--or you may be expelled for upto to three times the length of your violation.

Residence in Costa Rica

If you want to get a residence visa you should apply to the Costa Rican embassy. The applicant must make all the proper arrangements (including the visa application package shipment cost) with a courier in order to send the application package from the Consulate directly to the Immigration Office in San Jose, Costa Rica.

General Consulates of Costa Rica:

Los Angeles	costaricaconsulatela@hotmail.com
Atlanta	consulate_ga@costarica-embassy.org
Houston	consulatecr@sbcglobal.net
Miami	consulate_mia@costarica-embassy.org
New York	costaricaconsul@yahoo.com
San Francisco	consulsfo@hotmail.com
Washington	http://www.costarica-embassy.org