Costa Rica / Panama

After two years, pensionados, rentistas, and inversionistas can apply for permanent residency, which gives you all the rights a COSTA RICAN citizen enjoys, save voting. Other ways of obtaining permanent residency include being a citizen of another CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRY or of Spain and having lived in COSTA RICA for five years; marrying a COSTA RICAN CITIZEN; or having a child in COSTA RICA.
COSTA RICAN–BORN child automatically conferred permanent residency upon both (foreign-born) parents.

Applicants for permanent residency must demonstrate that they will make a positive contribution to the country. Benefits of permanent residency include being able to work (rather than just own a business, as is allowed under temporary residencies), reduced fares on air travel within COSTA RICA, and much-reduced admission to national parks and reserves. Permanent residency also offers up the same sort of safeguards extended to citizens, such as protection against extradition (except in high-profile cases, like when drug lords or big-time financial scamsters try to hide out in the wilds of COSTA RICA). As a permanent resident, you don’t need to worry about remaining in the country for four months (to maintain pensionado or rentista status) or six months (to maintain inversionista status) out of each year. Your only obligation as a permanent resident is to visit COSTA RICA at least once a year.

Most retired people opt for this category, which requires you to prove at least US$600 a month in pension income. The income can come from a public source, like the U.S. ou Canadian government, or a private source, like the brokerage house that administers your IRA account or a Private Co. You must document that you will be receiving at least US$7,200 a year, and arrange to have the checks deposited to a COSTA RICAN account in colones, not dollars. For a married couple, the spouse with less (or no) retirement income is considered a dependent, and a dependent need show no proof of income—they ride free on their partner’s US$600. Children under 18 (or a child between 18 and 25 enrolled in university) can also be claimed as dependents, and receive the same immigration status as their parents.

The downside is that two people’s incomes cannot be combined to make up the required US$600 a month, though the combined income sources of one person will do the trick. If the pensioner is a little short of the US$600 a month, the balance can be made up by depositing five years’ worth of the difference in a COSTA RICAN BANK. So if your pension is US$545/month, you could make up the extra US$55 a month (for five years) by depositing US$3,300 in the bank.

Pensionados need to spend at least four months in the country a year, though the time need not be contiguous—you could spend January, February, October, and November here, for instance. You can’t work as an employee, but you can own and receive income from a business.

When the COSTA RICAN GOVERNMENT created the pensionado and rentista immigration categories in 1971, the idea was to attract foreign capital, and certain tax breaks were given to holders of these temporary residency visas. Pensionados and rentistas were allowed to bring in all their household goods, appliances, and one car duty-free, which with COSTA RICA’s high import duties was a very nice perk. But in 1992, in need of greater tax revenue, the government abolished the tax benefits associated with pensionado and rentista status.

For those who have not yet reached retirement age but have managed to make investments that bring in regular income, the rentista option is an attractive one. You’ll need to prove a monthly income of US$1,000 (usually a CD or annuity), guaranteed by a banking institution. Another option is to deposit US$60,000 (US$1,000 a month for five years) in a COSTA RICAN BANK, which will authorize you to withdraw US$1,000 of your money each month. If, after two years of rentista status, you apply for and receive permanent residency, you can withdraw all the money out of the account.

Other details of the rentista visa are similar to those of a pensionado: You can own a business but not work as an employee; you need to be in the country for at least four noncontiguous months each year, and dependents, whether spouse or child, enjoy the same immigration status as is awarded to the applicant.

Although you can legally own and operate any sort of business in COSTA RICA even if you only have a tourist visa, an investment of at least US$50,000 in a sector the government deems a priority will get you inversionista temporary resident status. COSTA RICAN OFFICIALS have declared as priority businesses related to tourism, forestry, and low-income housing. Non-priority reforestation projects will require US$100,000 in order to qualify you for inversionista status, and any other business ventures will call for US$200,000 or more. Inversionistas must stay in COSTA RICA six months out of every year, though as with other categories of temporary residency, the time need not be contiguous.

For any investment, please exercise extreme caution—many people who come to COSTA RICA seem to leave their common sense at home. Perhaps lulled by the tropical climate and the friendliness of the people, they trust too easily and don’t do their due diligence—checking out every facet of the project before putting any money down. While living in the tropics is relatively easy, making a business profitable here is perhaps even more challenging than it would be at home.

 • Anyone who renders special services to governmental, international, or educational institutions in COSTA RICA.
• Highly specialized technical or professional workers granted prior authority by the MINISTRY OF LABOR. Managers and executives of multinational corporations with branches in COSTA RICA often fall into this category. The company that sponsors these workers must meet certain qualifications, such as having at least 50 million colones in real capital investment and employing a labor force that is made up of at least 90 percent COSTA RICAN CITIZENS. Companies that routinely sponsor their workers are likely to be already registered with the DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION.
• Students at public or private schools or universities recognized by the government.
• Domestic servants.

Sometimes the company that employs you, the institution you are rendering services to, or the school you attend will take care of the paperwork. Make sure that is the case, and/or contact your COSTA RICAN CONSULATE or EMBASSY for the latest on the above categories of temporary residency.

LES DIFFÉRENTS TYPES
DE DEMANDE DE RESIDENCE

• Le régime général
  

DEMANDE DE RESIDENCE TEMPORAIRE et DEMANDE DE RESIDENCE PERMANENTE :

Des permis de residence temporaire sont accordés aux étrangers qui:
· ont des liens familiaux avec une personne installée au COSTA RICA ou au PANAMA.
· souhaitent exercer une activité professionnelle dans le pays.
· sont prestataires de services à des organismes d'Etat ou internationaux, à des centres d'éducation qui sont chargés de programmes ou qui remplissent des contrats spéciaux.
· sont inscrits dans des centres d'éducation publics ou privés reconnus par l'Etat.
Après deux ans de résidence continue dans le pays, le résident temporaire peut faire la demande de résident permanent.

• Les régimes spéciaux
  

DEMANDE DE RÉSIDENCE INVESTISSEUR :

Pour demander le statut de résident investisseur, il faut investir comme minimum la somme de $50 000 dollars dans des activités et des secteurs déclarés prioritaires par le Pouvoir Exécutif ( tourisme ou exportation de produits non traditionnels), $100 000 dollars dans des projets de reforestation, ou $200 000 dollars dans d'autres types d'activité.
Les résidents investisseurs peuvent percevoir un salaire. Ils doivent procéder à l'audit de l'investissement chaque année et demeurer au COSTA RICA ou au PANAMA au minimum six mois par an.

DEMANDE DE RÉSIDENCE PENSIONNÉE :

Les personnes à la retraite peuvent opter pour le statut de résident pensionné si elles démontrent qu'elles jouissent de revenus d'au moins $600 dollars par mois provenant d'un système de retraite ou d'une pension.
Les résidents pensionnés doivent également démontrer qu'ils ont changé la somme de $7.200 dollars par an auprès d'une banque appartenant au Système Bancaire National. Ils doivent rester au COSTA RICA ou au PANAMA au moins quatre mois par an et ne peuvent pas exercer d'activités rémunérées.

San José's prices ( Costa Rica ) are the second lowest of any city's in the Americas; the cost of goods and services is among the lowest of any city's in the world. Corporate Resource Consulting firm that compares costs of goods and services rates San José among the least expensive cost-of -living cities in the world and second to Quito, Ecuador in the Americas. San Jose's cost of living, ranks close to the middle when compared to 118 cities worldwide. The cost of living in Guatemala City or Pamama City is about 14% higher than in San José.

Housing in middle-class Costa Rican neighborhoodsis substantially less than what it does in the U. S. Hired help is a bargain with a full-time maid costing only a couple of hundred dollars per month. Utilities-telephone service, electricity, and water- cost about 30% of what they do in North America. Bills for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer can cost hundreds of dollars in the States. You never need to heat your home or apartment because of Costa Rica's warm climate. You need not cook with gas, since most stoves are electric. Public transportation is also very reasonable. San José and its surrounding suburbs occupy a very small area. A bus ride across town or to the suburbs usually costs from 25 -50¢. Bus fares to the provinces cost no more than $10 to the farthest part in the country. Taxi travel around San José is also inexpensive.

A gallon of regular gasoline of gas costs about $1.75, making Costa Rica's gasoline prices among the lowest in the Latin America. Only oil-exporting countries like Mexico and Venezuela have cheaper gasoline. However, you don't really need a car because public transportation is so inexpensive here. If you must have a new car, remember that new cars can be very expensive due to high import duties. Because of this, Costa Ricans keep their cars for a long time and take good care of them. We recommend buying used cars since they are usually in good mechanical condition and their resale value is excellent. Food, continuing education, entertainment (movies cost a little over $3.00) and, above all, health care, are surprisingly affordable. Both new and second-hand furniture are priced very low. You'll find more about these benefits later on.

When you have lived in Costa Rica a while, learned the ins-and- outs and made friends and contacts, you can cut your living costs more by sharing a house or apartment, house-sitting in exchange for free rent, investing in high-interest yielding accounts in one of Costa Rica's many banks or private finance companies (many pay over 30% annually in dollars), working full or part-time (if you can find legal work), starting a small business or bartering within the expatriate community, doing without packaged and canned imported brand-name foods and buying local products, eating in small cafes or sodas instead of expensive restaurants, or buying fresh foods in bulk at the Central Market like Costa Ricans do. You can also save money by learning Spanish so you can bargain and get lower prices when shopping.If you take lessons from the locals and live a modest tico lifestyle, you can save a lot of money and still enjoy yourself. By not following a U.S.-"shop-till-you-drop" mentality you can live reasonably.

Taking all of the aforementioned and personal life-styles into consideration, the minimum needed for a decent standard of living for a single person ranges from $900 to $1200 monthly. You can indeed live for as little as $30 a day excluding housing. Some single people scrape by on considerably less and others spend hundreds of dollars more, again depending to what one is accustomed.

A couple can live well on $1200 per month, and live in luxury for $2000. Couples with husband and wife both receiving good pensions can live even better. Remember, two in Costa Rica, can often live as cheaply as one. Any way you look at it, you will enjoy a higher standard of living in Costa Rica and get more for your money. Consider that the average Costa Rican earns only $300-$450 a month. Costa Ricans earning under $500 monthly are considered to be lower class; those earning from $500 to $2000 are part of the middle class with anyone making more than $2,000 being upper class. So, you can see a foreigners with a decent income can have confortable lifestyle if they so desire.

You should not be alarmed by high real estate prices you may hear about or see advertised in the Tico Times or Central America Weekly. This recent rise in land prices results from the current land boom and increasing popularity of Costa Rica. Inflated real estate prices do not reflect the real cost of living in Costa Rica, which is still relatively low when compared to Canada, Europe and the U.S. Even more important, the Costa Rican government must keep the cost of goods and services affordable for the Costa Rican people in order to avoid the social problems found in most other Latin American Countries.

Don't let yourself be fooled by what you hear or read about the cost of living being lower in neighboring countries like Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua. True, you can live less expensively in said places but the quality of life can't compare with that of Costa Rica. The lack of infrastructure in Nicaragua; the rampant poverty, squalor and violence which permeate Honduras; and a rising cost of living in Belize make Costa Rica the only logical choice. Too many people tend to think a lower cost of living is synonymous with a high quality of life. You really get what you pay for when it comes to choosing between Costa Rica and its neighbors.

When all of the above is taken into accountalong with such intangibles as: good year-round weather, the friendly Costa Rican people, the lack of political strife and serious violent crime (no society is crime free), and a more peaceful way of life-no price is raelly too high to pay for living in a unique, tropical paradise like Costa Rica.

Many Americans favor Panama as a destination because it is so close to the United States. There are dozens of quick, direct flights going to and from the U.S. daily. Moving to Panama, therefore, does not separate you from friends and family to a great extent. In fact, a move to Panama from New York is little different than a move to California from New York.