How to Move to Costa Rica

[Music] hi this is Roger Peterson in this video I'm going to talk about how to move to Costa Rica get a lot of inquires for people that visit Costa Rica they fall in love with the country and they say Roger how can I move to Costa Rica so let's discuss about the steps that you need to take in order to make your move and your transition into Costa Rican culture successful this brings us to our first legal topic how long can you stay in Costa Rica if you're a citizen of the United States Canada and the European Union you're generally granted a 90 day visa in order to enter Costa Rica as a tourist so what a great opportunity to spend 90 days in the country to get a feel for the country and see if it's the right fit for you yeah behind me I'm posting a link to the visa requirement list for Costa Rica that way you can see for yourself if the country where you're from what type of visa you require dan to Costa Rica but like I said most European Union US Canada you're going to get full 90 days the next question you gotta ask yourself is what part of the country is most appealing to me okay Costa Rica is very diverse we've got the Atlantic coast we've got the Pacific coast we've got mountains city rural you need to decide after spending time in the country is which of these areas was most appealing to you because they're all very different we've got 99 micro climates so once it Justin I make is look take a look at the two maps that are appearing behind me now one is the temperature and the rainfall in Costa Rica so based on these maps you can decide look do you like a lot of sunshine and then go up here in northern Quantic a state do you like a lot of rain then stay in these blue areas right around here where you're going to see a lot of rainfall so again a lot of choices a lot of options for you but the only way you're going to be able to determine what is right for you is by spending time here in the country and exploring these different areas of Costa Rica to make sure it's the right fit for you the first advice is though spend some time in the country and I'm not talking about coming down you spend one week at the beach and then you fall in love you think you're gonna live here for the rest of your life look come down spend at least three months pick up the area of the country is most appealing to you and spend some real time there to see if we're going to adapt to the lifestyle are the people gonna like you or you're gonna like the people you know you need to figure these things out and the only way is really by spending time in the country so now that you've decided on the place where you want to live in Costa Rica the next decision is are you just going to come in as a tourist and just go back in and out because you're not thinking of living here permanently or on the contrary is this the place where you want to call home and make it your permanent residence if so let's look at some of the options that you have for filing residency in Costa Rica most of you that are moving for Costa Rica for the first time are gonna fall into the temporary residency category this category we have in senado the Randy stop any invention ease those are the three main residency categories that we process here at Costa Rica so let's break these down for you in a little bit more detail each so you can kind of get an overview of what's required to qualify for these categories so the first category is Ben Tzion album pen senado is retiree so if you have a retirement income of Social Security pension private pension government pension whatever pension it is as long as it's $1,000 or more then you're good you qualify for pension ATO the next category is out of Randy stop if you don't have a pension but you can provide a letter saying that you're going to receive $2,500 per month in Costa Rica in a stable and a local manner for two years then you qualify for when these the status and the final category will discuss is embeds Yanni stop that means investor this means that if you can invest $200,000 in Costa Rica means buying a property buying a condo buying any type of real estate will qualify you for embarrassment ista status now if several videos already posted on my website and on youtube you can check them out which are i go into much more detail and specifics about how to apply for each of these categories so be sure to check those videos out if you're more interested in the residency categories of Costa Rica alright next let's talk a little bit about Costa Rican culture so there are two key words that should give you an inkling of what Costa Rican culture is about one you probably already have you spent time in Costa Rica that is una vida what does it mean put away that means pure life that means that Costa Rica's enjoy life to the fullest there's no a list no details with planning and structure and things like that it just go with the flow the second one is tranquilo tranquilo means peace be calm be tranquilo calm down take it easy okay so those two words to tell you a lot about Costa Rican culture first thing that you need to determine is if this type of culture is really going to be for you you need to see how can you adapt with this type of lifestyle and many of you we see a lot of expats over the years and a lot of them will adapt that many won't you know if you use the structure used to everything working on time you're used to following a timeline these things may drive you crazy in Costa Rica because nobody does so that's going to conflict and be in contrast with what you're used to and it may cause you some frustrations so you'll bear that in mind as you decide your move to Costa Rica the first one is the whole concept of manana what does that mean my Nana tomorrow so you hire somebody to come to repair of something your house and they say when are you showing up mine yeah now now in Costa Rica manana none necessarily means tomorrow it could be the day after tomorrow it could be later in the week it's kind of a moving target and this drives expats some absolutely crazy so understand this mañana culture and if you're good with it if your patience then you're gonna be fine in Costa Rica another consideration for those who want to move to Costa Rica is healthcare now you know Costa Rica is one of the best healthcare systems in Latin America however if you come here with a pre-existing condition then what you're gonna find is that the private system the private health care system will most likely not insure you if you have pre-existing conditions and if it does it's going to be extremely expensive that means that your only alternative is going to be the Costa Rican public health care system and although it does have some pluses there are waiting lists and all the typical things that we hear about a socialized medical system so the quality is good however may not be up to the standards that you're used to in your home country so take that into consideration and when you come down and visit go and visit some of the public healthcare systems and clinics and hospitals in Costa Rica particularly in the area where you've decided to live so then you can decide whether that is something that you can live with or not all right so let's recap some of the pros and cons about living in Costa Rica let's look at the profile a pro side great weather to meet some of the best climates in the world number two great source of fresh food everything grows in Costa Rica you're gonna throw a seed out it's gonna grow very tough to start with Costa Rica now let's look at the third one would be the great quality of the people because Ricans are used to welcoming foreigners and you're gonna find them very friendly towards foreigners another positive factor you'll find about Costa Rica is how diverse the expat community is and in what you're going to find is that there are thousands of expats from all over the world making their living here in Costa Rica which makes it very interesting as they all live together in community so very diverse very interesting expat community in Costa Rica now let's stir a little bit and look at the negative sides of living in Costa Rica and I would say number one would be a higher cost of living we often hear where other people complain about the high cost of living in Costa Rica compared to other retirement destinations but you're kind of gonna get what you pay for especially in Latin America given the turmoil that's going around in many of the areas to the lack of great infrastructure now Costa Rica's you drive around you're going to be hitting potholes there are a lot of dirt roads in the rural areas and you're wondering what is going on we definitely have a deficiency in infrastructure no doubt about it and the government's working on it but certainly not fast enough the other negative we have is the ability to get things done you're gonna find in Costa Rica it's a lot more frustrating to get things done because it's a highly bureaucratic system now of course there's items that left off the list now please if you have appearances on both pro and con please go ahead and comment and let us know for me personally the positives far outweigh the negatives but the only way you're going to find out if Costa Rica is gonna be the right fit for you is to come on down and spend some time in the country [Music] you [Music]

Channel: CostaRicaLaw

Views: 144,722

Rating: 4.9309182 out of 5

Keywords: Move to Costa Rica, Living in Costa Rica, How to live legally in Costa Rica

Id: JzxyHPRdMA8

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 20 2018