Costa Rica · Residency by investment
Investor Residency (Inversionista)
The threshold is USD 150,000, set under Ley 9996 art. 8 and Reglamento 43926 art. 4, and DGME still publishes 150,000. One critical note: Ley 9996 took force on 14 July 2021, and art. 12 allows applicants to opt into its incentives only during the first five years. That window closed on 14 July 2026, the day before this file was verified. Whether the threshold now reverts to USD 200,000 is genuinely unresolved, and we do not assert either way.
At USD 150,000, this was the cheapest investor residency in Central America, and it buys into a genuinely stable country that the EU removed from its lists entirely in February 2025. Panama cannot say the same. The problem is timing. The incentive window closed on 14 July 2026, and nobody yet knows what the threshold is on 15 July.
Qualifying routes
The threshold was reduced from USD 200,000 by Ley 9996 in 2021. USD 100,000 was never the actual figure, despite widespread claims to the contrary.
The threshold is the same, but the project must qualify as being of national interest.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $150k
- Total landed cost
- Expect the USD 150k investment plus roughly USD 5–12k in legal and government fees for a family. Mandatory CCSS social security affiliation adds an ongoing monthly cost.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 8–24 months (DGME backlogs are severe and have run well beyond a year.)
- Physical presence
- There is no annual minimum stay. Under Ley 8764 art. 214, temporary residency is cancelled after more than two consecutive years' absence, and permanent residency after more than four.
- Family
- SpouseChildren under 25 are eligibleAdult children with disabilities are eligible
- Permanent residency
- 3 consecutive years, per Decreto 37112 art. 208.
- Citizenship
- 7 years, or 5 years for Ibero-Americans and Spaniards by birth.
- Language test
- Applicants must pass a Spanish test plus a Costa Rican history and values examination, each with a pass mark of 70 and a fee of CRC 10,000. The elderly and those medically impeded are exempt.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- qualifying investment of USD 150,000, documented and maintainedA clean criminal record, apostilled.Affiliation with the CCSS.Renewal every two years, with proof that the investment still stands.
- The Ley 9996 five-year opt-in window closed 14 July 2026. Anyone mid-application should get an urgent status check. Applicants already granted keep their benefits for ten years from grant. We found no extension bill, but proving that negative is inherently uncertain.
- Whether USD 150,000 reverts to USD 200,000 is an unresolved legal conflict. Reglamento 43926 art. 31 repealed Decreto 37112 arts. 87-93, which held the old 200,000 figure. On that reading, no 200,000 norm survives to revert to. But Ley 9996 art. 8, which sets the benefit for the term the law establishes, cuts the other way. This needs a DGME or PGR criterio. Do not rely on either number without checking.
- The widely repeated four months per year presence rule appears to be a myth. The phrase cuatro meses returns zero hits in Ley 8764. The real rule is art. 214's two-year, for temporary residents, and four-year, for permanent residents, absence limits.
- CCSS social security affiliation is mandatory for residents and is assessed on declared income. It is a real recurring cost that marketing material routinely leaves out.
- DGME processing backlogs are severe. Budget a year or more, not the months often quoted.
- The 5-year naturalisation shortcut applies only to Ibero-Americans and Spaniards by birth. A naturalised Spaniard does not get it.