What a wondrous decision is to move to Costa Rica. If you are thinking about starting a new life in the tropics, the first thing that you need to consider is that when a person invests in this beautiful Central American country, they are not only investing in properties or businesses, they are investing in their future, their dreams and their hopes.

The main requirement of this category is proof of an investment of at least $200.000 USD in business, assets such as real estate and properties, or in a fund. We also have an additional subcategory for people who invest in forestry projects for which the minimum amount of investment is $100,000 USD.

Hence, if you already made an investment that complies with the law or if you are planning to, the investment category is a good option. In this case, the law demands you provide proof of the investment through a series of very specific documentation in order to qualify. Bear in mind that we also need to comply with the rest of the requirements such as birth certificates, background checks, etc. 

From our side, we will be requesting two sets of the investment documents, the first one will be required in order to study the documentation and make sure that everything is in order. In some cases, the documents will be approved immediately and in other cases, we will have to make some changes to proceed correctly. The second set will be filed before the Immigration Department when the time comes. 

The most common mistakes are the following: 

• The value of the property is not up to date before the Municipality.

• Similarly, the Municipality taxes are not updated.

• The shares are incorrectly distributed on the ownership certificate.

• Two persons can share the actions, however, if this is the case only one person can be the owner of the $200.000 and the shares must be under his/her name.

• You cannot include any home appliances, however, you can include assets such as vehicles.

• The $200,000 USD must be reflected in the Municipality Document.

As with any other application filed with the Immigration Department the expected processing time is 6 – 9 months, starting from the day that we submit the complete documentation and ending when we receive approval.

Once this has been done, we will have 90 days to registered our clients with CAJA and request the DIMEX.

The CAJA is a little bit different for investors than it is for the rest of the categories. In order to proceed with the registration we must fileproof of income, such as:

• Income Certification

• Bank Statements and bills from the last 6 months

• Or, we can register using the investment documents.

Normally, the easiest way to proceed with the CAJA registration is the income certification. The CAJA authorities will study the documentation and then they will provide the monthly fee. If an applicant has dependents, we can apply for the family benefit without any problem and they will be covered by the same monthly fee.

Once this has been done, our next step is to proceed with the DIMEX appointment. Due to COVID-19 things luckily have changed a little bit and now we can proceed with DIMEX appointment for the investor category at the BCR and at the Post Office. In the past, it could only be procured directly at the Immigration Department in San José or Liberia.

The DIMEX will be granted for two years, and then the applicant must proceed with the category renewal.. In order to renew, the applicant must file proof that he/she is still the owner of the investment that was previously reviewed by the Immigration Department.

This is a general overview of the investment category. Every applicant, property, or business is different, hence, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns pertaining to the investment category!