Getting In and out

Citizens of the U.S. and Canada need valid passports to stay for 90 days.  No visas are required.

All Europeans need valid passports; no Western European citizens need visas.  Most Europeans may stay up to 90 days.  Ireland, Australia and New Zealand citizens are given inital permission for 30 days, with a valid passport.

In Central America, only Nicaraguans need visas to enter Costa Rica.  All Central Americans must present valid passports.  Panamanians may stay 90 days; all other Isthmus citizens receive an initial 30-day admittance that may be extended 60 days.

Tourists are subject to deportation if Immigration catches them living here year round.  Busts were held last year in various beach towns and foreigners caught working illegally were deported.  The new immigration law that was passed this past August stiffened penalities for people who violate the law.

If your child was born in Costa Rica, and you come as a tourist, you must get departure permission from immigration if both parents are not traveling together.  The same is true for parents who live here with their born in-Costa Rica children, if only one of the parents wishes to leave with the child.

For more information on immigration policies visit migracion.go.cr