Costa Rican driver's license requirements

[MICHEAL LEVINE]

I just obtained my CR driver’s license, but the experience raised several questions:

1. You are allowed to drive in CR using your US license for 90 days after arriving in CR. Driving for longer time exposes you to serious fines. But you cannot apply for your CR license until you have been here 93 days! Go figure… However 2 different people in ARCR (Association of Residents of CR) have told me 93 days and 91 days are required before applying for a license. I would like to know
   which

   is the correct number.

2. A basic requirement for the CR license is a medical exam by an approved doctor. These docs have facilities right outside the gates of COSEVI (CR Dept of Motor Vehicles). They charge $45 — or more — for an exam which is a joke. Height, weight, 3 lines on an eye chart, and, “do you know your blood type?” My question on this subject is: when I renew the license after 3 years, will I need another “medical exam?”
3. It is trivially easy for a licensed US driver to qualify for the CR license — no written or road test. But afterward you realize that you don’t know the rules of the road. For example, there is apparently a $700 fine for passing on a bridge. Is there a printed “rules of the road” that are used to prepare for the written exam taken by CR citizens? English would be nice, but not necessary.

[Country Expert john michael arthur]

Hi Michael,

1) it is my understanding that you must be a resident in order to get a CR drivers license. Therefore the tourist stamp is inconsequential. Are you a resident? If not I would love to hear more about your experience obtaining a license. This is a relatively new law (about 2 years) so if you are renewing, after 3 years, maybe you got your license under the old law.

2) Yes, a medical exam will be required.

3) Yes, the fines can be ludicrous here.

[MICHEAL LEVINE]

Hello Greg,

Yes, I am a resident. The tourist stamp is definitely NOT inconsequential. They look at your entry date as recorded in your US/Canada passport, and you cannot apply for a driver’s license until 91 (93??) days after your entry. If you leave CR before the 91/93 days have passed, the clock starts all over again. [This information was provided by ARCR, and confirmed by the bureaucrats at COSEVI who looked very carefully at the dates in my passport!]

Perhaps if I had entered CR using my cedula things would be different. But I did not, since I only received my cedula after my most recent entry.

[Robert t Sterner sr]

I have had a CR drivers license for seven years.
We have homes and a farm there, but seldom spend more then several weeks in CR at a time.

Only problem I have ever had is that I do not speak any Spanish, so I always take a tico friend with me.

I am always amazed that they take Americans ahead of Tico’s standing in line.

[Author]

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