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Hi Bea,
Picking up a rental in Liberia and dropping off in San Jose shouldn’t be a problem. Most if not all companies have locations at both airports. There is a drop off fee. I think the last time I did a similar drop off it was $25.
Jason
Hi Wende,
You can certainly find affordable one bedroom cottages, condos, or apartments for rent. Start your search on real estate sites in the areas. They usually feature long term rentals. You can also contact the real estate office directly about renting a vacation rental or home for sale – they might be willing to deal and give you a good monthly rate if you commit to six months to a year lease. Finding a reputable agent is all about due diligence – check out what’s being said about them online and once you’re on the ground, ask around.
A tourist visa is only good for 90 days. So to stay 5 to 6 months at a time, you would need to leave the country and re-enter. Most expats in that situation take short trips to Nicaragua or Panama. Some fly back to the States for a visit. Because you plan to be more of a part time resident at this point, seeking residency probably is not a viable option yet.
Hi Jess,
I contacted some of my colleagues with more experience in those countries to get their take. In Ecuador, neighboring Colombia does have some FARC guerilla holdouts who make occasional forays into Ecuador but stick close to the border. No fall out in the cities and towns of Ecuador from that.
As far as guerilla or “rebel” activity elsewhere, we haven’t heard of any and certainly not any that is affecting expats living in those areas.
Of course, no country is immune to the activities of drug runners who transport their goods through the region to the United States. But if you don’t associate with those activities, again expats in those areas don’t have problems.
GW – A great alternative is to ship a “crate” – you can go by air cargo or by taking up just some space in a container. You might try pricing out that cost versus shipping some stuff by mail and taking some in your suitcases – maxing your baggage allowance. It might turn out cheaper to pay the extra bag fee.
Christine – Any moving company you contact will be shipping your stuff down by boat. They pick up your stuff in North American and take it to a port in the U.S. like Miami. Then a Costa Rican moving company takes over when it gets here. But I’ll recommend that you first find a CR moving company and ask which U.S. company they want to work with because the CR company will be familiar with the customs process down here.
Dog and cat transport is easy. I wrote an article on this, check it out here: https://internationalliving.com/2012/06/how-to-travel-with-pets-to-costa-rica/
Hi Robert,
Roger Petersen is a frequent speaker at IL events and handles these sorts of cases. His website is here: http://plawcr.com/
Hi Lynn,
There are no plans to stop the print edition. But IL magazine has been available for some time in digital format. As a subscriber you should be able to log in to your member page on the internationalliving.com website.
Let me know if you have any issues and I can hook you up with customer service.
Hi Lynn,
You can reach my counterpart in Panama, Jessica Ramesch, directly at Panama@internationalliving.com. She’s happy to help.
Hi Judi,
The universal healthcare should be fine. But keep in mind you would need to be legal residents to be eligible to join. The application process can take several months sometimes longer if there are issues that come up. So if you’re planning to come in 2014, I would start the process now. Your local Costa Rican consulate has all the details on required documents and procedures. It might also be useful to hire a Costa Rican lawyer to guide you.
Roger Petersen speaks at many IL conferences. You can find information on his law firm here: http://www.plawcr.com
Right. It is Movistar.
You can buy vehicles, property and other things as a corporation. But you can also do it as an individual. I haven’t really experienced any hesitation with setting up things like Internet service. I have my utilities in my name, cell phone too. It could be because ICE is part of the government, with more regulations. Movistar is a private company, which probably has more flexibility.
Hi Carolyn,
That’s weird they would only give you a low-speed USB. I have a high-speed one myself I bought at a cell phone store. It has a Movistar SIM card/data card. With your USB you might be able to switch out the SIM card with one from Movistar. They’re only $5 or so.
MagicJack does require high speed Internet. You should be able to just plug your USB Internet into the USB port on your desktop and it should work to give you Internet.
As far as getting a new landline, you are correct that only a resident can apply.
Hi Lynn,
It’s about 3 – 3 1/2 hours.
Hi Robert,
I wouldn’t say it’s a problem. But poisonous snakes are part of the natural landscape here, including pretty much every spot where expats live. You just keep an eye out when gardening or trekking, especially in forest or jungle. Snakebites are definitely not a daily occurrence.
Hi Jim,
The two large national banks, Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica, you could say are the most stable – they’re the only ones that have their deposits insured by the govt. Private banks are also available, including Scotiabank (affiliated with Canadian company), Davidienda – a Colombian bank (formerly HSBC), and Banco Popular – from Spain, I believe.
Not sure about cash and immigration, although the limit you can bring in at one time is $10,000. I don’t believe you have to report anything up to that amount.
Hi Stephen,
Great question. The law is designed to ensure foreigners don’t take jobs from Costa Ricans. But there are grey areas as I’ll explain in a moment, as well as situations where there is the law on the books and what actually happens on the ground. I can’t advise anybody to ignore the law but I can tell you what I’ve discovered in my travels and conversations with business owners.
Let’s use the example of a restaurant. As the owner legally your role would be as a supervisor. You could decide what’s on the menu, when you open, who to hire, how much food to order, etc. And you’d be responsible for the accounting and ensuring workers are registered with the govt. But legally you shouldn’t be working in the kitchen, taking orders, doing dishes, or cleaning up. You’d be directing employees doing all those things. Okay, so that’s the law.
But if you visit Costa Rica you’ll quickly see plenty of restaurants where the expat owner is the chef/cook, maybe the spouse is a server or host. Or it could be a B&B where the expat couple who owns it really have no employees and they’re doing all the work. So what’s the deal? Well, the authorities aren’t really gunning to crack down on this sort of thing, as long as it’s a relatively small operation or you aren’t actively hiring foreigners instead of Costa Ricans. If you had a big resort or large restaurant, better follow the letter of the law.
Hi William,
Congrats on your visit. Renting a car is the best way to see the countryside and scout out locations for a possible move.
Driving can be more “active,” shall we say, than in the U.S. or Canada.
As far as road conditions:
Keep an eye out for potholes and narrow or nonexistent shoulders
A lot of secondary roads, especially in the southern zone, will be dirt or gravel and sometimes very bumpy. Some locations in the southern area will need an SUV or even 4WD, if you’re going remoteDriving tips:
Driving through the countryside is no problem. There won’t be much traffic at all.
When you hit cities there will be more traffic and it can be intimidating with motorcycles weaving through, taxis jockeying to pass you, stuff like that. San Jose is where you’ll find the worst of this. Avoid driving in San Jose, especially downtown.
Avoid driving at night if you can due to windy roads, pedestrians, livestock, and lack of street lights.
Get the GPS but get a good map as back up
Plan on the drive taking longer than you think. Distances on the map look small but the windy roads make things take longer.All that said, it didn’t take me long to get used to driving in Costa Rica. You just have to pay attention and be patient.
Enjoy the drive! It’s beautiful. Stop often to take pictures, eat lunch at a soda (kind of like the Costa Rican diner), or buy fruit at the roadside stands.
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