3 Month reset of a foreign driver's license

Hello Terry

Upon your request, kindly note that all responses have been removed from your thread, since it was more of a political origin.

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Regards
Kenjee
Expat.com Team

Thanks so much Kenjee!

Ain't that special.

TerrynViv wrote:

I have been searching for anything related to this recently but cannot come across anything.  Has anyone heard anything about this?

Thanks .... Terry

No I haven't heard anything about it but would suggest you talk to your acquaintance and ask him/her to ask their attorney.

I think if anything had changed regarding this policy we would have heard something about it. I will keep my eyes and ears open and report back if I find anything. My guess is your acquaintance misunderstood or was misinformed or informed from inside information. But if it's the latter it will come out in the papers.

I will wait and see as it is a moot point for me now.  I just returned from Nicaragua.

Oh, I can answer this one.   I was here for 3 months when I went to Panama to reset my license.  I had all my paperwork in for my Cedula, but it was a year and a half before it came.  My attorney told me I didn't have to leave if I had my paperwork showing I submitted.  I decided to take a chance and when my Cedula came, I just took it to licensing and presented my documents and made the payment and got my drivers license. No need to leave the country once all your paperwork for resident visa has been submitted.

You said "once you had your cedula".  There are documented Costa Rica Government websites that say you ONLY have 3 months on your driver's license from your last date of documented entry into Costa Rica.  My lawyer confirmed this.

I was here for 1 1/2 years and only left once in the first 3 months and I had no problem getting my driver's license without taking a test or any other problems.    After I got my cedula ( 1 1/2 years after I applied) I just went and got my CR license and got to keep my USA one also.   No problems, no mess, no fuss.

I understand that, but you were driving illegally during the time.  Lucky you did not have an accident! The requirement for getting your driver's license AFTER your cedula is that it has to be over 3 months .  Please do not spread falce information!

Fizzymom wrote:

I was here for 1 1/2 years and only left once in the first 3 months and I had no problem getting my driver's license without taking a test or any other problems.    After I got my cedula ( 1 1/2 years after I applied) I just went and got my CR license and got to keep my USA one also.   No problems, no mess, no fuss.

This contradicts what pretty much every other forum post I've ever read says about this. So I'm not sure how or why you didn't need to leave but I suspect it's that you somehow fell through the cracks or something. I don't think your situation was normal.

Here is an excerpt from costaricalaw.com

According to Article 91 of the Costa Rica Transit Law  (Ley 9078) the country will recognize and grant reciprocity to foreign drivers licenses.  In the case of tourists the foreign license will be valid to drive in Costa Rica for up to three (3) months.

The most common question I am getting is “What happens after 3 months ?”.   Since the maximum amount of time that a tourist can legally stay in Costa Rica is 90 days (3 months) the validity of the foreign license was tied to that time frame as well.

The answer which nobody really wants to hear is that you will have to leave Costa Rica and then re-enter to get another 90 day tourist visa which will in turn validate your license for the new period.

For those of you that have a residency application pending there is no automatic extension.   I realize that in most cases getting residency approved can take more tan 6 months which means that the applicant would have to leave the country at least twice to keep the drivers license valid for driving in Costa Rica.

Unfortunately the traffic law (Article 91(b) (ii) makes it clear that the only way to get a drivers license for more tan 3 months is to provide that the applicant has a residency status in Costa Rica which allows them to legally remain in the country for more than the three month tourist visa.

What is the penalty if you get caught past the 90 day validity of the license ?  First off any insurance on the vehicle will not cover you if you drive with an expired license.  Secondly the law imposes two fines.  The first one is a monetary fine of 47,000 Colones (Article 146) and the 2nd is that the transit police are authorized to strip the vehicle of its license plates so you can no longer drive that vehicle on the streets (Article 151)

It is confusing why the licensing department wanted to take blood and perform an anal exam, I wonder what that was all about?

Everything in Costa Rica is "willy nilly", nothing is carved in stone.  If you go to the bank "and there are four tellers", they'll all give you a different answer to the same question.

Agree that using your home drivers license after your  'allotted time' on your passport, has expired up, is asking for trouble, even if you have the paperwork to prove your application is 'under consideration'.