Obtaining residency/visa in Costa Rica

Hi;
We went the Inversionista method and it is not hard.  Your biggest hurdle will be what Costa Rica says your property is worth.  For example we paid $75,000 for our acreage and then put a $320,000 house on it.  The total we paid was $395,000 but when we got our tax notice from the municipality of Puriscal we are being taxed as if it is worth $210,000 .... we barely made the $200,000 required to file as Inversionista's.  Your first step would be to get your tax declaration from your municipality as this was the form we had to submit with our application.  This will let you know if you are going to be able to apply via the Inversionista route.

Google "costa rica residency", study reference articles, then come back with more questions.  You may pay more for CAJA with Inversionista residency; lowest cost if Pensionado but you must have "guaranteed" minimum income (such as Social Security, pension, or annuity); otherwise Rentista can be a good option if you deposit $60K in a CD account at a Costa Rica bank. You will need to pay an annual municipal tax and luxury tax ("solidarity tax") on your property which will be due very soon if not paid already.  (If you used a corporation to buy, there may also soon be a corporate tax,) 

You can use your current Passport; no special Visa required, but you must leave the country every 90 days until your residency is approved. 

You have a lot of research to do!

Purchasing a home as an Inversionista  rather than a business, is much simpler as not all businesses will be acceptable  to immigration for Residency purposes.

Here is a link to info on what you may be required to pay for the mandatory healthcare coverage although when some have applied as  an Inversionista they have been known to pay even higher premiums. A few pay less.

It really is the 'luck 'o the draw'... and you will not knowhow much it will be, until the end of the residency process.

Does anyone know of anybody who has qualified for a pensioado visa with a criminal record for refusing to provide a breath sample in 1988 in canada

I don't think that your record will result in any problems for you....but maybe consult a lawyer.

If I had to guess I'd say that your criminal record re refusing a breath test should not be a problem. But like most things in Costa Rica it may be "luck of the draw" as to what bureaucrat processes your paper work.
A good attorney might be able to tell you better. See the thread on finding a good residence attorney. I imagine you could ask that of one before paying them...

Thanks I already have a law firm working on it and they say it is not an issue cause it is not a serious of fence in CR. The frustrating issue we are having now is getting doce 6 ths is up anmonuments appostiled and notarized. But hoping we can figure all beford we have to get all the documents resent to us.

Canada is not part of the the Hague convention, so we do not get an apostille processed on a notarized document.

Do you know if we can get our documents notarized in canada or do they have to be notarized in costa rica. I feel there is a diconnect with the assistant we are working with possibly a translation problem. My wife work at a law firm that notarized documents every day.

Hi Rocketman;
We got our documents notarized at my wife's law firm in Red Deer then I made a trip to the government building in Edmonton.  I can't remember the name of what is was that they did but it involved a very official looking red seal.  We then couriered our documents to The Costa Rica Embassy in Ottawa where they were apostatized and returned to us by courier.  Then off we went to our lawyer in Costa Rica with said documents.