Information about moving to Costa Rica

Buenos dias and welcome to Expat.com!

If you go to "Search the Costa Rica forum."  Enter in "Celadon" and then send her a private message.  She recently did a lot of research on private high schools for her daughter and was down here visiting them.  Very nice lady and I'm sure would be happy to share her knowledge and experiences.

Let me know if you need any help with this.

- Expat Dave

Re passports, driver's license, etc., can someone else, a Canadian answer this one???

I would assume the embassy would renew passports and their information is at:
www.canadainternational.gc.ca/costa_rica/

Personally, I just return to the States when I need to renew driver's license, etc.

- Expat Dave

Money transfer is simple.  Others may do it differently, but, I just use my debit card and transfer via ATM each month.  For large amounts, anything over $10,000.00, I do wire transfers to my bank account here.

We do have Scotia Bank here but from what I understand, they are not connected as they are there.

Re purchasing a house, I would recommend in a big way not to.  Over the years I have seen many, many Gringos purchase a house and then regret it.  Buying is easy, selling can be very difficult. 

And again as I've said many times before, the majority of people who move down will want to return to their home country within a year or two.  The few of us that have been here for more than a few years will always recommend renting for at least one or two years before purchasing.   Just my two cents.   

- Expat Dave

I picked up my new Canadian passport yesterday in San Jose!

Your dependent child must be under 18 when the application is delivered to immigration....else she will be required to apply as an individual. Expensive!! Nor will she be covered by your CAJA healthcare plan.

CRIA will cost approx US$1000 a month...


You cannot keep your health benefits in Canada and suggest you read the article here regarding becoming a 'non-resident for tax purposes'

Scotia Bank is here...but is not affiliated with the Canadian Bank. Transfers may be limited until a legal resident.

Please visit prior to making a move.

kohlerias wrote:

I picked up my new Canadian passport yesterday in San Jose!

Your dependent child must be under 18 when the application is delivered to immigration....else she will be required to apply as an individual. Expensive!! Nor will she be covered by your CAJA healthcare plan.

CRIA will cost approx US$1000 a month...


You cannot keep your health benefits in Canada and suggest you read the article here regarding becoming a 'non-resident for tax purposes'

Scotia Bank is here...but is not affiliated with the Canadian Bank. Transfers may be limited until a legal resident.

Please visit prior to making a move.

Great info kohlerias, thanks for sharing that.  I'm of course not a wealth of information on the  Canadian end of things.

Thanks so much for all the info

You can't legally renew an Ontario driver's license or OHIP if you are not living in the province.   So, are you asking for advice on how to do something illegal?  No forum allows people to ask or to answer questions on how to do something that is illegal.

Regarding your daughter and university, it all depends on what you are referring to when you say, 'will that affect anything'.  Is she going to be legally domiciled in Costa Rica or is she going to stay domiciled in Canada?  Is she going to be applying for any kind of student loans, etc?  You have to look at what the requirements are for anything to do with her education, individually. 

The best way to handle the transfer of funds from Canada depend on the source of the funds you are talking about.  How to transfer savings or income from investments differs from how to best handle pension income for example. 

For day to day pocket money and purchases, ExpatDave may be fine using Debit and Credit cards if they are cards from a US bank that does not add exchange loading on each transaction.  However, if you have cards from one of Canada's 'Big Five' banks, you will find that they add 2.5% exchange loading on every transaction.  So that is not the best way for you.  As ExpatDave clearly and wisely acknowledges, he is not a Canada expert.  Add up 2.5% of your day to day spending over a year and see what it would cost you.

Read here for a start.  http://www.greedyrates.ca/blog/travel-t … NqVsjvyvIU

But that does not mean getting the right cards is even the answer.  Again, it depends on how your income is derived.   It may be better to look at 'non-resident for tax purposes' and having your income paid directly into a Costa Rican bank and paying income tax in Costa Rica rather than in Canada.  But that depends on whether that avenue is even open to you.  Getting the CRA to accept you are 'non-resident' is a difficult thing to do.  They don't want to let go of you as a taxpayer.  This is not a simple subject.

As for buying a home.  that is probably the single biggest mistake people moving to a new country make.  Of all the people I have seen move to their 'retirement paradise' in half a dozen countries I have lived in, 5 out of 10 were gone within 2 years and only 1-2 out of 10 were still there after 5 years.  That may be anecdotal evidence but as you can see, I am not alone in suggesting that.  ExpatDave has suggested the same thing.

I always suggest to people that it is far wiser to RENT for at least 1 and preferably 2 years before investing any real money in anything including a house.  You have to get through the 'rose coloured glasses' phase and see if you are likely to 'stick'.  Unfortunately, there is no way to know beforehand whether you will 'stick' or not.  You simply have to go and see what happens.

Moving to another country involves a lot of different issues.  While I am going to presume this is just your first stab at doing some research, I would advise you to treat each issue separately and research each separately.  You can't just ask a few 'simple' questions and get a few simple answers.

If you look at my past posts I, too, have never recommended purchasing either land or a home until you have resided here for at least a year.

Many think they will like living at the beach then find out it is too hot or humid, too expensive  or some may have picked a rural area and find out 'it is to rural and quiet for them'.

Much easier to pack up a furnished rental home and try another location.

CRA will not deposit a pension into Costa Rica.

Thanks for all this great info.  We will be renting for the first year, just incase the school doesnt work out.  We only wanted to purchase because it helps with the visa BUT have the money for other ways.  Fyi. Been a couple of time and loved it.  Very excited to hopefully retire from the grind !!

Thanks.

"CRA will not deposit a pension into Costa Rica."

Huh?  The CRA has nothing to do with pensions kohlerias.  Did you mean you cannot get a private pension, CPP or OAS pension deposited directly?

As you will see here:  https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/dd … eng.html#c

You can have your CPP and OAS deposited directly into a Costa Rica bank. 

Private pensions are a different matter entirely.  That all depends on the pension provider and what they are willing to do.

Sorry for my mistakes...

We have been advised that CPP and OAS can not be deposited here, although it can be deposited in many other countries. Many other Canadians living here, say the same thing.

I can't open the link you posted.

Does anyone have any information regarding the 90% tax rule reference an income originating from a small pension, from outside Canada?

Hmm, that link works for me kohlerias.  Maybe try copying it and entering it on Google directly and see if you can bring it up.
https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/dd … eng.html#c

It specifically does show Costa Rica and the info required, I can assure you.

It shows this is required:
1.  Bank code: not required as account number contains bank code as first 3 digits of account number
2.  Account number: 17 characters
3.  Identity number: 10-12 digits (MUST be included in the Other field under Part A of the Direct deposit enrolment form).

It also shows a contact phone number for a collect call:  1‑613‑941‑6402
613 is the Ottawa area code so presumably that would get you someone to talk to there.

Here is the link to the form that has to be filled out and mailed to the Receiver General.

https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/pd … abroad.pdf