Clearing your belongings through customs in Costa Rica

Hi.

When I moved to Costa Rica, I got 4 moving bids.  Only 1 gave me a price that included duty in the price.  I found that many of the companies quote the moving costs without the duty, leaving you vulnerable to an unknown duty.  Frankly, you need someone who really works with customs.  The custom department is wholly corrupt and can charge anything or steal your stuff.  Unscrupulous companies in Costa Rica can charge you thousands for duty.  You won't know and your goods will be held hostage.

I used a company Ship to Costa Rica.  The contact is Charles Zeller at 506-2431-1234.  I am so glad I used this company.  His bid was the same as others, but included the duty within $300.00 because he was not sure about the TV's.  He gave clear, concise directions as well.   Charles is a native Costa Rican of Dutch decent.  He is honest and speaks fluent English as well.  The business is family run with him and his children. 

I used a local company in the USA to do my packing and loading.  Charles provided the container and transport from my door to my new door in Costa Rica.   I got everything in good order; on time; no hassles. 

So that is my advice.  Best of luck with your move!

Myra Keith

HI. It's Myra again.

Yes, Customs amount vary by what you bring down.  Duties on refrigeration can be 80% of value.  Duties on cars is 100%.  Household goods can be any amount.  Don't try to do this yourself.  Contact a good professional.

I moved a long time ago.  I brought down a 40-foot high capacity container with all my worldly possessions including precious musical instruments, antiques and my mother's china.  The cost from Ship to Costa Rica was $9,000.  That was 11 years ago in 2008.  So I can't say what it would cost now. 

The international shipper was $6,000 to pack everything for transport which included crating some artwork, and double boxing with 200lb-test boxes for my 4 sets of china and crystal. 

So yours may not be more and may be less if you are not packing up everything but the kitchen sink.

My advice is to bring your sheets, towels and mattresses.  The selection here is lacking and double the price.  Bring computers, TV's tablets and other electronics.  Very expensive here.  Also, you will want to bring furniture if you are taller than 5'.  Furniture here is lower than USA furniture due to the shorter stature of the people.  And unless you have it custom made, you will not find good quality at a fair price.

Myra Keith

the company that ships your  property  and the customs police regulary  steal items of their interest took 6 months for my items to be delivered  was at the aduanas  customs holding for 2 months prior  they stole my shoes 12 pairs and hid my items       do yourself a favor  dont think of relocating to costa rica  they arent american friendly looking take whatever you have 5 other people were trying to find their property while i was there  up to 12 months

We had a steller move with Barry Wilson and Arden Brink.  We paid what was quoted before the move and not a penny more.  We shipped a forty foot container and it took a few days to clear customs.  Not one box opened and nothing broken.  Each piece was delivered into the room we asked for it to be in.

We brought all the stuff we wanted to bring (sold and threw away and gave away the rest) in about 8 duffel bags and 2 suitcases. Two suitcases we brought down and stored at a friend's house on an earlier trip. The 6 duffel bags we brought with us and no one checked their contents, at least not in our presence (i.e. coming through to CR at the SJ airport, they did not flag us for checking even though we had so many big full duffel bags.

Later I have brought several big duffel bags full on other trips returning from the U.S. and they have never checked any of those either.

They CAN and DO check some bags... not sure how they figure it. It seems to be random or maybe it's just them deciding who they like and who they don't? It seems they have a lot of leeway in what they do from what I've heard. But I'm not sure.

As to what to bring, bring anything you usea lot because if you buy it here it will likely not be as good quality OR will cost double, or both.

Electronics in particular cost 50-100% more; appliances like coffee makers and blenders are not as good here from what I've seen, not even if they're the same brand as you had in the USA. I've heard the big companies (say, Black and Decker, Cuisinart etc) sell the stuff here that is not good enough for the U.S. market and no doubt most is made in China.

Kitchen knives, pots and pans: bring 'em. Car: I wouldn't mess with importing one but some do. If you know it's a good car and can be repaired easily here, and you have plenty of $, maybe bring it. But many American or Japanese made cars - especially if it has special smog equipment on it - may be hard to get repaired here. If you buy a used car here, try to get one that was made for the CR market, not made for US or Canada markets.

Blu-ray: bring it. Most of the ones here are inferior. I bought one recently that had NO HDMI out! What the F?! Ridiculous! I assumed any bluray would have only hdmi cables because the whole idea of bluray is to have excellent picture quality which HDMI cables help supply! I bought a TV here - same brand I had in the states - Panasonic - and it has no way to hook up digital speakers such as Surround Sound. That gives you an idea of how it's hard to get good quality modern stuff here.

I have to make trips to the USA every couple of years or try to get friends to bring me stuff I need whenever I need stuff. Like now I need a laptop computer. I can pay $300 more here and end up with a Spanish keyboard which is very hard for me to use, with less Ram, lesser quality chip etc; or I can fly to Florida and back for $250 and get a better computer for less money. Same with phones. Buy them in the states.  Get an unlocked phone on Amazon and then  you can use it here; just check the stats to make sure it's the right frequency, uses 4G etc.

First of all you will be subject to lies from the customs officers. Many of these people are all about the small amount of power that they wield over you. Your possessions will be gone through completely and much of it will be stolen and some will be destroyed. All wooden objects such as tables, chairs, desks, hutches are subject to being deemed a threat of having bugs in them. They will unpack everything that was packed well and then it will be thrown into the back of a truck. If you miss the time to bribe the customs agent to get your belongings it will be 9 months to a year before you get your stuff. It will be absolutely the most frustrating experience you will ever have. If possible just bring your stuff on the plane. I take 9 to 10 bags every time I come back to Costa Rica. Just declare the value and be prepared to wait 15 minutes at the airport. I have shipped a container to Costa Rica and didn't know NOT TO USE MULTIMODAL....EVER, EVER, EVER..They will lie to you over and over. I just want people to know you will have no recourse even if you hire a lawyer. You will cry, scream and wish you had never done it. Save yourself 10k and just buy what you need in San Jose. Even if you pay double of what you would pay in the U.S. it's worth it. The world records that the corruption is so bad in Costa Rica you can check the statistics online, no lie it's horrible. They had us pay $1600 in taxes and we transferred the money from Banco Nacional to the customs bank. They said they made a mistake and we would have to pay it again. My wife was crying and saying this is wrong. I said do you want your stuff, just pay it again. It has been 10 months and we have not been given back our overcharge. They said we can fill out a form but every time I do they say it needs to be signed by someone or rewritten again. They are evil and corrupt people. Pura Vida is all anyone says about it.

Buenas,this last post by yeshua39 is indeed heartbreaking.When I moved here I just sold everything on craiglist,and carried important papers,my laptop etc in my luggage.I bought most of my household stuff in liberia,or Santa cruz.Shipping stuff down,incl.a car is not worth it my opinion.Over the years we have made several trips back to the states,and brought back certain items little by little.In fact we are planning a trip to Florida soon to do just that.One last comment on this matter,there are things here in Costa Rica that would drive a sane person nuts.Weather it's the way people drive,long lines at the bank,the incredibly inefficient process to get your residency,or even the way your neighbor treats his dog.These things make people give up and move back to the states,or Canada.It takes a special kind of person to put up with all this with a degree of patience.I've had a few horror stories myself,but I wouldn't trade my life here in Costa Rica for anything.pura vida...

Yeshua39 wrote:

First of all you will be subject to lies from the customs officers. Many of these people are all about the small amount of power that they wield over you. Your possessions will be gone through completely and much of it will be stolen and some will be destroyed. All wooden objects such as tables, chairs, desks, hutches are subject to being deemed a threat of having bugs in them. They will unpack everything that was packed well and then it will be thrown into the back of a truck. If you miss the time to bribe the customs agent to get your belongings it will be 9 months to a year before you get your stuff. It will be absolutely the most frustrating experience you will ever have. If possible just bring your stuff on the plane. I take 9 to 10 bags every time I come back to Costa Rica. Just declare the value and be prepared to wait 15 minutes at the airport. I have shipped a container to Costa Rica and didn't know NOT TO USE MULTIMODAL....EVER, EVER, EVER..They will lie to you over and over. I just want people to know you will have no recourse even if you hire a lawyer. You will cry, scream and wish you had never done it. Save yourself 10k and just buy what you need in San Jose. Even if you pay double of what you would pay in the U.S. it's worth it. The world records that the corruption is so bad in Costa Rica you can check the statistics online, no lie it's horrible. They had us pay $1600 in taxes and we transferred the money from Banco Nacional to the customs bank. They said they made a mistake and we would have to pay it again. My wife was crying and saying this is wrong. I said do you want your stuff, just pay it again. It has been 10 months and we have not been given back our overcharge. They said we can fill out a form but every time I do they say it needs to be signed by someone or rewritten again. They are evil and corrupt people. Pura Vida is all anyone says about it.

This indeed does sound horrible and I feel for you. I can imagine how terribly angry this would make me or most anyone...

Let this post be a lesson to those of you who want to move here. Many people have shipped stuff here without these problems, apparently mostly by choosing a recommended shipping expert.

I have seen various people on this and other forums say they used such-and-such shipper (i.e. a company or person who ships a shipping container full of stuff from U.S.) with total success and no snags.

So if you feel you can't part with your stuff and you must bring it all here, make sure you use a shipper with an excellent record, who comes highly recommended by others who've used them recently.

On this account let me mention that many communities or towns here in Costa Rica have Facebook pages where gringos ask questions and get help. So if you are, say, planning a move to San Ramon, use the San Ramon page(s) on FB to ask about these things, as well as forums like this one.

Let me add that I know it's not for everybody but when we moved here we got rid of about 90% of everything we owned. Granted we weren't living in the Taj Majal, LOL.

But I threw out even hundreds of old photos, many paper books, stuff I'd been carrying around from move to move, for 43 years in some cases! I suddenly realized, I don't NEED all this crap! I stored over 1000 cd's at a friend's house but now with Spotify and other services, none of that is even necessary. I'll probably give the 1000 cd's to my younger sister who's not as savvy with digital/internet technology as I am and won't get Spotify or download music.

As far as old photos, I took pictures of many of the best ones with my phone, uploaded them to google drive. Those were the hardest things to throw out, but the fact is most of them I'd only looked at 3-4 times in 40 years and they took up a lot of space! Had I been more organized I could have taken photos of all of them with my camera but I procrastinated so had to just photo some of them.

Other things too such as paintings or posters or little mementos, I just took photos of them. Letters from my parents or siblings that I wanted to save, same thing: photos of them. 20 years of old documents: paper shredder.

Clothes. Depending on where you're moving to here you may not need a lot of stuff. If you live in Nebraska or New York, etc. you certainly won't need those winter coats! But if you live in the country side here don't think you can wear just shorts and sandals all the time. Some areas have mosquitoes and others have no-see-ums, and so on. You'll need some lightweight long pants and long sleeve shirts, and if you live much above sea level you'll need some sweaters or jackets. But clothes can be bought here, so just bring your very favorites.

Furniture and big appliances. Personally I wouldn't bring any of that.

See my list above in another post as to what to bring if you are downsizing and not bringing a huge container of household items.

Bottom line: I threw out 90% of everything and I don't regret it. Downsizing is very liberating.