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@dwilhelms1

I highly recommend using a Residency Service unless you are already living in CR and speak fluent Spanish.

Google Residency Services in Costa Rica... there are more than a few.   

If you ask for recommendations... you'll get some specific names on this forum, and others will tell you not to use 'that' service because of their own bad experience.  You are an adult, just read their sites and them send some Q's or make some calls.  If they are willing to answer simple questions without a fee... then they are probably legit. 

There is an Application process that includes, primarily,

1 The application itself... it has to be in Spanish.  My service sent me the questions in English... and they applied them to the Spanish version ... which is the only version that Migration accepts.

2   A series of documents such as:

One copy (not photocopy) of your Birth certificate.;   I recommend, also, having a few copies HERE in CR with you... you may need them for residency renewals, changes from temporary to Permanent applications; etc.

A copy of your passport's 'info' page,

An up-to-date FBI or Police background check (requires a set of fingerprints);   FBI, for many, is easier.

Two passport sized color photos

Proof of SS or other pension GUARANTEED income (minimum of $1,000 USD per month) .. such as your SS Benefits letter; signed and dated by somebody in a SS office.

Another set of Finger Prints for the Gov't here in Costa Rica (you can get that done here) and...

An official CR Lawyer's letter or Notary here that is approved by the gov't that testifies that you are who you say you are... you have to have that done HERE in CR, in person.  that fee is paid directly to the lawyer.  My service here arranged that and took me to his office.  It took less than 20 minutes.

Everything that is coming from your home country must be Apostilled at a Costa Rican Consulate in your country. That Consulate will provide you with a certified Translation 'service' (not free) that will translate all of the apostilled documents from English into Spanish... of whatever your native tongue is.  All of that must be put together, with a set of fingerprints for CR, the Lawyer's document, and your completed application (in spanish) and walked into the Migration office.  A service will and can do that for you... but you must give them the $$ for the Gov't fees that are required to get the application turned in.

Very good to have a service... if they are 'good' they will make sure that you have all of your ducks in a row, and will walk your application to Migration for you and most importantly, They will speak Spanish and can let you know if there are any issues.  The service will be the official liaison between Migration and You... so they will get news from Migration and thus forward it to you and hopefully explain everything.

After The application is turned in, you may wait up to (timing changes constantly) four months just for the Application to be Accepted for PROCESSING ONLY.   During that time/wait, if you are in CR and your passport entry stamp expires, YOU MUST LEAVE and then return to get a renew'd entry stamp.   Once you hear that itisaccepted for Processing, you'll receive a document called "Expediente" (generally a pdf in an email from your service) .... and with that document (make copies and keep one ALWAYS with your passport) you will now wait again... (9 months or more)   BUT!!!  That  Expediente document means that you DO NOT HAVE TO LEAVE Costa Rica if your passport entry stamp/visa expires.  But you will always need that Expediente document with your passport because crap happens.   So you can start living here, buy a house, get a dog, learn Spanish, grow weed, whatever, while you wait. 

Eventually, you'll get news from your service that your application has been Officially Accepted... and you'll get a new document to replace the Expediente... which is called a 'Resolucion'.   Your service will then instruct you to immediately go to a CCSS office to join the National Healthcare system or 'Caja' (which is mandatory for your Pensionista Residency to exist) ...  remember to take any and all documents and Resolucion with you; and you will join the Caja while you are there and pay the first month.  With a receipt of that.. you can then go to a Correos of Costa Rica or to a BCR (Banco de Costa Rica) .... both have on-line reservation options... you can't just do a walk-in; to apply for and get photographed for, your official Costa Rican ID... called the 'Cedula'...  it generally gets sent to your local (closest) Correos of CR office for you to go and retreive... about 2-4 weeks later... so know where your closest Correos office is.  Most big towns have them. 

BTW... by that time you should have a phone with an 8-digit Costa Rican phone number, and Whatsapp on that phone (most phones here have the app already) so that you can get messages from Correos.   

I did the whole process from down here in CR... where I had purchased a home before even applying for residency... I had things sent to a family member in the states (birth certificate copy; etc) and she forwarded to my Service who took care of doing the Consulate visits; apostille process, and translations.   The service here went with me to the Police station in San Jose for finger prints (passport photo shop was across the street) and to the lawyer's office for the notarized document....  she then walked my application into the Migration office without me... I never went there.   The whole thing took half a day... so I was able to get back up to western San Carlos without having to stay in a hotel.

Not all services have persons in both countries... but whomever you select to use will assist you with how to go about doing all of this.

Good luck.

A couple of additional details . . .

First, it will be easier if you deal with an attorney/notary close to where you live in Costa Rica. Post a question in this Forum asking for an experienced (it's important) representative near you to handle the process. Among other things, you're going to have to swear before a notary that your documents and applications are valid. Better to do that close to home.

Second, all the documents you'll need MUST have been originated within six months of their submission to Immigration. That means new birth certificates from the state where you were born, a new marriage certificate (if applicable) from the state in which you were last married (if applicable), new proof of lifetime guaranteed income (Social Security, military or government pension, and some (but not all) private annuity accounts), and a FBI criminal record check. If you're a couple, both must apply and provide the necessary documents although if you're legally married, only one needs to meet the income requirement.

The easiest way to get these documents is to Google them (i.e, google "State of <wherever> birth certificate" and "State of <wherever> marriage certificate") and opt to have the online service have the new documents apostiled for you. It's not cheap, but these outfits have the connections to the states' Office of Vital Records and Secretary of State and can save you a lot of headaches. Many States won't deal with you directly any longer.

You can Google the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. On their website (maybe Federal Benefits Unit), there's a place where you can request a Social Security proof of income which will be emailed back to you at no cost. Print it out and that will make Costa Rican Immigration happy.

NOTE: What we're talking about here is legal temporary residency, not a "visa".

@daveandmarcia

All good points from Dave... especially his second point about your documents not being older than 6 months.

I will add to his final Point... All original Residencies will be Temporary and it will say so on your CR ID card.  You will have to renew after the first 2 years as per the expiration date on your ID card.   However, after you have completed year number three... you can go to Migration and apply to change your Residency status to Permanent.  Quite easy.  I recommend going immediately after the +++++3rd year has terminated.  Getting that change to Permanent doesn't require proof of income or anything like that... just some fees and writing a short letter.  But !! it can take more than a year to wait for the +change.... thus, your fourth year runs out and your Cedula (ID card) will expire.  It happened to me and I went to Migration and asked what I should do... the +woman said that it is 'normal' ??  for that to happen and when you DO get the Permanent Residency 'solucion'... you just pay an extra $25 to cover that expired cedula. 

I suppose I could have renewed the 2 year temporary residency again... but I didn't want to have TWO applications running into each other at Migration.   I just had to live with an expired Cedula for a few months... so I layed 'low' and tried not to do anything that required an ID during that period of time.  Why??  you ask???  Because with an expired Cedula and a Passport Entry stamp that was also expired (because you don't need to update that 'stamp' if you have Residency) I could have been flagged for being here longer than my stamp allowed, and my Cedula/Residency card was expired.  I didn't worry... I had my copy of my application from Migration that was stamped and signed.  But not everybody in CR knows about these things (and why would they??)... like people at the bank, or at a car rental service; etc.  Some of them love calling the police if they think you are illegal (it happened to me during my first wait ... but I had my Expediente document with me; the car rental guy had no clue what it was and called the Migration police anyway... they arrived and were pissed that he called... false alarm). 

Interesting... my final Resolucion letter even had a paragraph regarding the 4th year of Cedula expiring during the 'wait' to achieve Permanent Residency...and it noted that letting that happen wasn't the END OF THE WORLD and you would simply pay an extra $25 in addition to the final fee.

Permanent Residency must be renewed after the first three years; and after that, every 5 years.  Easily done at BCR

@rainagain

Thank you for such a detailed explanation.

Better check with the consulate you plan to use. The CR consulate in Miami does not provide Apostille services. The forms need to be sent to DC. Starting my residency journey very soon!

When you order the new documents you'll need (birth and marriage certificates, a FBI criminal record check, income verification, etc), you're likely to find yourself dealing with a company who has exclusive access to those records -- at a fee. They are likely to offer you the service of having those documents apostiled, too. If they do, bite the bullet and pay the fee. It'll be much faster and much simpler than trying to do it yourself.

Note: The apostiling process is performed by the legal authority who issues the document. It is an authenticating process in which the issuer confirms that the document is genuine. The Costa Rican consulates in the U.S. or elsewhere have no part in apostiling documents from (say) Florida or California. That's done by the Secretary of State in each U.S. state typically in their Office of the Great Seal.

So, if you were born in Florida, it's Florida's state government which must apostile your newly issued Florida birth certificate. If you were married in California, it's their state government which must apostile your newly issued marriage certificate. It doesn't matter where you're living now.

@daveandmarcia

Interesting...  I was born in Wisconsin and all of my Documents were apostilled by the Consulate in Los Angeles... or at least, I thought they were. 

Perhaps, because many of my documents were  'embossed' with, or stamped with, Official seals and included signatures; dates stamps; etc., from the Departments that issued them., the consulate considered that to be a 'genuine' document. 

I always learn something from Dave.

There is an international treaty that forms the basis and establishes the requirements for the apostiling process. Many, but not all, countries have signed on. This treaty is a relatively recent development. It's come into existence during the twenty years that we've lived in Costa Rica.

Before apostiling, individual states in the U.S. had their own procedures for authenticating the documents that their governments issued. In those days, the Costa Rican consulates authenticated U.S. states' documents but no more. That explains why rainagain's Wisconsin documents were authenticated (not apostiled) by the Costa Rican consulate in Los Angeles. So used to be a three-step process: first, get the newly issued document, then have that state's Office of the Great Seal authenticate it, and then have the Costa Rican consulate administer its bureaucratic blessing. Apostiling eliminates that last step.

@daveandmarcia

You go deep, Prof. Dave.

Gracias .

For those 'in' process or thinking about it...Probably good 'fodder' for hiring a Residency Service or Migration Attorney. 

Dunno about a "Residency Service" (see above), but an experienced attorney, one who has done a number of residency applications for others before you, will save you a lot of headaches. One slip up and your application will expire (remember the requirement that your documents be less than six months old when submitted) and you'll have to begin anew.

@daveandmarcia

Folks...   Tons of Residency Services exist that aren't law firms. 

There is only ONE item required for the initial Residency application (Pensionista, Rentista, Digital Nomad) that requires a Lawyer, and that lawyer doesn't have to be a Migration Attorney.   

My service was excellent and nobody on their team was a lawyer.  A retired teacher, or bookkeeper, or insurance agent could do it. 

They worked on 'residencies' and residencies only... so I'm guessing, they knew what they were doing and weren't busy with other legal ³¾²¹³Ù³Ù±ð°ù²õ.Ìý

And ...  just a stab in the dark, but I'm guessing they didn't charge legal type fees either.

Whether you use a lawyer or a residency service, keep in mind that all they do is compile your documents, make sure that everything is copacetic, and then, hopefully, they will walk your application to Migracion for you, and keep you informed as to the status as things progress. 

I suppose that if you 'think' you will have special circumstances that require a lawyer (bad marks on FBI background check, issues with passports/past residencies, issues with past marriage and divorce crap, etc.)  then hiring a migration attorney would be worth it.  But for the simple due diligence of filling out an application and compiling your required documents...  a 'service' is just fine... or you could even do it yourself... but that would most likely require excellent Spanish skills, and already living reasonably close to the/a  MIgracion office.