The requirements
- Programme status
- Open, accepting applications
- Minimum monthly income
- $3,000 a month
- Required savings
- None
- Annual total
- $36,000
- Initial duration
- 1 year, renewable once
- Family allowed
- Yes
- Apply online
- Yes
USD 3,000/month (4,000 with dependents), 12 months statements.
How this figure is set: A fixed amount set in law or on the official page. The wording on the source is: 3000
. Formula: USD 3,000/month (USD 4,000 with dependents) over the previous 12 months of bank statements, or CPA/notary certification.
Income confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Ley 10008 (2021) and its reglamento - cited by dataset; not fetched (migracion.go.cr returns 403 to non-browser clients).
Does this lead to permanent residence?
No pathway. Estancia is a non-resident category, outside Costa Rica's residency ladder.
Ley 10008 art 2 (text via vlex.co.cr, republishing the Asamblea-published law after migracion.go.cr and pgrweb.go.cr returned 403/blocked WebFetch) places the remote-worker status 'dentro de la categoria de no residente, subcategoria de estancia'. Ley 8764 (General Immigration Law, read via Costa Rica's own Defensoria de los Habitantes) structures categories as Cap. I Residentes Permanentes (art 78.1, requiring 3 consecutive years of residencia temporal), Cap. II Residentes Temporales, Cap. III Personas No Residentes (art 87-88, estancia is subcategory 2). Estancia sits in Chapter III, not II, so it cannot feed the 3-year PR track — this categorical placement is directly stated; that it bars PR is inferred from the structure, since no single sentence says so explicitly.
Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Where it is
San José sits at 9.93° N, 84.08° W.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of San José. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC−6 Costa Rica (America/Costa_Rica)
The country
- Capital
- San José
- Currency
- CRC
Next door
Costa Rica shares a land border with these.
What it costs to live there
$1,065 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Costa Rica spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- San José
- $1,142 / month incl. rent
of which rent $546
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- Spanish official
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
How to apply
- Check you clear the requirements above — $3,000 a month is the figure this row records.
- Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
- Apply in this order — the ministry page above describes the permit, these are where it is submitted:
- DGME: nómadas digitales ↗The immigration authority’s own page for this status, which is not where the row’s headline figures came from — those came from the tourism board. Start here for what Ley 10008 actually requires.
- Trámite YA: file it online ↗The DGME’s digital platform, and the route that avoids an appointment. The alternative is a physical filing, for which you book through the DGME’s own appointments portal under “Estancia Nómadas Digitales”.
- DIMEX: the card, within three months ↗Approval is not the end. You have three months from it to obtain the DIMEX accreditation document, and missing that window starts cancellation of the status you were just granted.
Checked 2026-09-12. The row cited visitcostarica.com, the tourism board, which markets the programme but does not run it; the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería does. Both DGME pages refuse automated requests and were read in a browser. The three-month DIMEX deadline after approval is the part worth carrying: it is the step at which a granted status quietly lapses. - Pay the filing fee. It is $100. USD 100, or the equivalent in colón at the Banco Central de Costa Rica rate of the day. One figure, whatever your nationality.DGME: cost of the application ↗ · checked 2026-09-12
- Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
- Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.
Trámite Ya portal; USD 100 fee; foreign income tax-exempt.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.