Costa Rica Digital Nomad Visa: Requirements, Income & How to Apply (2026)

The visa is open to salaried remote workers and to freelancers or service providers, as long as the work is delivered remotely for people or companies outside Costa Rica. There's no degree requirement and no fixed profession list; the gate is the income figure and where it comes from. Costa Rican nationals cannot apply.

Unusually for a longer-stay permit, you don't submit a police certificate — the DGME runs its own background screening against national and international databases rather than asking you to produce an apostilled criminal-record check. You do need medical insurance in place before you're approved.

The threshold is a flat US$3,000 a month for one person, rising to US$4,000 a month if you bring family, and it's assessed as an average over the previous twelve months rather than on a single strong month. Because Law 10008 fixes the number in dollars, it doesn't drift with a local minimum wage the way pegged thresholds elsewhere do.

The proof standard is specific: bank statements covering the last year, certified by a public accountant or a notary. That certification requirement trips up applicants who bring raw statements, so arrange it before you file. The family figure is a single higher floor, not a per-child calculation — US$4,000 covers a spouse and any dependent children together.

The whole application is filed online through the DGME's Trámite Ya platform: you upload your certified statements, insurance, and translated documents, then pay the US$100 fee to Banco de Costa Rica. Official processing runs around fifteen business days, which is fast for a year-long permit. After approval you complete biometrics and collect your DIMEX foreigner-ID card in country.

The second-year extension has a catch worth planning around from day one: you must show at least 180 days of physical presence in Costa Rica during the first year and renew in person. If you treat the visa as a part-time base and spend most of the year elsewhere, you can lose the renewal.

Costa Rica already runs a territorial tax system — only Costa Rican-source income is taxable — and Law 10008 removes any doubt for nomads by expressly exempting the foreign income of visa holders. In practice this makes it one of the genuinely tax-clean destinations for remote workers whose clients and employers sit abroad. It doesn't change your obligations back home, so US and other citizens taxed on worldwide income still file there, but Costa Rica itself won't tax the money you earn from outside it.

Family members go on the same application, and the cost of including them is the higher income floor: US$4,000 a month instead of US$3,000. That figure covers a spouse and dependent children together, so there's no separate per-person income sum to calculate — a simpler arrangement than the family-unity visas used in Mexico or the beneficiary visas in Colombia. Dependants receive the same right to reside for the visa's duration.

Among the Americas, Costa Rica sits in the middle on money and near the top on tax treatment. Colombia's bar is lower and Brazil's is lower still at US$1,500, while Panama asks for the same rough US$3,000 a month. What separates Costa Rica is the explicit statutory tax exemption on foreign income, matched in the region only by Panama's territorial system, plus practical perks like the bank account and duty-free equipment import. If your priority is keeping foreign income untaxed locally on a proper year-long permit, Costa Rica and Panama are the two to weigh; Costa Rica gives you the longer, renewable stay.

Two things decide most applications. The first is the accountant or notary certification on your bank statements — file without it and you'll be sent back, so line it up early. The second is the US$50,000 insurance policy, which must cover the entire authorised stay; a short travel policy won't clear it. Keep the twelve-month income average comfortably above US$3,000 rather than skimming the line, since a couple of thin months can drag the average under. And if you want the second year, track your days in the country from the start — the 180-day presence rule for renewal is easy to breach if you travel a lot.