A few weeks ago, the Congresswomen of Costa Rica, Mileidy Alvarado Arias, María Inés Solís Quirós and Silvia Vanessa Hernández Sánchez, presented the Bill called: “LAW FOR THE ATTRACTION OF INVESTORS, RENTERS AND PENSIONERS“, whose objective is to contribute to the economic reactivation of Costa Rica.

Costa Rica, like all or most of the countries in the world, is going through a difficult situation due to the pandemic, but we have also been able to observe how different countries in the world have started an aggressive campaign to attract investment in their countries. For example, they have taken advantage of the benefits of “telecommuting” to promote themselves as a perfect destination for people to emigrate and carry out their work remotely. This is accompanied by flexibility in the original immigration regulations.

In regards to our country, the congresswomen have identified that opportunity, pointing directly to three migratory categories of great importance in our country: Investors, Rentiers and Pensioners. For this article in particular, we wanted to focus on the changes that would occur in the category of Temporary Resident as Investor, especially considering that our neighboring country Panama is also aggressively competing in attracting investment.

Changes for Residences as Investors:

For the category of investors, for the time frame to be determined by law, a new investment range is established, with a capital of no less than USD $150,000.00 (one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, currency of the United States of America) according to the official sale exchange rate determined by the Central Bank of Costa Rica, whether in real estate, registrable assets, shares, securities and productive projects or projects of national interest. In those cases where the investment is regulated by special laws, it will be analyzed individually. The foregoing supposes a reduction of USD $50,000.00 on the current amount; which will undoubtedly be extremely attractive to foreign citizens.

It is important for this case, to compare ourselves with our neighbor Panama, where its government announced a few weeks ago the creation of a Permanent Residence program for Economic Reasons for Qualified Investors. The approved decree indicates that those people that invest a minimum of USD $300,000.00 in real estate during the first 24 months of the decree may opt for said residence, and subsequently it will be increased to USD $500,000.00. There are other investment possibilities, for example the purchase of securities in the Panama Stock Exchange for a minimum amount of UD $750,000.00. All investments must be held for a minimum period of five years.

We consider that our Bill represents a competitive advantage over the neighboring country, because in our country we do not distinguish the type of investment (furniture, real estate, securities, etc.) and the investment amount is 50% of that required by the Government of Panama for Real Estate Investments. In addition to that, for Projects of National Interest the investment may be even less. Regarding the time frame, we also find another advantage since the Temporary Resident must maintain the investment for at least three years in order to then be able to change the category to a Permanent Residence Free of Condition.

We hope that this Bill will be a total success and can find in the legislative stream the necessary will to be discussed, improved, and approved as soon as possible. Even so, the current conditions to apply for residency as an investor are incredibly attractive and still have an advantage over the requirements of the neighboring country.

Definitely in times of change we must take advantage of all the opportunities that we have in front of us and take advantage of the good position that our country occupies as a retirement and investment destination.

If you have questions or queries regarding any type of immigration procedure, we invite you to contact us by email at info@erplawyers.com; where our team of experts will gladly resolve your doubts and concerns.