Costa Rica Residency in 2026:
What Changed on 14 July, and What Property Ownership Does Not Get You

Start here: two systems that do not talk to each other

Property is registered with the Registro Nacional. Immigration status is granted by the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería under Ley 8764. They are separate systems with separate rules.

A foreigner can own Costa Rican land indefinitely with no immigration status whatsoever. Many owners spend part of the year in the country on tourist entries and never apply for residency. Conversely, obtaining residency does not require owning property.

The main place the two systems touch is the investor category, where real estate can be the qualifying investment. And even there, the connection carries a condition many buyers discover late: the way the property is titled can matter.

Pensionado

Under Ley 8764 Art. 81, pensionado status requires at least USD 1,000 per month in permanent, stable pension income from a recognised source.

The important word is permanent. A retiree may have substantial savings or investment assets without having income that satisfies the pensionado requirement. A normal portfolio drawdown by itself generally does not qualify as pension income.

Rentista

Under Ley 8764 Art. 82, rentista status requires USD 2,500 per month in permanent, stable qualifying income, demonstrated for at least two years.

A USD 60,000 bank arrangement is commonly used to demonstrate the required two years of income, but it is better understood as a common evidence structure rather than as the legal category itself. The underlying test is the qualifying income.

For financially independent people who are not yet receiving a qualifying pension, this is often the more relevant route.

Inversionista

This is the investment-based temporary-residence route, and it is the one property buyers need to treat most carefully in 2026.

Ley 9996 reduced the qualifying investment threshold to USD 150,000 for a time-limited period. That window ended on 14 July 2026.

Before Ley 9996, the immigration regulation used a USD 200,000 threshold. However, the specific regulatory provision containing that figure was repealed in 2023 when the Ley 9996 implementing regulation took effect.

That means the post-14 July 2026 position should not be simplified to either "It is still USD 150,000" or "It automatically went back to USD 200,000."

As of August 2026, the live threshold should be confirmed in writing before relying on either figure.

If investor residency is part of your purchase strategy, do not structure a property acquisition around a threshold you have seen repeated online. Confirm the current requirement with a licensed Costa Rican immigration attorney before the purchase structure is finalised.

Digital nomad

The digital nomad programme under Ley 10008 is different. It provides a one-year authorised stay, renewable once, subject to its own income requirements.

It is not a temporary-residence category. It is structured as a non-resident stay, which means time under digital nomad status does not accumulate toward the three years of temporary residence generally required before applying for permanent residency.

That makes it useful for remote workers who want to live in Costa Rica for a limited period, but it should not be confused with a residency path.

Vínculo

Family relationships can also create immigration routes, but they do not all work in exactly the same way.

Marriage to a Costa Rican can support a temporary-residence route. Certain first-degree family relationships with a Costa Rican can instead support permanent residence directly.

If vínculo is relevant to you, the exact relationship matters, so it is better to confirm the applicable category than to treat "family connection" as one single immigration route.

What changed on 14 July 2026

Ley 9996 created a special incentive package for qualifying investor, pensionado and rentista beneficiaries.

The important change on 14 July 2026 is that the five-year window for new beneficiaries to obtain those incentives ended.

The package included:

That distinction matters. It is more accurate to say that the Ley 9996 incentive window ended than to say that "Ley 9996 expired."

The implementing regulation only took effect in February 2023, so it was in force for roughly three years and five months of the five-year statutory window.

The USD 150,000 investor threshold was part of the same time-limited framework, which is why the post-sunset threshold now requires careful confirmation rather than assumption.

The personal-name requirement, and why it collides with structuring

This is one of the most important points for property buyers.

Since 23 February 2023, an investor-residency application relying on real estate requires the applicant to be the registered owner of the property personally.

Real estate registered in the name of a legal entity is not accepted as the qualifying real-estate investment under that rule.

This creates a very common sequencing problem. A buyer takes Costa Rican legal advice, creates a company for liability, estate-planning or succession reasons, and buys the property through it. Months later, immigration enters the conversation.

The attorney who created the company may have done nothing wrong. They were solving an ownership-structure problem.

But if the buyer later wants to use that same property for investor residency, the property does not qualify as the real-estate investment in that configuration.

Retitling may be possible, but it can require another transfer, another set of legal and registration costs, and additional transfer-tax or other tax consequences.

The practical lesson is simple. If residency may be part of your plan, discuss it before deciding how to hold title. The entity decision and the immigration decision should not happen in isolation.

Timelines: what can honestly be said

Residency processing times vary. You will find published estimates, including estimates around a year for some categories, but they should not be treated as guaranteed completion dates.

For relocation planning, the structure of the process is more useful than a headline number.

There can be delay at several points. That does not necessarily mean something is wrong; it simply means immigration should not be the only moving part in your relocation plan.

Do not sell a house, end a lease or make another irreversible move solely because somebody gave you a confident processing estimate.

CAJA, honestly

Approved residents are generally required to enrol in the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, usually referred to as CAJA or CCSS.

There is no meaningful universal monthly number. The contribution is calculated from a contribution base determined by CCSS under its rules, subject to applicable minimums and contribution scales.

That is why a number such as "CAJA costs USD 80 to USD 100 a month" should not be treated as a standard cost. Your actual contribution depends on your own category and circumstances. Get an estimate based on your own case rather than building a relocation budget from a number repeated online.

Residency is not tax residency

This distinction matters because immigration residency and tax residency are different concepts.

Costa Rica generally operates a territorial income-tax system. Becoming an immigration resident does not, by itself, mean that all of your foreign income suddenly becomes taxable in Costa Rica.

For individuals, spending more than 183 days in Costa Rica during the relevant fiscal period is one of the principal tests for tax residence. Entry and departure days count, and certain sporadic absences may also be included unless another tax residence is established.

So the rule is more nuanced than simply counting nights physically spent in the country.

A specific issue for property sellers

Costa Rican law imposes a 2.5% withholding on the sale price when Costa Rican real estate is sold by a non-domiciled seller. That particular withholding applies because the seller is non-domiciled.

Once a seller is Costa Rican tax-domiciled, that specific non-domiciled withholding does not apply on that basis. That does not mean the sale becomes tax-free. Other tax consequences can still apply.

For US citizens

Separately from Costa Rican immigration law, US tax obligations continue to matter. There is currently no US–Costa Rica income-tax treaty in force.

And the US Foreign Earned Income Exclusion does not shelter pension income, annuity payments, Social Security or portfolio investment income merely because you live abroad. It applies to qualifying earned income.

So for a retiree living primarily from a pension and investments, the FEIE generally does not solve the main US tax questions created by that income structure.

Common misconceptions

What to verify before you rely on anything

Practical checklist

Frequently asked