Why Costa Rica?

People always ask me, “Why Costa Rica?”  As it may surprise you, I don’t answer “Why not?”  Although I’m usually very tempted. 

Years ago I worked in the corporate world ad was one of those guys who used the first 10 days of his two week vacation just to finally relax and enjoy myself, then I used the last two days tensing up getting ready to go back to work.  That’s a total of two days of enjoyable vacation time and frankly that sucks!

It was an incredibly beautiful day when our plane landed in Costa Rica.  The flight was amazing as far as views and weather were concerned.  When we landed, my wife and I deplaned and were a bit taken back by the high temperatures, myself not adapting to high temperatures as they make me rather miserable.  Originally I thought that what was wrong with me was either the heat or humidity, but I was wrong…way wrong.

Within an hour or two from landing, my wife asked me if something was wrong.  I said, “Nothing, I’m fine.  I mean, really fine.”  As a matter of fact I had never been so fine on vacation before.  What seemed to have happened is that I unknowingly decompressed and relaxed.  It was and is an amazing feeling, to be in a land that is so mellow and low key that a person instantly winds down within minutes of arriving.  I went on to have one of the most relaxing and enjoyable vacations of my life.  So began an incredible journey to share this magnificent experience with the world.

How Many People Are Moving to Costa Rica Now?

There are many, many people moving into Costa Rica for all different kinds of reasons.  Some for the warm tropical weather, some for the laid back lifestyle and others…

…..well we’re not sure about them.

No matter what the reason, the amount of people moving into Costa Rica has been on a steady climb for the last 8 years.

As a matter of fact, right after 911 we saw a substantial spike in both property sales and foreign residents.  Currently there are about 50,000 expats (a term referring to expatriates from other countries.  Although this terminology is rather harsh, everyone seems to get lumped into the category.  More on this in later post) in the country, which is a considerable number compared to the country’s small 4.2 Million population, with more than 700,000 American citizens visiting Costa Rica annually.

The residency laws are pretty straight forward, as well as their visa laws.  In a nutshell, if a person is visiting, they can stay in the country for 3 months at a time and then must leave for 3 days.  This keeps many of the border hotels quite busy with weekend visitors.

Once you apply for residency this rule no longer applies.  Residency in itself is another straightforward process, they ask that you fall into one of three categories; One, you have employment in the country prior to moving in.  Two, you can prove you have ample funds to live off of (i.e. retirement, IRA, etc.), Three, you are opening a business and providing jobs for the local residents.