Costa Rica Relocation Blog

There is MUCH confusion in the past couple of weeks on pets going into Costa Rica and worry that there is a new law in place because pets are being sent to the cargo warehouse rather than being cleared through the passenger terminal.

There is not a new law. This is an old law that the government is now enforcing on pets coming in on their own ticket or airway bill. The customs officials at the airport were not aware that Continental pets were not coming in as excess baggage until a very important woman (wife of someone high up in the government)threw her weight around on the 18th of April and flashed her airway bill at the customs officials demanding her pets.

This upset the customs officials and brought to their attention the fact that Continental was allowing pets to come through the passenger terminal with an airway bill when they should go directly to the cargo facility like all other pets arriving as manifest cargo with their own tickets.

Several meetings took place over the following days and the result of these meetings were that for now, only Continental would be affected by this ruling since all of the other airlines were already following this protocol. All pets arriving on Continental as quickpak on their own ticket (airway bill) will go directly to the cargo facility rather than be released in the passenger terminal as previously allowed.

Now you must acquire an import permit prior to arrival in order for your pet to be released when you arrive. This should be applied for at least 4 days prior to your arrival in Costa Rica through a broker so that your pet does not sit in the customs warehouse for many unnecessary hours unattended.

There will be taxes and customs duties charged as well as fees charged now that were never charged before as a result of the pets coming in through the cargo warehouse. The tax rate is 24.30% of the adjusted value. Pets are automatically insured at $50.00 above the amount shown on the AWB. Value is set at $50-$60 above the amount shown on the AWB and the taxes and costs are based on this amount.

You still must have a current rabies under one year and vaccinations (for a cat FVRCP, for a dog DHLPP) current within one year. Tick and tapeworm treatment prior to arrival as well. All of this must be documented on the APHIS 7001 International Health Certificate and it must be endorsed by the USDA within 10 days of arrival in Costa Rica.

I hope this information helps clear up some of the confusion that is out there about what is now necessary to bring your dog or cat into Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica is closed for business for the next few days!!! The streets are bare, traffic…well there isn’t any to speak of. The valley is a virtual ghost town. Getting around a breeze right now. Great if you live in the valley!!

Everyone is at the beach. You cannot find a hotel anywhere near the beach unless you booked it months ago.

Buses are not running on Thursday or Friday so the laborers and domestics cannot get to work on these days either. The country pretty much shuts down for Easter. I tried to call the bank today and they aren’t even answering the phone

The airport is closed for transporting animals because all of the government agencies are closed that approve the documents for the animals to come in and go out.

Today is Holy Thursday, tomorrow is Good Friday. Nothing is happening business wise. This is a long weekend for rest and relaxation. Most people are spending time with their families and friends during this long holiday in Costa Rica since they don’t have to work. Aside from Christmas, this is the biggest holiday of the year.

Happy Semana Santa to everyone!!!!

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Now we talk about pets leaving Costa Rica

As of February 2009, the TSA in the USA will not allow anyone to book their own pet as cargo coming into the US.  As excess baggage if you are on the same plane, no problem.  But as manifest cargo, you will have a problem as TSA will not allow anyone that is not a known shipper to book a pet into the US on an airline carrier flying into the US.

For this among other reasons, like travel to the US being higher than in years in the past, our moves are up considerably this year.  This past week was a record setting week for pets coming out of Costa Rica.  It seems that 3 families with multiple pets decided to leave all within 3 days with us.

A record week for World Pet Travel was 18 pets out of Costa Rica in 3 days.  Andrea, Jose, Edgar and Mandiel were at their best in these days.  Thank goodness for all the great people with World Pet Travel and those that support them in Costa Rica.

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Residency laws in Costa Rica are changing again!  I am having difficulty keeping up with all of the changes this time so I have enlisted the help of my friends at Fragomen to help weed through some of the new laws.

I will be posting them here as they are made clear to me.

The first of the many changes that I learned of today is the following….for RENTISTA status.  This is the status that  family would file or someone that is not yet of the retirement age.

This new law is both good and bad for the Rentista’s.  For a family, it is a very good thing.  A family of 3, 4, 5 + it is far less expensive to file for residency now than it has been for the last couple of years. Now whether there is one member or 10 in your family, the amount that you have to prove as income is $2500/month or $125k/annually.

That opens another can of worms…Until a couple of years ago, it was only proof of $1k/month/ $65k /annually for a family of 1-2 or more to file for Rentista status, then everything changed.  The amount doubled, tripled, quadrupled etc.  The more in your family, the more you had to prove in income and deposit as guarantee in income.  If you had a family of 5, you would have to deposit $210k to file for Rentista.  It was just a bit ridiculous and apparently the CR government saw the err or their ways because only 2 years after this law went into effect another one follows that makes a little more sense economically for a large family.

This new law will be in full effect in March of 2010.  Until that time, I imagine many people will continue to hold off on filing for Rentista.

More to follow about the other types of residency status available to foreigners soon.

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Well it has happened again….I didn’t think it would ever pass but I was wrong.  President Arias has signed the bill into law.  On Wednesday the 19th of August the bill became a law changing the amount for Pensinado’s required to have in income and several other changes.

The amount that Pensinado’s must now have to file for residency has gone from $600 a month to $1000 a month.  This is NOT retro-active so it will not affect those pensinado’s that have been in the country for years.  A retro-active clause was deleted.

Rentistas will now have to show a steady monthly income of $2,500 but close family members are included in that requirement.

The law will not take effect until six months after it is signed and published, so expats seeking residency will have options.

Answers to many of the questions expats have on how the law will be applied will be contained in the regulations that have not yet been published.

With a requirement that residents join the Caja and a beefed up police force, the possibility of a crackdown on so-called perpetual tourists is a possibility. Some in government seek to restrict tourists to two 90-day visits a year.

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Filed under: Living in Costa Rica, Moving to Costa Rica, Residency in Costa Rica