Costa Rica Extended it’s tourist visa from 90 days to 180 days, here is what you need to know:

**If you enter Costa Rica on September 8th and after you are eligible to receive up to 180 days for your tourist visa - you must present your return ticket as a requirement to enter the country

**Please remember this 180 days is not guaranteed, if you have a return ticket for example for 100 days they may only give you a 100 day visa
If you have a return ticket for 45 days for example, and you only received a 45 day visa, you can request immigration for an extension but they will only extend to the 90 days, not the 180

**If you entered into Costa Rica prior to September 8th, you still need to leave the country by the visa expiration date in your passport. This does not automatically extend your visa to 180 days.

**Driver’s license! —---- As of right now September 11th, your driver’s license is only valid for 90 days. I know this makes no sense. In order to renew your driver’s license you will need to leave the country and stamp back in to be able to drive. If you do not plan to drive while here in Costa Rica and you have a 180 day stamp, you may stay. Why? Immigration law and traffic law here in Costa Rica are two separate entities. So just because Immigration has stated you may stay past 90 days, traffic law still upholds that your driver’s license will expire if you go past your 90 days. They are trying to fix this, it may happen tomorrow or next year, Costa Rica is unpredictable.

**Residency or perpetual tourism? Should you be a perpetual tourist now that this rules makes it easier or should you file for residency? I ALWAYS recommend that if you are able to file for residency and you KNOW that you want to stay long term in this country and put down your roots here, then you should file residency. Remember that tourist visas are never 100% guaranteed. Imagine if you built a whole life here and then one day could not re-enter? If you are unsure if Costa Rica is the place for you yet long term or unable to file for residency, then go ahead as a “perpetual tourist.”

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