Establishing a business enterprise in Costa Rica is a fairly straightforward process that has considerable immigration benefits for foreigners. Many foreign investors feel empowered to expand their businesses and make them profitable once they are residents; a few of them, however, choose to ignore national labor laws and hire foreign employees without the adequate immigration permits.

The legal professionals at Immigration Experts, a specialty law firm dedicated to helping foreign clients who wish to relocate to our country, explain that Costa Rica has a small, yet very dynamic, labor market that can easily become constrained. National employment levels can shift two or three points from one month to the next, and once the unemployment rate reaches 10 percent, greater scrutiny is placed in the number of foreigners working in the Costa Rica.

Getting a work permit approved for a foreign employee can take between four months and a year. Nevertheless, the employee can start working if his or her work permit is being processed. It is recommended that as soon as a foreign employee starts working, the employer should pay the salary according to at least the minimum established by law, and the employer should also register the new employee with CCSS (Costa Rican social security) while the work permit is being applied for.

If an employer hires a foreign employee and does not apply for his or here work permit right away, the Immigration Directorate can punish the employer with a penalty up to ten times the employee’s base salary, and then the employee must leave the country within 48 hours. The employee would be allowed to reenter Costa Rica with a valid visa, but if he or she is found working without a permit again, Immigration will start the deportation process and the foreign employee will not be able to enter Costa Rica for the next five years.

The Immigration Directorate will send the work permit application to the Ministry of Labor, which is the final entity that will approve or deny the permit. The approval will be based on the local labor market. If the job that can be normally performed by a national worker, then the Ministry of Labor will likely deny the permit.

According to the Constitution, Costa Rican workers are preferred against foreign labor. The Ministry of Labor keeps a list of occupations that do not have sufficient local representation, and therefore the country will accept foreigners  to do these jobs. For example: security guards, maids, gardeners and also very technical and specific jobs such as a Hindu chef for a restaurant that specializes in Indian cuisine.

The work permit can be approved within three to four months by the  Immigration Directorate as long as the hiring company in Costa Rica is registered in Immigration as a business entity and  keeps its status in good standing at all times. For a company to be registered as a business entity in Immigration it has to fulfill some requirements that make the process easier to hire foreign employees.

Therefore, for a work permit to be approved in Costa Rica; the position to be filled, should not be a protected occupation maintained by the Ministry of Labor. When this happens, the application process will face major obstacles in being approved, but sometimes, if the company can prove that they need to hire a certain person for specific reasons, it could work out.

In certain areas of Costa Rica, hiring of foreigners without work permits is rampant. This illegal practice can be observed in the coastal communities of Costa Rica such as Guiones, Tamarindo, Playas del Coco, Playa Sámara, Playa Jaco, etc. From bars to hotels and from restaurants to schools, foreign business owners will sometimes hire foreign employees without the required permit from the Immigration Directorate. The problem is that they don’t know the consequences or don´t understand the Immigration and Labor Law in this matter.

Hiring foreigners under the table is a risk,  at any time an inspector from La Caja or from the Ministry of Labor can find out and will come, this happens mostly because other businesses put the complaints. Anyways, if the informal hiring results in taking away a protected occupation in Costa Rica, the business owner could face serious penalties and fines.

Below are some of the steps involved in obtaining a work permit for a foreign employee who will be paid out of a Costa Rican payroll. The employer and candidate must work together to obtain this permit.

1. The applicant must write a letter of intent, addressed to the General Direction of Immigration based on the articles of the Immigration Law, which refer to work permits. This letter should include: name, nationality, marital status, passport number, address , intended occupation, and labor specialization). The letter must also indicate the name of the company or employer that is extending the job offer, the job description, schedule and the salary that will be received. The letter must be signed and notarized in Costa Rica and should include a valid method of notification or else it will not be accepted.

2. The General Direction of Immigration uses a specific application form for those seeking temporary work permits; this form must be carefully completed and executed with a signature that must be certified by an attorney or an employee of the Immigration Directorate. The application form should include fiscal duty stamps and each additional (page) of supporting documentation must bear 2.50 colones worth of fiscal duty stamps.

3. Four color passport photographs must be provided.

4. Fingerprints must be taken in Costa Rica at the the office of the Ministry of Public Security, which is located opposite the Centro Comercial del Sur shopping center on the road to the southern suburbs of Desamparados.

5. The company or individual hiring the foreign employee must write a letter stating the business intentions and the reason why they are hiring the foreign person, his specialty, and specifically indicate his duties and responsibilities in Costa Rica.

6. The employer must fulfill certain requirements as well: proof of registration and of good standing with the Costa Rican Social Security, proof of the company being enrolled and current in the payment of its obligations, proof that is a legal business operating with all needed permit, up-to-date with taxes, insurance, and corporate registration documents.

7. All pages of the applicant’s passport must be copied and authenticated.

8. The applicant must furnish a copy of his or her birth certificate as well as an arrest, conviction and sentencing record from the nation where they have resided for the last three years. These documents must be certified by the issuing agency, translated into Spanish, and apostilled in the country where issued. If the country is not a member of the Hague Convention, then the documents have to be duly authenticated by the Costa Rican Consulate in that country.

9. Applicants who will be hired as technicians and professionals must provide a photocopy of diplomas and degrees accrediting them as such, and they must be translated into Spanish and duly authenticated by the Consulate of Costa Rica in their countries of origin, or else they should have an Apostille.

10. The employer must provide a hiring contract that is compliant with Article 24 of the Labor Code.

11. The foreigner must make a deposit in the amount of US $250 at the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) account number 242480-0. The receipt for this deposit must be presented to the Immigration Directorate.

For more information about work permits in Costa Rica, please contact Immigration Experts:

San Jose Office:

• Tel: (506) 2290.8050 / 2290.2794
• Fax: (506) 2290.8055
• Address: One block west of Princesa Marina Restaurant, Sabana Oeste, San Jose, Costa Rica. P.O. BOX: 226-1200
• Email: [email protected]

Playas del Coco Office:

• Tel: (506) 26702021
• Fax: (506) 2290.8055
• Address: Pacifico Village Shop, Suite 20, Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
• Email: [email protected]

Playa Guiones – Nosara Office:

• Tel: (506) 8832-5176
• Email: [email protected]