Richard is the owner/broker of Coldwell Banker Tamarindo, and the founder of the vacation rental company www.viptamarindo.com. Please get in touch if we can help.
Generating income in Costa Rica/ Remote working in Costa Rica/ digital nomads in Costa Rica
Summary
One of the most frequent questions I get is how to earn money in Costa Rica. Most buyers with jobs at home, and initially only spend 4 to 6 weeks a year in Costa Rica. If they could figure a way to earn here they could accelerate the retirement plan and live in paradise
Tied to your home town until retirement?
Most people are locked into a place they would rather not be, with a long commute, expensive cost of living, bad weather. How can they spend more time in Costa Rica and still meet their financial goals? In Costa Rica the only foreigners here are the ones that have chosen to be here, so it is a very happy place with good energy.
Costa Rica laws on working:
If you are on a tourist visa or on a temporary residency visa you are not allowed to work in Costa Rica. Permanent residents have the same unrestricted rights to work as the locals. Here are 2 law firms that offer residency services. SFERA INVICTA
Sfera and Invicta are 2 large well regarded law firms offering residency services:
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A common work around is to set up a corporation (it costs under $1,000) and then offer your services through your company. As a business owner (even whilst on a tourist visa) you are entitled to work in your own business.
Working as an employee :
Finding a job as an employee in Costa Rica does not make much sense. In the capital, San Jose, there are large corporations like Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Ebay, Adobe. But guess what, the reason those companies are in Costa Rica is because they only pay the management 50% of what they would have to pay their counterpart in North America. Plus you are in a busy city with traffic 1.5 hours from the beach. In the beach town the only real businesses are tourist related.
Remote working/ Digital Nomad :
Remote working has recently become enormously popular in Costa Rica. The time zone is almost the same as North America, it has fast reliable internet, brilliant flight connections to all the major hubs, great weather and zero commute time. All these factors make Costa Rica a perfect place for remote working. Post COVID, employers seem more tolerant of working from ‘home’, so why not make that home Costa Rica? The Costs Rica government is really promoting this option, offering a 1 year extendable visa for anyone working online for clients outside Costa Rica, with no obligation to pay Costa Rican taxes. Very interesting.
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Buying a business:
This is the most popular option. Recently I sold a sport fishing business, including 3 boats all with long serving captains and a big database for under $1m. This fulfilled a lifelong dream of the 40 something couple. I just had a young couple barely into their 30s buy a lease on a cute boutique open air restaurant for very little money down. There is always a way. Other possibilities are a beach bar, hotel, spa, tour business.
I hope you found this useful
Tamarindo Rich
