Planning on moving in January of 2008 - what city is best for me?

[foreman]

I tried reading all the general articles I found online, but Im sure they dont compare to experience.

Well, let me start off by saying Im glad I found this forum and hope to get some help here. Let me let you in on my situation so you may better assist me if possible...

I'm a 31 year old single male. I am currently self employed and earn about 2200 per month. I work from home so all I need is an internet connection to do my job. I have a house here which I plan to sell, with about $35k in equity which I plan to bring with me to Costa Rica.

Im really scared of spending a lot of money visiting and living in different cities before I find the right place. My concerns are as follows:

I want to be close to the beach. I know ocean views are expensive, so I dont have to be right by the ocean, but I dont want to drive an hour to get there either.

Safety is very important to me, and would like a place with a garage because I have a project car I want to bring (my baby)

I need to be close to life, such as grocery stores, clean gas stations, resteraunts and a safe place to get a few drinks.

Might be a lot to ask, but then again, thats why Im here San Jose seems popular from what I read, but its far from the ocean. I think I want to rent a place for 6 months to a year, and then build a house, a very small house.

I guess my main questions are, do I make enough money to be comfortable in Costa Rica? Am I bringing enough money with me? (35k US) and what am I looking to pay for rent the first year if I want to ive in a decent area? I dont require luxury, just a safe clean place.

I hope I covered everything, any input is greatly appreciated, I hope one day I can offer my own experiences here as well. Thanks again.

[foreman]

PS... I was looking at all the different residency options, and didnt know what suited me. Since I am self employed, I cannot provide all the docs the article I read said I needed. I use a 3rd party billing processor for my business, they send me my check after processing fees. But They are indipendant and I am not an employee of theirs, so they will not provide any docs to me.

Should I get a Workers Permit? If so, how long does it last and is it easy to renew?

[Russ]

I'm happy to to help, I wanted to clarify the kind of connection you need to do your work.  If you need real broadband then that will limit your choices quite a bit, unless you go with a satellite connection.  If you can work with ISDN (128 kbps), then you have more choices. 

For your residency you will have to go through an attorney who specializes in that.  You don't clearly qualify under any of the categories.  The good news is that with the way you are working you could probably get by as a perpetual tourist. That is where you renew your tourist visa every 3 months by leaving the country.  This is not a good idea for everyone, there is always a chance you could get turned away if they begin cracking down on this, but since you aren't working for a local company or in a public space there is no real reason you need a work permit or residency. As a single guy, you can also keep in mind getting your residency the easy way - marrying a Tica. 

As for proving your income for residency or a construction loan, you will be able to go to a local CPA with your bank statements and the other financial records from your online business.  Then they will certify your income level to the bank or immigration.

In my opinion $2200 per month is a good amount of income and a single person can live very comfortably on that.  Particularly if you are in an area that isn't as popular with foreigners.  If you eat at local places and buy locally popular items at the grocery store, then you won't spend that much on meals.  You should be able to find a small place to rent from $150 per month to $600, depending on the area, size, and also additional features.   

As for the $35,000 - that gives you a lot of options as far as buying a lot to later build on.  You should find it fairly easy to get a construction loan once you have the land purchased. 

What make and model is your car? I was thinking that you might want to be in a place that would be convenient for getting parts, although I understand that for classic cars buying parts on the Internet works well. 

So based on these considerations it seems to me that you can look in 2 areas to begin with:  Orotina and near Puntarenas (like Esparza, and Miramar).  You can find panoramic ocean views in some spots and you can be 15 minutes to 30 minutes from the beach.
 These are not prime areas that foreigners look at - so you should be able to find good rentals available and also good deals on land. 

[foreman]

Thank you so much, Russ! I've read about 10 pages worth of threads and you have spent a plethora of time answering questions with such patience, I really appreciate it.

I really dont want to be a tourist. I would be very very scared if after 3 months I go to Panama or another country and not able to get back in. I dont know what I would do. This move needs to be secure, as I am leaving nothing behind for backup.

As far as internet, the faster the better, but I can work with DSL, or ISDN. Just not 56k. Most of my work is data entry so I dont use much bandwidth.

My car has no make and model Its being built from the ground up, I do fiberglass glass work so the body and evertything is one of a kind.

Maybe I should wait until I have the 60,000 dollars to secure myself so I dont get kicked out. Who knows I might get maried there to a local girl, hehe, but I cant count on that right now. I gues I need to think of whats important to me, I just really want out of Texas, and this entire country for that matter. I dont see a better place than CR.

Oh, couple more questions (sorry), ... is it possible for tourist to get a drivers license there? Also, if i stay passed my Visa, do they come looking for me? I mean does immigration look at who is WORKING illegally or can they stop anyone walking to the grocery store and ask their status?

[Russ]

You are right to try to do things the right way, no sense in having to look over your shoulder all the time.  Immigration here is pretty casual about Europeans or Americans over staying their visa.  If you do overstay you have to pay a small fine when you do leave - it might have changed by now but if I recall correctly is was less than 50 cents per day.  So it's not like they have records or are efficient enough to come after you once you've overstayed a bit. 

Most of the realtors have good residency lawyers that they work with and will recommend to you, although we don't generally publicize it on the website. Go Dutch has a page on this that you can look at though Costa Rica lawyers - legal advice.

There are however check points that are set up occasionally in certain areas, mostly they are looking for wanted criminals or Nicaraguans, but it will always be better to be up to date.  I think you could plan on coming for 3 months and extending your tourist visa another 3 months at immigration.  This is very common and would be easy to do.  In the meantime you can be determining what area suits you and working with your lawyer to get the permanent residency going. 

Foreigners can drive with a license from their home country as long as their visa is valid.  A good trick is to go to MOPT and get a Costa Rican license right away.  Then you can present that and won't have to show your passport to the traffic cop - also you don't have to worry about your visa or license expiring while you wait for residency to go through.

If you don't need true broadband, you have the whole country open to you.  According to ICE, ICE FAQs PDF 90% of the country is covered by RDSI - of course you need to have a phone line!  But that means your options are wide open. 

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