Your first weeks in Costa Rica: fingerprints, lodging, and then waiting with the clock in hand

You land as a tourist, and that is the idea: the Netherlands is in the first group of the visa guidelines and gets up to 180 days at the border without a visa. Within those 180 days your application must be with the DGME, and that is the only hard clock of the first months. Costs: 200 dollars for the change of category as a non-resident, on top of the fees and the lawyer. The trap is the waiting time after that. The decision takes months, and in that time you live on your Dutch policy and your Dutch driving licence — but not without an address, not without a bank, and soon not without the Caja.

Week one: fingerprints and the embassy

Two things the file needs and that you can only do in Costa Rica. The regulation (article 61 bis) requires with every application the proof of the taking of fingerprints by the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública; that is a morning in San José. And article 12 asks for the inscripción consular: registration with the representation of your own country, for Dutch people the embassy in San José, a requirement applied again since 16 October 2023. Arrange both in the first week, because the rest of the file has an expiry date.

Week two: lodging, before the six months are up

Article 10 of the regulation: a document without its own validity period may not be older than six months at lodging. Your birth certificate, your police certificate and your pension statement were apostilled and translated in the Netherlands; every week the file waits ticks off those six months. Your lawyer lodges with the DGME, with the 200 dollars for the change of category (article 89 of the law), and you receive a receipt with a file number. That receipt is your only document until the decision: keep it like your passport. What exactly is in the file is in the residence routes to Costa Rica.

The waiting months: what is possible

An address. Renting is possible from day one, on your passport, and the tenancy law gives you more rights than the landlord will mention — see renting in Costa Rica. The contract and the receipts will be your proof of address.

A bank account. The supervision rules name the passport as valid identification for non-residents; whether a bank actually opens the account is its policy. Ask at more than one bank, with the origin of your money on paper — see banking and paying in Costa Rica.

School. The school year runs from February to December; children can join as soon as the recognition of their Dutch years is done — see school in Costa Rica.

Not the driving licence. The MOPT homologates a foreign licence only with a valid residence status, in person and by appointment, for 5,000 colones plus bank charges. Until then you drive on your Dutch licence.

Approval: the Caja in the same week

As soon as the DGME approves, the clock most often missed starts. Article 32 of the regulation says that "once the resolution has been notified" you apply to the Caja for affiliation, and the Caja's guidelines let you do that with the resolution of approval and your passport — the card need not be there yet. Article 80 of the law requires at renewal that you have been insured "from the moment of the grant and without interruption". So go to the sucursal in the week of the resolution, not in the week of the card. What it costs is in healthcare in Costa Rica.

After that you collect the DIMEX, have the driving licence homologated, and report your new address in writing to the DGME — the reporting duty of article 33, set out in the article on DIMEX and registration.

The order, with the clocks

When	What	Clock
Week 1	fingerprints at the security ministry; registration at the embassy	no deadline, but the file waits for them
Week 2	the application at the DGME, through your lawyer	within 180 days of arrival; documents at most six months old
Waiting months	rental contract, bank account on your passport, school	the decision takes months
The resolution	affiliation with the Caja with resolution and passport	the same week; uninterrupted until renewal
After that	collect the DIMEX, homologate the licence, report the address	renewal before the card's expiry date

The 180 days and the six months run against each other. The later you lodge, the older your Dutch documents are. Whoever has the apostilles put on in the Netherlands on the departure date and lodges in the second week has room on both sides; whoever looks around for three months first redoes the police certificate.

What isn't here is this order as a tickable list with the dates alongside; that is the journey to Costa Rica itself.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Costa Rica or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.