# Moving to Costa Rica



## AnnaMC (Mar 30, 2013)

I know this is the Mexico Expat forum, but I did not see one for CR. Is anyone here considering moving to Costa Rica? I hope to do so within the next 10 years. I want to move to Puntarenas or the Guanacaste area. I am also considering the Yucatan area in Mexico. A few questions for the Ycatan area:

How is the terrain? I am unable to do stairs without a handrail.
Can I have my own bank account?
Do I need to leave the country periodically?
What is the rent rate?
How are the hospitals in Mexico?
How easily can I gain citizenship? This goes for CR too. I'd like duel citizenship to whichever country I move to.

Thanks


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=AnnaMC;1109055]I know this is the Mexico Expat forum, but I did not see one for CR. Is anyone here considering moving to Costa Rica? I hope to do so within the next 10 years. I want to move to Puntarenas or the Guanacaste area. I am also considering the Yucatan area in Mexico. A few questions for the Ycatan area:_

_How is the terrain? I am unable to do stairs without a handrail._

The Yucatan Penisnula is as flat as a pancake except in a couple of isolated areas. You will have no problem finding a residence to rent that is only one story so no stairs to climb. Rents will vary accordiing to where you settle. More in Merida or along the urbanized portion of the Quintana Roo Caribbean Coast, less in rural areas. Rents will be very reasonable in most places except for exclusive resorts.

_Can I have my own bank account?_

Yes. No problem.


_Do I need to leave the country periodically?_

That is according to the type of visa you hold. If you qualify financially you can establish temporary residency leading eventually to permanent residency. Under either type of residency visa you never need to leave the country. If you come under a tourist visa, you must leave every 180 days. To find out if you qualify financially for a residency visa, check with INM (the national immigration institute) for current rules which have jut changed and become more stringent than in the recent past. 

_How are the hospitals in Mexico?_

That is according to where you live. I think you will be very pleased with the quality of hospitals and physicians in Merida and in parts of Quintana Roo. If you live in a remore rural area, medical care is more marginal in quality. I am from the U.S. and my wife is from France and we are very impressed with the quality of medical care in Mexico for the most part.

_How easily can I gain citizenship? _

First you will need to establish permanent residebct and then you can approach SRE and apply for Mexican citizenship. It is not difficult to become a Mexican citizen nor to hold dual citizenship if you speak adequate Spanish and become sufficiently knowledgable about facts regarding Mexico, its history, politics and geography to pass a reasonable citizenship test. 

This goes for CR too. I'd like duel citizenship to whichever country I move to.

Thanks
[/QUOTE]

By the way, both the Yucatan Peninsula and Costa Rica are hot and humid so you need to be aware of that before you move to either place. Costa Rica has some highlands areas that would be cooler but you will have to move to parts of Mexico other than the Yucatan to find cool, springllike highland weather.


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## AnnaMC (Mar 30, 2013)

Thanks Hound Dog! I live in the deep south, and am very familiar with hot and humid wx. I do, however enjoy the more spring like weather that highlands will offer.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

AnnaMC said:


> Thanks Hound Dog! I live in the deep south, and am very familiar with hot and humid wx. I do, however enjoy the more spring like weather that highlands will offer.


I'm from the East Coast, not the Deep South and have no desire to live through any more hot and humid summers. That's one reason, out of many, that I have chosen to live in Mexico City. If you think you'd like living in the Mexican highlands, why are you thinking of moving to the Yucatan?


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=AnnaMC;1109186]Thanks Hound Dog! I live in the deep south, and am very familiar with hot and humid wx. I do, however enjoy the more spring like weather that highlands will offer.[/QUOTE]_

Well, Anna, Dawg was born and raised near Mobile on the Alabama coast and my wife was raised in Paris. She came to Mobile to to teach French for a year or two in 1970 and made the terrible mistake of marrying me. We lived for two years on Mobile Bay just above Dauphin Island and that summer climate was something she had never encountered before moving to the Mobile area. It damn near killed her so we moved to cool and foggy San Francisco and made our residence in Northern California for some 30 plus years before moving to Mexico in retirement.

We now live at 5,000 feet at Lake Chapala and 7,000 feet in the Chiapas High;lands. At one time some seven years ago we considered moving to the Yucatan to Merida, the Yucatecan Gulf Coast somewhere between Chicxulub and Isla Holbox or Lake Bacalar.. There are many things we really like about the city of Merida and also the Gulf Coast north and east of Merida but the almost year round excessively hot and humid climate was too much for us to take so we moved instead to the Chiapas Highlands at 7,000 feet and visit Merida and the Yucatan from there with regularity. Even though you are from the U.S. deep south, you may find the stifling year round heat of the Yucatan difficult. At least in Mobile the fall, winter and spring are very pleasant but in Merida there is very little relief.

Also, before you set your mind on Costa Rica, keep in mind that the weather on the coast there is also excessively hot and humid with a great deal of rain. While there are coolish highlands, think carefully about what I hear are problems some expats have experienced with isolation and bad to impassable roads entering and leaving the highlands during the rainy season, I have not been to Costa Rica so I say the above just based on what I have heard from others who have moved there. 

Good luck on your search. We had the U.S., France and Latin America available toi us for retirement, chose Highland Mexico and have never regretted it for a minute.


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## mes1952 (Dec 11, 2012)

I've met people over the past 5 years who lived in Costa Rica and subsequently left due to increasing higher cost of living. Many Americans who once lived in CR have relocated to Nicaragua where it is cheaper to live. If you compare Mexico with CR you'll find Mexico less expensive and more friendly to Americans. I've visited CR several times and I don't find them quite as accommodating to Americans as Mexicans; and the nicer people there are the Nicaraguans who live/work in CR. Overall, I consider Mexico a much better place to live in terms of cost of living and people.


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